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Petty Men First

In chapter 84 of Journey to the West, the widow Zhao, who has run an inn for many years, welcomes the pilgrims. “My inn treats guests in three ways,” she says. “Now let us be petty men first and gentlemen afterward. Let us settle the price of the room first, so the bill is easy later.”

The saying 先小人后君子, first the petty man, then the gentleman, means to set out the terms plainly before treating each other with courtesy. The writer Wang Meng explained it as signing a contract first, fixing the division of profit and responsibility, “and then talking of cooperation and team spirit.”

The Vocabulary of Vouching

引荐 To lead in and recommend. To recommend someone, or to introduce someone into a group.

中保 A guarantor in the middle. A person who stands between the two sides of a sale or a loan and answers for it.

铺保 A shop guarantee. In the past, a guarantee given for a person in the name of a shop.

不看僧面看佛面 If not for the monk’s face, then for the Buddha’s. To help or forgive someone for the sake of a third person.

Pressed to Drink

A media survey of 2,005 people, cited by the Legal Daily in January 2022, found that 92.3 percent had been pressed to drink, and 74 percent said they accepted when they could not get out of it.

Drinking rhymes make the link between alcohol and feeling: 感情深，一口闷, “if the feeling is deep, drink it in one,” and 只要感情铁，哪怕胃出血, “as long as the friendship is iron, never mind a bleeding stomach.” In a 2021 appeal in Shanghai, two men who had urged a woman to drink before her death were held liable for 12 and 8 percent of the compensation.

Chasing Han Xin

Han Xin joined Liu Bang’s army but held only a minor post. He talked often with the chancellor Xiao He, who thought him remarkable. At Nanzheng, dozens of officers deserted, and Han Xin left too. Xiao He rode after him without telling Liu Bang. Back in camp, he told the angry king: “Generals are easy to find. As for Han Xin, he is guoshi wushuang, without equal in the realm.”

Liu Bang offered to make Han Xin a general. Xiao He said that would not keep him. Liu Bang agreed to make him grand general, with an altar and a ceremony on a chosen day. “The generals were all pleased, each thinking he would be grand general. When the appointment came, it was Han Xin, and the whole army was astonished.” (Records of the Grand Historian)

Old Friend of the Chinese People

On July 20, 2023, Xi Jinping received Henry Kissinger in Beijing. “You have visited China more than a hundred times,” he said.

After Kissinger’s death in November 2023, the Foreign Ministry called him “an old friend and good friend of the Chinese people, a pioneer and builder of China-US relations.” People’s Daily quoted the same formula. The Foreign Ministry added: “The Chinese people value feeling and loyalty. We will not forget old friends.”

The Head as a Pledge

In the Water Margin, Lin Chong comes to Liangshan to join the outlaws. Zhu Gui explains the rule to him: “Whenever a hero joins, he must hand in a toumingzhuang. He goes down the mountain, kills a man and presents the head. Then there is no suspicion of him. This is called a toumingzhuang.” The leader Wang Lun gives Lin Chong three days to bring one.

Pick Up the Chopsticks

In November 2018, Dolce & Gabbana promoted a large show in Shanghai with videos titled Qi kuai chi fan, Pick Up the Chopsticks and Eat. The brand deleted them from Weibo. On November 21, a screenshot of a private chat with the designer Stefano Gabbana spread on Weibo. That evening the show was cancelled. Its stage, which had cost eight million yuan, was already built.

In a later apology video, the two founders said duibuqi, sorry, in Chinese. Chinese Wikipedia files the episode under the heading “the controversy over insulting China.”

The Social Credit Outline

On June 14, 2014, the State Council issued its Outline of the Plan for Building the Social Credit System, 2014 to 2020. It calls rewards for keeping faith and penalties for breaking it “the core mechanism of the social credit system.” The aim, it says, is that “those who keep faith benefit everywhere, and those who break faith can hardly take a single step.”

The Broken Tassels

King Zhuang of Chu gave his ministers a feast. Late in the evening, when all were drunk, the candles went out. In the dark a man pulled at the dress of one of the king’s women. She tore the tassel off his hat and told the king: “Bring the light and look for the man without a tassel.”

The king said: “I gave them wine and made them drunk. Why should I display a woman’s virtue and shame an officer?” He ordered: “Whoever drinks with me tonight and does not tear off his tassel has not enjoyed himself.” More than a hundred men tore off their tassels before the lights came back.

Three years later, in a battle against Jin, one officer always fought in front. He told the king that he was the man whose tassel had been torn off. The story is in Liu Xiang’s Garden of Stories (说苑).

Burning the Letters

After Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao at Guandu, he took Yuan Shao’s papers. Among them he found letters that men in the capital and in his own army had written to Yuan Shao. He burned them all.

The Records of the Three Kingdoms records this. A commentary quotes Cao Cao’s reason: “When Yuan Shao was strong, even I could not be sure of keeping myself safe. How much less could the others?”