Reason and Virtue Archives - understand-culture

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.”

The Dragon’s Reversed Scales

In his essay The Difficulties of Persuasion (说难), Han Feizi wrote: “The dragon is a creature that can be tamed and ridden. But under its throat it has reversed scales a foot across. Whoever touches them is sure to be killed. A ruler also has reversed scales. A persuader who can avoid touching them has nearly succeeded.”

Yanzi at the Small Gate

When Yanzi of Qi went as an envoy to Chu, the people of Chu made a small door for him beside the great gate, because he was short. Yanzi would not enter. “Those sent to a country of dogs go in by the dogs’ gate. I have been sent to Chu, so I should not go in by this gate.” He was led in through the main gate.

On another visit, the King of Chu planned to humiliate him. During a banquet, officers brought in a bound man and said he was from Qi and had stolen. The king asked Yanzi: “Do the people of Qi steal by nature?”

Yanzi answered that an orange grown south of the Huai River is an orange, but grown north of it becomes a bitter orange. People of Qi do not steal at home. “Could it be that the soil and water of Chu make people good at stealing?” The king laughed: “A sage is not a man to joke with. I have brought the shame on myself.”

Seven Times Captured, Seven Times Released

When Zhuge Liang set out to subdue the south, Ma Su advised him: “In war, attacking the heart is best, attacking cities is worst. Fighting with hearts is best, fighting with soldiers is worst.” The south, he warned, would rebel again as soon as the army left.

Zhuge Liang captured the local leader Meng Huo, showed him his camp and let him fight again. “Seven times released, seven times captured,” and still Zhuge Liang let him go. Meng Huo would not leave. “You have the might of heaven. The people of the south will not rebel again.” Zhuge Liang left the local chiefs in charge. As long as he lived, the south did not rebel.