VOLUME III, SEMESTER 3, CHAPTER 38, SECTION 1
A wholly single communist society is a wei question
The chapters before spoke distribution by need very warm. This chapter must turn about, and look at its other side. Because the warmer, the better a thing, the more it must be asked one line: push it to the extreme, what then. This section means to prove one thing: a wholly single society, with only the by need, is a wei question, and from the root it will not stand.
One, first say clear what wholly single means
First say clear the thing to be taken apart. What is a wholly single communist society. It is this supposing: the whole society uses only the by need, this one rule, and throws the by labor, that rule, whole away. Every man takes what he needs, wants a thing and takes it, and none asks how much labor you put out. This is the most core thing in that picture painted into a heaven. Mark, before this we have never once opposed the by need, this rule. Just the reverse, we spent several chapters saying how warm, how needful, how everywhere it is. What is to be taken apart is not the by need, this rule, it is that extreme supposing that pushes the by need to being the one and only, and throws the by labor whole away. These two are apart as heaven from earth, be sure to tell them apart.
A good rule, and a extreme claim that uses only this one rule and throws all others away, are two matters. The kitchen knife is a good thing, but you cannot say, from now on all matters in the house use the kitchen knife, and throw away the pots and pans and bowls and ladles whole. The by need is a good rule, but a society with only the by need, throwing the by labor away, is like a house left with only a kitchen knife, throwing all else away, and it must come to grief.
Two, where the wei question errs: it supposes man has no private heart
This wholly single supposing, why from the root will it not stand. Because it quietly supposes a thing that at bottom does not hold: it supposes man has no private heart.
Think, a society that goes only by need, not by labor, to turn, must lean on what. Must lean on every man of his own accord putting out what he is able, needing none to press, none to reward, all willing to pour out that share of his force whole. And at the same time, every man, taking, of his own accord taking only what he truly needs, taking not a bit over. For this to hold, man must be every one a sage, every one with not a thread of private heart, private want. But is man so. He is not. Man has his private heart, his private want, and this is a rule at the level of life, spoken again and again in this set of books. This is not to say man is bad, it is to say man is man, is a living life, born to mind himself a little first.
That heaven supposing’s most deadly error is exactly that it swaps the living, private hearted man, for a crowd of sages with no private heart, and then says: see, how well this society turns. But it turns well because it swapped the men. Swap the true man for the sage, and any fair society can be supposed. But of what use is that. You build a machine and say it runs forever so long as it uses a kind of fuel that does not exist in the world, and then this machine is itself a hollow dream. The wholly single communism is just such a machine: it turns only under that nonexistent fuel of every man unselfish, and that fuel can never be poured in.
Three, the feeling of man cannot be without the private
This layer, the ancestors saw far more through than we. Xunzi speaks of the nature of man, speaks it most unsparing, and most true. He says: the nature of man today is, born with a liking for gain. So runs the line in the Xunzi, the Nature is Bad.
Put it plain. The nature of man today, the born nature of man today. Born with a liking for gain, from birth carries this face of liking gain, of wanting the good. This line of Xunzi is said hard: man, the moment he is born, carries a bit of a heart that plans for himself, that would get a bit more good. This is not learned bad afterward, it is there from birth. Xunzi is not cursing man, he is coldly, honestly, setting out what man is like.
Set this line of Xunzi on that heaven supposing. That supposing supposes every man unselfish, Xunzi says man is born liking gain. One supposes man unselfish, one says man is born with the private, and the two meet head on. Who is right. Xunzi is right. You need only feel your own heart, look at the men around you, and you know Xunzi is right. It is not that man cannot be unselfish, man in the closest relations, at the most needful turns, can put out an enormous unselfishness, we spoke so much of it before.
But you cannot suppose all men, at all times, toward all strangers, unselfish of themselves. That is to take a peak one can now and again climb for the level ground every man stands on all the time. Exactly because man is born liking gain, a society can by no means stand only on this supposing of every man unselfish. It must keep the by labor, that rule, and use a bit of solid, real reward and gain, to catch that born liking for gain in man.
Four, so, the two rules cannot lack one
Come to here, the first layer of reasoning of this chapter is set firm: a society, of the two rules cannot lack one, neither can throw the other away.
Why cannot the by labor be thrown. Because man is born liking gain. You must use that rule of the by labor, to let the one who puts out more get more, to give that liking for gain a proper outlet, earned by oneself. Without this rule, that liking for gain has no place to be set, and turns into idling, into taking over much, into worming through holes, and the whole society sinks together downward. Why can the by need not be thrown either. Because man always has his day of being weak, always there are the old and small, the sick, always the one down on his luck for a while, and leaning on the by labor alone, these men would be starved dead, cast off, and this society is cold with no human warmth, and cannot be handed on.
So the true, the long lasting society has always used the two rules together. The by labor the master, catching that liking for gain in man, letting the society have vigor to walk forward. The by need the helper, catching those weak the by labor lets slip, letting the society have warmth, have a bottom line. These two rules, one minds the vigor, one minds the warmth, one guards against man sinking, one holds man from dropping through the floor. Short either rule, the society does not stand. This is why the wholly single communism is a wei question, and the wholly single, by labor only society is in truth just as cold and cannot live either. The truth of the human world is forever the two rules, propped and used.
Five, what this section set, crossing to the next
Good. This section took apart that extreme supposing painted into a heaven.
First said clear, what is to be taken apart is not the by need, this good rule, it is that extreme that pushes the by need to being the one and only, and throws the by labor away. Digging to its root, it saw it quietly supposes a thing that does not hold: man has no private heart. But Xunzi said long ago, the nature of man today is born with a liking for gain. A society that supposes man unselfish is like a machine that turns only on a fuel that does not exist, a hollow dream. From this it set the first layer firm: of the two rules cannot lack one, the by labor catching man’s liking for gain and guarding against sinking, the by need catching the weak and holding from dropping through, short either and the society does not stand.
The position this section set is: the wholly single communism is a wei question, because man is born with the private, and the long lasting society is forever the by labor the master, the by need the helper, the two rules propped and used.
So, the reasoning stands, but reasoning alone is not enough. This error, of pushing the by need to the extreme, of taking man for a sage, once truly done, landed on the ground, what does it look like. How does it drag a society down, step by step. In history it truly came out such a thing. The next section walks near that most famous pot, to look at what the by need used badly, misused, in the end looks like.
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.