VOLUME III, SEMESTER 3, CHAPTER 39, SECTION 3
Character belongs to culture, culture is the root, and the whole map handed on
This is the last section of this term. The last section dug to it, that the basis of the by need is not the mechanism, it is character. But character itself, whence does it come. This section digs this last root out. Dig to the bottom and you will find it joins this whole volume onto the volume that follows. This section is also this volume’s one hand, reaching out to the next.
One, character does not drop from the sky
First a most straight question: that character in a man’s heart, that heart of willing to give one bit more, unwilling to take for free, whence does it come.
It does not drop from the sky. A babe just born knows only that hungry it must eat, uneasy it must cry, it knows not what is giving, what is not taking the cheap. That character was, later, bit by bit, grown into his heart. Nor can it be laid down by a paper decree. You cannot write a law fixing that from tomorrow every man must have character, must be willing to give. The law can punish you for doing a bad thing, but the law cannot press out that spontaneous warmth in your heart.
So how in the end did character grow into a man’s heart. By all that he was steeped in, ear and eye, from small to grown: that bowl of rice his mother left him, the lending of a hand between neighbors he saw, the stories he heard, the reasons of being a man he was taught, the way the men beside him met men and handled matters.
Put these things together and look. The rice a mother left, the neighbors’ hand, the stories heard, the reasons taught, the way of the men beside, this whole set of things that slowly rears a man into a man of character, has a name. It is called culture. Character is reared by culture. Whether a man has that heart of giving is seen in what kind of culture he was reared in.
Two, culture is the root of the economy, the polity, the law
This layer once set firm, a greatest matter shows. Set it onto the whole map of the Justiceway.
This volume speaks of the economy, spoke a whole volume of institutions, rules, mechanisms. Yet this term, dug to the last, whether this set of the economy can run well lands on character. And character is reared by culture. Follow this line down: the root of the economy is struck into character, the root of character is struck into culture. So culture is that deeper root under the economy. Not the economy alone. Think of the polity, that set of rules of governing, whether it can be leaned on also is seen in whether the men who hold it have character in their hearts, that is, is seen in culture. Think again of the law, the words of law are dead, however whole they are written, they must lean on men of character to carry them, to keep them, not to turn into a paper empty.
So culture is not a fourth thing standing abreast of the economy, the polity, the law. Culture is that one same root under all three of them. The economy, the polity, the law are three trees growing above the ground. Culture is the soil under the ground that holds these three trees up. The soil rich, and the three trees all thrive. The soil thinned, gone bad, and the three trees all wither with it. This is the thing this volume, dug to its deepest, dug out: the root of all institutions, at the last, is struck into that soil of culture. This volume of the economic institution, spoken to the last, handed itself, to culture.
Three, this line, the second volume set up for us long ago
You may feel this ending comes sudden. But it is not sudden one bit. The second volume of this book, speaking of culture, set this line up for us long ago. And at this volume’s opening, we took it up.
The second volume’s closing chapter set up a line: the economy is not another thing abreast of culture, the economy is a tree grown out of culture. This volume, from the first term, chapter one, section one, was written taking up exactly this line. We spoke a whole volume of the economy, went a great round, from that slaveholder who could not cook, to the by labor, to the by need, to character, and at the last came back onto this line.
A tree, you follow the trunk up, and look at the boughs, the leaves, the fruit, and this volume looked at all of these. But you follow the trunk down, dig to the root, and the root is struck into that soil of culture. This volume of ours, from the trunk of this tree, looked up a whole volume of boughs and leaves, and at the last lowered its head, and saw its root struck into culture.
This line, be sure to hold fast, because it is the spine of this whole set of books, the Justiceway: the economy, the polity, the law, are all trees grown out of culture, and culture is the root of all this. This volume speaking of the economic institution, spoken to its deepest, is adding the thickest layer of soil to this line. Character belongs to culture, culture is the root, this is no hollow line, it is a thing we, this whole term, section by section, dug out with our own hands, tamped firm with our own hands.
Four, jade uncut makes no vessel
To speak of how culture rears a man into a man of character, call a line from the Book of Rites to close. This line tells to the end that work of culture, the slow grinding, the slow rearing. Jade uncut makes no vessel, a man unlearned knows not the Way. So runs the line in the Book of Rites, the Record of Learning.
Put it plain. Jade uncut makes no vessel, a piece of jade, not gone through the cutting and grinding, makes no good vessel. A man unlearned knows not the Way, a man, not gone through learning and teaching, understands not the reasons, sees not the Way of being a man. Fix your eye on this word cut. A piece of jade is by birth a good stuff, yet it is still a rough stone, and must lean on man, bit by bit to cut it, bit by bit to grind it, before it makes a vessel. Man too is so. A man by birth may have a bit of a good ground, yet that character must still lean on culture, bit by bit to cut him, grind him, rear him, before it can grow.
This word cut is exactly the look of culture rearing character. It is not poured in at one go, it is bit by bit, day by day, generation on generation, slowly ground out. The rice a mother left, a grind. A neighbor’s one lending of a hand, a grind. A good story, a grind. A reason of being a man, a grind. So, that character of giving in a man’s heart is, by culture, bit by bit, cut into a vessel.
Whether a society has that character to make the by need come alive is seen in whether it has a culture willing so to cut men, to rear men. The culture thick, and the men of character cut out are many, and the by need lives thriving. The culture thinned, gone bad, and no man is cut out, and however good the mechanism there is no man to make it live. Jade uncut makes no vessel, a man unlearned knows not the Way, this is culture, as the root of all, in its plainest look.
Five, this term, here it closes the volume
Chapter thirty nine walks to here, and this term, whole, closes the volume. Turn back, and look one last time at the road this term walked.
Set out from that account of last term not yet reckoned, found that four million was divided by labor, and took apart that false wall of capitalism against socialism. We counted the by labor through, saw it everywhere, called the ancestors to strike its root, dug how it is weighed, how it flows, its bound, and at the last landed on living labor, landed on the man. Then we turned about, called out the by need, saved it 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. At the last, we dug to the deepest: what makes all this come alive is character, and character belongs to culture.
This term speaks of two things most easily mistaken by men. Distribution by labor, set under one institution’s name, argued over for a hundred years. Communism, painted into a heaven and into a nightmare, laughed at for a hundred years. What we did is not to take a side for any, it is to walk near them, look down under them, and carry them, out of those two pictures, back to their own positions: they are two rules the human world uses at once, one weighing the putting out, one weighing the need, living all along on your pay slip, living in that bowl of rice your mother left for you.
Six, what this volume set, crossing to the volume that follows
Good. This term’s last layer, and one corner of the whole map this volume hands on, is nailed here.
What this term set firm is: the basis of 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 volume speaking of the economic institution, spoken to its deepest, handed itself, to that soil of culture.
This whole volume, from the slave, to capital, to the by labor, to the by need, these four things, we returned, one by one, to their positions. But there is still a map we have all along not spread whole open: these four things put together, what in the end is the shape of that map, how they live at once in every society, how they help and complete one another, mind and hold one another, letting no one thing grow big alone.
This whole map, and that root of culture that holds all this up, how in the end it rears these four institutions, is left to the part of this volume that follows, left to the road ahead, to speak in detail. This term, we wiped clean these two rules in our hands, the by labor and the by need, and returned them to their positions. The hand that takes over the road ahead will spread all the rules out together on the table, and look at how they join into one whole map, helping and completing, holding each other in check. This is the one hand this term hands on.
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.