China Archives - Page 9 of 112 - understand-culture

Masters and Grand-Apprentices

The hotpot chain Haidilao runs a shitu zhi, a system of masters and apprentices, among its restaurant managers. When an apprentice becomes the manager of a new restaurant, the master receives a share of its profit. When the apprentice’s own apprentice takes over a new restaurant, the grand-master receives a share as well.

According to the business site 36Kr, a master manager receives, beyond the base salary, the higher of two rewards. One is 2.8 percent of the profit of the manager’s own restaurant. The other is 0.4 percent of that profit, plus 3.1 percent of the profit of each apprentice’s restaurant and 1.5 percent of the profit of each grand-apprentice’s restaurant.

A Fire in the Open, a Knife in the Dark

In chapter 65 of Dream of the Red Chamber, Second Sister You says she will go and see Wang Xifeng. Xing’er, a servant of Wang Xifeng’s husband, begs her not to go. “Never meet her in all your life. Sweet mouth and bitter heart, two faces and three knives. Above, a face full of smiles. Below, a foot that trips. In the open, a basin of fire. In the dark, a knife. She has all of it.”

The Village Worthy

Confucius said: “The village worthy is the thief of virtue.” (Analects 17.13)

Mencius later explained whom he meant. Such a man is hard to criticize and hard to attack. He goes along with common custom and fits in with a corrupt age. He seems loyal and honest, and everyone likes him. “That is why he is called the thief of virtue.” Mencius quotes Confucius again: “I hate the village worthy, for fear that he will confuse virtue.”

The classical ideal of harmony never included the man who pleases everyone.

Silent at the Meeting, Talking After

On October 27, 2016, the Communist Party’s Central Committee adopted its Several Norms on Political Life within the Party under the New Situation. The section on democratic centralism calls on members to “firmly oppose and correct wrong words and deeds such as not speaking to a person’s face but talking freely behind his back, not speaking at the meeting but talking freely after it, and saying one thing to a person’s face and another behind his back.”

Praise and Self-Praise

In September 2013, an editorial in the Global Times welcomed senior officials’ public criticism and self-criticism, piping yu ziwo piping. It also noted a habit of the opposite kind. “For some time, ‘praise and self-praise’ has been popular among some Chinese officials and even in mainstream society. Its negative effects go without saying.”

In 2015, an article from the Economic Observer on the “whole art” of officials’ self-criticism described the routine: “At the meeting, criticism and self-criticism, praise and mutual comfort are all fine. In short, congratulations on passing this time. After the meeting, don’t ask whether anything was carried out. You know.”

Sayings on Fame

人怕出名猪怕壮 People fear fame as pigs fear getting fat. The Handian dictionary explains that fame brings trouble, just as a pig is slaughtered once it is fat. In chapter 83 of Dream of the Red Chamber, a character says: “As the saying goes, ‘people fear fame as pigs fear getting fat,’ and ours is only an empty name besides.”

树大招风 A tall tree catches the wind. A person with a great name or great wealth draws attention and trouble. In chapter 33 of Journey to the West: “A tall tree catches the wind, and the wind shakes the tree. A man of high name loses himself by his name.”

Xiao He Stains His Name

According to the Records of the Grand Historian, after the general Han Xin was executed for plotting rebellion, Emperor Gaozu made Xiao He chancellor of state, added 5,000 households to his fief and gave him a guard of 500 soldiers. Everyone congratulated him. Only Shao Ping offered condolences. The guard, he said, was a sign that the emperor suspected him. Xiao He declined the fief and gave his private wealth to the army. The emperor was delighted.

The next year, the emperor was again at war and kept asking what Xiao He was doing. A guest warned Xiao He that the emperor feared his hold over the people of the region. “Why not buy many fields cheaply and on credit, to stain your name? Then the emperor’s heart will be at ease.” Xiao He followed the advice, and the emperor was greatly pleased.

Later Xiao He asked for the people to be allowed to farm empty land in the imperial park. The emperor had him chained, accusing him of taking merchants’ gold to win the people’s favor. “I have heard that when Li Si served the First Emperor of Qin, he gave the credit for good things to his ruler and took the blame for bad things himself.”

Not Daring to Be First

Chapter 67 of the Daodejing reads: “I have three treasures, which I hold and keep. The first is compassion. The second is frugality. The third is not daring to be first under heaven.” It goes on: “Because I do not dare to be first under heaven, I can become the chief of all.”

Chapter 66 makes the same point with rivers and seas. They are kings of the hundred valleys because they lie below them. “One who wants to be ahead of the people must put himself behind them.”

The Pig-Slaughter List

The Hurun Rich List ranks the wealthiest people in China. Because some of those listed later ran into trouble, the list came to be jokingly called the shazhu bang, the “pig-slaughter list.” In 2020, the business site 36Kr wrote that the media had often asked the list’s founder, Hu Run, about the name, and that he had denied it every time.

In a 2003 interview, a reporter asked Hu Run: “Every year there are always a few of the rich on your list who fall. Do you think this is connected with the list?” He answered: “I hope that no one will have problems. But this is also quite normal.”

The Legal Representative

Under the Supreme People’s Court’s rules on restricting high consumption, in the version issued in July 2015, restrictions on a company in debt extend to the people behind it, beginning with its fading daibiaoren, its legal representative.

Article 3 reads: “Where the person subject to enforcement is an entity, once consumption restrictions have been imposed, the entity and its legal representative, its principal responsible person, the persons directly responsible for the failure to pay and its actual controller may not engage in the conduct listed in the preceding paragraph.”