VOLUME III, SEMESTER 4, CHAPTER 52, SECTION 2
Reviewing Item by Item What Has Been Established Firmly in This Volume
This volume discussed four semesters. The first semester discussed the slavery system; the second semester discussed the capitalist system; the third semester discussed the socialist system and the communist system; and this semester discussed how these four items combine into a single diagram. Before handing over, the elements established firmly across these four semesters are pointed through item by item. Pointing through does not mean repeating what was said before; it means taking out those sentences that stood firm across these dozens of chapters, laying them out in a row, and seeing what they actually say when combined together. Only when pointed through cleanly can it be handed over clearly, and only then can the next volume connect to it properly.
1. What Was Established Firmly in the First Semester
The first semester started from a breakfast made by no single person. A master opened his eyes, and breakfast was already prepared and laid on the table—he had never cooked a meal in his entire life; whereas that person cooking for him held his three meals, his stomach, and his life—a pinch of something sprinkled into that pot, and he would be done for.
The leading line established firmly in that semester was: One who accepts restraint is a servant/slave (奴); one who applies restraint is a master (主). Servant and master are positions, not identities. The second line established firmly right after was: Restraint is two-way, never one side pulling the other.That master held the servant's freedom, while the servant held the master's life—two directions of restraint pulling in opposite ways, biting into each other.
There were several more lines used continuously throughout this semester. The artificial/effort (偽) is neutral, good or bad depends on that pair of hands, and the more refined the effort, the harder it is to identify. There is no exception to the position that material conditions come first; reading differences in position as differences in moral character is the most common trick of artificial effort. Seeking profit is an instinct and a duty, not evil; Sima Qian wrote long ago that seeking wealth is human nature, desired without being taught. When one side dominates alone, disaster comes to the other side; running side by side without conflict does not mean not quarreling. The starting point of humanity was not selfishness, but sharing; unearned yield belongs to the public.
Those final two lines were the heaviest: The firmest lock is not made of iron, but made of accounts; formal freedom means he has the right to say no, whereas substantive freedom means he has the capital to say no. There was also that overriding statement: A slave owner is also a slave; the higher the position, the more the restraints; the way out lies not in rising, but in remaining clear-headed.
2. What Was Established Firmly in the Second Semester
The second semester deconstructed that mirror that had shone for over a hundred years. For an entire semester, the components upon that mirror were taken off one by one and laid onto the table; upon reaching the very end of deconstruction, what stood firm were these few lines. Capital has no eyes, no heart, and no mind of its own—it is dead momentum; what is truly moving is human beings. Scarcity is the chessboard; the chessboard is not set up by the chess player, yet every move must be played upon the chessboard. A revenue stream of ten million flows out slot by slot—wages, raw materials, depreciation, delivery, taxes, reinvestment, and interest—and only the last remaining slot falls to the boss; that slot is compensation for bearing risk, not a sum appearing out of thin air.
There were two lines used no less than ten times this semester. The first line was: walk up close to look, look underneath it; sticking labels from a distance takes the least effort, yet is the most useless. The second line was: economics is not politics; two positions govern different matters, and crossing positions breeds chaos.
That semester also left behind several visual images that were used continuously throughout this semester: those seven ledger slots of that chair factory, that boulder that held up for over a hundred years, that company that manufactured film for a century, and that weaver at forty whose cloth suddenly no one bought. These few images were more useful than ten theoretical statements; students mostly remembered those principles through them.
3. What Was Established Firmly in the Third Semester
The third semester discussed two scales: one measuring contribution, and one measuring need; two scales with opposite principles, yet placed side by side on the exact same ledger for decades. The leading line established firmly was: Doing one's best is the cause, while distribution according to need is the effect; what is truly needed is never a particular method of distribution, but sufficient productive capacity. Method of division answers how to divide; it cannot answer whether there is anything to divide.
The second line was levels: the closer the level of relationship, the stronger the distribution according to need; between a person and his mother no ledger is kept, whereas between a city and a nation what is relied upon is system and amounts handed over item by item. This is not human heart growing thinner layer by layer, nor someone being more generous than another—it is that the range a single person can attend to is naturally limited.
The third line discussed the Living Lei Feng: there are nine types of things that can be given away for nothing, counting from that outermost bit of time all the way to that innermost heart; and healthy giving flows out from abundance, not squeezing out from deficit by burning oneself out.
The two deepest lines were left at the end: Mechanisms guard the bottom line, while virtue determines the height; the foundation for executing distribution according to need is not mechanism, but virtue—and virtue belongs to culture, while culture is the common root of economics, politics, and law. This final line served as that exact interface picked up in Chapter 50 of this semester.
4. What Was Established Firmly in This Semester
This semester started from that chair factory building in the suburban area on a most ordinary morning, establishing firmly the following lines. The first line: These four items are not four historical stages, but four elements—today living simultaneously upon a single ledger, upon a single person, and within a single human life. Stages are queuing in line, whereas elements are simultaneous; reading sequence as replacement labels every item as backward or advanced, leading to the belief that servitude belongs to the past and will disappear on its own—so when it changes skin and stands right before one's eyes, one fails to recognize it.
The second line: Four scales measure four distinct matters—contribution, need, risk, and coercion; all four matters are real, so not a single scale can be removed—the first three cannot be removed, and the fourth cannot be ignored. The third line was the four shared dimensions (四共): coexistence (共存)—not a single item is eliminated, nor can a single item dominate alone, and each of the four must remain complete rather than diluted; co-living (共生)—pulling out one renders the rest sick, where distribution according to labor serves as grain and fodder for distribution according to need, while distribution according to need serves as courage for distribution according to labor; co-dwelling (共處)—each guarding its boundary, where crossing boundaries holds only two forms: over-regulating and over-releasing, and crossing boundaries is often filling a vacant position, which indicates the primary position was left empty; co-sharing (共享)—that with an owner belongs to the owner, while that without an owner belongs to the public.
The fourth line was the three paths of checks and balances: people can still speak out, people can still produce something else, and people can still choose not to buy. With all three paths open, no single item can grow into sole dominance. The fifth line was the three layers: culture is the root, economics is the foundation, and politics and law are the superstructure; the foundation supports the superstructure rather than determining everything, and all three layers support and pull each other.
Finally, there was that overriding statement: Missing one fails to form a world, fails to form a system, and fails to form proper order; the four items are distinct from one another, yet able to harmonize—the exemplary person harmonizes without conforming (君子和而不同).
There was also one more thing brought along all the way through these four semesters, not found in sentences, but in methodology: Whenever explaining any concept, lay out position first, without passing judgment. Discussing servitude did not scold the master; discussing capital did not scold the boss; discussing distribution according to need did not flatter it; and discussing that wall did not point fingers at anyone. Across hundreds of thousands of words in four semesters, right or wrong was never judged for the reader even once; positions were merely laid out place by place for the reader to see for themselves. This single methodology matters more than any conclusion, because conclusions become outdated, while this method of laying out positions does not.
5. These Dozens of Sentences Are Actually Just One Single Sentence
Laying out the statements from these four semesters in a row reveals that beneath them lies the exact same single sentence. That sentence is: Walk up close to look, look underneath it, and what is seen are positions, not good and evil. Looking at master and servant in the first semester revealed positions. Looking at that mirror in the second semester revealed positions after deconstructing it, rather than a group of bad people. Looking at the two scales in the third semester revealed two positions each governing one matter. Looking at how the four items combine in this semester revealed four positions, three layers, and several boundaries.
Four semesters, one single sentence. And the most vital use of this single sentence lies not in debate, but in handling practical affairs: if a person can clearly see which side he stands on at this moment, clearly see where that restraint comes from and where it pulls him, and clearly see what he still holds in hand, he will not panic when handling affairs, nor hate others, nor resign himself to fate. That sentence from the first semester can be repeated once more: the way out lies not in rising, but in remaining clear-headed.
Students do not need to remember all of these dozens of sentences, nor can they. Remembering that single sentence is enough; when encountering affairs, bring it out and use it once, and the rest will return on their own.
6. The Layer Established in This Section
What this section establishes clearly is a single line: Beneath the dozens of sentences established firmly across four semesters lies the exact same single sentence. The first semester established position and two-way restraint; the second semester deconstructed that mirror and restored capital to dead momentum; the third semester established two scales and dug down to virtue and culture; and this semester combined the four items into a single diagram, establishing the four shared dimensions, checks and balances, and arranging the three layers properly.
What they say together is: walk up close to look, look underneath it, and what is seen are positions, not good and evil. Having pointed through them, it is time to hand over. Yet before handing over, there remains one more task to handle: what this volume has answered, and which few questions it cannot answer and ought not be answered by it. The next section lays out these few questions in their original form, handing them over to the next volume.
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.
Section 3: The Four Items Are Placed in Position, but Who Comes to Draw That Boundary