In Chinese companies, some projects are called yibashou gongcheng, top-leader projects. In March 2026 the business site Huxiu wrote that they are given the name, and that “in the industry there is even a consensus that no one but the top leader can push them.”
The article’s headline described this as a predicament: “Everything has to be pushed by the boss.” It called the top-leader project an unusual management tool, meant to solve key problems by shifting resources toward them.
Yanwang hao jian, xiaogui nan dang (阎王好见，小鬼难当) The King of Hell is easy to see, but his little devils are hard to deal with. The Handian dictionary explains that subordinates and staff are harder to deal with than the superior in charge. It cites the late Qing novel Officialdom Unmasked: “Even if you, my nephew, want no money, there are still the jailers and the others, and they may not be accommodating.”
The saying puts the obstacle below the top, among the subordinates and staff.
In April 1895, Li Hongzhang negotiated peace with Japan at Shimonoseki. He reported to the Zongli Yamen, the Qing foreign office in Beijing, by telegram, and its replies came the same way. Japan had broken the code.
A Japanese account of 1932, quoted in a Chinese study, says that reading the full text of Li’s telegram of April 11, 1895, “had a great effect” on Japan’s later attitude and on the progress of the talks. In 1929 the Chinese writer Gong Debai concluded: “Since all our secrets were known to them, how could the negotiations not fail?”
At a formal Chinese banquet, every seat has a rank. The seats facing the door are the seats of honor. A 2015 article on Xinhua’s website places the guests around the host’s seat, the zhupei (主陪): “To the right of the host is the seat of the chief guest, to the left the seat of the second guest, and opposite is the seat of the deputy host.”
An etiquette guide published by the Shanghai government adds a rule for drinking. To show respect, a guest keeps the rim of the glass below the host’s.
In chapter 6 of Dream of the Red Chamber, the poor country woman Liu Laolao hopes for help from the great Jia household. “The gate of a noble house is as deep as the sea,” she says. “Nobody there knows me.” Her son-in-law has a plan. She should first find Zhou Rui, a servant of the lady of the house. “This Zhou Rui once did a piece of business with my father. We were on very good terms.”
At the side gate, the doormen ignore her and tell her to wait by the wall. She finds Zhou Rui’s wife instead. Years before, Gou’er had helped Zhou Rui a great deal in a dispute over buying land, so his wife finds it hard to refuse. She takes Liu Laolao first to Pinger, the trusted maid of Wang Xifeng. Only then is Liu Laolao led in.
一把手 The first hand. The head of a unit or organization.
拍板 To strike the board. In old trading houses, a sale was sealed by striking a wooden board. Today it means that the person in charge makes the final decision.
一言堂 The hall of one word. Once a shop’s sign for fixed prices. Today a leader who decides alone.
官大一级压死人 An official one rank higher crushes a person to death. In 2018, the Party’s discipline newspaper used the phrase to criticize an official who pulled rank.
In Chinese government, a leader’s short written comment on a report or document is called a pishi (批示), a written instruction. It turns the document into a task for the people below.
In 2016, Xi Jinping wrote such an instruction on the study of Mao Zedong’s essay on the working methods of Party committees. The Central Organization Department then issued a notice to carry it out. According to the Party’s news site, the instruction set clear requirements for every member of every Party leadership team, and especially for its principal leaders.