Generous girths aside, Winston Churchill and Chinese President Xi Jinping would seem to have little in common. One was popularly elected, while the other gained power by means of a shadowy process few understand. One was a giant who made his name leading his country through war, while the other's legacy is still very much in the making.

除了健壮的体魄之外，中国国家主席习近平似乎和温斯顿•丘吉尔(Winston Churchill)没什么共同之处。丘吉尔通过民选上台，习近平通过少数人才能了解的幕后流程当选主席。丘吉尔由于领导英国赢得战争获得了伟人称号，而习近平铸就自己的历史还要花上一段时间。

But the two do share one characteristic besides their robust builds: a fondness for literary allusions.

但除了身板之外，这两人确实有一个共同点：都喜欢引用文学辞藻。

In the same way Churchill littered his legendary speeches with references to the Bible and nods to Shakespeare, Mr. Xi has displayed a tendency to lard his writings and public statements with quotations from classical Chinese literature.

丘吉尔曾在他传奇性的演说中引用《 经》(Bible)和莎士比亚(Shakespeare)著作。与之类似，习近平也显示出一种用中国古典文学为文章和公开演讲润色的倾向。

On Thursday, the overseas edition of the People's Daily devoted itself to cataloging the Chinese leader's literary references, running a full-page spread dedicated to explaining 13 allusions spanning the later part of Mr. Xi's career. The aim, it said, was to explain the Chinese leader's thoughts on 'the question of cultivating morality among leading cadres.'

《人民日报》海外版周四用一整版的篇幅列举了习近平在职业生涯靠后时期引用的13个古典名句。该报说，这是为了解释习近平屡次提到的领导干部修身问题。

Some analysts have interpreted Mr. Xi's embrace of the classics as a move akin to Churchill's borrowing from 'Henry V' in his World War II speeches: an effort to use pride in a venerable cultural tradition to rally the nation at a time of crisis.

一些分析人士认为，习近平对古典名句的旁征博引与丘吉尔在二战演说中引用《亨利五世》(Henry V)中的句子类似，都是在借助珍贵文化传统中的荣誉感使国家在危机时刻凝聚在一起。

China is not facing war, but Mr. Xi and other Chinese leaders have portrayed the Communist Party as facing a raft of daunting challenges: endemic corruption, hostility abroad and an exceedingly tricky economic transition opposed by entrenched special interests. Having long ago traded in Marxism for the market, analysts say, the party is now trying to shore up its legitimacy by associating itself with a Confucian tradition it once lambasted as feudal and backwards.

中国并未处在战争边缘，不过习近平和其他中国领导人一直说，共产党正面临着一系列艰巨的挑战：大规模腐败、海外敌对势力以及越来越棘手（且受到特殊利益集团阻挠）的经济转型。分析人士说，中共很久以前就放弃了马克思主义，搞起了市场经济，现在将自己与儒家传统联系在一起，意在提升其合法性。过去，中共曾对儒家传统大加抨击，说它封建、落后。

Some of Mr. Xi's references cited by the People's Daily have more obvious resonances with today's politics than others.

相比其他的话，《人民日报》报道中所提到习近平引用过的话与当前的政治形势更加契合。

One quote Mr. Xi used from the Confucian 'Book of Rites' in a 2007 essay speaks directly to his current efforts to clean up the behavior of China's wayward bureaucrats: 'Nothing is more visible than what is hidden, and nothing is more obvious than what is minute. Therefore a gentleman is careful of himself even when alone.'

习近平在2007年的一篇文章中引用过一句《礼记》的话，这句话与他现在约束中国肆意妄为的官僚的努力相映成趣：莫见乎隐，莫显乎微，故君子慎其独也。

In other instances, however, Mr. Xi's allusions are less pointed, instead evoking an inchoate political anxiety. Such was the case during a 2013 visit to the Central Party School, when he quoted a line from the 'Book of Songs,' another Confucian classic: 'In fear and trembling, as if walking on thin ice, as if approaching a deep abyss.'

不过，在别的场合下，习近平的一些引语就不那么有针对性了，相反地，会引发一种模糊的政治焦虑。2013年就发生过这样一件事，当时习近平在视察中央党校时引用了《诗经》中的一句话：战战兢兢，如临深渊，如履薄冰。

Mr. Xi is by no means the first Chinese leader to weave classical literature into his essays and speeches. Nor is he the first to attempt to leaven the Communist Party's rhetoric with a sprinkling of Confucianism. Mr. Xi's predecessor Hu Jintao similarly borrowed from Confucius when he introduced the notion of a 'harmonious society' more than a decade ago, notes Sam Crane, a professor of Asian Studies at Williams College. But Mr. Xi, Mr. Crane says, 'is being more explicit and direct in his classicism.'

当然，习近平不是第一个喜欢在文章和讲话中引经据典的人，也不是第一个试图用儒家思想来装点中共话语的人。威廉斯学院(Williams College)亚洲研究系(Asian Studies)的教授克兰(Sam Crane)指出，习近平的前任胡锦涛在10多年前提出“和谐社会”这一理念是也借用了孔子的话。不过克兰说，习近平在引经据典时更明确、更直截了当。

The People's Daily spread, he adds, is 'a rather obvious attempt to bolster [Xi's] image as a proper gentleman in old Confucian terms: well read, morally upright and finding moral inspiration in the classic texts.'

他说，《人民日报》的整版文章很显然是想用儒家语言树立习近平的君子形象：学富五车、品德端正、从古代经典中寻找道德启示。

In a country where even mundane conversations are often shot through with pithy aphorisms taken from classical literature, it makes sense for Mr. Xi show off his sophistication. Yet there could be some danger in reviving the classical texts, which are often vague, shot through with allegory and open to a wide range of interpretations.

中国人在日常对话中也常常引经据典，所以习近平在讲话中炫耀一下自己的文学修养也不足为奇。但这样可能会出现古文复兴，而中国古文常常语义含糊，掺杂大量寓言，还会出现多种不同的解释。

Take, for example, this famous quote from Confucius' Analects that appears in an essay by Mr. Xi on poverty alleviation: 'It's easier to rob an army of its general than it is to rob a common man of his purpose and will.'

比如，习近平在一篇关于扶贫的文章中引用了《论语》中的一句名言“三军可夺帅也，匹夫不可夺志也。”

According the People's Daily, Mr. Xi intention in evoking the passage was to encourage officials to cultivate the willpower necessary to 'push ahead in the face of innumerable challenges.' But Mr. Crane notes that it might be read differently, particularly in light of the upcoming 25th anniversary of the crackdown on student protesters in Tiananmen Square.

《人民日报》的文章称，习近平引用这句话是为了鼓励领导干部树立志气，排除万难，勇往直前。但克兰指出，这句话还可以有不同的解读，特别是在天安门镇压学生抗议事件25周年即将到来之际。

'We should not assume that the state is the articulator of those purposes and will,' he says. 'And, indeed, 25 years ago there was a rather massive divergence in the expression of popular purposes and state power.'

他说，大家不应该假定国家就是这些目标和志向的标准落脚点，实际上，25年前的普遍目标和国家权力就有着各种各样不同的说法。