VOLUME III, SEMESTER 3
The Socialist Institution and the Communist Institution
Welcome to the third term of Volume III, the Economic Institution. Before you open chapter one, please first spend a few minutes reading this overview. It will tell you what kind of road we walk this term, why we walk this road, and, walked to the last, what kind of thing you will see.
One, this term speaks of two things most mistaken by men
This term, we speak of two things. They are, in this world, the two things most mistaken. One is called distribution by labor. For a hundred and more years it was set under one institution’s name, made that side’s banner, taken by the other side for a target, cursed for a hundred years. The other is called communism. It was painted into a heaven on earth, making men without number give up house and home for it, and painted into a nightmare, making men without number, at one hearing, knit the brow and shake the head. Taken by men for a phantom dream, it was laughed at for a hundred years.
This term, we take no side for these two things, nor judge their right and wrong. We do one thing only: walk near them, look down under them. Take them, out of those two pictures glaring at each other, one by one, and return them to their own positions. You will find their own positions are not one bit dark and deep, not one bit fearsome. They are two rules the human world uses at once: one weighs how much you put out, one weighs how much you need. These two rules live all along in your days, live on your pay slip, and live too in that bowl of rice your mother left for you.
Two, this term’s two core theses
The whole term, said to the last, is to set up for you two theses. These two, please first hold in mind, for every chapter after is adding soil for them.
The first: every man lives under distribution by labor. The by labor is everywhere. The coder draws pay by grade, the lawyer bills by the hour, the student is rated for scholarship by score, the gamer levels up by hours, the man doing open technical work saves up standing by contribution. No corner is the exception, no man slips free. That capitalism against socialism argued over for a hundred and more years, in the position of labor, wholly dissolves, because both sides are by labor, and have always stood at the same end.
The second: communism is not a state, it is a kind of element of distribution by need. It is no great institution to come, or already failed. It is a kind of element that lives all along, present in some degree in all societies, all ages, all cooperation. It stands on the basis of from each what he is able, that capacity. And please be sure to hold in mind one order, an order turned backward for a hundred and more years: from each what he is able is the cause, to each what he needs is the fruit. The true goal was never that way of dividing, communism, itself, it is capacity enough. Communism is no end point, it is only, after capacity is enough, one way of answering how to divide.
Three, how this term walks: first by labor, then by need
This term’s thirteen chapters part into two clear halves.
The former half, chapter twenty seven to chapter thirty three, speaks the by labor. We set out from that account of last term not reckoned, took apart that false wall of capitalism against socialism, counted the by labor everywhere, called the ancestors to strike its root, drove into that hardest word weighing, set out six rules for weighing labor, two frames, watched the flow of labor, dug to that dark lock of the chance, walked to the bound the by labor cannot weigh, and at the last closed on living labor, landed on the man.
The latter half, chapter thirty four to chapter thirty nine, speaks the by need. We saved communism from the two pictures of heaven and nightmare, restored it to a bowl of rice, counted it living in all places, all relations, tidied for it a history ancient and ever new, set it a bound, fitted it a check, and at the last dug all the way to the deepest: what makes all this come alive is not the mechanism, it is character.
The two halves together are one whole road: setting out from a pay slip, closing on a soil of culture. What it walks, from first to last, is that old line of this book: to look at a man, at a matter, do not stand far off and paste a label, walk near and look, look down under him.
Four, this term is to close on these few places
This term’s most needful few landings, let us point them out here first, so that as you walk, you have them in mind.
One is called living labor. Whether labor is alive or dead is not in what work you do, it is in how you do it, with what heart, whether you see the meaning. One is called the living Lei Feng. That element of communism comes alive through every man’s unconditional giving, and the things that can be given are nine kinds, from time all the way to feeling. And one is the deepest layer: the basis of carrying out distribution by need is not the mechanism, it is character, and character belongs to culture, and culture is the common root of the economy, the polity, the law. This term, dug to the last, dug out exactly this thing: the root of all institutions, at the last, is struck into that soil of culture.
And one, please hold fast too, is the bound of distribution by need. A wholly single, by need only communist society is a wei question, because man has a private heart, a private want, and this is a rule at the level of life. To misuse it, there are four ways: the big shared pot with no spur, need enlarged without bound, privilege turned strange, the politicized painted cake. So the check and balance is a must. That line of Xunzi speaks this layer down to the root: let the want not be exhausted by the things, let the things not be bent by the want, the two holding each other and growing.
Five, this volume has still a whole map not spread open
At the last, we must tell you a great whole of this volume, so you know where, this moment, we stand on the entire map.
This volume, the Economic Institution, from head to tail, discusses four kinds only: the slave institution, the capitalist institution, the socialist institution, the communist institution. These four are not four stages, they are four elements, living at once in every society today. The first term walks the first, the slave. The second term walks the second, capital. This term walks the third and the fourth, the by labor and the by need.
And these four put together, what in the end is the shape of that map, how they help and complete one another, mind one another, hold one another, letting no one grow big alone, these words are left to the part of the Economic Institution that follows, to speak in detail. This term, we wiped clean these two rules, the by labor and the by need, and returned them to their positions. In your hand, now, you have these two rules. Bearing them, open chapter twenty seven, section one. We speak from that table of last term, that account not yet reckoned.
This term’s contents
Chapter 27, That four million was divided by labor
Chapter 28, Every man lives under distribution by labor
Chapter 29, The ancestors set that rule more than two thousand years ago
Chapter 30, Labor, in the end, how is it weighed
Chapter 31, Labor is a thing that flows
Chapter 32, The labors that cannot be weighed out
Chapter 34, Communism is not a kind of state, it is a kind of element
Chapter 35, It has lived all along in your days
Chapter 36, From two men, to the whole world
Chapter 37, How this one thing came to walk here
Chapter 38, The bound of distribution by need
Chapter 39, The living Lei Feng, and the deepest layer
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.