《中國人的性格》第八章 油滑的才能

《中國人的性格》是美國傳教士阿瑟·史密斯（明恩溥）基于1872年赴華傳教期間的社會(huì)觀察撰寫的著作，首版英文名《Chinese Characteristics》于19世紀(jì)末問世，。作者在華生活逾五十年，書中融合人類學(xué)視角與傳教士立場(chǎng)，記錄了晚清民眾的性格特征與文化形態(tài)。

全書以27個(gè)主題章節(jié)剖析中國人行為模式，包含“保全面子”“省吃儉用”等生活哲學(xué)，以及“漠視精確”“因循守舊”等社會(huì)現(xiàn)象。通過對(duì)比西方工業(yè)文明，著重探討東方特有的生存韌性，如環(huán)境適應(yīng)力與疼痛耐受性。書中案例多源自山東鄉(xiāng)村生活經(jīng)歷，涉及衣食住行、孝悌觀念等主題，部分結(jié)論因宗教立場(chǎng)存在視角爭(zhēng)議。該著作開創(chuàng)西方研究中國國民性先河，被譯成多國文字，成為近代中西文化互鑒的重要文本。

第八章 油滑的才能

我們盎格魯撒克遜人最引以自豪的思維習(xí)慣是喜歡直來直去，心里怎么想，嘴上就怎么說。當(dāng)然，出于社交禮節(jié)和外交的需要，我們?cè)谝欢▓?chǎng)合下并不能完全按照這一習(xí)慣行事。然而，盡管要在不同場(chǎng)合修正自己的表達(dá)，直來直去的天性實(shí)質(zhì)上仍支配著我們。然而，經(jīng)過與亞洲各民族不太長的接觸之后，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)，他們的天性與我們的根本不一致——事實(shí)上，這兩者是分別處于相反的兩極。

在這里，我們并不看重所有的亞洲各國語言中都包含著非常繁復(fù)的敬語的累贅。在這一方面，某些國家的語言明顯要比中文更加復(fù)雜麻煩。我們也并不在意強(qiáng)調(diào)各種委婉的說法，不善于使用別的稱呼，不知道一些本可以簡(jiǎn)單表達(dá)出來卻不能簡(jiǎn)單地說出來的話。比如，中文中關(guān)于一個(gè)人的死亡會(huì)有很多種說法，卻沒有一種說法會(huì)直接提及這個(gè)不恭而殘忍的“死”字。不論死者是一個(gè)皇帝還是一個(gè)底層的勞工，都必須使用各種委婉的說法，只不過在這兩種不同的境況下要使用不同的字眼。在這里，我們所關(guān)注的并非是那些穩(wěn)定性的語言，除非就其通用的說法來看。當(dāng)每個(gè)人都樂意使用那些具有“匹克威克含義”的詞匯，當(dāng)每個(gè)人都能理解他人這樣表達(dá)出的含義，這個(gè)問題結(jié)果也就不再是一個(gè)可靠性的問題，而成了一個(gè)方法問題。

用不著跟中國人交往太深，一個(gè)外國人就能得出這樣的結(jié)論，僅僅聽一個(gè)中國人所說的話，是無法理解他的真實(shí)意圖的。情況的確是這樣，即使這個(gè)外國人精通中文口語——他或許能聽得懂每一句話，甚至還能寫下他所聽到的那句話中每一個(gè)漢字。即便如此，他依然有可能無法準(zhǔn)確地掌握說話者的所思所想。究其原因，這當(dāng)然是因?yàn)檎f話者沒有充分表達(dá)出他的所思所想。但是，他終究還是說出了一些或多或少與之相關(guān)的東西。他希望這些東西能夠讓人理解，或者是大致地理解其意。

對(duì)于任何一個(gè)想和中國人友好相處的人來說，除了熟練掌握中文之外，掌握一種強(qiáng)大的推理能力也非常重要。可是，無論他具有多么強(qiáng)的推理能力，在很多情況下，他還是會(huì)不知所云，因?yàn)樗耐评砟芰€不足以應(yīng)付實(shí)際的需要。

為了說明這個(gè)在中國人生活中隨處可見的情況，請(qǐng)?jiān)试S我暫舉我的仆人中經(jīng)常出現(xiàn)的事件為例子。對(duì)于我來說，這些仆人是整個(gè)中國人最早出現(xiàn)的代表，其重要意義或許并非那么低。一天早晨，家里的“書童”像平常一樣面無表情地出現(xiàn)在你眼前，說他的一位“姨娘”生病了，他不得不請(qǐng)幾天假去探望她。在這里，你并不能憑借這樣的請(qǐng)求就斷定他沒有什么姨娘，或者那位姨娘并沒有得什么病，他也并沒有打算去看她的念頭。而應(yīng)該心平氣和地想到，這位書童其實(shí)是與廚師產(chǎn)生了一些沖突，只不過后者勢(shì)力很大，暗中在不擇手段排擠他。書童對(duì)之也心有所感，為了躲避自己對(duì)頭的打壓，便找了托詞辭職離開。

一個(gè)人幫了你一個(gè)忙，你又不能馬上付錢給他，他就會(huì)彬彬有禮卻十分堅(jiān)決地謝絕你該付給他的錢，他會(huì)說，為了這么一點(diǎn)小事就收取任何酬勞，這是有違“綱常”的，你這是小瞧了他，你如果執(zhí)意讓他收下，就是駁了他的“面子”。這番說辭是什么意思呢？他其實(shí)是對(duì)你的回贈(zèng)抱有厚望，可惜，你的出手太小氣，令他大失所望，就像奧利弗·退斯特那樣，他“想要得更多”。當(dāng)然，也可能完全是另外一個(gè)意思，這或許是暗示你，現(xiàn)在或者將來的某個(gè)時(shí)候，你有能力給予他更有利可圖的東西，如果現(xiàn)在收下了，以后就不方便再開口了。因此，他更愿意讓你欠著他的情，直到他提出更大的要求來。

既然中國人在談及自身利益時(shí)都是如此的謹(jǐn)慎，那么處于怕得罪人的普遍心理，在可能帶來麻煩的情況下，他們?cè)谡務(wù)搫e人利益時(shí)就會(huì)更加小心。中國人雖然喜歡聚在一起閑談各種各樣的事情，但是他們都能夠憑借直覺判斷出來，在這種場(chǎng)合，什么樣的事情不能隨便亂說，尤其是當(dāng)事情涉及到很多外國人的時(shí)候，他們會(huì)對(duì)他們偶然獲知的事情守口如瓶。有過很多的例子，在我們周圍的那些人會(huì)不動(dòng)聲色地給我們?nèi)舾傻摹爸更c(diǎn)”。在得到了指點(diǎn)之后，我們對(duì)待他人的行為就會(huì)發(fā)生顯著的變化。不過，除非中國人能夠清楚怎樣做才對(duì)他們有利、怎樣做才會(huì)不冒太大的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，否則，他們會(huì)繼續(xù)保持沉默寡言的本能。我們中國朋友一直會(huì)保持著他們深不可測(cè)的沉默。

最為有趣的是中國人下決心把不好的消息傳給他人時(shí)的舉止，他們認(rèn)為最好的方式就是給出一個(gè)暗示。即使是這樣一種情況下，有時(shí)事情已不是什么秘密了，甚至可以公開直截了當(dāng)?shù)卣f了，但傳消息的人還是完全有可能采取一種拐彎抹角、不著邊際的方式說一件不能說，萬萬不該說的事。他會(huì)心神不安地看看四周有沒有人偷聽，然后壓低聲音，神秘地竊竊耳語，含糊地暗示那個(gè)他沒有點(diǎn)明的人。他伸出三個(gè)手指頭，作為手勢(shì)，不明不白地暗示那個(gè)人就是他家的老三。他先含含糊糊地說了一番，暗示事態(tài)的嚴(yán)重性，可正當(dāng)說到關(guān)鍵之處的時(shí)候，他突然停住，不進(jìn)一步說出導(dǎo)致事情發(fā)生的原因，然后意味深長地點(diǎn)了點(diǎn)頭，就像是在說：“現(xiàn)在，你明白了，不是嗎？”

在這個(gè)全過程中，可憐且不開竅的外國人除了不明白還是不明白，他只知道沒有什么值得去弄明白的。如果發(fā)生這樣的事情，是不會(huì)令人感到奇怪的：你的這位通信人（似乎這么稱呼并不恰當(dāng)）說到這種程度，如果你還是一無所知，他把你扔到半道上，會(huì)明確告訴你，總有一天你會(huì)發(fā)覺他是對(duì)的！

中國人與其他民族都有一個(gè)共同的特性，這就是都希望盡可能長時(shí)間地隱瞞壞消息，并以一種間接的方式表達(dá)出來。但是，中國人所要求的“好方式”是某種程度過高的欺騙，這無疑會(huì)讓我們驚訝并感到毫無必要。我們?cè)犝f，有一位慈祥的老奶奶意外地遇到兩位朋友在竊竊私語。這兩位朋友是特地趕來向老奶奶報(bào)告她那在外的孫子不幸去世的消息，當(dāng)時(shí)他們正在小聲地商量應(yīng)當(dāng)怎么轉(zhuǎn)告。可是，當(dāng)遇到老奶奶后，他們卻只是反復(fù)說明他們正在閑聊。盡管后來不到半個(gè)小時(shí)，消息就已經(jīng)傳開了。

我們還聽說，一位離家數(shù)月的兒子在回家的路上，他的朋友勸他快快回家，不要逗留去看戲，他便從這個(gè)勸告中得出正確的推斷，他的母親去世了！事實(shí)果真是如此。有一次，我們受托將一個(gè)中國人的一封家書轉(zhuǎn)交給離家很遠(yuǎn)的人。信的內(nèi)容是：當(dāng)他出門在外之時(shí)，他的妻子不幸突然去世。左鄰右舍見他家沒人看管，就拿走了他家的每一樣?xùn)|西，而這些東西本該留給他這個(gè)孤獨(dú)一身的人的。然而，這封信的信封上卻用大字寫著不太符合實(shí)情的話：“平安家信！”

中國人善繞彎子，還時(shí)常表現(xiàn)在該用數(shù)字的地方偏偏不用數(shù)字。這樣一來，一部分為五卷的書，每一卷不是用數(shù)字分別標(biāo)上第幾卷，而是標(biāo)以“仁”、“義”、“禮”、“智”、“信”為名。因?yàn)檫@是“五德”所固定確立的順序。四十多卷本的《康熙字典》，各冊(cè)往往不是像我們所期望的那樣用數(shù)字來區(qū)分，而是分別用“十二支”來編排。在科舉考場(chǎng)上，每個(gè)學(xué)生的隔間是分別按照《千字文》中沒有重復(fù)的字目次序進(jìn)行標(biāo)識(shí)的。

這方面的另一個(gè)事例，就是家里人和外人對(duì)已婚婦女拐彎抹角的稱呼。這種婦女實(shí)際上是沒有名字的，而僅用丈夫的姓和娘家的姓合成的兩字姓氏來稱呼。平時(shí)，她也許會(huì)被叫著“某某他娘”。比如，一位你熟悉的中國人對(duì)你說，“小二黑他媽”病了，也許你從來沒聽說過他家有一個(gè)“小二黑”，但他認(rèn)為你肯定知道。但是，如果沒孩子，那問題就更復(fù)雜了。也許，這位婦女被稱為“小二黑他嬸”，或者其他拐來拐去的稱呼。已婚多年的婦女很自然地稱自己的丈夫是“外頭的”，意思為丈夫是忙家務(wù)事之外的事。結(jié)婚不久還沒孩子的年輕媳婦在說到自己丈夫時(shí)常常由于沒有合適的詞就不知說什么為好。有時(shí)候，她會(huì)稱她的丈夫?yàn)椤跋壬薄Ｓ幸淮危@樣的婦女被逼得沒辦法，干脆用丈夫干活的地方來稱呼他——“油坊里的那位是這么說的！”

一位著名的中國將軍在趕往戰(zhàn)場(chǎng)的途中，經(jīng)過一片沼澤地時(shí)，向那里的青蛙深深地鞠躬。他希望他的士兵們明白，這些小動(dòng)物的勇敢是值得贊美的。普通的西方人當(dāng)然知道，這位將軍對(duì)其部下的要求，就像是他們得有“強(qiáng)大的推斷力”。對(duì)于一個(gè)生活在中國的外國人來說，他需要比之更強(qiáng)大的推斷力。

中國春節(jié)的來臨，是一年一度償清債務(wù)的時(shí)候。一位熟人前來見筆者，他做著某種手勢(shì)，似乎包含著什么深?yuàn)W的意思。他用手指指了指天，又指了指地，然后指了指對(duì)方，最后指了指自己，一句話也沒說。最終，我們慚愧地說自己并不明白是什么意思。結(jié)果還是沒法獲得他的原諒，他以為通過自己的手勢(shì)，能夠很容易地讓我們知曉，他希望借些錢用用，而且希望我們保密，只有“天知”、“地知”、“你知”、“我知”！“吃（貪吃）、喝（酗酒）、嫖、賭”指的是四種最常見的惡習(xí)，現(xiàn)在又加上抽鴉片。有時(shí)，人們張開五指，說，“他五毒俱全”，就是指某人沾染了這五種不良的惡習(xí)。

中國人的油滑還表現(xiàn)在，由于他們的禮儀規(guī)定過于復(fù)雜，可以采取一種在我們看來非常隱晦的方法去給予別人侮辱。比如，折疊信紙的某種方式就可以表現(xiàn)出一種故意的蔑視。在寫到某個(gè)人名字時(shí)，故意不把他的名字?jǐn)[在其他字之上的單獨(dú)一行，就是對(duì)他的一種侮辱，其嚴(yán)重程度要超過英語中不用大寫字母拼寫一個(gè)人的名字首字母。在社交場(chǎng)合，不說一句話，哪怕是一句不中聽的話，都可以算是一種淡淡的、偽裝的侮辱，就像是迎來送往過程中不知道接客待客的程序一樣。規(guī)矩如此之多，眾多禮節(jié)中缺乏任何一個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單的動(dòng)作，都可能或多或少地在表示一種隱含的侮辱。這些，中國人當(dāng)然一看就能明白，而可憐且無知的外國人卻因此無數(shù)次地成為犧牲品，還以為是受到了至高的特殊禮遇！

中國人因生氣而互相辱罵時(shí)，充分運(yùn)用各自的文學(xué)才華，很得體地使用一種精致的暗諷表示一種惡毒的意思，其暗諷水平之高，使人不能當(dāng)場(chǎng)聽出其中的真正含意，需要仔細(xì)琢磨，就像一粒糖衣里所包裹的難吃的藥丸，需要慢慢才能吃出里面的味道。比如，“tung—hsi”這個(gè)詞語，字面上的意思是“東西”，指的是東西兩個(gè)方向，但它也代表是一樣物品，而稱某人是“一個(gè)東西”，就是罵人，“不是東西”，也是罵人。同樣，即使拐彎抹角地說某人不是“南北”，意思就是他是“東西”，也就是罵他是“一個(gè)東西”！

每個(gè)人都會(huì)大為吃驚的是，即使是最沒知識(shí)的中國人也會(huì)隨機(jī)應(yīng)變地憑空虛構(gòu)各種似乎合理的借口。除了外國人之外，沒有人會(huì)認(rèn)真對(duì)待這種借口，除非是為了保住自己的“面子”。其實(shí)，過于想把問題弄清楚的外國人，根本沒有人去追究他們，誰也不會(huì)把這些借口當(dāng)真，或者說大家其實(shí)都明白，這不過是人家為了保住“面子”而采取的一些恰當(dāng)?shù)牟呗远选Ｒ粋€(gè)具有過多批評(píng)精神的外國人，常期待自己有著非同尋常的求真能力，無論天上、水中還是地下，對(duì)真理的持久追求已經(jīng)成為固定的習(xí)慣。而即使是最無知的中國人，在陷入困境時(shí)，也會(huì)有信心構(gòu)筑一道牢不可破的防線以保證他不丟臉。他可以躲進(jìn)他的無知當(dāng)中，以保證他可以逃脫。他“不知道”，他“不明白”，這兩句話，就像是上帝的寬恕一樣，掩蓋了各種各樣的罪惡。

從每日發(fā)行的北京《邸報(bào)》上，很容易為我們的話題找到一些好例證。在中國，沒有什么地方像《邸報(bào)》那樣，能清楚地反映中國政府的真實(shí)情況，盡管也有欠缺。然而，在報(bào)上，古語所謂的“指鹿為馬”也已經(jīng)變得更加高級(jí)，運(yùn)用也更加廣泛。這是一面棱鏡，這個(gè)半透明的棱鏡可以讓人們更清楚地看到中國政府的真實(shí)本質(zhì)，其效用超過了其他窗口的綜合。

中國人在談到任何一件事情之時(shí)，都似乎喜歡繞圈子，而不愿談及真正的理由。如果中國人真的是不愿意講出事情的緣由，那么只能靠猜測(cè)去知曉他所說的意思。如果這個(gè)說法是一個(gè)具有普遍意義的真理，那么，最好的事例可以從中國官場(chǎng)的生活中去找。在中國的官場(chǎng)，拘泥于形式和矯揉造作已發(fā)展到極點(diǎn)。中國的“官方報(bào)紙”的“頭條新聞”，整版都登載著一些渴望退出官位的年老官員遭受各種痛苦的情況，他們大聲訴苦，希望“皇帝陛下”能夠恩準(zhǔn)他們告老還鄉(xiāng)，這里頭究竟有哪些個(gè)含意呢？如果他的迫切請(qǐng)求被拒絕，并被要求立即回到他的崗位上去時(shí)，這又意味著什么？那些像煞有介事的冗長奏折作為事實(shí)材料被披露出來，其真正的含意是什么？當(dāng)一位被指控為有罪的高官被確定為無罪，就像每份奏折所宣稱的，只是犯了一些還夠不上懲罰的小過失時(shí)，這就意味著，起訴的人沒有足夠的影響力，或者是被指控的官員是否的確做過那種事？誰能說得清呢？

我們堅(jiān)定地相信，通過細(xì)讀北京《邸報(bào)》并同時(shí)研讀過報(bào)上每份文獻(xiàn)的人，都能比較正確地領(lǐng)悟其中真正的含意，并由此獲得關(guān)于這個(gè)國家的知識(shí)，超過閱讀有關(guān)這個(gè)國家的所有的著作。但是，迄今為止，所有外來的夷蠻人還得主要依靠各種暗示在理解中國。如果打交道的對(duì)方是一個(gè)中國人，我們還得千方百計(jì)竭盡所能地弄清他話中的意思。即使如此，我們還會(huì)漏掉他很多話。對(duì)此，便是我們倍感擔(dān)憂的原因所系。

英文原版：

CHAPTER VIII. THE TALENT FOR INDIRECTION

ONE of the intellectual habits upon which we Anglo-Saxons pride ourselves most is that of going directly to the marrow of a subject, and when we have reached it saying exactly what we mean. Considerable abatements must no doubt be made in any claim set up for such a habit, when we consider the usages of polite society and those of diplomacy, yet it still remains substantially true that the instinct of rectilinearity is the governing one, albeit considerably modified by special circumstances. No very long acquaintance is required with any Asiatic race, however, to satisfy us that their instincts and ours are by no means the same—in fact, that they are at opposite poles. We shall lay no stress upon the redundancy of honorific terms in all Asiatic languages, some of which in this respect are indefinitely more elaborate than the Chinese. Neither do we emphasise the use of circumlocutions, periphrases, and what may be termed aliases, to express ideas which are perfectly simple, but which no one wishes to express with simplicity. Thus a great variety of terms may be used in Chinese to indicate that a person has died, and not one of them is guilty of the brutality of saying so ; nor does the periphrasis depend for its use upon the question whether the person to whom reference is made is an emperor or a cooIe, however widely the terms employed may differ in the two cases. Nor are we at present concerned, except in a very general way, with the quality of veracity of language. When every one agrees to use words in " a Pickwickian sense," and every one else is doing so, the questions resulting are not those of veracity but of method.

No extended experience of the Chinese is required to arrive at the conclusion that it is impossible, from merely hearing what a Chinese says, to tell what he means. This continues to be true, no matter how proficient one may have become in the colloquial—so that he perhaps understands every phrase, and might possibly, if worst came to worst, write down every character which he has heard in a given sentence ; and yet he might be unable to decide exactly what the speaker had in mind. The reason of this must of course be that the speaker did not express what he had in mind, but something else more or less cognate to it, from which he wished his meaning or a part of it to be inferred.

Next to a competent knowledge of the Chinese language, large powers of inference are essential to any one who is to deal successfully with the Chinese, and whatever his powers in this direction may be, in many instances he will still go astray, because these powers were not equal to what was required of them. In illustration of this all-pervading phenomenon of Chinese life, let us take as illustrations a class of persons who are among the earliest, and often by no means the least important, representatives of the whole nation to us—our servants. One morning the " Boy " puts in an appearance with his usual expressionless visage, merely to mention that one of his " aunts " is ailing, and that he shall be obliged to forego the privilege of doing our work for a few days while he is absent prosecuting his inquiries as to her condition. Now it does not by any means follow from such a request that the " Boy " has no aunt, that she is not sick, and that he has not some more or less remote idea of going to see about her, but it is, to put it mildly, much more probable that the " Boy " and the cook have had some misunderstanding, and that as the prestige of the latter happened in this case to be the greater of the two, his rival takes this oblique method of intimating that he recognises the facts of the case, and retires to give place to another.

The individual who has done you a favour, for which it was impossible to arrange at the time a money payment, politely but firmly declines the gratuity which you think it right to send him in token of your obligation. What he says is that it would violate all Five Constant Virtues for him to accept anything of you for such an insignificant service, and that you wrong him by offering it, and would disgrace him by insisting on his acceptance of it. What does this mean? It means that his hopes of what you would give him were blighted by the smallness of the amount, and that, like Oliver Twist, he " wants more." And yet it may not mean this after all, but may be an intimation that you do now, or will at some future time, have it in your power to give him something which will be even more desirable, to the acquisition of which the present payment would be a bar, so that he prefers to leave it an open question till such time as his own best move is obvious.

If the Chinese are thus guarded when they speak of their own interests, it follows from the universal dread of giving offence that they will be more cautious about speaking of others, when there is a possibility of trouble arising in consequence. Fond as they are of gossip and all kinds of small-talk, the Chinese distinguish with a ready intuition cases in which it will not do to be too communicative, and under these circumstances, especially where foreigners are concerned, they are the grave of whatever they happen to know. In multitudes of instances the swarms of people by whom we are surrounded could give us " points," the possession of which would cause a considerable change in our conduct towards others. But unless they clearly see in what way they will be benefited by the result, and protected against the risks, the instinct of reticence will prevail.

Nothing is more amusing than to watch the demeanour of a Chinese who has made up his mind that it is best for him to give an intimation of something unfavourable to some one else. Things must have gone very far indeed when, even under these conditions, the communication is made in plain and unmistakable terms. What is far more likely to occur is the indirect suggestion, by oblique and devious routes, of a something which cannot, which must not be told. Our informant glances uneasily about as though he feared a spy in ambush. He lowers his voice to a mysterious whisper. He holds up three fingers of one hand, to shadow dimly forth the notion that the person about whom he is not speaking, but gesturing, is the third in the family. He makes vague introductory remarks, leading up to a revelation of apparent importance, and just as he gets to the climax of the case he suddenly stops short, suppresses the predicate upon which everything depends, nods significantly, as much as to say, "Now you see it, do you not ? " when all the while the poor unenlightened foreigner has seen nothing, except that there is nothing whatever to see. Nor will it be strange if after working things up to this pitch, our informant leaves you as much in the dark as he found you, intimating that at some other time you will perceive that he is right!

A like tendency to keep bad news hidden as long as possible, and to disguise it when it must be told, is a human trait shared by the Chinese with other races. But the conventional rules of Chinese society carry this practice to an extreme that often strikes outsiders as strange and pointless. We once knew a grandmother who was visited by two friends who had come to break the news of her grandchild's death far from home. To soothe her, they began by chatting about trivial gossip, pretending there was no sad news to share, though the truth came out soon afterwards. On another occasion, a man returning home was warned by a villager at the last stop before his house not to stop to watch a theatrical show. From this indirect hint, he rightly guessed that his mother had passed away.

We once received a letter entrusted to us for delivery to a distant acquaintance. The writer's wife had died suddenly, and neighbours had looted the empty house, leaving the man utterly destitute. Yet on the envelope of this sad message were written in large characters the words: "A Peaceful Family Letter."

The Chinese also favour indirect references when naming books, documents or people, instead of using plain titles and names. The five volumes of a classic might be labelled with the Five Constant Virtues: Benevolence, Justice, Propriety, Wisdom, and Fidelity. The massive Kangxi Dictionary, with dozens of volumes, is often marked using the twelve Earthly Branches of the traditional Chinese calendar rather than numerical order. At imperial examinations, candidates' cells are labelled with characters from the ancient Thousand-Character Classic, a text with no repeated words, instead of simple numbers.

Married women are another group often referred to indirectly. A married woman generally has no personal given name that is commonly used; people speak of her as "the mother of so-and-so". We have heard a Chinese man talk about the illness of "Little Black One's mother". We had no idea who this "Little Black One" was, yet the speaker assumed we knew perfectly well. If a woman has no children, the circumlocutions become even more awkward. She might be called "Aunt of so-and-so". Elderly married women sometimes refer to their husbands as "the one who takes care of outside affairs". Young wives without children struggle to mention their spouses directly, and one woman we know resorted to calling her husband by his occupation, saying, "The oil-mill man says thus and so!"

A famous Chinese general once came upon a marsh full of frogs on his way to war. He bowed respectfully to the frogs, and his soldiers understood this gesture as a reminder to be as brave and tenacious as these creatures. Those who deal with the Chinese soon learn that such indirect appeals and gestures demand careful interpretation. Around Chinese New Year, when the traditional season for repaying debts arrives, an acquaintance once met us and used a wordless pantomime: he pointed to the sky, then the ground, then us, then himself. We failed to grasp his meaning at first, but he intended to ask for a loan, hoping the favour would remain known only to "Heaven, Earth, you and me".

When describing vices, indirect language is also common. The phrase "gluttony, drinking, lust and gambling" names four major vices, with opium smoking often added as a fifth. A speaker might hold up all five fingers and say, "He has taken to all of these", leaving listeners to infer the man's bad habits without spelling them out.

China's elaborate code of etiquette also allows people to show disrespect through indirect, subtle acts that would seem absurd to Westerners. Folding a letter improperly, or failing to raise certain characters above the rest on the page can be a deliberate insult. In social settings, failing to greet a guest at the proper spot or neglecting to escort them partway on their departure can convey quiet contempt. Countless foreigners have been slighted in these ways without ever realising they had been offended. When Chinese people quarrel, they rarely use outright insults; instead, they rely on veiled sarcasm and hidden barbs. A common indirect insult uses the words "east and west": to call a person "a thing" is rude, and since "not north and south" implies being "east and west", this phrase is used to mock others without open abuse.

Even ordinary people in China are remarkably skilled at inventing elaborate excuses to avoid trouble or embarrassment. These excuses are almost always fictional, yet everyone accepts them as a polite way to "save face". When cornered and unable to explain their mistakes or failures, the most common fallback for any Chinese person is to plead ignorance: "I did not know" or "I did not understand". These two simple phrases cover a multitude of errors and misdeeds, and are almost always accepted as a reasonable defence.

Nowhere is this talent for indirection more fully displayed than in official documents and imperial communications such as the Peking Gazette. The ancient saying "to point at a deer and call it a horse" perfectly describes this practice. Official reports rarely state facts plainly. When a high-ranking official submits repeated petitions asking to retire due to old age and poor health, the lengthy descriptions of his ailments are indirect rhetoric. If the throne refuses his request to step down, the refusal itself carries hidden meanings about court politics. Official inquiries into crimes or scandals likewise use roundabout language, shifting blame or redefining offences without addressing the core issues directly. An outside observer reading these records will find it nearly impossible to discern the full truth behind the words.

To understand the real meaning behind Chinese official and everyday speech, one must master the art of reading between the lines. A foreigner who eventually grows adept at interpreting these indirect hints and veiled messages will gain a far deeper understanding of China than those who take every word at face value. Yet such a person may also find that, after adapting to this way of communication, others will struggle to understand their own words, just as we once struggled to understand the indirect speech of the Chinese.