Article 510 of the Civil Code says: “After a contract takes effect, if the parties have not agreed on quality, price or remuneration, place of performance or other matters, or their agreement is unclear, they may supplement it by agreement. If they cannot reach a supplementary agreement, these are determined by the related clauses of the contract or by trade practice.”
Only when this fails does Article 511 supply fixed rules.
In Ming and Qing land sales, a seller could come back after the sale and ask the buyer for more money. The custom was called 找价, “seeking the price,” or 加找. A seller could claim that “the price was not enough.” The historian Cao Shuji found that after the Qianlong era, 加找 became a standard contract form.
A 2012 study in the law journal The Jurist cites the finding that repeated 找价, even after a deed of final sale, was “a very common custom.” Qing law later limited it. Where a deed of final sale did not mention extra payments, none were allowed.
变通 To adapt. To act according to the actual situation, not bound by convention. The word is old. The Book of Changes says: “Nothing changes and gets through more than the four seasons.”
通融 To make an exception for someone. To stretch the rules as a favor.
合情合理 To accord with feeling and with reason. The everyday word for “reasonable.”
再说 Let’s talk about it later. Literally “speak again.” Used to put a decision off.
从长计议 To plan for the long term. Not to decide now.
好说 Easy to discuss. A modest, polite phrase. It can also mean “that can be arranged.”
推三阻四 To push three and block four. To give one excuse after another.
敷衍 To deal with something only on the surface.
Article 31 of the State Council’s Regulations on Optimizing the Business Environment, in force since January 1, 2020, says that local governments must keep their policy commitments and contracts with businesses. They may not break them “on the grounds of changes in administrative divisions, a change of government, adjustments of institutions or functions, or a change of the persons responsible.”
In 2023, the National Development and Reform Commission called for action against 新官不理旧账, “new officials ignoring old accounts,” and against 朝令夕改, orders changed between morning and evening.
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.
礼尚往来 Propriety values going and coming. The line comes from the Book of Rites: “The highest value is virtue. Next comes giving and repaying. Propriety values going and coming. To give and receive nothing back is against propriety. To receive and give nothing back is also against propriety.”
Today the phrase is used for gifts and favors, and also for answering a person in kind.
人情 Human feeling. Also a favor, or a gift. 做个人情, to do someone a favor.
卖人情 To sell a favor. To do someone a good turn on purpose, so that they feel grateful. A dictionary gives the example: “If you sell him a favor today, he will surely repay you in the future.”
人情世故 Human feeling and the ways of the world. The knowledge of how to deal with people.
Article 7 of China’s Civil Code says: 民事主体从事民事活动，应当遵循诚信原则，秉持诚实，恪守承诺. “Parties engaged in civil activities shall follow the principle of good faith, uphold honesty and keep their promises.” The National People’s Congress adopted the Civil Code on May 28, 2020.
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.