VOLUME IV, CHAPTER 14, SECTION 2
Centralized Authority Across Domains, and the Method of Laying Out Both Sides
Last section restored China's institution objectively and set firm the posture of laying out both sides. This section gathers together the two most important things this whole volume gives the reader: cross-domain centralized authority, a tool for seeing the world, and laying out both sides, a posture for writing about the world. One is a tool of understanding, one is a posture of study, and together they are the deepest gift this volume leaves the reader.
Reading to the close of the whole volume, the reader may ask, of the many contents of this volume, enfeoffment, the examination, centralized authority, expansion, the comparison of claims, the highest vision, and the rest, which are the two most important, the two I can truly carry away and use? This book's answer is clear, the two most important are cross-domain centralized authority plus laying out both sides. Cross-domain centralized authority is a tool for seeing the world, letting the reader see clearly the running mechanism of any organization. Laying out both sides is a posture for writing about the world, letting the reader analyze any person or thing objectively, reaching no verdict lightly. One is a tool, one is a posture, together the deepest gift this volume leaves the reader, usable not only on the study of politics but on every organization the reader is in and everything the reader meets.
First gather the first tool, cross-domain centralized authority. Its core is that centralized authority is a life-level law crossing every organized group, and any organization can be analyzed through several concrete angles. Ask first, is this organization enterprise type or enfeoffment type. The enterprise type exists for a venture and can run fully by merit selection. The enfeoffment type exists for its own continuation and can adopt merit selection only in part. The first step of analyzing an organization is to see this clearly, or one applies the wrong logic, an enterprise type run as an enfeoffment type must be beaten, an enfeoffment type run as an enterprise type must fall into disorder. Ask next, where is the center of this organization, one person, a few people, or a set of mechanisms. Ask next, to whom do the five powers of this organization belong, the power of decision, appointment, finance, information, and arbitration, all concentrated in one place or scattered among different hands. Ask next, what is the irreplaceable function of this organization, and does it cross the line into another organization's territory. Ask last, which of the five laws of failure threaten this organization, unstable succession, fiscal collapse, factional strife, ideological hardening, or inner and outer troubles arriving at once. These questions together make up a complete tool for analyzing any organization, and the reader can take it to the country, enterprise, family, and association they are in, and see clearly the actual running mechanism, not fooled by the surface title of a position, finding the real belonging of power and the possible weak points. This tool crosses the state, the enterprise, the family, the army, and the association, being the concrete extension of centralized authority as a life-level law, and the deepest use-value of this volume.
Now gather the second posture, laying out both sides. Its core is, facing any person, thing, institution, country, or civilization, set out both its sides, the good and the cost, the advantage and the limit, reach no verdict lightly, hand the judgment to the reader. This posture ran through the whole volume. Facing the six kinds of enfeoffment, this book laid out the advantage and the cost of each, reaching no verdict on which is best. Facing the examination, this book laid out its brilliance and its hardening. Facing centralized authority, this book laid out why it works and why it fails. Facing expansion, this book passed no verdict of right and wrong, laying out only the different undertones. Facing China and America, this book restored both sides of each, reaching no verdict on which is better. Facing democracy, this book laid out its advantages and its limits. This posture is not fence-sitting and not a lack of view, it is a discipline, a deep respect for the complexity of the object, an unwillingness to flatten a complex thing with a simple verdict, and a trust in and respect for the reader, believing the reader has the ability to judge and needing no one to reach the verdict for them.
Why is the posture of laying out both sides so important? Because most conflict and misunderstanding in the world comes from single-sidedness, seeing only one side of a thing, taking that one side as the whole, and reaching a simple verdict. Seeing only the advantage of an institution and not its cost, one worships it blindly. Seeing only the cost and not the advantage, one denies it wholly. Seeing only the good of a country and not its problem, one flatters it. Seeing only the problem and not the good, one demonizes it. Single-sidedness is the root of much conflict in the world. The posture of laying out both sides is the antidote, forcing oneself to see both sides of a thing, its good and its cost, its advantage and its limit, before reaching any verdict. Once you form this habit you find that most things, once both sides are laid out, cannot be reached with a simple verdict of good or bad, and that is exactly the true face of the world, complex, many-sided, hard to cover with one word. The posture of laying out both sides is not only a research method, it is a way of thinking and a way of being, letting a person become sober, tolerant, and deep, no longer led along by single-sided views, no longer flattering or demonizing at the least thing, but seeing the many sides of a thing and judging on their own.
Set firm one important source. The posture of laying out both sides is not this book's invention, its root is in a great tradition of Chinese historiography, Sima Qian's writing the record straight. More than two thousand years ago, Sima Qian, writing the Records of the Grand Historian, set firm a principle, to write both a person's merit and their fault, not to flatter and not to demean. Writing of Liu Bang, the founding emperor of the very dynasty he served, Sima Qian wrote his greatness and his meanness, his generosity and his suspicion, not glorifying him because he was the founding emperor. Writing of Xiang Yu, Liu Bang's defeated foe, Sima Qian wrote his heroism and his fatal flaws, not demeaning him because he was the loser, and even placed Xiang Yu among the basic annals reserved for emperors, an honor. This tradition of writing both merit and fault, not flattering and not demeaning, is the historiographical root of this book's laying out both sides. This book carries this tradition forward from the study of history to the study of political institutions, facing any institution, any country, any civilization, laying out both sides as Sima Qian did, reaching no verdict lightly. Once again this confirms that this book carries on from the ancestors, its methodological root in a great tradition of Chinese historiography, not in a Western method. This is one of the deepest things this book carries forward from the ancestors, taking the spirit of writing the record straight from the writing of history into the study of political institutions.
Join the two, cross-domain centralized authority plus laying out both sides, one a tool for seeing the world, one a posture for writing about the world, together making up the deepest gift of this volume. With the tool, the reader can see clearly the running mechanism of any organization. With the posture, the reader can analyze any person or thing objectively. The tool without the posture, one may misuse it to attack a certain organization. The posture without the tool, one may lay out both sides and yet be unable to see deep into the running mechanism. The two joined, the reader can both see clearly the running of any organization and analyze it objectively, this being the complete thinking ability this volume hopes to leave the reader. This ability crosses politics, usable on the country the reader is in, the company they work in, the family they live in, the association they take part in, and on any person or thing they meet, the true use-value of this volume, not memorizing a set of political-science knowledge, but gaining a tool for seeing the world plus a posture for writing about the world, and taking them to see clearly one's own life and the world one is in.
So here is the position this section lays down. Cross-domain centralized authority is a tool for seeing the world, letting the reader see clearly the running mechanism of any organization through the several angles of the enterprise type against the enfeoffment type, the center, the five powers, the division of function, and the laws of failure. Laying out both sides is a posture for writing about the world, letting the reader set out both sides of any person or thing, reach no verdict lightly, hand the judgment on, its root in the great tradition of Sima Qian's writing the record straight. The two joined make up the deepest gift of this volume, one a tool, one a posture, crossing politics, usable on every organization the reader is in and everything they meet. The real thing for the reader is to truly take these two things away, no longer be fooled by the surface title of a position but see the real belonging of power, no longer be led along by single-sided views but see the many sides of a thing, and this is a far greater gain than remembering a set of political-science knowledge, a thinking ability usable for a lifetime. The last section is the close of the whole volume, covering where this book actually stands, who wrote it, and to whom it hands the word.
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.