Mao's leaky, lawless umbrella
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Linkedin post by Matías Otero Johansson:
The Orientalism Problem: Edgar Snow's last interview with Mao
In an article published in Life Magazine in 1971, journalist Edgar Snow (1905-1972) ends his account of the last interview Mao Zedong would grant him thus:
"As he curteously escorted me to the door, he said he was not a complicated man, but really very simple. He was, he said, only a lone monk walking the world with a leaky umbrella. … I believe #China will seek to cooperate with all friendly states, and all friendly people within hostile states, who welcome her full participation in world affairs."
As soon as I saw the word "umbrella", I knew what this turn of phrase was about.
It is covered in John Rohsenow's magisterial dictionary of xiēhòuyǔ 歇後語, which I refer to as "truncated witticisms".
Snow interpreted Mao's self-portrayal as a monk as a charming vignette of humility. Except this is not what Mao meant at all. Snow's mandarin was reputedly never fluent, nor did he have much time to immerse himself into its rich world of cultural references.
"A monk with an umbrella“ is a 歇后语 (xiēhòuyǔ), or a coded idiom. This kind of Chinese proverb consists of two elements: the first segment presents an unusual scenario, the latter provides the rationale thereof. A speaker will state the first part, expecting a learned listener to know the followup.
和尚打伞 (héshàng dǎ sǎn)
A monk holds an umbrella
无发无天 (wú wútiān)
"No hair, no sky" (Monks are bald)
A homophone for what is secretly meant:
无法无天 (wúfǎ wútiān)
"No laws, and no heaven"
Which can be translated as "I follow neither the laws of man nor heaven", meaning one discards traditional morality, being ruthless and focused on realpolitik. Such mindsets have long annals in Chinese history, famously expressed by a mutinous warlord Cao Cao in "Records of the Three Kingdoms" (280 AD): 寧我負人，毋人負我！- "Better I betray people, than allow people to betray me!"
Of course, Mao may have known full well the reference would fly over Snow's head, a parting jab from the great instigator against his hapless guest. Perhaps there was glimmer in his eye as he held the door open for Snow. Perhaps the translator failed to convey the saying's true meaning. The culprit is ultimately Snow for projecting his own notions about China (the humble and mystical monk) unaware of his limited knowledge, something Mao (who was a prolific reader) used for his own advantage. We don't know what the Chairman thought about Snow in private, but it was probably not flattering.
Since China has now grown in international importance, there are many Edgar Snows in the world today. Discarding romantic preconceptions of exotic peoples or places, and observing today's China with skeptical and grounded realism, might spare them some ridicule at the hands of their hosts.
With attitudes such as these (described in all but the last two paragraphs of Otero Johansson's post), what is there left to admire about the man, not to mention that he was responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of his subjects during the Great Leap Forward, Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, and other movements for which he was responsible?
In matters linguistic, he pushed hard and successfully for the promotion of Mandarin, the near elimination of the topolects and non-Sinitic minority languages, carried out the simplification manqué of the sinoglyphic script, but failed to undertake his original intention to abolish the characters in favor of phonetic writing, which would have been the most monumental cultural achievement by a ruler of the EAH (East Asian Heartland), but was dissuaded from doing so by Stalin.
Selected readings
- "Pinyin in practice" (10/13/11)
- Peter Hessler, Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present (alternative subtitle: A Journey Through Time in China) (New York: HarperCollins, 2006)
- John DeFrancis, The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1984)
- William C. Hannas, Asia's Orthographic Dilemma (University of Hawaii Press, 1997).
- __________, The Writing on the Wall (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003).
[Thanks to Mark Metcalf]
Jonathan Smith said,
December 11, 2023 @ 9:37 pm
In fact the LinkedIn post seems to be trying to one-up Snow for silly "Orientalist" artistic license?
Mao's remarks were recorded at the time (12/18/1970) and are reported across the internets as going at this point "就是，他们有点迷信，还有一点恐惧，怕说错了话。我不怕说错话，我是无法无天，叫‘和尚打伞，无法无天’，没有头发，没有天"。"That is, they [certain American progressives resident in China whom Snow apparently found hesitant to speak openly to concerns regarding the cult of personality surrounding Mao] are a bit paranoid, and also a bit frightened, afraid of misspeaking. I'm not afraid of misspeaking — for me it's 'no law and no heaven'… the saying goes, 'a monk carrying an umbrella; no hair [= law] and no sky'… he doesn't have hair, there's no sky [due to the umbrella]."
So the idea that the "real" intended meaning relates to "[discarding] traditional morality, being ruthless and focused on realpolitik" is nonsense. It's just Mao kidding around, powerful-person style, explaining the phrase in question as he goes. It was apparently a five-hour conversation… with translation/explication for Snow's benefit handled by Tang Wensheng 唐闻生, meaning the lost-in-translation crap is also… crap. Snow was intentionally writing a "Chanah" article for a Western audience. Likewise Johansson. Rinse and repeat…
one Chinese account here
The Dark Avenger said,
December 11, 2023 @ 10:19 pm
My grandfather was acquainted with Edgar Snow, around the late 1930s and he didn’t hang around people who were naive about China, his birthplace and home for the first 33 years of his life.
Don Keyser said,
December 11, 2023 @ 10:39 pm
One small addition … In summer 1977, I joined US Liaison Office Beijing Chief (Ambassador) Thomas Gates for a farewell lunch/office call hosted by Li Xiannian, then one of China's top leaders who had with Ye Jianying, Wang Dongxing and Hua Guofeng orchestrated the coup that brought down the Gang of Four the month following Mao's death.
Tom Gates, little remembered in the U.S., not least because he served as USLO chief between George Bush and Leonard Woodcock, was not a China specialist but a distinguished American (WWII shipboard commander of one Gerry Ford, Secretary of Defense in the Eisenhower administration) and a thoroughly decent human being.
Nancy Tang [唐闻生] was the 4th at the lunchtime farewell call, and interpreted for Li. In the course of his remarks, Li recounted, not without pride, the downfall of the Gang of Four. He referred to them as epitomizing 和尚打伞，无法无天’，没有头发，没有天" and waited for Nancy Tang to interpret that. When she concluded, Li continued, glaring at Nancy and obliging her to interpret (which she did in a professional manner) his sarcastic comment (I paraphrase, from memory) that "Comrade Tang has wonderful English. Her Chinese is not as good. She probably doesn't fully understand classical Chinese, and thus perhaps does not grasp the historical and cultural connotations of 无法无天." Plainly, no love lost from Li's side where Nancy was concerned.
I believe that may have been the final time that Nancy Tang performed as interpreter for a Chinese leader. Tainted by her perceived excessively close relations with Jiang Qing, Nancy was deemed a willing accomplice of the Gang of Four and was sent packing … though not to jail, but to a sinecure at the Ministry of Railways. She attended the July 4 reception in 1992 at the US embassy in Beijing when I served there on my third tour. We chatted a bit about the vagaries of life though not about our last previous encounter at Li Xiannian's lunch. She is still alive, at age 80.
Victor Mair said,
December 11, 2023 @ 10:52 pm
@Don Keyser
You have my utmost gratitude for providing such vivid, first-hand evidence that I'm sure will be of inestimable value to historians of this critical period. You were right there, up close.
Jerry Packard said,
December 12, 2023 @ 8:54 am
I second the praise of John’s masterful dictionary of xiēhòuyǔ 歇後語 (A Chinese-English Dictionary of Enigmatic Folk Similes). I also second Jonathan’s interpretation of Mao – it seems very innocuous to me.
David Deterding said,
December 12, 2023 @ 6:29 pm
I believe there may be an error in the transcription.
You transcribe 无发无天 as (wúfā wútiān).
I believe that if 发 is 'hair' (i.e. 髮), it should be third tone, not first.
If you show it with first tone, the joke is lost.
[VHM: Good catch. Fixed now.]
Robin said,
December 12, 2023 @ 6:55 pm
Do we have similar things in English? I can think of half-sayings (e.g. "it never rains [but it pours]", but it feels to me there is a difference perhaps.
Jerry Packard said,
December 13, 2023 @ 6:43 am
When it rains…
Is similar, but not the same. For it to be the same, ‘it pours’ would have to be a punning homophone.
BTW, 发 for 'hair' should be 4th tone not 3rd or 1st. The difference is PRC vs. Taiwan. So, if it were 髮 it would be 3rd tone.
[VHM: Simplified 发 = traditional 發 and 髮 (see here). David Deterding is right: it has to be third tone for the pun to work.]
Victor Mair said,
December 13, 2023 @ 8:23 am
From Bernard Cadogan:
It is the mark of deep genuine civilisation that educated people resort to classical languages and references that give challengingly refractive depth. They are also efficient quantum keys for diplomatic and Intelligence conversations. Latin, Greek, Hebrew, forms of Arabic and Farsi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Kavi, classical Chinese, the court language of Heian Japan, and even my Maori friends, for oral civilisations can stow in an alternate language as well.
There was no such Mao as a Mao just fooling around. The Augustus who cultivated roses and affected a plain man's tastes thought nothing of putting live executions in stage plays to please the crowd, much to the embarrassment of the real "live" actors. The perversion of high culture is the touchstone for any baleful civilisation. There was nothing unintended about Mao's conversation.
Here is another way of thinking about it. Tyrants want to fascinate and be admired, though they are rarely "admirable". If they ever had manhood, or virtù, they leave it behind.
I have been reflecting on Cicero's comments on Catilina. A decent stable ethical man responding to a tyrant personality whom he resists yet nonetheless admits fascination for from their youth together.
Some people are seduced. Some want to be seduced. Some think they are not seduced but have been admitted as peers. A rare few like Cicero reinforce antipathy by admitting analysing the attraction. A really scant few know what they are rejecting, feel no fascinating and just get stuck in like St Michael.
And as for Cicero and Catilina, Romans did not have our gender dispositions. Cicero as a midlife Consul proscribing Catilina, is admitting, that in the homosocial context of serving together with him under Sulla as a military tribune, at 20 odd, he found Catilina fascinating. He is also saying that as a married mature man and as a virtuous Roman, he had broken free of that "pull", and had long found Catilina monstrous and abhorrent.
stephen said,
December 13, 2023 @ 12:02 pm
I can guess, but I feel like asking, why did Stalin discourage Mao from changing the writing system? To make it less accessible to outsiders?
What's "Chanah"?
A really scant few know what they are rejecting, feel no fascinating and just get stuck in like St Michael.
Um, is that the archangel Michael? What's the basis for saying he is stuck? Why specify that particular angel?
Victor Mair said,
December 13, 2023 @ 2:22 pm
Chanah = Hannah = Grace(ful)
katarina said,
December 13, 2023 @ 6:39 pm
I thought "Chanah" meant China.
Rodger Cunningham said,
December 14, 2023 @ 12:52 pm
Yeah, as in "Oh, looky, a article bout Chanah!"
Rube said,
December 14, 2023 @ 1:43 pm
@ Rodger Cunningham Yeah, and written by "an old Chanah Hand", explaining the inscrutable ways of the East.
Victor Mair said,
December 15, 2023 @ 7:12 am
Judging from the volume and the views concerning Edgar Snow of online and offline communications I've been receiving, he was quite the polarizing figure. We've seen some comments from those who believe that he had command of his material and knew what he was doing, but also from others who think that he was in over his head. Here are some observations from a distinguished political scientist who was taken aback by the biliousness of some of the remarks against Otero Johansson and decided to submit them anonymously to avoid getting drawn into a hostile environment:
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Dark Avenger could be correct about Snow not being naïve about China, but Snow still could've written this now naïve-seeming comment b/c he knew what his audience wanted to hear. I don't believe that. The one time I met Snow, at Universities Service Centre in Hong Kong, 1968-69, he seemed almost childishly naïve, was arguing for the need to recognize Beijing, dump Taiwan. In the midst of the Cultural Revolution, for heaven's sake.
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Even Snow's supporters don't mind saying that he was quite capable of writing Chanah fluff pieces, including the one under discussion here.