VOLUME III, SEMESTER 2
CAPITALIST SYSTEMS
This is the second semester of Volume III, Economic Systems, entitled Capitalist Systems. The chapter numbers run continuously from the first semester, starting at Chapter 14 and ending at Chapter 26, comprising thirteen chapters and thirty-nine sections. This introduction serves as the map for this semester; reading it reveals where these thirteen chapters lead and how the journey is planned.
1. What Needs to Be Deconstructed This Semester Is a Mirror
This semester, a mirror needs to be deconstructed. That mirror has shone for over a hundred years, holding half the people on Earth within its reflection. When people view the world through that mirror, they see a picture with capitalists on one side and workers on the other, one upstairs and one downstairs, one extracting and one being extracted, with that gap in between serving as evidence of crime.
That picture possessed great power, enough to propel the entire world for over a century. This semester, that picture will be taken down piece by piece. It must be stated flatly from the outset: removing that mirror does not equate to removing what the mirror reflected. That gap is real; the events in 19th-century factories were real; sixteen-hour workdays and five-year-old children in mine shafts were real. What is being done is not erasing them, but restoring them from "one person's guilt" back to "the reality of a position."
2. Consistently Use Honorific Language for That Gentleman
This semester, a gentleman will be encountered: Mr. Karl Marx. Please remember the position from the very first lesson, without altering a single word: what is discussed here is his boundary, not his correctness; this volume does not judge his correctness, but merely points out that his scope was established somewhat late and somewhat narrowly. This is not a matter of high or low, but a difference in division of labor.
Acknowledge his contributions, and acknowledge them immensely. He was the first to dismantle this machine and place it upon the table; he placed matter before consciousness, establishing a position with extreme precision, matching the position set by Guanzi two thousand four hundred years earlier. He was the first to fix his eyes on that gap and refuse to let go. These three contributions cannot be taken away by anyone. This semester, consistently use honorific language for every gentleman, laying out positions without issuing judgments, which stands as the highest discipline of this entire book.
3. How These Thirteen Chapters Will Proceed
The path of this semester is outlined first. The initial three chapters calculate the accounting. Chapter 14 takes both the worker and the capitalist off the scales. Chapter 15 invites Sima Qian to clarify how value is passed along step by step across four positions. Chapter 16 opens the ledger of a chair factory, calculating that gap entry by entry until finding something that no single entity can consume alone.
The middle four chapters examine human beings. Chapter 17 lays out the card held in the worker's hand: scarcity. Chapter 18 uncovers the true nature of capital: the skin and the hair. Chapter 19 counts the five chains wrapping around the capitalist, fulfilling the line from the previous semester: the master of slaves is also a slave. Chapter 20 measures that scale while marking out where it ought not to reach.
The next three chapters observe that momentum. Chapter 21 restores capital from "a blood-sucking mouth" to an unseeing, heartless momentum. Chapter 22 examines the old pattern loosened by it and looks at the weaver stepping into thin air. Chapter 23 places two frameworks side by side, contrasting contributions line by line against costs. The final three chapters dig into what lies underneath. Chapter 24 digs down to the chessboard: scarcity. Chapter 25 examines the three moves to construct scarcity. Chapter 26 speaks of living capital and living economy, closing upon that boundary.
4. This Semester Will Close Upon Two Points
This semester will ultimately close upon two points. The first point is living capital. Capital is dead momentum; what makes it live is the human standing behind it.
"The virtuous person uses wealth to cultivate self; the non-virtuous person uses self to accumulate wealth." (Zengzi, The Book of Rites: Great Learning)
The key resides in that word "cultivate" or "expand." Using self to accumulate wealth causes money to grow while the human turns into dust; using wealth to cultivate self causes the human to grow while money turns into dust. The second point is also the deepest point of this entire volume: economics is not politics.
"He who does not hold the position does not plan its policies." (Confucius, The Analects: Taibo)
The exact same trap will be dug into twice: all costs across both frameworks dig down to one sentence—one side crossed the boundary. The three moves to construct scarcity dig down to one sentence as well—the root does not lie in economics. Two paths, one trap. Exactly where that boundary should be drawn cannot be fully answered in this volume; it is left for Volume IV and Volume V. What this volume can do is point it out and point it out clearly.
5. The Four Types Discussed in This Entire Volume Are Four Elements
Finally, please remember this passage, as it marks the position of this entire volume. From beginning to end, this volume discusses only four types: servitude systems, capitalist systems, socialist systems, and communist systems. These four are not four historical stages; they are four foundational elements living simultaneously in every society today. This semester walks through the second type: capital.
What kind of complete picture these four construct when combined, how they coexist, co-nourish, look after each other, and hold each other back so that no single pillar dominates alone, will be discussed in detail within the General Introduction to Economic Systems. Pay special attention to the word "simultaneously." This semester will witness firsthand: inside a factory under a capitalist system, wages are distributed according to contribution, while the support given when an employee falls ill, faces family emergencies, gives birth, or retires is distributed according to need. Three methods of distribution run daily within the very same factory; they do not replace one another, but live and breathe together.
6. One Final Sentence Before Class Begins
This semester will walk close to many people: a worker who resigned, a boss who fled, a cook carving an ox, a carpenter who fasts seven days before picking up tools, a person still pursuing clients at sixty and attending meetings at seventy, a weaver whose cloth nobody suddenly bought at age forty, and an old woman guarding a room full of money while dying in excruciating pain.
Remember the method of viewing people: do not stand at a distance. Standing at a distance, everyone appears as a flat shadow, where sticking a label—stupid, greedy, evil—ends the matter. Walk close and look deep down beneath, and often under that shadow is a living person of flesh and blood, with personal suffering, hardships, and unspoken troubles. Walking close to look does not equate to sympathy, nor does it mean placing someone lower to pity them; walking close to look reveals positions, revealing what locks someone, whom they lock, and how those two locks bite into each other. Class begins.
Table of Contents
Chapter 14: Two Positions, Set Straight First
Chapter 16: Where That Gap Flowed
Chapter 17: The Worker Holds a Card
Chapter 18: Capital Has Three Layers: Skin and Hair
Chapter 19: The Capitalist Is Also a Slave
Chapter 20: The Market Is a Scale and a Sieve
Chapter 21: Capital Is Not a Person, But a Momentum
Chapter 22: The Old Pattern Loosened by This Momentum
Chapter 23: Two Frameworks, Contrasted Line by Line
Chapter 24: Scarcity Is the Chessboard of This Game
Chapter 25: Three Moves to Construct Scarcity
Chapter 26: Living Capital, Living Economy, and That Boundary
Postscript: Dismantling a Mirror, Restoring Its Position
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.