Chinese virtue

Chapter 11 Soft with rigidity
Through the servants, we had a preliminary understanding of the Chinese people.They don't realize that they have become our best teachers of Chinese character cognition.Although they sometimes dissatisfy us, their performances are undoubtedly the best textbooks.

Every Chinese is, to some extent, the epitome of the whole nation.As our contact with the Chinese deepened, we found that the conclusions drawn in our interactions with servants were more widely confirmed.This article is about a strange characteristic of the Chinese people. Although they are contradictory, they are the most suitable to describe the Chinese people. It only needs a little explanation to make people understand.

Of all the servants in a Western home in China, the only one who controls the peace of the home is the cook.When the chef first entered the home, he obeyed the hostess' words and sincerely obeyed the rules of the house.For example, the owner said that the previous chef threw the unproven noodles into the oven to bake, which was unacceptable to the owner, and always contradicted the owner's opinion, and was finally fired.The new chef will immediately express that although he has many shortcomings, he will never disobey his master.The hostess added that dogs and smokers and loafers were not to be brought into the kitchen.The new chef replied that he didn't smoke, hated dogs, and that he was an outsider with few friends, and there were no idlers among his friends.

So the new chef got his own job.After a few days, the owner found that he was almost the same as the previous chef, throwing the bread into the oven without making the dough.The kitchen was full of smoke, and some unknown people came and went in and out of the kitchen, some with dogs.The cook frankly admits that his bread is not the best, but the dough is sure to be kneaded; the servants don't know how to smoke, and the smoke comes from the neighbor's house, and the servants of that family smoke; The people I saw were his friends, none of them with dogs, and they had already left and would not come again.

The servant was able to obey the house rules, but others could not, and there was nothing he could do.

There are many such examples.There was a servant who was mowing the grass. The master gave him a sharp foreign-made sickle and asked him to use it to mow the grass. The servant accepted the sickle with a smile.But when he was working, he used an old sickle made in China, and he seemed to think that this old sickle was easier to use.

When the laundryman was washing clothes, the owner gave him a foreign washing machine and wringer in order to save time and effort without damaging the fabric.As a result, when the owner came back, he found that the washing machine and the wringer had been shelved, and the laundryman was still scrubbing and wringing the clothes by hand.In order to change this situation, the owner can only constantly supervise them.

There was a gardener whose employer gave him some bricks to repair the walls.But he buried the twig a foot deep into the top of the wall.The employer asked him why he did this strangely, and he said, "This method is better."

There was a porter who was hired to send an important letter to a distant place, and he was asked to leave early the next morning.As a result, he was still around the next afternoon, and when asked the reason, he replied: "Because I have to wash the socks, I have to delay a day."

The same is true of the Chinese coachman. He clearly told him the route, but he took a different road, because he heard from passers-by that the road was not easy to walk, so he took the most familiar road.

From these examples it will be seen that the cook, the lawnmower, the laundress, the gardener, the porter, the coachman, all insist on their own opinions, and ignore our judgment.

A similar phenomenon occurs in hospitals and pharmacies run by foreigners.The doctor diagnosed the condition, prescribed medicine for the patient, and carefully told him the time and quantity of medicine to take, and the patient asked carefully several times.However, when he got home, the patient still took all the medicines at one time, or two days' worth of medicines. He felt that if he took more medicines, he would recover sooner.After some patients put on the plaster, no matter what the doctor told them before, they would still take off the plaster after going home, because he didn't want his skin to become like a turtle shell.

There are also some patients who think that the words of the assistant in the pharmacy are as valuable as the words of the attending physician.

Even if the assistant does not know the disease and the name of the medicine, or even illiterate, the attending doctor is academically proficient and experienced.Even a servant's statement can lead a patient to completely disregard the doctor's orders and treat him with some ridiculously stupid method of treatment, believing that he will be cured.

As mentioned above, we have mentioned a lot of examples of the Chinese people's softness and toughness. These examples are related to our interests, so we should pay attention to them.As we understand this character, we will find that in Chinese interpersonal relationships, the situation of "duplicity" is everywhere.A Chinese servant is obedient to his master, no matter whether his master is Chinese or a foreigner, but the Chinese master knows that his order will not be fully obeyed by the servant, so he will relax the requirements appropriately.

However, foreign employers expect their servants to obey orders completely, otherwise they will embarrass the servants.

A friend of mine who has many loyal and obstinate servants said of one particular valet of his that he wondered whether he should fire him or give him a raise!This sentence fully expresses the dilemma faced by a foreign employer.Chinese employers, on the other hand, will think of ways in advance to deal with servants who ignore their orders, just like someone saving money to pay off debts, or leaving some gaps to avoid mechanical friction.

This phenomenon of ignoring orders has always existed in the relationship between officials at all levels in China, and even the highest level.There are many reasons for them to violate orders, such as the favor of friends and personal laziness, and the most important reason is the temptation of money.

There was a magistrate who couldn't drink the salt water where he lived, so he ordered his servants to fetch water for drinking from a place several miles away.However, the servant went to a village with sweet water to draw water. Although he disobeyed the order, he saved two-thirds of the journey, and both parties were very satisfied.

Even if the magistrate knew that the servant did not carry out his order, as long as the water was good, he would not pursue it.It's not that other people don't know, there are 500 people who know the inside story.However, the Chinese are naturally afraid of offending others, lest they cause trouble, so even if 500 people know the inside story of the servant's violation of orders, no one will report it.

There is another example: a master ordered the servant to put the water in the pool into other containers for later use, but the servant poured all the water into the well.This seems to follow the master's order, but in fact the result is just the opposite.

Dr. Rennie (Dr. Rennie) once mentioned that an official in Xiamen cut up official documents of the country during diplomacy, and then reversed the order, pasting the first half at the back and the second half at the front, so that foreigners could not read it. understood.Chinese officials rarely please foreigners, a practice that is common in foreign affairs.

In the process of law enforcement, we can often see illegal acts that conflict with the law.A certain criminal was sentenced to two months of wooden shackles, which were not allowed to be removed except at night.However, if it costs some money, the prisoner can put aside the wooden shackles and wear them when the officials enter and leave the yamen to pretend.The officer knows the bribe will change his sentence, but he won't go back and seize evidence of a breach of order.Since the official himself was a Chinese, he already knew that the order would not be obeyed when he handed down the sentence, so he doubled the sentence.This is just one example of the relationship between Chinese officials seen by foreigners, and there are many similar situations.Higher officials ordered lower officials to check that orders were being carried out, and lower officials did not check at all, but kept reporting how things were going.Under normal circumstances, the matter is over, but if the order from the upper level is very urgent and the pressure on the lower level is constantly exerted, then the lower level officials will transfer the pressure to the lower level officials and criticize them vigorously until the upper level pressures the lower level. It will return to its original appearance when it disappears completely.This situation can be called "reformation", just like the ban on growing and selling opium, it is strong and weak, and the result can be imagined.

Some people think that it is very inappropriate to use adjectives like "soft" to describe the "stubborn" Chinese. They think that the Chinese are the most "stubborn" people.But I firmly believe that the Chinese are by no means the most stubborn nation, because compared with the Anglo-Saxons, their mule-like "tough" character also contains a kind of "softness", which is exactly the Anglo-Saxon character The resignation that has been lacking in it.

Chinese people have a nature of "obedience", which enables them to accept criticism from others calmly.For the Anglo-Saxon people, it is a lost art, an art that does not exist.The Chinese can admit their shortcomings very frankly, listen to you point out their shortcomings patiently and sincerely, and then say with a smile: "It's my fault, it's my fault." He will thank you for treating such an insignificant person like him, And guarantee that the shortcomings you pointed out will be corrected immediately and completely.Although you know that these nice words are just fantasy, but this kind of far-fetched commitment is likely to end the unpleasant matter.And, if you look closely, they do exactly what you asked for.

Chinese people are like flexible bamboos, they are supple and hollow, tall and elegant when there is no wind, and bend with the wind when there is wind.Bamboo seedlings are herbaceous plants. Although they are supple, they will not knot like grass.

Human hair is the softest thing in the world. It can be pulled very long, but it will return to its original shape immediately when the pulling force disappears.The hair can be combed in any direction, but the root of the hair will always be in one direction and will not change.There is a kind of upturned hair that is very difficult to comb, and other hairs have to be combed in its direction.If every nation is the hair on the head of the earth, then the Chinese are the upturned hair, which can be trimmed or shaved off, but the new hair that grows will still be the same as before, and the direction will never change.

(End of this chapter)