Personal Grip Archives - understand-culture

Bamboo in the Chest

In an essay on the bamboo paintings of Wen Yuke, the painter Wen Tong, Su Shi wrote: “So to paint bamboo, one must first have the finished bamboo in one’s chest. Take the brush and look closely, and when one sees what one wants to paint, rise quickly and follow it, moving the brush straight on to chase what one sees, like a hare leaping or a falcon diving. Let it go for a moment and it is gone.”

The Handian dictionary traces the idiom 胸有成竹, to have the finished bamboo in one’s chest, to this essay. It first meant having the whole image of the bamboo in mind before painting. Later it came to mean having made up one’s mind before acting.

Numbers in Mind

On March 13, 1949, Mao Zedong wrote Methods of Work of Party Committees. Point 7 is titled 胸中有”数”, have the numbers in one’s chest. “We must pay attention to the quantitative aspect of situations and problems and make a basic quantitative analysis.” Of officials who did not, he wrote: “Everything is without numbers in their chest, and as a result they cannot help making mistakes.”

No Battle Without Certainty

In his report of December 25, 1947, The Present Situation and Our Tasks, Mao Zedong set out the military principles of the People’s Liberation Army. Principle 5 reads: “Fight no battle unprepared, fight no battle without certainty of victory. Make every effort to be prepared for each battle, make every effort to ensure victory in the given balance of conditions between the enemy and ourselves.”

The Vocabulary of Certainty

十拿九稳 Ten grasps, nine firm. Very sure of success. The Handian dictionary gives the example: “His grades are excellent. Getting into university should be a sure thing.”

心中有数 To have the numbers in one’s heart. To understand a matter and be sure of how to handle it. Its opposite is 心中无数, to have no numbers in one’s heart.

Spare Tires

In the early hours of May 17, 2019, after the US Commerce Department added Huawei to its Entity List, He Tingbo of Huawei’s chip maker HiSilicon wrote to its staff. Thousands of HiSilicon people, she wrote, had built “spare tires” for the company’s survival, for a case they had assumed would never happen. “Today history has made its choice. All the spare tires we ever built have become regulars overnight.”

Know the Other

From the chapter on planning attacks in Sunzi’s Art of War: “Know the other and know oneself, and in a hundred battles there is no danger. Not knowing the other but knowing oneself, one wins once and loses once. Knowing neither the other nor oneself, every battle brings danger.” (知彼知己，百战不殆)

Strategy in the Tent

In the Records of the Grand Historian, Liu Bang, the founder of the Han dynasty, speaks of his strategist. “In devising strategy within the tent and deciding victory a thousand li away, I am not the equal of Zifang,” he says. Zifang was Zhang Liang.

The idiom yunchou weiwo, to devise strategy in the tent, now means to plan and direct.

Borrowing Arrows With Straw Boats

In chapter 46 of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhou Yu asks Zhuge Liang for 100,000 arrows. Zhuge Liang promises: “In just three days, I can deliver one hundred thousand arrows. If I fail in three days, I accept severe punishment.”

On the third night, “a heavy fog filled the sky.” His boats sail toward Cao Cao’s fleet, and Cao Cao’s archers shoot into the fog. As the boats turn back, full of arrows, the men call out: “Thank you, Chancellor, for the arrows!”

The historical record gives a similar trick with arrows to Sun Quan, not to Zhuge Liang.

The Military Pledge

A junlingzhuang is a written pledge given on receiving an order. The signer accepts severe punishment if the task is not done. In chapter 46 of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a pledge reads: “I am willing to submit a military pledge. If it is not done in three days, I accept heavy punishment.”

A CCTV News article noted that the fight against poverty was the only task since the 18th Party Congress for which Party and government heads signed military pledges to the Center. Xi Jinping said in 2016: “A military pledge is not made lightly. What we say, we must do.”

Su Who Feels the Edges

Su Weidao served several times as chief minister under Empress Wu Zetian. According to the Tang histories, he once said: “In handling affairs, one should not decide clearly. If there is an error, blame is sure to follow. It is enough to feel the edges and hold on to both ends.”

People called him “Su Moleng,” Su Who Feels the Edges. His words are the origin of the idiom 模棱两可, “feeling the edges, either way will do.” Dictionaries define it as taking no clear position.