Do Not Speak Falsehoods; Do Not Speak the Whole Truth

Former Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said that before taking up a post he went to ask his teacher, Mr. Ji Xianlin, for instruction. Old Master Ji gave him a phrase: "Do not speak falsehoods; do not speak the whole truth."

Master Ji is a national-studies master I deeply admire. I have read many of his articles, yet these nine words he privately gave his student left a far deeper impression on me than his long essays.

I used to be someone who spoke freely, and I always tried my best to be objective; I believed candor is the foundation of objectivity. So for a time I did not accept Old Master Ji's nine-word maxim, feeling that speaking in a hesitant, evasive way was worse than saying nothing. Regrettably, after a few rounds of dealings with society, I unconsciously began to act according to Old Master Ji's nine-word maxim.

Not speaking falsehoods is the bottom line of being a person-but not everyone can hold that line. Some people are too rotten; at the root they have no wish to hold it, and for a little gain they will utter any lie. Others are forced to abandon it.

Not speaking the whole truth is the most helpless thing about living in this world. Who does not want to speak freely? But the ancient warning that trouble comes out of the mouth is not said for nothing; countless people have lost their lives because of it.

We have never lacked students who report their own teachers, nor scoundrels who frame their own kin; and strangers, for personal gain, have even fewer qualms about framing another.

Some people, against their conscience, specialize in framing others, and there are quite a few such among my readers. So when one speaks, one must outwit and outthink these people.

Living in this world, one must learn to leave no handle for others, and also learn, from people's fragments of speech and the merest clues, to discern what they are like and judge whether one should guard against them or cut them off. As life goes on, one involuntarily becomes the "slippery old Chinese" Mr. Lin Yutang described.

Lin Yutang used laohua (slippery) rather than laojian-juhua (treacherous and cunning) to describe this side of the Chinese, probably because he wanted to neutralize this choice individuals make out of helplessness. After all, for the infinitesimal individual, the self-protective acts we take while living in fear are truly unavoidable.

It is just that over time, when I listen to others speak, I cannot help but grow suspicious, suspecting there is a hidden meaning behind their words. And when I speak myself, I too am always guarded and double-edged, with hidden meanings. Such conversation is truly uncomfortable, so I have grown more and more silent; whenever a stranger is present, I make a point of saying nothing.

Over time, everyone is less than straightforward, and they give it the fine names: cultivated, deep, guarded. In truth it is all mouthfuls of perfunctory ceremony. The worldly and smooth can read between the lines and know that others' words cannot be trusted. The blunt or the dull-witted easily fall for it and become victims of lies. After hearing too many lies, some people become foolish.

One's writing too, as one writes on, turns into riddles. When an author's prose always forces readers to guess riddles, the author suffers like someone with hemorrhoids and constipation-pushing out is painful, and not pushing out is painful too.

As a medical person, I can cure the ailment of hemorrhoids with constipation, but I cannot cure the ailment of speaking evasively. This very article is written evasively, with hidden meanings, many of which the reader must guess for himself.

I have only a handful of friends. Occasionally, when friends gather to chat, I can speak freely and boundlessly, talking of anything. They not only understand me but never betray me. This too is one of life's greatest joys; kindred spirits are hard to find, but with a few, one is never without someone to talk to.

The ancients held that a kindred spirit is someone who understands us. In reality, a true kindred spirit, besides understanding us, must meet another condition: not betraying us. That makes kindred spirits even harder to find.