VOLUME VI, CHAPTER 4, SECTION 4

VOLUME VI, CHAPTER 4, SECTION 4

How Big That Lock Is, Driving Dynasties to Rise and Fall for Thousands of Years, and All It Draws In Are People

The last section had you press down the fire that wants to strike people, and see clearly that the collusion of officials and business is a mechanism that turns of itself. This section takes you to look higher, to see clearly how big this mechanism has spread, how big a thing it has done, and then to come back down to the ground and see clearly what kind of people are drawn into this chain. See this section through, and you will understand fully why, from the start, you have been held back, held from cursing, held from striking.

You probably feel that the collusion of officials and business is a scatter of rotten little things, a corrupt official here, a bribe there, a piece of dirty money here, a vermin there. One thing and another, scattered about in various places, individual bad deeds done by a few bad apples. Let me tell you, look from a height and you will see a thing that sends a chill down your spine. It is not scattered. It is an industrial chain. And it is the largest industrial chain on this earth.

Let me break it open for you, why it is called an industrial chain, and not a scatter of rotten things. Think, that mechanism of using means to reach ends from the last section, business trading money for the official's power, the official trading power for business's money, once it starts turning, it grows of itself. How does it grow? The official took business's money, so he has to shelter this business. To shelter this business, he has to go work on the officials higher up, take the money this business gave him, and feed it upward. The higher official takes it, and he in turn has to shelter, has to work on, the ones higher still, one layer feeding the next, one layer sheltering the next. On the business side it is the same. One businessman clasps onto an official, tastes the sweetness, and the other businessmen, not clasping on, lose out, get crowded out, and so every one of them has to clasp on too. The colluding officials grow more and more, the colluding businessmen grow more and more, and the money and the power, in the middle of this, layer by layer, ring by ring, flow, roll, and grow.

You see, this is no longer a scatter of isolated rotten things, this is a chain, ring locked into ring, rolling of itself, growing of itself. One end joined to the lowest petty clerk handling matters, the one who torments you at the front line, and one end joined to the highest power. One end joined to the small shop by the roadside, and one end joined to the giant rich enough to rival a nation. Money flows from this end to that, power protects from that end to this, and countless rings in between, ring locked into ring. This is what is called an industrial chain.

Then why is it called the largest one? Think, the other industrial chains in this world, the ones selling oil, making cars, making chips, however large, are still one industry each. But this chain of the collusion of officials and business does not pick an industry. The oil sellers have to clasp on, the carmakers have to clasp on, the chipmakers have to clasp on, the restaurant owners have to clasp on, the housebuilders have to clasp on, and so long as it is a place where there is power that can manage and money to be earned, this chain can reach in. It is not the industrial chain of any one industry, it is the chain that parasitizes on the body of every industry. In every industry, there is a ring of it.

It parasitizes on the body of every industry, and sucks the blood of every industry. And the blood of every industry, at bottom, where does it come from? It comes from you, from every ordinary person who buys things, pays taxes, gets matters handled. So this chain, in the end, sucks the blood of everyone. Reckon it, it parasitizes on every industry, sucks everyone's blood, coils in every corner of the globe where there is power and money, and in this world, is there any industrial chain larger than it? There is not. The oil sellers, the chipmakers, however large, are one industry. It is the one that rides on the head of every industry and sucks everyone's blood. It is the largest industrial chain on this earth.

Seeing how big it is, let me take you higher, to see the biggest thing this chain has done, over thousands of years. It has driven one dynasty after another, round after round, to rise, and to fall. Let me draw this round, this circle, out for you. See this circle, and you understand one thing. That earth-shaking matter, the change of dynasties, is very often not decided by the will of any hero, any muddled ruler, any treacherous minister. It is this chain, underneath, driving it to turn of itself.

See how this circle turns. A dynasty, newly founded. At the start, it is often clear and clean, for in the founding days the watch is tight, and that chain is still thin, still does not dare to run too wild. But so long as this chain of using means to reach ends is still there, as the sections above said, it grows of itself, and as the days go on, ring by ring, layer by layer, it rolls itself big. The official clasps business, business feeds the official, one layer feeds the next, and it rolls thicker and thicker, coils deeper and deeper. Rolling on, this chain grows thick enough to bind the whole court, to bind the whole machine of politics, and the front-line torment, the harsh taxes and sundry levies, the selling of offices and titles, all come. The thicker this chain rolls, the more blood it sucks. Whose blood does it suck? At bottom, it sucks the blood of the lowest ones, the ones farming, the ones laboring, the ones paying taxes, the common people. When the chain rolls to its thickest, the common people's blood is sucked dry, the harsh taxes and sundry levies grow heavy enough that they cannot live, the front-line torment grows fierce enough that there is nowhere to reason it out. This is called the people having no way to live. The people having no way to live, at the end of it, the common people cannot live and they rise up. All under heaven falls into chaos, and this dynasty collapses.

And after it collapses? New people found a new dynasty. The new dynasty, at the start, is again clear and clean, because that old thick chain collapsed together with the old dynasty, was shattered. But once the new dynasty is founded, so long as the road of the official having power, business having money, and trading the two is still there, that chain of using means to reach ends, from a thin one again, begins to grow anew. One layer feeds the next, and again ring by ring it rolls big, rolls to the last years of the next dynasty, and again sucks the common people's blood dry, and again the people have no way to live, and again it collapses, and again the dynasty changes. One round. One circle. Another round. Another circle. For thousands of years, it has turned just this way.

Now let me point out for you the most important line of this section. This changing of dynasties, round after round, is not governed by the will of any person. Look back at that circle. The dynasty is clear and clean because the chain is thin. The dynasty collapses because the chain has rolled thick enough to suck the blood dry. From clear-and-clean to collapse rests not on a good emperor appearing and it being clean, a muddled ruler appearing and it collapsing. It rests on that chain, rolling of itself, growing of itself, and rolling to a certain point, the dynasty is bound to death by it, sucked dry, driven down.

Put a good emperor up there, and sitting in that seat, that chain of using means to reach ends still rolls of itself beneath him, and he can hold it back for a time, but he cannot hold back the force of that chain growing of itself. Swap out all the treacherous ministers in the court, and so long as that road is still there, new people sit down, and that chain grows new rings of itself. Found a wholly new dynasty, shatter the old chain to pieces, and on the foundation of the new dynasty, that chain begins, from a thin one, to grow anew. Swap in a good emperor, swap out the treacherous ministers, found a new dynasty, none of these can hold back this change, round after round. Because what drives it to turn is not the will of any one person, it is that chain that rolls of itself, grows of itself, its own force. It turns of itself underneath, driving the dynasties, one after another, to rise, to fall, for thousands of years, at the mercy of no one.

See this circle clearly, and you understand fully why, from the front, you have been held back, held from cursing villains, from bringing people down. For thousands of years, how many have cursed those corrupt officials and treacherous ministers of the dynasty's last days as villains, how many have dragged them out, toppled them and started over in a change of dynasty, and that chain, that mechanism, has not moved an inch, and the next dynasty, just the same, rolls from clear-and-clean, ring by ring, to the people having no way to live. For thousands of years, people have all along been striking people, and never once undid that mechanism, and so for thousands of years that circle has kept turning, and never stopped.

This is the reason for taking you up this high. Only from this high, seeing clearly this turning, round after round, at the mercy of no one's will, will you believe, with your whole heart, that to make this circle stop rests on nothing like bringing down one more batch of people, thousands of years have proven that useless, it rests on going to undo that mechanism which, in thousands of years, was never once undone.

From that high place, come slowly down, down to the ground, down onto the living people, one by one. Because, having seen the mechanism clearly, in the end you always have to come back to people, it is people, one by one, caught up in this chain. Let me take you to see what kind of people are drawn in.

The first thing, one pot of rice raises a hundred kinds of people. This chain does not pick a system, does not pick a dynasty, and so long as there is the official's power, business's money, and the road of trading the two, this chain will grow. Why? Because one pot of rice raises a hundred kinds of people. One pot of rice raises a hundred kinds, the especially upright, the especially proper, and always some few who cannot hold out, cannot bear up, who let that thought stir. Under any system at all, there are, among these hundred kinds of people, those few kinds who will be drawn into this chain. So do not hope that changing the system will mean no more collusion of officials and business. So long as it is still people doing it, one pot of rice raising a hundred kinds, those few kinds are still there, and that chain still has people drawn into it.

The second thing, more important, those people who are drawn in, how do they think? You suppose a corrupt person knows clear as day, in his heart, that he is doing evil, that he is a bad person? He does not. Every corrupt person feels he has a just reason. Not one corrupt person, in his heart, thinks I am doing evil, I am a bad person. Every one has found himself a reason, and, what is more, he truly believes that reason, this is what I deserve, I work so hard, I too am doing it to keep my family, everyone does this, if I do not take it I am the fool. Look back at that line this book set up all along, the ones who drive people to the wall all feel they are fighting for justice. The corrupt person is the same, he does not feel he is evil, he feels he is in the right. So point at him and curse, you villain, and in his heart he does not accept it at all. And there is one more thing, he dares because he supposes heaven does not know, earth does not know. He supposes he is hidden in the dark, no one watching him, and it is precisely because he supposes no one sees that he dares put out that hand.

These two things hold two keys. He feels he is in the right, does not accept that he is evil, so cursing him, striking him, is no use, he does not accept it, and he has to come to understand it himself, and that is a matter of education, of character. He dares only because he supposes heaven and earth do not know, so put him under the light, let everyone watch, and that supposition of his that no one sees is gone, and he himself no longer dares, and that is a matter of oversight. These two keys are told in detail later. Seeing these two turns of the human heart clearly, let me draw this section in to that most important line, the problem is in the lock, not in the people. The ones drawn into this chain are people, but these people are, among the hundred kinds one pot of rice raises, the ones drawn in by that self-turning chain, and having been drawn in, they still feel they are in the right, still suppose no one sees. They are not born demons. They are, one by one, ordinary people, drawn in by that lock, that mechanism, bound by it, and their eyes blinded by it besides. So the thing that truly ought to be dealt with is that lock, not these people the lock drew in. And this joins back to that line this book has set up, from the third chapter on, there is no villain, there is only the lock to be undone, and the people who are locked. The next section takes you back down to the ground, to see what shape that lock takes in the human world, and how, mouthful by mouthful, it bites you.

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