VOLUME I, CHAPTER 4, SECTION 1

VOLUME I, CHAPTER 4, SECTION 1

A position is only a division of labor. No right or wrong, no good or evil, no high or low, no noble or base, no first or last, no above or below.

The first three chapters are down. Chapter 1's alarm, the AI Stampede puts everyone before the position vacuum, capital hands out the knife and runs it through every job, even human reproduction caves in, the world freezes. Chapter 2's history, the first three industrial revolutions ran one script, close to a hundred forty million of the poor down, the mechanism itself turning again and again. Chapter 3's turn, capital is not evil, it is an instinct doing its job, everyone is a capitalist, rein in capital without destroying it, channel it, do not wall it. Those three chapters lay out the position vacuum of the AI Stampede age, plus the pattern of history, plus the instinct of capital. But one root position is not yet set down. What is the seed posture of the new thinking? Every pattern of position across all six volumes of Justice Way grows out of one seed posture. Set that seed down, and the whole study of position has a root. The seed is this. A position is only a division of labor. No right or wrong, no good or evil, no high or low, no noble or base, no first or last, no above or below.

One. First, what is a position? A position is where a thing sits in the whole. The sun in the sky, the sun's position. The moon in the sky, the moon's position. The sea in the low ground of the Earth, the sea's position. The mountain in the high ground, the mountain's position. Every thing has its own position. People too. Every living person has a position. The engineer has the engineer's position. The doctor the doctor's. The farmer the farmer's. The scavenger the scavenger's. The child the child's. The elder the elder's. The capitalist the capitalist's. The wage worker the wage worker's. Every position is different, and every position carries its own charge. Set the first thing down. A position is only a division of labor. What is a division of labor? The engineer's position is to design and build, the labor is invention. The doctor's position is to heal, the labor is to carry life on. The farmer's position is to grow, the labor is to supply the grain. The scavenger's position is to recycle, the labor is to put material back into use. The child's position is to grow and learn, the labor is to carry the future. The elder's position is to hand down, the labor is to carry the past. Every position does a different thing, carries a different function. That is the division of labor. And a division of labor does not sort into right and wrong. Is the engineer's designing wrong? The doctor's healing? The farmer's planting? The scavenger's recycling? Every division of labor is the way of things, a position a turning society requires.

Two. Set down the second. A position has no right or wrong. Modern Western study of position is used to sorting positions into right and wrong. Capitalist equals wrong, exploiting the worker. Worker equals right, being exploited. Progress equals right, driving history. Conservative equals wrong, blocking history. Revolution equals right, overturning the old order. Counter-revolution equals wrong, guarding the old order. Walk that law down, and hundreds of millions in the twentieth century died on the verdict of right and wrong. The ones judged wrong, the landlord, the rich farmer, the capitalist, the intellectual, the capital-roader, were overthrown and wiped out batch by batch. But by the real pattern of position, a position has no right or wrong. Every position is one a turning society requires. The capitalist has the capitalist's position, investing and turning. The worker has the worker's, laboring and producing. Both positions are needed. Overthrow one and the other cannot turn either, a factory without capital cannot open, capital without workers earns nothing. Progress has its position, driving change. The conservative has its position, guarding what holds. Both are needed. A society all progress with no tradition loses its root. A society all conservation with no change goes stiff and dies. Revolution has its position, clearing the old rot. Stability has its position, letting the people rest and recover. Both are needed. A society all revolution never stops shaking. A society all stability never clears its rot. Every position carries its own charge, and no position sorts into right or wrong. The ancestors said it. This is also that, and that is also this. That has one right and wrong, this has one right and wrong. Zhuangzi set it down more than two thousand years ago. Right and wrong are seen from a position. Stand here and that looks wrong, stand there and this looks wrong. Right and wrong are not absolute, they are decided by position. How far apart are good and evil, the ancestors asked. Laozi's meaning is that good and evil are not fixed by heaven. From one position a thing looks good, from another it may look evil. Absolute good and evil do not exist. One yin and one yang, that is the way. Yin and yang do not sort into right and wrong, they are the two positions that make the whole. No yin, no yang. No yang, no yin. The two positions stacked make the way. This is the truth of the whole. The pattern of position Chinese civilization set down across thousands of years. A position is only a division of labor, it does not sort into right and wrong. The modern West, its craft not whole, moralized the pattern of position into right and wrong. Marx set down capital's exploiting equals wrong and wrote the wrong prescription. The neoliberal set down the market is all-powerful equals right and wrote the wrong prescription. Both prescriptions moralized position into right and wrong, and neither went through. Credit to the ancestors. I am only setting it out again in plain words.

Three. Set down the third. A position has no good or evil. Good and evil is a deeper layer of the moral verdict than right and wrong, and heavier. By the modern Western habit, the hero equals good, the villain equals evil. The force of progress equals good, the force of reaction equals evil. We equal good, they equal evil. Walk that law down, and nearly every large slaughter in human history flew the banner of wiping out evil. The Crusades wiped out the evil of the infidel. The wars of religion wiped out the evil of the heretic. Colonialism wiped out the evil of the savage. The Cold War wiped out the evil of communism, or the evil of capital. The war on terror wiped out the evil of terrorism. The side judged evil is forever, in the other side's eyes, good. The infidel in the Crusader's eyes is the defender of the faith in his own. The savage in the colonizer's eyes is the hero in the colonized's. Good and evil are decided by position, not absolute. By the real pattern of position, a position has no good or evil. Every position does its work by its own instinct. The lion running down the antelope is not evil, the antelope fleeing is not good, both go by instinct. To moralize a position into good and evil is out of position. The ancestors said it. Disaster is what fortune leans on, fortune is where disaster hides. Fortune and disaster do not sort into good and evil, they are two positions turning into each other. Know yourself and know the other, and a hundred battles hold no danger. To know the other is not to wipe the other out, it is to see the other's position clearly. To win people by virtue, the ancestors said, is to have them glad in the heart and truly won. To wipe out the other's position is not to win people. To let the other see the position clearly is to win people.

Four. Set down the fourth. A position has no high or low. By the modern Western habit, the CEO ranks above the staff. The doctor above the cleaner. The professor above the farmer. The rich above the poor. The city person above the country person. Walk that law down, and people are sorted into ranks. The high have privilege, the low are pressed down. But by the real pattern of position, a position has no high or low. The CEO's position is to decide, the staff's to carry out, both are needed. The doctor's position is to heal, the cleaner's to clean, both are needed. The professor's position is to research, the farmer's to grow, both are needed. A hospital with no cleaner cannot run. A city with no farmer cannot run. A company with no staff cannot run. To sort positions into high and low is out of position. The ancestors said it. The virtue of the gentleman is the wind, the virtue of the common person is the grass. This looks like a sorting into high and low, but it is really about the division of labor. The gentleman's position is to lead the direction, the wind. The common person's position is to carry the direction, the grass. Both are needed. The people are the most precious, the state next, the ruler lightest. Mengzi turned the so-called high and low upside down. The highest is not the ruler, it is the people. This is the root position of Chinese civilization. So-called high and low is not fixed. It is set by whether you carry the whole. Chinese civilization never set down people have high and low. What it set down is positions have a division of labor.

Five. Set down the fifth. A position has no noble or base. The modern West is used to binding noble and base to the trade. The banker noble, the worker base. The artist noble, the craftsman base. Mind-work noble, body-work base. The manager noble, the managed base. Walk that law down, and the whole society's giving of respect runs deeply unfair. The one collecting cans is looked down on, but the work he does is work the whole cycle of society requires. The cleaner is looked down on, but without them the whole city cannot run. The farmer is looked down on, but without them the whole city has no food. By the real pattern of position, a position has no noble or base. The ancestors said it. The gentleman makes his own self weighty, and only then can reach others. To make the self weighty is not from a high station, it is from carrying your own position. Every position, carried, is weighty. The people are the root of the realm, and when the root is firm the realm is at peace. The people are the root. The root position has no noble or base. The noble takes the base as its root, the high takes the low as its base. The noble is built on the base. Without the base to carry it, the noble cannot stand. This law turns the tie of noble and base clean over.

Six. Set down the sixth. A position has no first or last. The modern West is used to sorting positions into first and last. The developed nation first, the developing nation last. The modern first, the traditional last. Tech first, farming last. The young first, the old last. Walk that law down, and the position judged last is taken to be the one to be phased out, caught up to, wiped out. But by the real pattern of position, a position has no first or last. Chinese civilization set down that the last is also a position that is required. Farming is traditional, but without farming the whole city has no food. Old age is the late years, but without the handing down of the elders' wisdom, a society loses its experience. The developing nation is behind, but it carries the labor-heavy industry the developed nation no longer does, so the developed nation's people can buy cheap goods. First and last are not better and worse, they are a division of labor. The ancestors said it. Front and back follow each other. Front and back are relative, two positions that need each other, not better and worse. Know what comes first and last, and you are near the way. First and last are the order of the motion, not the better and worse of the position. Set down the seventh. A position has no above or below. The modern West is used to sorting the structure of an organization into above and below. The leader above, the subordinate below. The decision layer above, the execution layer below. The elite above, the mass below. God above, man below. The state above, the citizen below. Walk that law down, and the above has power, the below must obey. By the real pattern of position, a position has no above or below. The ancestors said it. The highest good is like water, water benefits the ten thousand things and does not contend, it sits in the place all others despise, and so it is close to the way. The highest position, the highest good, is instead the position of water, water running to the lowest place, going to the position no one else will take. Above and below, in Chinese civilization, are turned the other way. What heaven sees comes from what the people see, what heaven hears comes from what the people hear. Heaven's position is not above, heaven is in the people. The people are the root of position. To serve the people is the modern voicing of this ancient tradition. The position of the so-called leader is not above, it is the position of serving the below. The tie among positions is not above and below, it is a division of labor.

Seven. Seven are down. A position has no right or wrong, no good or evil, no high or low, no noble or base, no first or last, no above or below, only a division of labor. This is the seed posture of the new thinking. Set it down, and the pattern of position across all six volumes of Justice Way has a root. Every caving-in of Chapter 1's alarm, the white collar, the blue collar, the one collecting cans, by this law every one of those positions is one a turning society requires. They did not cave because they were low or base or wrong, but because the mechanism took every position away at once. Every gathered-and-shipped-to-war of Chapter 2's history, by this law the tens of millions of the poor who fell at the front were not a lower order of person. Their position was as needed as the capitalist's, the general's, the politician's, only a different division of labor. To gather them and ship them to war was the mechanism using a position as a spendable resource, and that is out of position. Chapter 3's turn, capital is not evil, by this law capital's position is a tool turning by instinct, the worker's position is labor and product, the capitalist's position is investment and decision. Three positions, no right or wrong, no good or evil, no high or low, no noble or base, all required by a turning society. The three sections that follow in Chapter 4, use the pen not the knife, the soft landing, turn to Volume VI, all grow from this seed. Volume II's root virtue, no one torments, grows from this seed. No one torments because no position sorts into high or low or noble or base, and to torment is to moralize a position into high and low, noble and base. Volume III's non-labor share returns to the public, which is to say the people, grows from this seed. It returns to the public because every position is the public's position, and the non-labor gain of capital's turning belongs to the whole public to begin with. Volume IV's reading of the three political structures grows from this seed, each an arrangement of a different division of labor, no right or wrong, no good or evil. Volume V's seizing place and colony grows from this seed. To seize a place is to treat a position as a possessable resource, and to colonize is to moralize a position into noble and base. Every way out in Volume VI grows from this seed. The way out is not to wipe out some position, it is to return every position to the charge of its own division of labor.

Eight. This seed posture, in one line. No living person is a rank above or a rank below another. No position is a shade more good or more evil than another. Every position is only a different division of labor, one thread running through the whole. To grant this is the doorway into the new thinking. To fail to grant it is to be still inside the modern Western frame of right and wrong, good and evil, high and low, noble and base. Close the section. A position is only a division of labor. No right or wrong. No good or evil. No high or low. No noble or base. No first or last. No above or below. This is the root pattern of position Chinese civilization set down across thousands of years, set down again and again in Zhuangzi, Laozi, the Book of Changes, Mengzi, the Book of Documents, the Book of Rites, the Great Learning. The modern West, its craft not whole, moralized position into right and wrong, good and evil, high and low, noble and base, first and last, above and below, and wrote one wrong prescription after another, and hundreds of millions in the twentieth century fell on them. By the real pattern of position, return to the ancestors' seed posture, and the whole study of position has a root. Credit to the ancestors. I am only setting it out again in plain words. The next section sets down, use the pen, not the knife, and how by good fortune this book came to be. It sets down the root tool of the new thinking, and the root reason the fourth industrial revolution can go differently from the first three, that this time there is one who orders it with the pen and not the knife. Turn to the next section.

Or go straight to the way out. Volume VI, Saving People: A Race Against Time Before the Blood Runs.

Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.

Two. Use the pen, not the knife.