Standardization Ideal Archives - understand-culture

The Maker’s Name

物勒工名，以考其诚: “Engrave the maker’s name on the object, to examine his sincerity.” The line appears in the Lüshi Chunqiu and, in a slightly different form, in the Book of Rites. It goes on: “If the work is not right, his crime must be punished, to get to the bottom of it.”

Qin law had a related rule. A statute on the bamboo slips found at Shuihudi orders that state armor and weapons be engraved with the name of the office responsible for them. Another fines the official in charge one shield when state vessels are not engraved.

Cook Ding

In the chapter Nourishing the Lord of Life in the Zhuangzi, Cook Ding cuts up an ox for his lord. “What I care about is the Way,” he says. “It goes beyond skill.” (臣之所好者道也，進乎技矣)

His knife passes through the spaces between the joints. “The joints have spaces, and the edge of the knife has no thickness,” he explains. “Now my knife has been in use for nineteen years, and its edge is as if fresh from the whetstone.”

Being Earnest

On November 17, 1957, Mao Zedong spoke in Moscow to Chinese students and trainees studying there. “What the world fears is the word ‘earnest,'” he said, “and the Communist Party insists most on being earnest.” (世界上怕就怕”认真”二字，共产党就最讲认真。)

Quality Month

China’s national Quality Month began in 1978. The first national mobilization meeting for it was held in Beijing on August 31 of that year, with seven vice premiers of the State Council present. In 2017, People’s Weekly wrote that the government had “always attached great importance to quality work” and had set up the month especially for it.

Great Craftsmen of the Nation

During the May Day holiday of 2015, CCTV first broadcast the series Da guo gongjiang, Great Craftsmen of the Nation. In March 2016, Premier Li Keqiang’s Government Work Report used the term gongjiang jingshen, craftsman spirit, for the first time.

One worker the media call a great craftsman is Gao Fenglin, who had worked as an aerospace welder for 35 years by 2015. He calls his job “welding the heart of the rocket.” People’s Daily wrote that he can watch a tiny weld seam for ten minutes without blinking.

The Tongrentang Pledge

Tongrentang, the Beijing pharmacy founded in 1669, keeps an old pledge: “Though the preparation is laborious, we never dare to save labor. Though the ingredients are costly, we never dare to reduce materials.”

Face Projects

In June 2024, a Xinhua commentary criticized 面子工程, “face projects that care only about the face and not about the lining” (只重面子、不顾里子).

In November 2025, another Xinhua commentary on formalism wrote: “The essence of ‘face projects’ is a distorted view of political achievement and a lack of responsibility.”

Smashing the Refrigerators

In 1985, Zhang Ruimin, head of the factory that later became Haier, found that 76 of the more than 400 refrigerators in the warehouse had quality defects. He ordered them smashed. He took up the hammer himself and struck the first blow, and the workers who had made the faulty units smashed the rest.

“If I allow these 76 refrigerators to be sold,” he told them, “it is the same as allowing you to produce 760 more like them tomorrow.” The hammer was later taken into the National Museum of China.

Same Gauge, Same Script

After Qin conquered the last of the rival states in 221 BC, the First Emperor imposed one system on the whole realm. He set up commanderies and counties everywhere and unified weights and measures. His measures are remembered in the phrase che tong gui, shu tong wen: carts on the same gauge, writing in the same script.

The six conquered states had each written in their own way. On the advice of his minister Li Si, the emperor abolished their scripts and made the small seal script the standard for the whole country.

Cutting the Feet to Fit the Shoes

Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei, visited IBM in 1997. In early 1999, Huawei began a reform of its product development, Integrated Product Development, designed by IBM as consultant. Ren described the policy as xue zu shi lü, cutting the feet to fit the shoes, and told the company: “The pain of cutting the feet to wear the American shoes well is repaid by the joy of a system that runs smoothly.”

The reform was summed up in a slogan: “First rigidify, then optimize, then solidify. Whoever does not change his thinking is replaced.”