Distinguishing Types of Character

AnonymousBashu Publishing House · ChinaJul 2024

4.2

Word count: 944 words
Chapters: 2

Summary

The virtue of the mean has a quality that defies naming. Thus it is salty yet not bitter, bland yet not thin, plain yet not coarse, adorned yet not ornate. It can overawe and can win hearts, can argue and can stay silent, changing without fixed rule, taking attainment as its measure.

Editor's review

"Ti Bie" is a short essay on "the virtue of the mean," written in spare classical prose in which nearly every sentence weighs a fine distinction: salty yet not bitter, bland yet not thin, plain yet not crude, adorned yet not ornate. It describes the ideal character as one able to overawe and to win hearts, to argue and to stay silent, changing without fixed rule yet taking "attainment" as its measure. What it stresses is not the conciliatory good-fellow posture of compromise but the judgment that suits each circumstance and hits exactly the right measure. The value of such writing lies in the vocabulary it offers for observing human feeling and the scale of conduct: short to read, slow to digest. It suits close sentence-by-sentence reading in moments that call for quiet, and also reading alongside related texts of the pre-Qin and Han periods, to sense how the ancients used terse paired clauses to express a complex sense of measure. Because the piece is brief and its background limited, readers should not rush to turn it into modern management maxims; they should first clarify what each opposing term in the sentences refers to, and only then discuss its contemporary meaning.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in short works of ancient philosophical thought and character cultivation
Lovers of traditional culture who enjoy savoring classical Chinese sentence by sentence and keeping notes
Language teachers who need short classical Chinese materials for classroom close reading
Readers seeking a classical reference on the measure of conduct and self-cultivation

Not a good fit for

Readers hoping for a complete story or ample background introduction
Beginners without a foundation in classical Chinese who need word-by-word annotation
Readers expecting direct modern management methods or success-formula conclusions

Reading tips

First clarify word by word sentences such as "salty yet not bitter" and "bland yet not thin," then grasp the measure of the virtue of the mean as a whole.
List the paired qualities in the text in a comparison table, to sense how the ancients used paired clauses to express complexity.
After reading, give one or two everyday examples of conduct in your own words, to test whether you truly understand "taking attainment as its measure."

About the publisher

Bashu Publishing House China · Founded in 1983

Bashu Publishing House is a publisher centered on collating and publishing classical Chinese cultural texts, with its main publishing areas covering classical literature, Eastern philosophy, ancient poetry, and educational classics. Its library currently holds 1,075 titles, including representative works such as Dream of the Red Chamber, the Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Gathering, Renjian Cihua, and Out to the Frontier, involving authors such as Cao Xueqin, Wang Xizhi, Wang Guowei, Wang Changling, Liu Xie, and Yan Yu. These reflect the publisher's focus on literary classics, poetry criticism, and philosophical readings. Its publishing character lies in working around ancient texts and canonical works, with attention to textual collation and presentation. Public information on its more detailed publishing background and series plans is limited; this introduction is based only on the library's book information.

版权信息
体别第二

FAQ

Does "the virtue of the mean" teach people to be good-fellow compromisers?

No. The text stresses being able to overawe and to win hearts, to argue and to stay silent, showing that the mean is the ability to suit each circumstance and grasp the proper measure, not unprincipled compromise and retreat. One should understand it in light of the specific opposing terms, seeing how it seeks "attainment" amid change.

Is this short essay suitable for beginners?

Though brief, its diction is archaic and its sentences highly compressed; without a foundation in classical Chinese one easily reads only the literal sense. A reliable annotated edition is recommended: clarify the words first, then discuss understanding, rather than skipping glosses to apply modern concepts directly.

What can one gain from reading this short essay?

Mainly a vocabulary for distinguishing fine measures and a restrained way of expression. It offers no concrete methods but suggests how to vary between overawing and winning hearts, between arguing and staying silent, according to the matter; it is suited to reflecting on whether one's judgments of people and affairs are skewed.

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About the author

Anonymous Author

Anonymous is not a real personal name but a general Chinese designation for authors whose names are unknown, lost, or unsigned. Neither nationality nor dates of birth and death can be verified, and available public information is limited, so the works attributed to this name are the only basis for description. The collection holds 2,078 works under Anonymous, spanning medicine, classics, historical readings, ancient poetry, classical literature, and philosophy. Representative works include The Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon: Lingshu, Mencius, The Book of Documents, Nineteen Old Poems, Complete Song Ci, and The Peacock Flies Southeast. Most of these works took shape through long transmission and editing, emerging either from collective folk creation or from authors whose names were lost over time. In ancient China, the Book of Songs, the Great Learning, and many popular storybooks and plays were signed Anonymous because their authors could not be traced. Anonymous works cross the classics, histories, philosophical writings, medical texts, and poetry; their subjects are broad, and their styles vary from archaic simplicity to clear naturalness, making them important and influential sources for understanding ancient Chinese thought, medicine, and literature.