Xi's peculiar vocabulary

From another tweet / X-effusion by the Master Muckraker, Fang Zhouzi / Fang Shimin:

“管总”这词是古代白话文，现在基本不用，原意是指某个人或某个部门管各种事务，“一个问题”怎么“管总”？哪个秘书想出来的新用法？ pic.twitter.com/jPdr3KzP6a

— 方舟子 (@fangshimin) November 19, 2023

"Guǎnzǒng” zhè cí shì gǔdài báihuàwén, xiànzài jīběn bùyòng, yuányì shì zhǐ mǒu gèrén huò mǒu gè bùmén guǎn gè zhǒng shìwù,“yīgè wèntí” zěnme “guǎn zǒng”? Nǎge mìshū xiǎng chūlái de xīn yòngfǎ"

“管总”这词是古代白话文，现在基本不用，原意是指某个人或某个部门管各种事务，“一个问题”怎么“管总”？哪个秘书想出来的新用法？

The word "manage multiple affairs" is an early vernacular expression and is rarely used nowadays. The original meaning is that a person or a department is in charge of various affairs. How can "a question" "be in charge of various affairs"? Which secretary came up with the new usage?

This questionable term occurred in the context of Xi's discussion concerning how to enable Chinese-America relations to make it safely through perilous times:

"Shǒuxiān yào huídá de shì, Zhōng-Měi dàodǐ shì duìshǒu, háishì huǒbàn. Zhè shì yīgè gēnběn de, yěshì guǎnzǒng de wèntí."

"首先要回答的是，中美到底是对手，还是伙伴。这是一个根本的，也是管总的问题。"

"The first thing that must be answered is whether China and America are rivals or partners.  This is a fundamental, manage various affairs [sic] question."

See Jìndài Hànyǔ cídiǎn 近代漢語詞典 (Dictionary of Middle Vernacular Sinitic), 4 vols. (Shanghai: Shanghai jiaoyu chubanshe, 2015), vol. 1, p. 700a.

My guess is that "guǎnzǒng 管总” in Xi's speech arose as a garbled or distorted version of some such expression as zuì guān zhòngyào 最關重要 ("most important").  I doubt that Xi or his speechwriter(s) were learned enough to know an early Middle Vernacular Sinitic (MVS) term.  In any event, no matter where they dug it up, they misused it in this Modern Standard Mandarin (MSM) sentence.

Selected readings

• "Reconstruction of Middle Sinitic" (8/23/20)
• "Mixed literary and vernacular grammar" (9/3/16)
• "Xi Jinping's faux classicism" (7/2/23)
• "Comrades, 'hike up your skirts for a hard shag'" (7/23/17)
• "The linguistics of a political slogan" (8/17/17)
• "'Hurt(s) the feelings of the Chinese people'" (9/12/11)
• "Mixed literary and vernacular grammar" (9/3/16)
• "Annals of literary vs. vernacular, part 2" (9/4/16)
• "Latin Caesar –> Tibetan Gesar –> Xi Jinpingian Sager" (3/20/18)
• "Pinyin for the Prez" (10/25/18)
• "Peking University president misreads an unobscure character: monumental implications" (5/5/18)
• "Xi Jinping's reading errors multiply" (12/28/18)
• "More literary troubles for Xi Jinping" (1/3/19)
• "More misreadings by Xi Jinping" (5/2/19)
• "The face of censorship" (1/11/19)
• "Latin Caesar –> Tibetan Gesar –> Xi Jinpingian Sager" (3/20/18)
• "The political dangers of mispronunciation" (4/5/17)
• "Yet another literary misreading by Xi Jinping" (7/5/21)
• "Xi Jinping thought: watch for the possessive suffix" (9/2/17)

[h.t. rit majors]