Persuasion Archives - Page 3 of 7

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.

Business at the Wine Table

“Once, ‘a good deal must be done at the wine table.’ For many officials in charge of attracting investment, this had become a fixed way of thinking.” The business paper National Business Daily wrote this in June 2017.

In June 2016, the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection reported a campaign in Anhui against jiuzhuo bangong (酒桌办公), “doing office work at the wine table.” It targeted officials who used the wine table “to ask for funds, to chase projects, to compete for places in evaluations or to seek improper benefits.”

Study It, Study It

In May 2016, a commentary in the Procuratorial Daily, republished by People’s Daily Online, criticized officials who hide behind procedure. It described their habits with two set phrases: “When something comes up, they do not handle it, but ‘wait and see.’ They kick the ball back and forth and ‘study it, study it.'” (遇事不办”等等再看”，来回踢球”研究研究”。)

On Expressing an Opinion

On July 8, 1925, Lu Xun wrote Lilun (立论), On Expressing an Opinion, collected in Wild Grass. A pupil dreams that he asks his teacher how to state a view.

The teacher tells of a family that shows its baby son to guests at his one-month celebration. One guest says the boy will be rich and is thanked. A second says he will be an official and is complimented in return. A third says the boy will die and is beaten by all of them together.

“To say he will die is to say what must happen. To say he will be rich may be a lie.” The pupil wants neither to lie nor to be beaten. Then, says the teacher, he must say: “Aiya! This child! Look! How very… Ayo! Haha! Hehe! he, hehehehe.”

The Ruler Does Not Show His Wishes

In the chapter The Way of the Ruler (主道), Han Feizi writes: “The ruler must not show what he wants. If he shows what he wants, the ministers will carve and polish themselves to match it. The ruler must not show his intentions. If he shows them, the ministers will display themselves as something special.” And: “Put away likes and dislikes, and the ministers will show their plain selves.”

The same chapter gives a rule for officials: “Let each office have one man, and do not let them talk to one another. Then all things will come out in full.” (官有一人，勿令通言，则万物皆尽)

A Deer Called a Horse

In the last years of the Qin dynasty, the chancellor Zhao Gao wanted to seize power but feared that the ministers would not follow him. He set a test. He brought a deer to the Second Emperor and said: “It is a horse.” The emperor laughed. “Is the chancellor mistaken? He calls a deer a horse.” He asked the people around him.

“Some of those around him were silent. Some said horse, to please Zhao Gao.” (左右或默，或言马以阿顺赵高) Zhao Gao had those who said deer secretly charged under the law. “After that, all the ministers feared Zhao Gao.” (Records of the Grand Historian) The idiom zhi lu wei ma (指鹿为马), to point at a deer and call it a horse, comes from this story.

Five Kinds of Remonstrance

Confucius said: “A loyal minister remonstrates with his ruler in five ways. The first is by guile. The second is blunt and plain. The third is with a humble manner. The fourth is direct. The fifth is by allusion. One measures the ruler and acts accordingly. I would follow remonstrance by allusion.” The passage is in the Family Sayings of Confucius (孔子家语).

An old commentary in the same text explains the fifth way, fengjian (风谏). It stays noncommittal and keeps the speaker clear of blame and harm.

You Meng and the King’s Horse

King Zhuang of Chu loved a horse and dressed it in embroidered silk. When it died of overfeeding, he wanted to bury it with the rites of a high official. He decreed: “Anyone who remonstrates about the horse will die.” The court entertainer You Meng went in and wept aloud. An official’s burial was too mean, he said. The horse should be buried as a ruler, in a coffin of carved jade.

“Then the lords will all know that Your Majesty despises people and values horses.” The king asked: “Is my fault as great as this?” You Meng proposed burying the horse as livestock, in human stomachs. The king sent it to the palace kitchen. The Records of the Grand Historian say that You Meng “often remonstrated through jokes” (常以谈笑讽谏).

Xiren’s Conditions

In chapter 19 of Dream of the Red Chamber, the maid Xiren tells Baoyu that her mother and brother plan to buy her out next year. If he truly wants her to stay, she says, he must agree to two or three things. “Not two or three,” he answers. “Two or three hundred, and I will agree.”

She asks him to at least appear to enjoy study, and to stop mocking monks and Daoists and playing with rouge.

The narrator explains that the talk of leaving was a ruse. She used it first to test his feelings and to curb his temper.

Criticism Through Poetry

The Great Preface to the Book of Songs explains one of its kinds of poem, feng (风). “Those above use it to transform those below. Those below use it to criticize those above. It leads with art and remonstrates indirectly. The one who speaks is not guilty, and the one who hears is warned enough.” (上以风化下，下以风刺上，主文而谲谏，言之者无罪，闻之者足以戒)

The last line lives on as the saying 言者无罪，闻者足戒. Dictionaries define it this way: the person who raises an opinion is not at fault, and the person who hears it should take it as a warning.