From March 6 to 10, 2023, delegations from Saudi Arabia and Iran held talks in Beijing. On March 10, China, Saudi Arabia and Iran issued a joint statement there. The two countries agreed to restore diplomatic relations and to reopen their embassies within two months at most. The statement opens by saying that the talks were a response to an initiative of Xi Jinping.
The Petition Drum
登闻鼓, the drum that reaches the ruler’s ears, was a drum hung outside the palace gate. Subjects could beat it to bring a grievance or a remonstrance to the emperor. The dictionary cites a passage from the Book of Jin in which people beat it.
The Ming dynasty county office of Pingyao also had such a drum. Commoners could beat the drum to state a grievance. Disputes over marriage, land and fights, however, first went to village mediation. Only when mediation failed could a person file a complaint and beat the drum.
The Story of Qiu Ju
In Zhang Yimou’s film The Story of Qiu Ju (秋菊打官司), the village head kicks Qiu Ju’s husband in a quarrel. Qiu Ju wants a 说法, an explanation, which to her means an apology. The police make the village head pay compensation, but he will not apologize. She takes her case to the town, then to the city, then to court.
At the end, an X-ray shows that her husband had a broken rib. The police take the village head away to serve fifteen days. Qiu Ju is left troubled and confused. The film won the Golden Lion in Venice in 1992.
Yang Naiwu and Little Cabbage
In 1873, a man named Ge Pinlian died near Hangzhou. The scholar Yang Naiwu and Ge’s wife, nicknamed Little Cabbage (小白菜), confessed to murder under torture. Yang’s family took the case to Beijing by petition. The case was sent back to Zhejiang, and the verdict was upheld.
A censor asked for the case to go to the Board of Punishments. The Empress Dowagers Cixi and Ci’an at first refused, then ordered a review there. The body was exhumed in Beijing and showed no sign of poison. In early 1877 both were acquitted. More than ten officials were punished.
Grandmother Jia Settles a Quarrel
In chapter 44 of Dream of the Red Chamber, a jealous quarrel between Wang Xifeng and her husband Jia Lian turns violent. Jia Lian runs in after her with a sword. Grandmother Jia, the head of the family, sends him out: “Call his father here!”
Then she settles the matter with a laugh. “What does it matter? Young people are like greedy cats. Who can stop that? Everyone goes through it when young. It is my fault. He drank a few cups too many, and she got jealous.”
She promises Xifeng that Jia Lian will come the next day to apologize. She also sends word to the maid Pinger, on whom both had taken out their anger, that Xifeng will apologize to her.
The Letters and Visits Regulations
China’s Regulations on Letters and Visits Work took effect on May 1, 2022. People who bring a complaint in person should go to the reception office of the same level or of the level above. A petitioner who is unhappy with the answer may ask the next level up to review it.
Leading officials at every level must read letters from the public, receive visitors regularly, go down to meet petitioners, and personally take charge of resolving serious problems.
The Sword and the Seal
In chapter 39 of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei has just made Zhuge Liang his adviser. When Xiahou Dun marches on them with 100,000 men, Liu Bei asks how to meet him. His sworn brother Zhang Fei answers: “Brother, why not send the ‘water’?” The “water” is the newcomer Zhuge Liang.
Zhuge Liang tells Liu Bei: “I fear that Guan Yu and Zhang Fei will not obey my orders. If my lord wants me to command the troops, lend me your sword and seal.” Liu Bei hands them over, and Zhuge Liang calls the generals to receive their orders.
The Minority Obeys the Majority
Article 10 of the Constitution of the Communist Party of China sets out the basic principles of democratic centralism. The first reads: “Individual Party members are subordinate to the Party organization, the minority to the majority, lower organizations to higher ones, and all organizations and all members to the National Congress and the Central Committee.”
Talking War on Paper
Zhao Kuo, son of the Zhao general Zhao She, studied the art of war from his youth and believed that no one could match him. When he discussed war with his father, Zhao She could not refute him, but he would not call him good. “War is a place of death,” he told his wife, “and Kuo speaks of it lightly.” If Zhao ever made Kuo a general, he said, Kuo would destroy its army.
When the king gave Kuo the command against Qin, his mother wrote to the king that he must not lead. At Changping in 260 BC, Qin troops shot Kuo dead, and his surrendered army was buried alive. Sima Qian put Zhao’s total losses at 450,000. Because of her warning, the king spared his mother.
The idiom zhi shang tan bing, talking war on paper, comes from this story. Dictionaries define it as empty talk about theory that has nothing to do with reality.
Taking It to the Top
告御状 To take a complaint to the emperor. Today, to complain to the top leader. It can also mean to take a dispute to a powerful person and ask him to settle it.
清官难断家务事 Even an upright official finds it hard to judge family affairs. Family matters are so tangled that even an honest official has trouble telling right from wrong. The saying appears in the Qing novel The Scholars.