VOLUME IV, CHAPTER 14, SECTION 3
What This Work Is, to the Reader Five Hundred Years From Now
The sections before made clear how this work differs from the great thinkers of five hundred years, what is distinctive in it, and its research posture. But one deepest question is still unanswered. What place does this book actually hold in five hundred years of the history of human political thought? Whom does it carry on from? Who is the person who wrote it? This section answers that question clearly, then closes the whole of Volume IV, and last says a few words to the reader five hundred years from now.
One. What this book is not
First, honestly, what this book is not. This book is not a continuation of the Western Enlightenment. From Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau to present-day scholars, the Western Enlightenment makes up one continuous tradition, its core individual rights, the social contract, the separation of powers, and representative democracy. This book's claims differ from it at the root. That the institutions of enfeoffment are the political institution is not a claim the Western Enlightenment cares about. That centralized authority is a life-level law runs against the Western Enlightenment's leaning to oppose concentrated power. So this book is not carrying on from Locke and Montesquieu.
Nor is this book a development of Marxism. The core of Marxism is class struggle, historical materialism, and the communist vision. This book starts from a wholly different root. Output greater than need plus no torment is a claim set firm independently, not a dialogue or an inheritance. Nor is this book a continuation of present-day Western academic study. The study of Western scholars in recent years is an important reference for this book, but this book does not carry on from any one particular school. It has its own root, its own angle, its own combination of claims.
Two. This book carries on what the ancestors said
Having covered what it is not, set firm that this book carries on what the ancestors said. There are three ancestors. Han Feizi, who brought the Legalist school to completion: affairs lie in the four quarters, the key lies at the center. He laid the theoretical foundation of centralized authority, eighteen hundred to two thousand years earlier than any similar thought in the West. Li Si, chancellor of Qin, whose court debate on enfeoffment against commanderies and counties set firm the root choice, pushing to abolish enfeoffment, set up commanderies and counties, and unify the standards. He was the one who carried centralized authority out. The First Emperor, who unified China twenty-two hundred years ago and turned the institution into reality through five great undertakings. He was the one who brought centralized authority down to the ground. These three set firm centralized authority as the root structure of the political institution, a structure that has lasted twenty-two hundred years and shapes every great power today.
There is also the thirteen-century tradition of the examination, from the Sui to the Qing, which set firm examination plus an objective standard plus many rounds of screening as the root mechanism of merit selection, letting common people enter the system of positions through their own effort, the crystallized collective wisdom of thirteen hundred years. This book carries on from these. It sets firm enfeoffment as the root starting point of the political institution, sets firm the examination as a present-day law crossing the ages, extends centralized authority to every organized group, and sets firm expansion as the ultimate goal, carrying on the First Emperor's practice of going south into Lingnan and turning it into theory. This is the real thing in carrying on what the ancestors said. It is not inventing something wholly new. It is compiling, extending, systematizing, applying across domains, setting the ancestors' wisdom firm again today, and going on down from the system that already existed twenty-two hundred years ago.
Three. The two positions of this work, compiler and thinker
Honestly set firm the two positions of this work. In the earlier volumes, the position here is that of a compiler. Compiling the wisdom the ancestors had twenty-two hundred years ago, compiling the thirteen-century tradition of the examination, compiling the actual experience of countries the world over today, compiling the frame of understanding of cross-domain centralized authority, compiling the claim of output greater than need plus no torment, and setting firm the posture of laying out both sides.
The compiler's work has its value. It keeps the ancestors' wisdom from being forgotten, brings together wisdom scattered across different ages and different texts, lets today's reader apply it, and gives future researchers a starting point. But this work's position does not stop at compiler. In the later volume on saving people, the position turns to thinker. Once the earlier volumes have laid the foundation firm, that volume makes long-range new institutional designs for humankind's politics, economy, culture, and law, carrying the ancestors' wisdom plus today's experience forward, a deployment ahead of its time. Compiling comes first, laying the foundation firm, so the reader sees these claims were not made out of nothing. Founding comes after, showing its own step, a deployment for humankind's common future. The humility of the compiler and the responsibility of the thinker join in this book into one complete posture.
Four. Who wrote this book
By here, the reader will want to know who actually wrote this book. Here it is, honestly. The one who wrote this book is a real person, born in the city of Guangzhou on the twenty-ninth of May, nineteen sixty-two, an ordinary person of this age. He is not a thinker, not a philosopher, not a political scientist. As for his position as compiler in the earlier volumes, he is only someone who took the wisdom of the ancestors of twenty-two hundred years ago, the thirteen-century tradition of the examination, and the actual experience of countries the world over today, and compiled them into a textbook that can be handed down to those who come after.
He did not write this book to prove himself. He wrote it so the ancestors' wisdom would not be forgotten, so today's reader would have a tool of understanding independent of any single discourse, and so humankind's common future would have more resources to draw on. This book is not for sale. It is kept on the internet free forever, updated again and again for as long as he lives, a gift offered to humankind, not a commodity. This book may still be read hundreds of years from now, or it may soon be forgotten. He makes no prediction. He only writes the book well and hands it to the reader. The relay of readers, one generation after another, is what truly decides this book's fate.
Five. The whole picture of Volume IV
By here, put the whole picture of Volume IV together. Volume IV, Political Institutions, set firm the root structure of the political institution. Part One, enfeoffment, set firm that the institutions of enfeoffment are the political institution, made clear the forms of the six kinds of enfeoffment, and set firm that enfeoffment will not abolish itself. Part Two, the examination, set firm that the examination is not history but a law of merit selection already running the moment a child is educated, made clear the three things that must all be in place, and set firm that the examination crosses East and West and crosses the ages.
Part Three, centralized authority, set firm that centralized authority is a life-level law crossing every organized group, made clear that the First Emperor's breakthrough is the forefather of humankind's political institutions, set firm expansion as the ultimate goal, the laws of failure, and the cross-domain application, and made clear the three root structures of enfeoffment plus the examination plus centralized authority. Part Four put this book into five hundred years of the history of human political thought, and set firm the method of laying out both sides plus the root posture of carrying on what the ancestors said. The four Parts together: the first three are the political institution itself, how a position exists, how the person in the position is selected by merit, how the decision-center runs; Part Four is the position of the one who studies the political institution. Joined together, they make up a complete frame of understanding of the political institution. This is the heaviest volume of this book.
Six. The bridge to Volume V, Legal Institutions
Volume IV set firm the three root structures of the political institution, but this set of position plus person plus decision still needs the enforcing force of legal institutions to secure it. One of the five laws set firm in the section on failure is fiscal collapse, and the running of a fiscal system needs legal institutions to hold it up. Tax, public finance, and the monetary system are all concrete forms of legal institutions. The coordination and balance set firm in the section on the three structures needs legal institutions to provide the frame for carrying it out. The separation of powers, judicial independence, and equality before the law are all concrete content of legal institutions.
So Volume V, Legal Institutions, is the natural continuation of Volume IV. Legal institutions are the enforcing guarantee of political institutions. Without legal institutions, the rules of a political institution are only agreements on paper. Without the enforcing force of legal institutions, any political structure is easily broken. They are also the enforcing guarantee of cultural institutions and economic institutions. No torment needs legal guarantees such as anti-discrimination and anti-monopoly law, and fair distribution needs legal guarantees such as tax and social security. Volume V, Legal Institutions, is completed by another compiler, of one line with this volume under the structure of the whole book. It will open out the origin, forms, and running of law, its present-day forms, the evolution of China's legal institutions, failure and rebuilding, and the running of legal institutions beyond the category of politics in every organized group. After Volume V there are still the volumes on saving people and on hope, joining the volumes together in the practice of governing, so that no torment, output greater than need, enfeoffment plus the examination plus centralized authority, and legal institutions work with each other and check each other in actual governing. This is the deepest part of the whole book, and the most practical.
Seven. To the reader five hundred years from now
Closing Volume IV, a few words to the reader five hundred years from now. If you can still read this book five hundred years from now, please remember that the one who wrote it was a person of this age, born in the city of Guangzhou on the twenty-ninth of May, nineteen sixty-two. At that time humankind faced many challenges at once, climate change, population structure, technological change, geopolitical conflict. At that time China was rising. At that time the world was thinking its common future through anew. At this moment in history, this person did a piece of compiling work, bringing the ancestors' wisdom of twenty-two hundred years ago together with today's experience, hoping to leave those who come after a frame of understanding that can be carried on in relay.
This book is not for sale. It is kept on the internet free forever, a gift offered to humankind. Reader five hundred years from now, you have a wider view, deeper experience, and newer wisdom than the people of this age. Please carry on from where this book leaves off, and push humankind's political wisdom further. The work this person did today is only one stop on a long relay. Everything said in this book is said from today's position, as honestly as he could manage. Future researchers may supplement it, correct it, overturn it. That is their proper part, and it is the root way human thought moves forward.
Eight. The position this section lays down, and the formal close of Volume IV
By here, the thirty-seventh layer is set, and Volume IV, Political Institutions, formally comes to a close. Volume IV, in four Parts and thirty-seven layers, set firm the complete picture of the political institution: the three root structures of enfeoffment, the examination, and centralized authority, plus the honest position of this book in five hundred years of the history of human political thought. This book is not a continuation of the Western Enlightenment, not a development of Marxism, not a continuation of present-day Western scholarship. It carries on what the ancestors said twenty-two hundred years ago. The one who wrote it is a compiler in the earlier volumes, and a thinker in the later volume on saving people.
All the claims Volume IV set firm serve in the end one deeper question: can humankind, under the reasonable running of political institutions, walk toward a better common future? The answer to this question is output greater than need plus no torment. This dream runs through the whole book, the highest goal the whole structure of the book serves. What this book hands the reader is not a conclusion to accept without condition, but a set of tools of understanding. The reader can use the frame of enfeoffment to analyze the politics of their own country, the angle of the examination to analyze how their own organization selects talent, the tool of centralized authority plus the five powers to analyze the enterprise, family, and association they are in, and the five laws of failure to watch for the risks in their own organization. This set of tools is not an end, it is a beginning. Once the reader has the tools, their own study and judgment have only just begun. Please turn to Volume V, Legal Institutions, and read on.
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.