Ancient Chinese Political Joke: Man of the People (anti-corruption)

Ahoy from Amoy (historic Xiamen, China)! 

Xi Jinping fought corruption in Shanghai over a decade before he had a platform to tackle it nationwide. It's an an age-old problem in every country in the world. And Chinese, of course, have many ancient jokes about governmental corruption--like the one below, which I could well imagine happening even today!

Man of the People (ancient Chinese political joke)

A newly appointed official tried to impress folks with his moral virtues by writing three phrases on his office walls:

1.  Don’t covet money.
2.  Don’t desire promotions.
3.  Don’t fear death.

A few days later, some wit added two characters to the bottom of each line so they became:

1.  Don't covet money…in small quantities.

2.  Don't desire promotions…unless it’s much higher than this one.

3.  Don't fear death…but I want to live as long as I can.

Enjoy Amoy! 

Dr. Bill Brown
Academic Director, XMU OneMBA

School of Management, Xiamen University
Amazon eBook "Discover Xiamen"

www.amoymagic.com