In the 4th century BCE, the reformer Shang Yang organized the households of Qin into groups of five and ten that watched over one another and were liable together (什伍连坐). According to Sima Qian, anyone who failed to report a wrongdoer was cut in half at the waist. Anyone who hid one was punished like a soldier who surrendered to the enemy.
Chinese Wikipedia calls it the earliest known written law of lianzuo, a system in which a group is punished for the wrong of one person.
In many Chinese schools, classes compete for a liudong hongqi (流动红旗), a red flag that moves from class to class, and for the title of “civilized class.” Daily points are added and deducted for class duties, dormitory order and conduct.
A 2016 article in the journal People’s Tribune explained the mechanism. The points tie each student’s daily behavior closely to the honor of the class. Teachers, and especially the head teacher, constantly stress winning the flag.
In the People’s Communes, public canteens collected the farmers’ grain, cooked it together and handed it out to all members according to need. People called this “eating from the big pot” (吃大锅饭). The phrase came to stand for egalitarian distribution in general.
In July 1983, the Shekou Industrial Zone was the first to “break the egalitarian big pot.” It introduced a pay scheme of basic wage, position wage and floating wage.
The People’s Liberation Army awards merit to units as well as to individuals. A rocket artillery company of the Army’s 71st Group Army, for example, has been awarded “collective second-class merit once and collective third-class merit twice.”
In January 2024, the Central Military Commission issued a notice commending nine units and twenty individuals for excellence in military training.
一颗老鼠屎坏了一锅粥 One rat dropping spoils a whole pot of rice porridge.
The saying is used when one person’s fault harms the whole group. A teaching dictionary gives a common example: when one person is late for a meeting, everyone has to wait.
枪打出头鸟 The gun shoots the bird that sticks its head out.
木秀于林，风必摧之 When a tree stands out above the forest, the wind will break it. (Li Kang, On Fate)
满招损，谦受益 Fullness invites loss, modesty receives benefit. (Book of Documents)
During basic training, the young soldier Lei Feng did many good deeds in his camp and in the city of Yingkou without leaving his name (做好事不留名). He died on duty in 1962, at the age of 21. On March 5, 1963, Mao Zedong wrote the inscription “Learn from Comrade Lei Feng,” and March 5 became Learn from Lei Feng Day.
His diary, found and published after his death, contains the line “I want to be a screw forever” (我愿永远做一个螺丝钉).
自己人 Our own people, those close to us.
胳膊肘往外拐 The elbow bends outward. Said of someone who helps outsiders against their own people.
肥水不流外人田 Rich water does not flow into an outsider’s field. Keep the good things within the family.
In chapter 4 of Dream of the Red Chamber, the new magistrate Jia Yucun takes up a murder case. A clerk shows him an “official’s protective charm” (护官符), a list of the four great families of the area: Jia, Shi, Wang and Xue. “These four families are all linked by kinship. If one suffers, all suffer. If one prospers, all prosper.” The killer is a Xue.
Jia Yucun closes the case without punishing him. The chapter title calls it “a muddled verdict in a muddled case.”
不求有功，但求无过 Seek no merit, only avoid faults.
多一事不如少一事 One more matter is worse than one matter less.
In 1950, the scholar Qian Zhongshu was asked to join the committee translating Mao Zedong’s Selected Works. He told his wife, Yang Jiang: “This job is not easy to do. Seek no merit, only avoid faults.”