Chinese sayings: 23 (理直氣壯 / 理直气壮)

 

理直氣壯

lǐ zhí qì zhuàng

“reason/logic straight qì strong”

This saying is from 警世明言 jǐng shì míng yán (c.1621) by 馮夢龍 Féng Mènglóng.

    The two problematic words for translating into English are 理 lǐ and 氣 qì.

    理 lǐ is usually defined as “reason/logic”.  “Reason” not in terms of “why” for explaining an action / a situation, but more like reasoning (behind a situation / particular behaviour), therefore logic is perhaps closer in that sense.

    氣 qì has become more commonplace in English in the last few decades (from 氣功 qìgōng, reiki healing), but is still difficult to convey adequately.  It’s usually defined as “energy”, but in the Chinese perspective, it is much more subtle than that.  It’s more like “vital energy”, which governs not only one’s physical strength, but also means “spirit” (as in demeanour, manner, air, bearing).  It is this sense that’s being expressed in this saying.

    理直氣壯 means that when one’s action is backed by logical reasoning (i.e., justified morally/ethically), then one’s demeanour is strong (firm and confident because one is right / morally justified, unflinching, unafraid).  It carries the spirit of “my conscience is clear”.

    Some people use this to do a bluff / double bluff.  

    An example: if someone shouts at someone else in public, people around would almost immediately / automatically assume that the person doing the shouting is the one in the right and that the person being shouted at has done something wrong.  (For this situation, I’m discounting people with mental problems shouting at random.)  

    I’d witnessed a very assertive young woman who’d just boarded the bus shouting at a man behind her, “Don’t touch me!”  Whether or not he had indeed touched her, I don’t know as I hadn’t seen it, but the man’s surprised look would indicate that he hadn’t (it was a packed bus, so there was bound to be some unintentional physical contact).  Or the man was very good at looking like he was the wronged party.  But her shouting at him would probably immediately make people think he had, otherwise why would she do it?  “理直氣壯, that’s why”: she had right on her side (even though it could be bluff / double bluff).