China Archives - Page 77 of 112 - understand-culture

Words Beyond Substance

Ma Su was highly gifted and loved to discuss military plans, and Zhuge Liang thought very highly of him. On his deathbed, Liu Bei warned Zhuge Liang: “Ma Su’s words exceed his substance. He cannot be given great tasks. Watch him.” Zhuge Liang did not agree and often talked with Ma Su from morning until night.

In 228, many urged that veteran generals such as Wei Yan lead the vanguard. Zhuge Liang gave it to Ma Su instead. At Jieting, the Wei general Zhang He routed him. Ma Su died in prison, and Zhuge Liang wept for him. (Records of the Three Kingdoms)

The phrase yan guo qi shi, words beyond substance, comes from Liu Bei’s warning. Dictionaries define its original sense as boastful words that exceed real ability.

Six-Foot Lane

In Tongcheng, Anhui, there is a narrow lane six chi wide. Tradition says that in the Kangxi era, the family of the grand secretary Zhang Ying quarreled with their neighbors, the Wu family, over a boundary wall. The family wrote to him.

He answered with a poem: “A letter sent a thousand li, only about a wall. Let them have three feet, what harm is that? The Great Wall still stands today, but no one sees the First Emperor of Qin.” Some versions begin “A letter came, only about a wall.” The Zhang family moved back three chi. The Wu family did the same.

On October 17, 2024, Xi Jinping visited the lane. He said that it shows “the historical wisdom of our ancestors in resolving conflicts.”

Peach and Plum Trees Do Not Speak

The Han general Li Guang was slow of speech and said little. Sima Qian wrote: “I saw General Li. He was as plain as a country man and could not speak well. On the day he died, everyone in the realm mourned him, those who knew him and those who did not.”

Sima Qian ended his account of the general with a proverb: tao li bu yan, xia zi cheng xi. “Peach and plum trees do not speak, yet a path forms beneath them.” He added: “The saying is small, but it can explain great things.” (Records of the Grand Historian)

Kong Rong Gives Up the Pears

The Three Character Classic, a primer for children, has the line 融四岁，能让梨: “Rong, at four, could yield the pears.” It refers to the story that Kong Rong, as a small boy, gave the bigger pear to his older brother and took a small one himself. “I am the youngest, so I should take a small one.”

The earliest record of the story is a family biography quoted in a Tang dynasty commentary on the History of the Later Han. The story is used to teach children to yield to others.

The Oil Seller

In a short piece by the Song writer Ouyang Xiu, the archer Chen Yaozi has no equal in his time and is proud of it. An old oil seller watches him hit eight or nine shots in ten and only nods slightly. “Do you know archery? Is my shooting not fine?” Chen asks. The old man answers: “Nothing special. Only a practiced hand.”

Chen is angry. The old man sets a gourd on the ground, covers its mouth with a coin and pours oil through the hole in the coin without wetting it. “I too have nothing special,” he says. “Only a practiced hand.” Chen laughs and sends him away.

The Oil Seller is in the Chinese textbook for the second half of seventh grade.

Between the Butcher’s Legs

A young butcher in Huaiyin insulted Han Xin in the market. “You are tall and like to carry a sword, but inside you are a coward.” In front of a crowd he said: “If you are not afraid to die, stab me. If you are, crawl between my legs.” Han Xin looked at him for a long time. Then he bent down and crawled between his legs. The whole market laughed at him as a coward.

Years later, as King of Chu, Han Xin sent for the young man and made him an officer. He told his generals: “This is a brave man. When he insulted me, could I not have killed him? Killing him would have brought me no name. So I endured it, and came to where I am.”

The Three-Nos Scientist

On October 5, 2015, the pharmaceutical chemist Tu Youyou was named a winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her work on artemisinin, a drug against malaria. She had no doctorate, had not studied abroad and was not a member of the Academy of Sciences. Chinese media had jokingly called her a sanwu scientist, a “three-nos” scientist.