"We may be modest as small county officials, but we are concerned for every leaf on every branch." President Xi Jinping has on several occasions quoted this poem to encourage officials to devote themselves to serving the people.

 

"In my magistrate's residence I lie listening to bamboo rustling. It sounds like the people moaning in distress. We may be modest as small county officials, but we are concerned for every leaf on every branch," the poem reads.

 

Zheng Banqiao, a renowned artist and poet, penned the poem around 270 years ago while serving as the magistrate of Weixian County in modern-day Shandong Province in east China. During his seven-year tenure in the county, Zheng dedicated himself to helping local residents survive natural disasters such as floods and locust plagues.

 

By comparing every common person to every leaf on each branch, Zheng expressed in his short poem a widely held belief and long tradition among Chinese literati that government officials should genuinely care about the people.

 

Members of the Communist Party of China have continued to carry on this tradition, as their original aspiration and founding mission are to seek happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation.

 

During a meeting with more than 200 county Party chiefs held in 2015 in Beijing, Xi recited Zheng's poem and said "even in sleep he was thinking of how ordinary people lived. What kind of close connections he had with the people!"

 

Xi, who was himself once a Party chief of a county in north China, asked these officials to draw inspiration from ancient role models and prioritize the welfare of the people.