Mencius asked King Xuan of Qi about a man who left his wife and children in a friend’s care and traveled to Chu. On his return he found them cold and hungry. What should he do? “Break with the friend,” said the king. What if the chief judge could not keep his officers in order? “Dismiss him,” said the king.
Then Mencius asked: “If the land within the four borders is not well governed, what then?” The text continues: 王顾左右而言他, “The king looked to his left and right and spoke of other things.”
On December 3, 1931, Mei Yiqi gave his inaugural speech as president of Tsinghua University. One sentence from it is still quoted: suowei daxue zhe, fei wei you dalou zhi wei ye, you dashi zhi wei ye. “What is called a university is so called not because it has great buildings, but because it has great masters.”
In 2005, the National Palace Museum in Taipei held an exhibition. The cover of its guidebook showed a reply by the Kangxi Emperor in red ink, in Manchu and Chinese. It had three characters: 知道了, “noted.”
A company later added 朕, the word an emperor used for “I,” and printed the phrase on masking tape: 朕知道了, “We have noted it.” The tape went on sale in July 2013. By December 2014, more than 200,000 rolls had been sold, according to People’s Daily. An early buyer wrote that it was for use when the boss’s tasks were annoying.
In the Analects, the disciple Zixia says: shi er you ze xue, xue er you ze shi. “One who serves in office and has strength to spare should study. One who studies and has strength to spare should serve in office.” (Analects 19.13)
King Zhuang of Chu gave his ministers a feast. Late in the evening, when all were drunk, the candles went out. In the dark a man pulled at the dress of one of the king’s women. She tore the tassel off his hat and told the king: “Bring the light and look for the man without a tassel.”
The king said: “I gave them wine and made them drunk. Why should I display a woman’s virtue and shame an officer?” He ordered: “Whoever drinks with me tonight and does not tear off his tassel has not enjoyed himself.” More than a hundred men tore off their tassels before the lights came back.
Three years later, in a battle against Jin, one officer always fought in front. He told the king that he was the man whose tassel had been torn off. The story is in Liu Xiang’s Garden of Stories (说苑).
On November 30, 2025, candidates sat the national civil service exam for 2026. Xinhua reported that 3.718 million people had passed the employers’ qualification review. The government planned to hire 38,100. That made about 98 qualified applicants for each place.
After Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao at Guandu, he took Yuan Shao’s papers. Among them he found letters that men in the capital and in his own army had written to Yuan Shao. He burned them all.
The Records of the Three Kingdoms records this. A commentary quotes Cao Cao’s reason: “When Yuan Shao was strong, even I could not be sure of keeping myself safe. How much less could the others?”
On April 1, 2001, a US surveillance plane and a Chinese fighter collided near Hainan Island. The Chinese pilot Wang Wei was lost. The 24 American crew members were held in China. China asked for an apology. The United States answered: “We did not do anything wrong, and therefore it was not possible to apologize.”
On April 11, Ambassador Joseph Prueher handed a letter to Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan. It said the United States was “very sorry” for the pilot’s death and “very sorry” that the plane had entered Chinese airspace. The Chinese version used 深表歉意, a phrase of deep regret or apology. Chinese state media called it an apology. Washington called it “an expression of regret and sorrow.” The crew was released.
A senior US official said: “What the Chinese will choose to characterize as an apology, we would probably choose to characterize as an expression of regret or sorrow.”
Chapter 7 of The Art of War lists rules for the use of troops. Among them: “Do not block an army that is going home. When surrounding an army, leave it a gap. Do not press an enemy at bay.” In the original: 归师勿遏，围师必阙，穷寇勿迫.
人活脸，树活皮 A person lives by face, a tree lives by its bark. A person must guard his good name. Also 人要脸，树要皮.
打人休打脸，骂人休揭短 When hitting someone, do not hit the face. When scolding someone, do not expose his faults.
揭短 To expose a person’s shortcomings and make them public.
得饶人处且饶人 Where one can spare a person, spare him. To be tolerant and leave room. The line is from the Song writer Yao Kuan.
留余地 To leave room. Not to go to extremes in speech or action, so that there is space to turn back.