Chapter 18 2. Definition of unspoken rules

After the publication of "Unspoken Rules: Real Games in Chinese History", several friends asked me about the definition of unspoken rules, and I kept saying that there were in the book.There are indeed two passages with a similar definition in the book, although it's a bit confusing.Of course, it’s not necessarily bad to be fooled. “Unspoken rules” are originally a reminder of a social phenomenon that everyone is familiar with. This word can awaken all kinds of personal knowledge and inspire people who are interested in continuing to explore. Giving a definition is rigid. risk.The definition is just a stepping stone, and the real ecology in the social jungle on the other side is the real object of concern.

However, having figured this out, it doesn't hurt to give a definition.Here are the stepping stones I thought of: I want to emphasize one more thing.In the process of generating unspoken rules, the parties involved are actually not two parties, but three parties: both parties to the transaction plus higher-level formal system representatives.When the two parties conduct private transactions, they are indeed two subjects, but when they conceal such transactions, they become an alliance against the formal system.Concealment itself is a strategy, and the existence of this strategy reflects the existence of higher-level formal institutional representatives.