In his essay Without Litigation (无讼), from the book From the Soil (乡土中国), the sociologist Fei Xiaotong describes how village disputes were settled. He notes that “mediation” is a new word. The old word was 评理, to weigh what is reasonable.
The respected elder who settled the case, Fei writes, “always gave both sides of the dispute a scolding,” and then a lecture.