---
title: "Does Telling the Truth Require Courage?"
description: "People often feel pleased when hearing flattery but angry when hearing the truth. This article explores the psychology behind this, citing historical and modern examples, and argues that while telling the truth is difficult, it should be a basic moral standard in a progressive society."
author: "张勇"
publisher: "New Distribution"
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published: "2017-05-06"
language: "en"
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---

# Does Telling the Truth Require Courage?

> People often feel pleased when hearing flattery but angry when hearing the truth. This article explores the psychology behind this, citing historical and modern examples, and argues that while telling the truth is difficult, it should be a basic moral standard in a progressive society.

Why do people feel delighted when hearing lies but fly into a rage when hearing the truth?
From a psychological perspective, people prefer pleasant words, feeling joyful upon hearing them, and irritated otherwise. Therefore, negative information about oneself is often the last thing one hears.
Mr. Ji Xianlin once said: "I never tell lies, but I don't tell the whole truth either." He was upright and never uttered a single lie, but "truth" also depends on the audience, environment, and timing—because the truth is hard to hear, and many people are unwilling to listen, don't want to hear it, and can't take it in.
In the Qing Dynasty, there was a book called "Nanyang Old Tales" (《南吴旧话录》), which tells of Feng Shike, a Jinshi during the Longqing period, who took a concubine. He kept a parrot, and the maids, trying to flatter, taught the parrot to call the concubine "Madam." The concubine was overjoyed and ordered the servants to care for the parrot meticulously. However, Feng Shike was uneasy, as according to the laws of the time, confusing the ranks of wife and concubine could lead to imprisonment. Feng then trained the parrot to change its address to "Auntie" or similar. The concubine harbored resentment, and on a snowy winter day, she hung the parrot in the courtyard and watched it freeze to death, only then feeling avenged. "Madam" was an untrue statement, while "Auntie" was an accurate reflection. Yet the concubine was delighted by the lie and enraged by the truth. Feng Shike lamented: "'Straight as a bowstring, dies by the roadside.' People are like this, and birds cannot escape it either."
Some people only listen to lies, while others want to hear the truth.
During the Spring and Autumn period, King Wei of Qi, in order to hear the truth, issued an order: "Ministers, officials, and commoners who can criticize my faults to my face will receive the highest reward; those who write to remonstrate with me will receive a middle reward; and those who criticize me in the marketplace and court, and whose words reach my ears, will receive a lower reward." As a result, the state of Qi was well governed. During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Zhi, son of Cao Cao, believed: "In street talk and alley gossip, there must be something worth adopting; the songs of cart drivers may echo the elegance of the Book of Songs; the thoughts of common men should not be lightly dismissed."
But those who want to hear the truth may not always get their wish, because telling the truth is not easy and is also an art.
According to Feng Youlan's later recollections, during the War of Resistance against Japan, he was at Southwest Associated University and went to Chongqing once or twice a year, each time receiving an invitation to Chiang Kai-shek's family banquet. The banquet had about twenty guests, all with notable titles, from various cities. Chiang would ask: "How are things in your area?" If the answer was that there were some problems, he would continue to press for details.
Feng Youlan said: "After several such occasions, I discovered a pattern: those skilled in officialdom, when Chiang asked about the situation in their jurisdiction, always said it was very good. This was the simplest, easiest, and safest answer. A single 'good' would pass. If one answered that there were problems, or even went on to explain what problems, analyze them, or ask for instructions, that would be troublesome. Not only would it fail to solve the problem, but one might also be reprimanded... Officials at all levels had to use a trick of bureaucracy, namely 'deceiving superiors but not subordinates.' By deceiving back and forth, only the one with the highest power was kept in the dark. By the time that person realized he was being deceived, things had already deteriorated to the point of no return."
When Premier Li Keqiang inspected the disaster area in Longtoushan Town, Ludian County, Yunnan, he met County Magistrate Zhang Yan, who had been working at the disaster site for 20 hours without sleep. The Premier asked her: "What difficulties are there in the relief work?" Zhang Yan reported truthfully: "There is a shortage of supplies, water, and food; food and drinking water are insufficient for distribution. Because roads are blocked, tents cannot be transported in, and many affected people still have no tents." At the subsequent coordination meeting for disaster relief, Premier Li Keqiang praised Zhang Yan three times, encouraging her spirit of daring to tell the truth. Why praise Zhang Yan three times? I think he might have also heard false reports.
Confucius said in the Analects, Xue'er: "Clever words and a pleasing appearance rarely accompany virtue!" A person who is full of lies cannot speak of benevolence, righteousness, or morality. Some people who seize power by telling lies, having tasted the "sweetness," may find it hard to stop. They will also implement "bad money drives out good" against those who tell the truth and do practical things, causing more people to fall into the predicament of not daring to tell the truth.
How can we make truth-tellers "free from fear"? Speak without reservation, say all you know, and let the speaker be blameless while the listener takes heed?
"When listening to words, one must demand their use; when observing actions, one must seek their results." In a progressive society, telling the truth should not require courage, but merely be a basic moral bottom line for people. However, how difficult is it to truly achieve this? This is worth deep reflection.
**Excerpted from "Zugong Wencui" (组工文萃), Issue 3, 2017**
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