VOLUME III, SEMESTER 3, CHAPTER 36, SECTION 2
The neighbor, the enterprise, the place
The last section counted two men, a house. This section pushes this relation one ring out, out the house door. Outside are neighbors not known, a whole enterprise, a place. In these places with no blood kin, is that tenderness still to be leaned on, does the by need still stand. Look at it layer by layer.
One, the neighbor: the first ring out the house door
First look at the neighbor. This is the first ring of relation out the house door. The men of this ring have no blood tie with you, yet you meet them looking down and looking up, living in one place.
Is the by need still in this ring. It is. Think of the old lines, a near neighbor beats a distant kin. Whose house has a man take a sudden midnight sickness, the door knocked is the neighbor’s next door, not the distant kin’s. Whose house cannot for a while raise the lid of the pot, the neighbor next door hands a bowl over first. Whose grown ones are away, the children with nowhere to go after school, the neighbor minds them first. In these things, not one is reckoned into an account. The neighbor handing that bowl of rice over looks for no return, just as your mother left that bowl of rice looking for no return. This is the by need, pushed out of blood kin, onto a ring of men with no blood tie, yet living in one place.
But mark, the by need of this ring of the neighbor is one layer thinner than in the house, and one layer more brittle too. That of the house is blood kin, unbreakable. That of the neighbor leans on the little bond of living near, being close acquainted, having a coming and going. When in the ordinary you have a coming and going with the neighbor, the by need at a hard moment can hold. If in the ordinary you have a coming and going with no one, the door shut and knowing no one, then at a hard moment, the by need of this ring too thins, too grows slight. So this by need of the neighbor must be reared, must be fed large by the ordinary drop by drop coming and going. This layer is exactly what the further out you push the more you must watch: past the blood kin, the by need must the more lean on man to work it, to keep it up, it will not of itself grow there.
Two, the enterprise: a crowd of strangers gathered to do a thing
Push further out, out to an enterprise. Here it is stranger still: a crowd of men who at the start know one another not, gathered in one place to do a thing, is there the by need in here too.
There is. An enterprise with a bit of human feeling, you can see the shadow of the by need. When an employee’s house meets a great thing, a sickness, a disaster, a good enterprise reaches out a hand, gives a sum, gives a few days off, and the fellows too pool a share. At this moment, what the enterprise and the fellows go by is not how much labor he put out this month, it is his hardship at this moment, his need at this moment. This is the by need, bored into a place that at bottom most speaks the by labor. An enterprise, its trunk is of course by labor, more labor more gain, this is the root by which it can turn on. But right on this trunk of the by labor, there grow also the leaves and boughs of the by need.
Join this layer to the whole talk of this term. In an enterprise, the by labor is the master, the by need is the helper, the two rules once more propped and used together. In the ordinary, paying wages, reckoning performance, is by labor, not one cent off. But when an employee meets a hardship, that charcoal sent in the snow is by need, asking no return. An enterprise with only the by labor, not one thread of the by need, is a cold machine, and a man in it is chilled at heart. An enterprise that speaks only the by need and drops the by labor cannot hold up, because none will do the work well. A good enterprise is a place that props the two rules just right. See, wherever we walk, it is these two rules, only the weight of the master and the helper changes with the place.
Three, the place: one water and soil rears one kind of man
Push one ring further out, out to a place, a countryside, a town, a city. This is a ring larger than the enterprise.
A place too does the work of the by need. This place lays a road, raises a bridge, opens a school, opens a clinic that treats the poor, relieves the man down on his luck for a while. These all take the things of this one place’s men, gather them into one place, and divide them back by need, to make up those not enough, in hardship, needing care. This is exactly the public keeping of chapter thirty two, in the look of one place. It leans no more on blood kin, no more on that little acquaintance feeling of the neighbor. It leans on a whole set of rules this one place’s men set up together: all put in a share, gather it up, do these things that anyone might have use of.
Under the old line, one water and soil rears one kind of man, sits exactly this reasoning. Whether a place can let the men living in it each have someone to mind them, caught when down on their luck, minded when old, schooled as children, is seen in whether this one place’s men have set up this rule of the by need well, reared it well. Set up well, and this place is warm, and men will strike root here. Set up poorly, and this place is cold, each minding only himself, down on his luck able only to own the bad luck. From the neighbor to the enterprise to the place, see this by need, one ring larger than the last, yet one ring more than the last must lean on man to set up rules, to work it. The further it goes from blood kin, the less it is grown of itself, the more it must lean on man with heart to hold it up.
Four, let the old be settled, the friend trust, the young be cherished
To speak of this by need pushed ring by ring outward, minding all kinds of men, call Confucius. There was a time Confucius and his disciples each spoke their aim, and Confucius spoke three lines that tell exactly this ring by ring minding whole. Let the old be settled, the friend trust, the young be cherished. So runs the line in the Analects.
Put it plain. Let the old be settled, let the old get their settling, be able to live at ease. The friend trust, let friends meet one another with truth, trust one another. Let the young be cherished, let the young get care, be well looked after. See these three lines of Confucius, exactly three rings of men: the old, the friend, the young. His aim was not how great a fortune he himself would make, how great an office hold, it was to let these three rings of men each be settled well, be minded.
These three lines are exactly the look the heart should have when distribution by need is pushed toward a society. Let the old be settled is the by need toward the most aged, the end that can least put out labor. Let the young be cherished is the by need toward the youngest, the end that cannot yet put out labor. The friend trust is toward the ring of the same standing beside you, meeting with truth, helping in hardship. Confucius set the aim of his whole life on the settling of these three rings of men. Whether a place, a society, is good, the standard is in these three lines: are its old settled, do its man and man trust one another, are its children well kept in mind. These three done, and the by need of this place is set up. This aim of Confucius from more than two thousand years ago is, to today, still the rule that weighs whether a society is warm.
Five, what this section set, crossing to the next
Good. This section pushed the by need, from a house, ring by ring outward.
Pushed to the neighbor, the first ring out the house door, a near neighbor beats a distant kin, leaning on the bond of living near, being close acquainted, yet thinner than the house, more brittle than the house, to be reared by the ordinary coming and going. Pushed to the enterprise, a crowd of strangers gathered to do a thing, the by labor the trunk, the by need the leaves and boughs grown on the trunk, a good enterprise propping the two rules just right. Pushed to a place, leaning on the public keeping rules this one place’s men set up together, laying roads and raising bridges, opening schools and relieving hardship, one water and soil rearing one kind of man. Through Confucius, let the old be settled, the friend trust, the young be cherished, it set up the heart the by need should have when pushed toward a society.
The position this section set is: the by need can be pushed from the house ring by ring to the neighbor, the enterprise, the place, but the further from blood kin, the more it must lean on man to set up rules, to work it, it will not of itself grow there.
So, this relation, pushed one ring further out from a place, is a state, is a world under heaven. On a scale this large, this far, wholly strange to one another, does the by need still stand. How does a state do the by need, how do the men of the whole globe do the by need to one another, and that pure giving for free, that leans not on even a thread of relation, what is it. The next section pushes to the largest ring: the state, the globe, and charity.
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.