The title of this post refers to a Chinese saying – that I do not know in Chinese.  If anyone has the Chinese for it, please send it along.

     Pointing to the Mulberry to revile the Ash refers to allegorical criticism.  It was a device used in China in the early 1960’s, after the Great Leap Forward but before the Cultural Revolution, to bring forward negative points against powerful people, Mao in particular, in an indirect yet knowing manner.  Perhaps the most famous practitioner of this style was Wu Han, a Chinese writer, who penned the devastating story Hai Rui Dismissed from Office. A critique of that story in 1965 by Yao Wenyuan was one of the opening shots of the Cultural Revolution.

    I raise this here because it looks like Hu Jintao may be sponsoring a mulberry/ash move.  As I mentioned earlier this week, Shanghai party boss Chen Liangyu, as been sacked for corurption.  Now it seems that a very high-ranking central party leader, Huang Ju, who has ties to Shanghai and former party number one Jiang Zemin, is under suspicion.  His name has been blocked on Chinese internet search engines – not a good portent for a bright political future.  A Hong Kong paper is already running this image (from left to right: Chen Liangyu, Huang Ju, Jiang Zemin):

     Is Chen the Mulberry and Jiang the Ash?  Victor Shih thought not, but that was before Huang was disappeared from Chinese search engines. 

      Stay tuned…  Perhaps Jiang’s book will not be a number one best seller in China for much longer.

UPDATE:  A reader sends in the Chinese for Mulberry/Ash saying.  Thanks!