Persuasion Archives - Page 2 of 7

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.

Submission of the Heart

Mencius said: “One who makes people submit by force does not win their hearts. They submit because their strength is not enough. When one makes people submit by virtue, they are pleased in their hearts and submit sincerely, as the seventy disciples submitted to Confucius.” (Mencius, Gongsun Chou I)

Just before this, he says that one who uses force under a show of benevolence becomes a hegemon, and one who practices benevolence through virtue becomes a true king. The idiom 以德服人, to win people over by virtue, goes back to this passage.

Persuasion, Not Compulsion

On February 27, 1957, Mao Zedong spoke to the Supreme State Conference on the correct handling of contradictions among the people. The text was revised and published on June 19, 1957. It says that such contradictions can be resolved “only by the method of discussion, the method of criticism, the method of persuasion and education, and not by the methods of coercion and repression.”

The rule covers contradictions among the people. The same speech treats contradictions with the enemy differently.

Reasons in Every Judgment

In a notice dated June 1, 2018, China’s Supreme People’s Court issued Guiding Opinions on Strengthening and Standardizing the Explanation of Law and Reasoning in Judgment Documents. They took effect on June 13. Their stated aim is to raise “the level of explaining the law and reasoning, and the quality of judgment documents.”

The opinions tie this reasoning to the fairness and transparency of judging, and to judicial credibility and authority.

The Vocabulary of Reason

以理服人 To win people over with reason. A dictionary cites Lai Chuanzhu’s memoir of the time around the Gutian Conference. Mao, the Party representative, “took entirely the attitude of persuasion and education, of winning people over with reason.”

心服口服 Convinced in the heart and in words. To be sincerely persuaded.

有理走遍天下，无理寸步难行 With reason on one’s side, one can go anywhere. Without it, one cannot take a step.

秀才遇着兵，有理说不清 When a scholar meets a soldier, he has reason but cannot make it understood.

Debating the Scholars

Chapter 43 of Romance of the Three Kingdoms is titled “Zhuge Liang Debates the Scholars, Lu Su Argues Down the Crowd.” In it, Zhuge Liang argues with the scholars of Wu.

To Zhang Zhao, he replies with a medical comparison. A gravely ill man must first be given thin gruel and mild medicine. “Only when his organs are in harmony and his body is gradually at ease” may he be given meat and strong medicine. The idiom 舌战群儒, to fight a crowd of scholars with the tongue, comes from this chapter.

The 1993 Varsity Debate

In 1993, Fudan University won the first International Varsity Debate in Singapore, organized by the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation and China Central Television. In the final, Fudan met National Taiwan University. The motion was that humans are kind by nature. Taiwan argued for it, and Fudan against.

CCTV broadcast the debates. Fudan’s victory set off a craze for debate. Many students recorded classic debates on tape to practice speaking.

The Salt and Iron Debate

In the second month of 81 BC, the Han court held a debate on the state monopolies of salt and iron. On one side stood government officials led by the Imperial Secretary Sang Hongyang. On the other stood more than sixty “worthy and learned” men chosen from across the realm.

Under Emperor Xuan, the official Huan Kuan polished and expanded the records into a book, Discourses on Salt and Iron, in 60 chapters. A line often quoted from it reads: “In ancient times, people valued virtue and despised profit, prized righteousness and made light of wealth.”

An Informal Meeting in Wuhan

On April 27 and 28, 2018, Xi Jinping and the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi held what China’s Foreign Ministry called an “informal meeting” (非正式会晤) in Wuhan. The ministry said that the meeting would deepen mutual trust and set the general direction for relations between the two countries.

According to a report on Sina, the meeting had no set agenda. No agreements were signed and no joint document was issued. The two leaders walked beside East Lake and then took a boat ride. The report described the format in three short phrases: 散散步，喝喝茶，聊聊天, “take a walk, drink some tea, have a chat.”

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.