VOLUME III, SEMESTER 4, CHAPTER 47, SECTION 2

VOLUME III, SEMESTER 4, CHAPTER 47, SECTION 2

A Wall Built Up Can Be Filled Away

That kind of check and balance told in the last section relies on men: bring both ends to the table, let them speak each their own words, each pressing one end. That kind matters most, yet it bears a limit: it asks for someone willing to invite both ends in, a table to sit at, and someone to leave the words on record.

This section speaks of another kind, which relies not on men sitting down to speak, but on another kind of strength. This kind comes slower, yet once it comes, it clears the ground cleanest: someone opens another road from the side, filling away that blocking wall; the wall still stands there, yet it blocks the way no more.

One, look first at a wall built up

The second semester spoke of a certain stone, and that segment is worth pointing out once more here, for it stands as the finest and most decent sample of the fourth scale. That kind of stone is not so rare under the ground, more abundant than many things used every day. Yet men held the mines place by place, and holding them, were in no rush to sell, letting out only a tiny bit a year; then they spread a word outward, saying this thing is forever, a thing bought but once in a lifetime, bought to pass on to the next generation. Holding the mines in hand, pinching the supply in hand, and setting up that word—all three were complete.

So it stayed dear for over a hundred years, dear as a matter of course, dear to the point where no one asked a single why. Dear, not because it was truly rare, but because someone made it seem rare. Chapter forty set a line: that grid was not made by working, but blocked out by standing in the way.This is just the clearest and most decent shape of that line: not made by working, but blocked out by standing in the way.

Here one must see the position clearly, not taking it as good or evil. The man doing this thing need not be a bad man; every step he took fit the rule: the mine was bought with money, the goods were his own, letting out more or less was his own affair, and that word was spread outward year by year with money—not a single rule was broken. The first semester spoke of that road: direct holding moving to legal holding, legal holding moving to market holding; walked to the end, it asks for no bad men, asking only for a crowd of ordinary men each doing their duty.

Two, later someone opened a road on the other side

That wall held firm for over a hundred years; how did it loosen at last? Not by men cursing it down, nor by anyone issuing a command. It was someone in a furnace, using high heat and great pressure, who pressed carbon into the very same thing. Same composition, same hardness, taking it to make drill bits drills all the same, making jewelry shines all the same, so that even veterans of decades cannot tell them apart without instruments. Some places in Henan do this trade most, one factory leaning against another; what they turn out in a year these few years is more than was ever dug out from under the ground in the whole world.

Once it came out, the price fell down. That wall was not leveled by anyone; it still stands there: the mines are still those mines, the supply is still pinched in those few hands, and that word of forever is still being spread. Yet it blocks the way no more, for the road has turned around its side, and a broader, cheaper road it is.

This section's title carries just this meaning: a wall built up can be filled away. What fills it is not curses, nor reasons, but someone truly making another thing.

Three, this move is named: making scarcity no more

The second semester set a line: scarcity is the chessboard. This section can tell it a layer deeper. What does the wall-builder do? Said plain, he draws the chessboard small. Originally this thing was not rare; he pinches the supply, and the chessboard grows small; once the chessboard is small, the price of the same thing goes up on its own. All who feed on the wall do this one thing: turning what could be had into the only share.

The wall-filler does the opposite thing: drawing the chessboard big. Adding one more road, adding one more place that can make the same thing, adding one more thing that can stand in its place, and the chessboard grows big; once the chessboard is big, that wall lowers on its own, without anyone going to move it.

So the second strength of check and balance, said plain, is just one line: let that thing be scarce no more. It argues no reason with the wall-builder, nor expects the other side to yield; it simply opens another road from the side. The last section's kind was two hands each pressing one end; this kind is simply growing out one more hand.

Four, yet this road will not grow on its own

Here a lazy thought springs up most easily: then let us wait, for someone will open a road from the side anyway. This thought must be held off, for that road does not grow on its own; it asks for three things to be complete before it grows. First, there must be someone willing to stake money and try. Pressing carbon into that thing was a loss for the first ten-plus years; machines had to be bought, electricity burned, and furnace after furnace of spoiled materials written off, with no knowing which year it would succeed. This is the work of the scale that measures risk; chapter forty-four said: if that grid is given not a cent, no one will come to build this factory floor next year.

Second, there must be someone who knows how to make it. Knowing how to read blue-prints, how to calculate pressure and heat, how to adjust machines, and where to look when things go wrong. These men are taught out bit by bit by ten-plus years in schoolrooms, and a great part of that money for schoolrooms came from that grid spoken of in the last chapter.

Third, no one is allowed to stand in the way with an order to block this road. If a paper covenant reads that doing the same thing is forbidden, or an order says this business is allowed only to those few houses, then no matter how complete the first two are, they are of no use, and both money and men must sit idle there. This is why the fourth scale must always be watched by someone.

Bringing these three together to see, one sees the weightiest layer of this chapter: check and balance is not four rules glaring at one another with open eyes; it is each doing its own work well, and thereby pushing back the others of itself. The scale that bears risk being done well, someone is willing to try; the scale that measures need being done well, someone knows how to make it; the fourth being watched over, that road passes through. As the three each do their own, that wall lowers on its own.

This layer can also shine back on the last section. That kind of check and balance in the last section, two ends sitting down to speak, relies on men willing to come, willing to listen, and willing to record; this kind asks for no one's nod, and no one can block someone from trying in his own furnace. Both have their strong points: the kind that sits down to speak comes fast, yet it asks for someone willing to set that table; the kind that opens another road comes slow, taking ten or twenty years with no promise of success, yet once done, it needs turn back to beg no one. The check and balance among the four scales was never supported by one single strength alone.

Five, yet not all walls should be filled away

Told to here, one line must be added at once, lest one walk to the other end: not all walls are built up, nor should all walls be filled away. Some walls ought to be there, and must stand high and clear, with not a step allowed to turn around them: no putting children down into wells, no mixing what should not be mixed into food, no letting toxic water straight into rivers, covenants made must be owned, and debts owed must be paid. These walls block harm; chapter forty-five said: where the position of the fourth scale is narrowest is precisely these places.

Then how to divide them? Look at what that wall blocks. The wall that blocks harm, the clearer the better, the sturdier the better, with no one allowed to turn around it; the wall that blocks others from doing the same thing must bear a reason that can be spoken out, must bear a time limit, and must be watched over continuously to see whether it is willing to step back when the time is up.

These two kinds of walls often look identical from the outside, both being a paper document, both stamped with seals. The only way to divide them is to ask one question: what does this wall block? If what it blocks is someone coming to harm, then it should stand, and stand sturdier; if what it blocks is merely others coming to do the same thing, then ask on what ground—if a reason can be asked out, it may stay for a period; if no reason can be asked out, sooner or later someone will fill it away from the side.

At the end of this section, one line must be left for later. After that wall is filled away, will those who filled the wall become new wall-builders themselves? They will, and often do. Those factories pressing carbon in furnaces today may also go tomorrow to hold something others cannot make, pinching supply, and spreading a fine-sounding word. So this matter of filling walls is not done once and for all; it must be taken up generation by generation. Chapter forty-three said: that thought is in men's hearts, and so long as men remain men, it will not vanish; what can be done is not pulling it out, but keeping those three roads open always.

Six, what this section sets firm

What this section sets firm is one line: a wall built up can be filled away; what fills it is not curses, but someone truly making another thing. The wall-builder draws the chessboard small; the gap-filler draws the chessboard big. Yet that road will not grow on its own; it asks for three things to be complete: someone willing to stake money and try, someone who knows how to make it, and no command standing in the way to stop them. So check and balance is not four rules glaring at one another; it is each doing its own work well, and thereby pushing back the others of itself.

At the end, two kinds of walls must be divided clearly: the wall that blocks harm should stand high and clear, while the wall that blocks others from doing the same thing must bear a time limit and be watched over. The next section looks at the third kind of strength, the most unfeeling and knowing no person: no one fought it down, people just stopped buying.

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

Section 3: The Market’s Scale: No One Fought It Down, People Just Stopped Buying