VOLUME III, SEMESTER 4, CHAPTER 51, SECTION 2

VOLUME III, SEMESTER 4, CHAPTER 51, SECTION 2

Four Scales Joined Together Form a World Where People Can Live On

The previous section used that soup of Yanzi as a scale and measured through once, with all three layers aligning. This section does another matter: placing the items established across these eleven chapters back onto a human person item by item, to see what kind of place they ultimately form when gathered in one place.

The method of placing remains the old method. Chapter 42 used it once, taking a person's life as the thread; this section uses it once more, only this time, the items to be hung upon the thread have grown far more numerous.

1. Hanging This Diagram Back Upon a Human Life

A person arrives in the world. For the first three years output is zero, with food, clothing, and medical care lacking nothing, while no one calculates accounts with him; what measures him is that scale that asks not of contribution. This segment also requires human willingness: the mother gets up three times at night to change him once, feed him once, and burp him once—these are recorded on no table, nor will anyone come to inspect them.

From age three to eighteen, the schoolhouse is built, the teacher's salary is paid out, and textbooks are printed. A large portion of these funds comes from that slot in Chapter 46—that ownerless yield that was separated out. In the schoolhouse they teach him to read characters and do arithmetic, while also carving those few sentences in line by line: words spoken must count, taking unfair advantage is unseemly, and handling matters must do justice to one's own pair of hands.

At twenty-two, he goes to work, and the scale measuring him changes: switching from asking what he needs to asking how much he has done. That he can build a life upon this pair of hands relies on others having built the factory floor, bought the machinery, prepared the materials, and brought back the orders first; while the other side bears who pays if money is lost, what measures him is that scale measuring risk. Contending with that side over wages is contending over the exact same pancake baked together.

In his thirties, he manages three people—a servant looking up and a master looking down, with a rope tied to him on both ends. That debt due on the tenth of each month nails him to this job, making him swallow many words back down; while that small housing fund deducted from him each month is providing capital for another factory floor in the market, though he himself mostly does not yet know it.

In his forties, he perhaps strikes that gap: an illness, a layoff, or that craft in his hands suddenly being wanted by no one. At this moment three hands reach out: the hand at home is fastest yet most limited; the social portion does not know him personally, recognizing only that he has fallen into a gap; and there is a third hand, the slowest one, which is that path sending him back under that scale of distribution according to labor.

In his sixties, he can move no longer. The pension arrives monthly on account—that was not saved by him in his youth, but is what those going to work today are paying currently; what he paid in his youth was paid out to the elderly of that time back then. Generation cradling generation. Along this single thread, not a single one among the four scales is absent.

2. Outside This Single Line Sit Two More Layers

Yet this single line does not hang suspended in midair. A layer sits above it. That he can sign a contract that counts, find a place to seek justice when wages are withheld, and avoid worrying about his child being dragged down a coal mine relies on three matters being handled by someone—setting rules, arbitrating right and wrong, and exercising coercion—and that the person handling them does not step onto the field to do business. Chapter 49 stated that the table accessible from both ends is also provided by this layer.

A layer also sits underneath it. Given the exact same wage table, two workshops operate with two different outcomes; given the exact same set of rules, one place follows them dutifully while another slips through the seams. The missing piece is that soil dug out in Chapter 50: those few lines carved down generation by generation, walking through the factory gate together with the person.

Therefore, this diagram consists of three layers plus four scales: a patch of soil down below, a foundation layer in the middle, and a building up top, with the four scales running inside the foundation. Taken together, it forms a complete form.

3. This Diagram Is Called a Place Where People Can Live On

What, then, does this diagram gather to form? Stating it in a single sentence: a place where a person can live on. What does living on mean? Spoken plainly there are only three conditions, with nothing profound about them.

The first condition: those who exert effort have a fair outcome. The extra effort he puts in is recognized on the account, with the end-of-month figure matching up; he need not rely on begging others, on saving face, nor on staying close to anyone. The second condition: those unable to exert effort have a place of refuge. The infant, the elderly, the sick, and those who fall into a gap are caught by someone, and caught with full confidence and moral right; he need not look at anyone's expression, bow his head, nor feel that he is begging from others.

The third condition: those wishing to do something different have a path. He can afford to try and afford to lose, able to climb back up after losing; that wall is not so high as to block all paths, with one always remaining beside to walk through. When all three conditions are present, a person can live on. He knows his exertion is not in vain, knows someone catches him when taking a fall, and knows he can seek another path if disliking this one. These three joined together form that bit of steadiness inside a person's heart.

4. These Three Conditions Are Precisely What the Four Scales Look Like Upon a Person

Looking once more makes it clear that these three conditions are no new matter, but the four scales stated in another way. Having a fair outcome means the scale measuring contribution has been established. Having a place of refuge means the scale measuring need has been established, plus that slot of ownerless yield in Chapter 46 being returned. Being able to try means the scale measuring risk has been established, and also that those three paths in Chapter 47 remain open. And whether these three conditions can stand firm has the premise that the fourth scale is watched by people, with that wall forbidden from growing so tall as to block the paths.

Therefore, those three conditions are no ideals, but what has been established step by step across these eleven chapters when landing upon a concrete person. Stated in reverse, if any single condition is absent, one can trace backward to find which scale encountered trouble. Missing the first condition mostly stems from the scale measuring contribution being muddied: wages divided per head without distinction, or that capital slot being ridiculously thick while the labor end is thin beyond hope. Missing the second condition mostly stems from that list not based on contribution being written too thin, with essential matters omitted, or that ownerless yield being pocketed entirely by private hands. Missing the third condition mostly stems from that wall growing taller, while missing one among the three items that fill the wall.

This is where this diagram proves most practical: it is not merely pleasing to look at, but can be used for verification. When life proceeds unconfractably, a person often feels only stifled without explaining where it binds; asking down condition by condition through these three mostly reveals where trouble arose and where effort ought to be applied.

A word must be added lest these three conditions be misheard as meant only for the weak. These three conditions protect every single person, and often protect the exact same person at different ages in life. That thirty-eight-year-old person was twenty years ago the child who had to go home if unable to afford schooling, will twenty years later be the elderly person unable to move, and might in between strike a period when no one wants his craft. The three conditions protect not three types of people, but three stages in a single person's life. Seeing this layer clearly makes it hard to treat any single condition as someone else's affair.

5. Yet This Is No Perfect Diagram

A line must be made clear immediately here, lest this chapter slide into smooth platitudes. On this diagram, not a single spot is permanently settled. Boundaries must be revised year by year, that slot must be contested year by year, walls will grow back year by year, and those filling walls today may turn into wall-builders next year. Chapter 45 stating that boundaries must be revised year by year, Chapter 47 stating that filling walls is no one-time task, and Chapter 50 stating that what fills the seam is human willingness all address the exact same matter.

Therefore, this diagram is no finished painting hung up on a wall, but that pot of soup sitting continuously over the fire mentioned in the previous section. It requires people watching it, tasting it, adding to it, and venting from it. This is no flaw, but its living form. A diagram requiring no further seasoning is no good diagram, but a dead diagram. Chapter 43 stated that co-growing is no watering down; a word can be added here: co-growing is no tranquility either. Four scales growing individually and pushing against each other will naturally never be peaceful, nor ought they to be peaceful.

What truly ought to be worried about is never fierce quarreling, but suddenly falling silent. That line from Chapter 44 is stated here once more: whenever quarreling stops, it is mostly not mutual peace, but that one side has let go, or had their mouth pressed shut.

6. The Layer Established in This Section

What this section establishes clearly is a single line: four scales joined together gather to form a place where a person can live on. Living on requires three conditions: those who exert effort have a fair outcome, those unable to exert effort have a place of refuge, and those wishing to do something different have a path. These three conditions are precisely what the four scales look like upon a person, and missing any single one allows tracing backward to find which scale encountered trouble.

Outside these three conditions sit two more layers: the layer up top gives rules, arbitration, and that table; that patch of soil down below gives human willingness. Three layers plus four scales form a complete diagram. Yet this diagram is not perfect, nor ought it to be perfect: boundaries must be revised year by year, walls will grow year by year, and it is a pot of soup sitting continuously over the fire.

The next section unpacks that opening line of this semester: missing one fails to form a world, fails to form a system, and fails to form proper order. These three lines are not saying one line three times, but each deeper than the last.

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

Section 3: Missing One Fails to Form a World, Fails to Form a System, and Fails to Form Proper Order