In the chapter on disposition in The Art of War, Sunzi writes: “The victorious army first wins and then seeks battle. The defeated army first fights and then seeks victory.” In the original: 胜兵先胜而后求战，败兵先战而后求胜.
Three in the Morning
In the Zhuangzi, a monkey keeper hands out acorns. “Three in the morning and four in the evening,” he says. The monkeys are all angry. “Then four in the morning and three in the evening.” The monkeys are all pleased. Zhuangzi comments: “Neither the name nor the substance had changed, yet joy and anger were put to use.”
The idiom 朝三暮四 comes from this passage. Dictionaries say that it first meant to deceive people with a trick. Later it came to mean to keep changing one’s mind.
When the Water Arrives
水到渠成 Where the water flows, a channel forms. When conditions are ripe, a matter succeeds on its own. Su Shi wrote in a letter to Qin Taixu: “When the time comes, make other plans. When the water arrives, the channel forms. There is no need to worry in advance.”
瓜熟蒂落 When the melon is ripe, its stem falls away. Once the time is ripe, a matter succeeds naturally.
火候 The strength and duration of a fire. Also, figuratively, a level of attainment, or the crucial moment.
造势 To build momentum. To create a favorable situation through publicity and similar means.
Talks on Stretchers
During the Long March, before the Zunyi meeting, Mao Zedong, Zhang Wentian and Wang Jiaxiang spent their days together. Wang had been badly wounded and was carried on a stretcher. In 2016, Xinhua asked in a headline what the “conspiracy” on the stretchers had been. Its answer: “Days and nights together on stretchers and by the campfire gave Mao Zedong, Zhang Wentian and Wang Jiaxiang a good chance to exchange views.”
From January 15 to 17, 1935, the enlarged Politburo meeting at Zunyi made four decisions. One of them elected Mao to the Standing Committee of the Politburo.
Opinions Before the Plenum
On May 7, 2024, the draft of the Central Committee’s Decision on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively was sent out “within a certain scope inside the Party to solicit opinions.” The opinions of veteran comrades were sought, and so were those of the democratic parties, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, non-Party figures, enterprises, experts and scholars.
Xi Jinping gave the result in his explanation of the decision. The consultation produced 1,911 proposals for changes. The document drafting group “absorbed as much as it could” and made 221 revisions.
The Work Conference Before the Plenum
The Third Plenum of December 1978 is remembered as the start of reform. Before it, the Central Work Conference met in Beijing from November 10 to December 15, 1978. On December 13, Deng Xiaoping gave his speech “Emancipate the Mind, Seek Truth From Facts, Unite and Look Forward” at the closing session of the work conference.
The plenum itself met from December 18 to 22. A Party website calls Deng’s speech “in fact the keynote report of the Third Plenum.” It adds: “Without the Central Work Conference before it, there would have been no Third Plenum.”
The Vocabulary of Sounding Out
打招呼 To call out a greeting. Also to tell someone about a matter beforehand or afterward, or to remind them of it.
吹风 To blow wind. To let information out, or to make an opinion known.
通气 To let the air through. To keep each other informed.
摸底 To touch the bottom. To find out the real situation and the inside story.
探口风 To probe the wind from the mouth. To sound out what another person thinks. The Handian dictionary’s example comes from marriage. Instead of proposing a match, the other side first sent someone to “throw a stone to test the road” and sound things out.
One by One, Then the Meeting
Article 10 of the Party Constitution sets the rule for decisions in Party committees. “All important questions are to be discussed and decided collectively by the Party committee, according to the principle of collective leadership, democratic centralism, individual deliberation and decision by meeting.”
In the original, the four steps are 集体领导、民主集中、个别酝酿、会议决定. The third, 个别酝酿, is deliberation with members one by one, before the meeting. The meeting comes last.
Jiang Taigong Goes Fishing
According to legend, Jiang Taigong fished in the river Wei, hoping to meet a wise ruler. His hook was straight. When King Wen of Zhou found him and asked why, he said that the fish he wanted would come to the hook of its own will. King Wen took him as his teacher.
The saying 姜太公钓鱼，愿者上钩, “when Jiang Taigong fishes, the willing take the bait,” comes from this story.
2,958 to 2
On March 11, 2018, the National People’s Congress voted on amendments to the Constitution. After about forty minutes of handing out, filling in, casting and counting ballots, the result was read out at 3:51 pm: 2,958 in favor, 2 against and 3 abstentions.