VOLUME III, SEMESTER 3, CHAPTER 37, SECTION 1

VOLUME III, SEMESTER 3, CHAPTER 37, SECTION 1

That fire in the earliest tribe

The last chapter spoke the by need very warm. This chapter steps back, and asks its other side: how did it come to walk here, does it have a history of its own. Speak from the most ancient place, speak from a fire. You will see distribution by need is no new notion some clever man thought up one day, it is an old thing that came along the moment man first gathered into a body.

One, that most ancient fire

Call up the earliest look of man. A small crowd of men, living in one place, and in the middle a fire burning. This fire is their very life root: it warms them, it roasts the things, it scares off the beasts in the night.

So think a moment, this one fire, is it divided by labor, or divided by need. It cannot be divided by labor. You cannot say, today you gathered more firewood, so you warm at the fire longer, and he gathered less, so he warms less, or is even forbidden to warm. Fire is not used that way. Once the fire is up, it is warmed at by all who ring it together. That man who fell sick today, who gathered not one stick, warms at it all the same. That babe still held in the arms, who can do nothing, is set nearest the fire. This fire is by birth divided by need: whoever is cold, he draws to the fireside. Whoever is weakest, he is set in the warmest place.

This is distribution by need, in the human world’s most ancient look. How ancient. Ancient to when man had no writing, no state, none of those two quarreling words yet, and it was already there. It came into the world the moment man gathered to warm together. You could even say, that man could gather into a body and live, half of it leaned on this fire divided by need. Were even the fire in those days to be divided by labor, the weak, the sick, the small would freeze dead the first winter, and this crowd of men would scatter, would die out.

Two, the great beast hunted back

Beside the fire, in the earliest tribe there is one more thing also divided by need, and that is the quarry hunted back.

A crowd of men go out to hunt, ring down a great beast, and carry it back. This one beast, how is it divided. Here it grows telling. The hunter who put out the most force, the most valiant, should of course get a little more of the good, this is by labor, and even the earliest men knew it. But that old man who could not go to the hunt today, who stayed at the camp, that child still at the breast, that man lying sick and unable to rise, are they divided to. They are. They put out not a mouthful of force, yet they have a share of the meat all the same. See, right in this earliest way of dividing a quarry, the by labor and the by need are already propped together. The valiant gets a little more, this is by labor. The old and small, the sick, have a share all the same, this is by need.

Hold this scene, it is greatly needful. This is the human world’s earliest scene of distribution, the first time these two rules appear at once in the human world. From the first day man gathered into a body, it was not pure by labor, nor pure by need, it was the two rules used together. Why. Because pure by labor, and the old and small, the sick, would be starved dead, and this crowd could not be handed on. Pure by need, and the valiant hunter would not risk his life again, and this crowd could hunt no food. Short one of the two rules, and this crowd of men could not live long. This two rules used together we have spoken of so long this term is, it turns out, no deep abstruse reasoning, it is the plainest way of living that man, from the first day he lived, felt his way to.

Three, why the earliest must, on the contrary, be by need

Here dig one layer deeper: why is it that the more ancient, the harder the time, the more that by need on the contrary cannot be done without.

Because in those days life was too bitter, too without guarantee. Today you are strong of body and can hunt food, but tomorrow you may turn your ankle, fall sick, grow old, and can hunt no more. Today the one at the warmest place by the fire is that babe, but decades on, that babe grows into the best hunter, and the best hunter of those days becomes that weakest old man by the fire. Every man has his strong time, and his weak time too. Exactly because none can be sure he is forever strong, this by need, that when your turn to be weak comes there is someone to mind you, becomes every man’s guarantee of life. You divide a mouthful of meat to that sick man today, and in truth you are also leaving a road of life for the you of the days to come, who will fall sick, will grow old.

This layer bares the deepest reasoning of distribution by need. It is no alms of the strong to the weak, no doing of a kindness. It is a guarantee a crowd of men set up for one another, because none can escape the day of being weak: whose turn to be weak comes, he is caught by this crowd. This guarantee, the more in the ancient age with no other leaning, the more it is the life root. That most ancient fire divided by need in the human world is the first look this guarantee burned into.

Four, not to hold only one’s own kin as kin, not only one’s own young as young

To speak of this heart that from the first caught the old and small, the sick, the Book of Rites, that most famous passage, must be called. The world of the great togetherness it sketches is exactly the highest look of this ancient by need. Not to hold only one’s own kin as kin, not only one’s own young as young. Let the old have their ending, the strong have their use, the young have their growing, and the widowed, the orphaned, the alone, the maimed, and the sick all have their nourishing. So runs the line in the Book of Rites, the Movement of the Rites.

Put it plain. Not to hold only one’s own kin as kin, not only to honor and nourish one’s own parents as parents. Not only one’s own young as young, not only to love one’s own child as child. Let the old have their ending, let the old live out their years in peace. The strong have their use, let the men in their strength all have a place to put out force. The young have their growing, let the children all grow up well. And the widowed, the orphaned, the alone, the maimed, and the sick all have their nourishing, those who have lost a spouse, lost their leaning, are alone, are maimed, are sick, every one has someone to nourish them.

See this passage, what it sketches. It sketches exactly the heart behind that fire, that quarry, pushed to the very extreme, written into an ideal. The old have their ending is that old man by the fire. The young have their growing is that babe by the fire. The widowed, orphaned, alone, maimed, and sick all nourished is those who could put out no force yet had a share all the same. The ancestors pushed that earliest by need heart of catching the weak, all the way in thought to a world of great togetherness where every man is caught, not one man cast off. This great togetherness has, for more than two thousand years, been the highest ideal in the hearts of men without number. And its root is in that earliest fire divided by need in the human world. This heart, man had from the first, and the ancestors only wrote it into a most moving passage.

Five, what this section set, crossing to the next

Good. This section, from the human world’s most ancient place, found for distribution by need its road of coming.

Looking at a fire: it is by birth divided by need, whoever is cold draws near, whoever is weak is in the warmest place, ancient to when man had no writing, no state, and it came into the world along with man’s gathering into a body. Looking at a great beast hunted back: the valiant gets a little more is by labor, the old and small, the sick, have a share all the same is by need, the first time the two rules appear at once in the human world. Digging one layer deeper, it saw clear the more ancient and hard, the less the by need can be done without, because none can escape the day of being weak, and it is a guarantee of life a crowd of men set up for one another. Through the Book of Rites, that passage of the great togetherness, it saw the ancestors push this most ancient by need heart into the highest ideal of every man caught, not one cast off.

The position this section set is: distribution by need is as ancient as man, it was there from the first day man gathered into a body, a guarantee of life set up for one another by men each of whom will have his day of being weak.

So, this ancient by need, from that fire on, step by step, grew into what look. It will not forever be only a fire, only a quarry. When man gathered more and more, society grew larger and larger, what larger things did man set up, to go on doing this take from the too much and make up the not enough. The next section walks on, to look at the charitable estate of the clan, the mutual aid within a trade, and the later unions and cooperatives.

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

Section 2, The clan, the charitable estate, the union, the cooperative