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Then Stop

In the chapter Moderation in Use, Mozi gives the rule of the ancient sage kings for all craftsmen, the makers of wheels, carts, leather, gourds, pottery, metal and wood: “Make whatever serves the people’s use. Where more spending adds nothing to the people’s benefit, stop.”

A house needs walls that keep out wind and cold, and a roof against snow, frost, rain and dew. “Spending that adds cost but adds nothing to the people’s benefit, the sage kings did not do.” Even when the highest ministers and lords came aboard, the ferry boats were not changed and the ferrymen were not dressed up.

Liberation Shoes

From the early 1950s, the standard shoe of the People’s Liberation Army was a green canvas shoe with a rubber sole, known as the jiefangxie, the liberation shoe. It soon replaced cloth shoes and straw sandals, and almost everyone in China owned a pair. In the 1960s, the test when buying shoes was whether they resisted wear and dirt.

The army retired them in 2002, but civilian production of the cheap, practical shoe continued. Since 2010, the shoe has become fashionable in China, Japan, Europe and America. An improved version has sold for as much as 76 dollars.

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.

Shanzhai Phones

From 2003, small firms in mainland China made cheap mobile phones known as shanzhai ji. Chinese Wikipedia says the name came from their low cost, their good value and their failure to follow the rules of the industry. Before October 15, 2007, when the State Council announced the end of the approval system for phone production, such phones rarely had brands of their own.

One common type was made by a small firm that rented a production license from a licensed maker.

According to the same article, a MediaTek chip of 2006 combined the main board and the software and lowered the barrier to making a phone. Shenzhen’s Huaqiangbei became the largest wholesale market for these phones. Typical features were very loud speakers, two SIM cards in one phone, and phones for the elderly with large characters and large keys.

Mr. More-or-Less

On June 28, 1924, Hu Shi published a short satire, Chabuduo xiansheng zhuan, “The Biography of Mr. More-or-Less.” Its hero’s motto is: “In everything, more or less is good enough. Why be so sharp?” He brings home white sugar instead of brown. He misses a train by two minutes and finds the railway company “too serious.” When he falls ill, his family fetches a cattle doctor instead of the physician. Within the hour he is dead.

After his death, people praise him and give him the posthumous name Master Yuantong, “the all-accommodating.” The essay ends: “But from then on, China became a nation of lazy people.”

The Vocabulary of Making Do

办法总比困难多 There are always more ways than difficulties. A People’s Daily commentary introduces it as a common saying: “We often say, there are always more ways than difficulties.”

将就 To accept something reluctantly, or to get by with what is there. The Handian dictionary cites a Ming novel in which a poor family cannot afford a proper coffin and “can only make do hastily.”

凑合 To put something together on the spot, or to make do. A dictionary example reads: “Just make do with it.”

A Ball of Harmony

一团和气 A ball of harmony. The Handian dictionary says it first described a warm and friendly manner, and now also means keeping on good terms without regard to principle. In chapter 19 of the Water Margin, a character says of the Liangshan chief Wang Lun: “He treats everyone with a ball of harmony. Why is his heart so narrow?”