In January 2001, Yunnan People’s Publishing House brought out a book by the writer Wu Si: Qian guize (潜规则), “Hidden Rules: The Real Game in Chinese History.” Wu describes rules that “are not necessarily written down, but are very binding.” “I could not find a suitable word,” he wrote, “so for now I call them hidden rules.”
Chinese writers credit Wu with inventing the term.
On January 13, 2015, Xi Jinping spoke to the Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection about the Party’s rules. “The law of the state is a rule that Party members and officials must obey,” he said. “The fine traditions and working customs formed by the Party over long practice are also important rules within the Party.”
He described two layers: “Discipline is written rules. Some rules that are not written into discipline are unwritten discipline.”
懂事 Sensible. The Handian dictionary defines it as “understanding the intentions of others, or understanding how things are.”
有眼力见儿 Having an eye for it. A colloquial word for a person who is alert and observant.
默契 A tacit understanding. To understand each other tacitly.
听话听声，锣鼓听音 Listen to speech for the voice, to gongs and drums for the tune. The Handian dictionary calls it a proverb. When listening to someone, grasp the meaning beyond the words, just as one listens to drums for the melody.
心领神会 Taken in by the heart, understood by the spirit. The other person has not said it openly, but one has already understood.
In August 2015, the website of the National Development and Reform Commission published “Five Steps for Writing Official Documents,” by an official of a county Party organization department in Yunnan. The writer, it says, must “learn the leader’s intentions in detail” and the requirements for the document, and leave out personal likes and dislikes.
The writer should then “take the leader’s point of view” to understand the situation, analyze problems and propose measures.
An etiquette column in the Handan Daily, reprinted by Sina Finance in February 2023, explains how to toast at a dinner. “In general, toasts follow the order of age, of rank in the job, and of host and guest.” (一般情况下敬酒应以年龄大小、职位高低、宾主身份为序) The toasts begin “with the guests of honor and the elders” and come only then to the ordinary guests.
In Chinese work chats, a common reply to a message from a leader is shoudao (收到), “received.” In December 2023, the business site Jiemian quoted an office worker: “Do not reply OK to a leader. Reply ‘received’ or ‘all right.’ That is better.”
A worker also told Jiemian: “When I reply ‘received,’ it means I know. It does not necessarily mean I will do it.”
In the Analects, Confucius describes a man of real standing. Such a man “examines words and observes the face, and thinks of putting himself below others” (察言而观色，虑以下人).
The phrase lives on as the idiom 察言观色. The Handian dictionary defines it as “observing a person’s words and expression in order to work out what the person has in mind.”
In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao is stalled in Hanzhong and gives the night password: “Chicken rib!” His registrar Yang Xiu tells the soldiers to pack. A chicken rib has no meat, he explains, so the king will soon withdraw. Cao Cao has him executed for disturbing the army. The novel says that Yang Xiu “relied on his talent and was unrestrained, and he often offended Cao Cao.”
The historical Yang Xiu was executed in the autumn of 219, on a charge of leaking Cao Cao’s instructions and conspiring with the princes.
In Rural China (乡土中国), the sociologist Fei Xiaotong describes rural society as a society of people who know one another. There, he writes, “trust does not rest on respect for contracts.” It comes from “the reliability of knowing the rules of conduct so well that one acts without thinking.”
Acquaintances, he notes, say: “We are all acquaintances. A greeting is enough, why say more?” In modern society people fear that “the spoken word is no proof,” so “they make a mark and sign their names. Only then does law begin.”