Problem-Solving Archives - Page 4 of 7

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.

Keeping a Record of the Call

In March 2015, the General Offices of the Party Central Committee and the State Council issued rules on leading officials who interfere in judicial cases. Article 5 says that judicial staff “must record such interference fully and truthfully, so that every step leaves a trace and can be checked.”

The rules also cover interference through an official’s staff or relatives. Their requests must be recorded too.

Face and Favor

The psychologist Hwang Kwang-kuo built a model of how Chinese people decide on a request. Starting from Fei Xiaotong’s idea of ties that are closer or more distant, he divides relationships into three kinds: expressive, mixed and instrumental.

Each kind follows its own rule. For expressive ties, the rule of need applies. For instrumental ties, the rule of fairness applies. For mixed ties, the person who controls the resource follows the rule of renqing (人情). He weighs what helping would cost against the return that may come in the future.

The Vocabulary of Connections

关系户 A relationship household. A unit or person that gains benefits or convenience through special connections.

一人得道，鸡犬升天 When one man attains the Way, even his chickens and dogs rise to heaven. When one person gains power, everyone connected with him rises too. Said with irony. The image comes from the Han dynasty Lunheng, which tells of a king whose whole household rose to heaven with him, so that dogs barked in the sky and chickens crowed in the clouds.

The Vocabulary of Owing

欠情 To owe feeling. To have received a kindness and not yet repaid it. In The Plum in the Golden Vase, a man greets another: “I have owed you feeling for a long time and have not come to see you, brother.”

领情 To receive feeling. To accept a gift or a kindness and feel grateful for it.

回礼 To return a courtesy. To answer a gift or a greeting with one of one’s own.

雪中送炭 To send charcoal in the snow. To help someone in urgent need. A Ming story sets it against 锦上添花, adding flowers to brocade: “There is only adding flowers to brocade. Where is there sending charcoal in the snow?”

Gifts and Renqing in Xiajia

The anthropologist Yan Yunxiang did fieldwork in Xiajia, a village in Heilongjiang. As The Paper summarizes his finding, a gift “creates a spiritual bond between the giver and the receiver, which the villagers call renqing (人情).”

On Protracted War

From May 26 to June 3, 1938, Mao Zedong gave a series of lectures in Yan’an titled On Protracted War (论持久战). He rejected two views of the war against Japan: that China would win quickly, and that China would be conquered. The war would be protracted, he argued, and the final victory would be China’s.

Sanlu

In 2008, infant formula from the Sanlu Group was found to contain melamine. China’s Ministry of Health reported nearly 296,000 children with urinary problems, six of whom died.

According to the account in Chinese Wikipedia, Sanlu’s own tests had found melamine in 15 of 16 batches that summer. On August 1, chairwoman Tian Wenhua ordered the matter covered up. City officials blocked a public recall until after the Beijing Olympics. In January 2009, Tian was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The Vocabulary of Endurance

吃苦耐劳 To eat bitterness and endure toil. To bear a hard life and stand up to heavy work.

任劳任怨 To take on toil and take on complaints. The Handian dictionary explains: to work without shirking hardship and without fearing the complaints of others. The phrase goes back to Han dynasty texts.

A Wise Ruler, an Upright Minister

One day in 632, the Tang emperor Taizong came back from court in a rage. “Sooner or later I must kill that country bumpkin.” The empress asked whom he meant. “Wei Zheng. He always humiliates me in front of the court.”

The empress withdrew, put on her full court robes and stood in the courtyard. The emperor was startled and asked why. She said: “I have heard that when the ruler is wise, his ministers are upright. Wei Zheng is upright because Your Majesty is wise. How could I not offer my congratulations?” The emperor was pleased. The story is in the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government.