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.
In Liu Xiang’s Garden of Persuasions (说苑), Lord Mengchang has placed a retainer with the King of Qi. After three years the man has still received no post, and he complains. Lord Mengchang answers: “A thread enters by the needle, but the needle does not make it hold. A woman marries through a matchmaker, but the matchmaker does not make the two close. Your talent must be thin.”
The retainer replies that a fox in the altar of the soil is not attacked, and a rat in the altar is not smoked out, “because of what they rest on.” Lord Mengchang then recommended him to Qi again, and the King of Qi made him chief minister. The idiom 穿针引线, to thread the needle, means to act as a go-between.
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.
Han Xin joined Liu Bang’s army but held only a minor post. He talked often with the chancellor Xiao He, who thought him remarkable. At Nanzheng, dozens of officers deserted, and Han Xin left too. Xiao He rode after him without telling Liu Bang. Back in camp, he told the angry king: “Generals are easy to find. As for Han Xin, he is guoshi wushuang, without equal in the realm.”
Liu Bang offered to make Han Xin a general. Xiao He said that would not keep him. Liu Bang agreed to make him grand general, with an altar and a ceremony on a chosen day. “The generals were all pleased, each thinking he would be grand general. When the appointment came, it was Han Xin, and the whole army was astonished.” (Records of the Grand Historian)
In a letter to Han Chaozong of Jingzhou, the poet Li Bai quoted a saying of the scholars of his day: sheng bu yong feng wanhu hou, dan yuan yi shi Han Jingzhou. “In life, there is no need to be made a lord of ten thousand households. One only wishes to know Han of Jingzhou.”
People’s Daily dates the letter to 734, when Li Bai was 34 and living in Anlu. He asked Han to recommend him for office. The letter brought him neither a post nor a meeting.
In May 1930, Mao Zedong wrote a short essay called Oppose Book Worship. Its first section opens: meiyou diaocha, meiyou fayanquan. “No investigation, no right to speak.” Mao continued: “If you have not investigated a question, you forfeit your right to speak on that question.”
The rice scientist Yuan Longping used to tell his students: “Rice does not grow in a computer, and it does not grow in books. To grow good rice, one has to go down into the fields.”
His student Li Jianwu recalled the words in People’s Daily in 2021. For decades, he wrote, going into the fields was almost part of Yuan’s daily life. Yuan carried dry rations with him to Yunnan, Hainan and Guangdong.
光说不练假把式，光练不说真把式，连说带练全把式 Talk without practice is a fake act. Practice without talk is the real thing. Talk with practice is the complete master.
口说无凭，事实为证 Spoken words are no proof. Facts are the evidence.
是骡子是马，拉出来遛遛 Mule or horse, lead it out for a walk.
Mencius asked King Xuan of Qi about a man who left his wife and children in a friend’s care and traveled to Chu. On his return he found them cold and hungry. What should he do? “Break with the friend,” said the king. What if the chief judge could not keep his officers in order? “Dismiss him,” said the king.
Then Mencius asked: “If the land within the four borders is not well governed, what then?” The text continues: 王顾左右而言他, “The king looked to his left and right and spoke of other things.”
Chapter 7 of The Art of War lists rules for the use of troops. Among them: “Do not block an army that is going home. When surrounding an army, leave it a gap. Do not press an enemy at bay.” In the original: 归师勿遏，围师必阙，穷寇勿迫.