VOLUME VI, CHAPTER 5, SECTION 12
There Are Plenty of Good People to Step In, and the Law Is Not Piled High
The last section invited the corrupt, those who harmed, the benefit-takers, all out of the door of holding the law, and set up the rules for choosing officials going forward, resting on that heart, hold a license, be reviewed yearly, be reforged. This section first undoes your last solid worry, invite the people all out, and guard so strictly besides, and those positions, who fills them? Let me tell you, there are plenty of good people, lined up, waiting to step in. And then it tells what is to be done, at this step, with those clauses piled as high as a mountain, the law is not piled high, what is wanted is precision, not a great heap.
One. Those Positions, Who Fills Them
This worry of yours is, invite the corrupt, those who harmed, the benefit-takers, one by one, all out of the door of holding the law, and choose officials going forward guarding that heart, guarding so strictly, and then the so many positions on this machine of the law, judges, lawmakers, lawyers, law-enforcement officials, who fills them? Left empty? And besides, it was said before, that whole nest of the illiterate in the law sat in these positions resting exactly on knowing the letter well, winning cases, walking the procedure by the rules, and the ones with that heart of protecting people, who can read the intent, who will not drill through loopholes, were exactly the ones this set crowded out, pressed down at the bottom, unable to rise. Then where are there ready people who truly understand the law, to take over these positions?
Let me tell you, this, there is not the least need to fret over. There are plenty of good people, lined up, waiting to step in. These good people, where from?
Two. That Fire of the First Volume Culled a Great Batch of Good People
Look back at that fire of the first volume, this great AI turning, how many people it culled off their former posts. In the first volume, all along it fretted over these culled people, thought over how to settle them. Now, come to this chapter, let me tell you, among these people culled by AI, there hides how great a force.
Among them there are plenty of good people. People of character, of ability, solid in their work, clean in their hearts, batch upon batch, culled off their former posts by that fire. It is not that they are of no use, it is that the work they used to do was taken over by AI. They, the person, their character, their ability, that solid clean heart of theirs, are not the least diminished. And besides, among these culled people, there are exactly a great many of those who, in their former posts, kept to their place, did not torment people, did not climb up by treading on people; those who did their work by their conscience, would not drill through loopholes, would not go against their hearts for promotion; those honest people who in their former trades were squeezed by that climate of winning is right, and were left out in the cold their whole lives. In their former trades they were squeezed, pressed down, laughed at for being too naive, but it is exactly people like these whose heart for the people, of protecting people, was not ground away.
Three. The Difficulties on Both Ends, Undone Together
Now, that great AI fire has culled them off their former posts, which was at first a matter of losing posts, of fretting hearts. But look at it from this chapter, and this great batch of good people are exactly the ones who most ought to go up into the positions freed up by that whole nest of the illiterate in the law. Then the positions in the government, on this machine of the law, that were invited out, and the important positions going forward, exactly, from this great batch of good people culled by AI, pick the ones with that heart of protecting people, train them, have them read the intent, patch their character, get them a license, and step them in.
You see, with this, the difficulties on both ends are undone together. That fire of the first volume culled a great batch of good people, fretting over how to settle them. This chapter invites out a batch of the illiterate in the law, frees up a batch of important positions, fretting over who fills them. Join the two ends, and the culled good people exactly fill the freed-up positions. The difficulty on one end exactly undoes the difficulty on the other. This is exactly what this book has told all along, four strengths, the chapters and sections lending one another a hand, the people culled by the fire of the first volume becoming, at the fifth chapter, the reserve army for undoing that lock of the law.
Four. Not Only Do They Join, in Quality They Fit Exactly
Not only do they join, in quality they fit exactly. This batch of good people were in the first place squeezed out of their former posts by that set of winning is right, do not drill and you are crowded out, and that heart of protecting people in them is exactly what the new order of the law most needs. That conscience, that intent, that heart of protecting people, which in their day was not ground away by that set of the letter and compliance, is exactly the best material for laying the floor of the positions inside the law. Have them hold a license, patch their character, read the intent, and once they take it in hand, they understand faster, truer, steadier than that whole nest of the illiterate in the law raised by the former system. Because the intent is not something taught, it is something you read naturally when you have that heart in you, and they had that heart in the first place.
And it is precisely because there is this great batch of good people lined up, talent more than can be used, that those hard rules of the last section can be set up. Think, if there were no one to replace them, if talent were tight, then that iron of the door of holding the law welded shut on the corrupt and those who harmed, barred for life, could not be set hard. Invite the people all out, and no one to handle cases, no one to make laws, and what then? Only to invite the corrupt and those who harmed back again. But now, there are plenty of good people lined up, and you may as well invite the corrupt, those who harmed, the benefit-takers, all out of the door of holding the law, and there is not the least fear of no one to take over, for behind them that great batch of good people culled by AI, of character, of ability, with that heart, are lined up waiting to go up. Talent enough, more than can be used, and that iron of barred for life can be welded dead, can stand.
Five. Know-the-Letter-and-You-Rise Bent into Read-the-Intent-and-Protect-the-People-and-You-Rise
More important still, with this, that force by which the ones who truly understand the law, who have that heart, who read the intent, could not rise, and the ones who harmed people lawfully by the letter, who drilled through loopholes, who walked the procedure by the rules, alone could rise, is bent, wholly, around. Look back, when that lock was coiled, if you wanted to rise, to be a big lawyer, to be a high judge, you had to know the letter well, win cases, and not hold to the intent, and the ones who drilled through loopholes rose, and the ones who kept that heart were pressed at the bottom, unable to rise.
Now, that lock is undone, oversight putting that thought under the sunlight, barred for life welding shut the door of holding the law, choosing officials by that heart, hold a license, be reviewed yearly, be reforged, and the positions of holding the law rest no longer on knowing the letter well, winning cases, walking the procedure by the rules, they rest on that heart of protecting the people. Then who can go up? The good people with that heart, solid in reading the intent, who will not drill through loopholes, who were squeezed out of their former posts in their day and then culled by AI, they can go up. Know-the-letter-well-and-win-cases-and-you-rise is bent into read-the-intent-and-protect-the-people-and-you-rise. Only-the-loophole-driller-can-be-a-big-lawyer is bent into only-the-one-who-keeps-the-intent-and-protects-those-at-the-bottom-can-be-a-big-lawyer. Only-the-one-who-walks-the-procedure-by-the-rules-can-be-a-judge is bent into only-the-one-who-reads-the-intent-and-lifts-his-head-to-see-the-person-can-be-a-judge. Only-the-one-who-makes-laws-for-revenue-rises-in-the-legislature is bent into only-the-one-who-makes-laws-to-protect-the-people-and-holds-that-making-revenue-is-against-humanity-is-fit-to-make-laws. The honest cannot rise is bent into the honest, the ones with that heart, can rise. This one bending, and that machine, at the root, is changed. The ones it chooses up, uses, promotes, are no longer the illiterate in the law who harm people lawfully by the letter, they are the solid good people carrying that heart of protecting people, who can read the intent. The people sitting in the machine are changed, a crop of them, and that machine, then, truly, is bent back to its proper place of protecting the law for the people.
Six. That Mountain of Clauses Is a Fog Piled Up by the Illiterate in the Law
The people changed for good ones, let me turn from the end of the people to the end of the law. That whole nest of the illiterate in the law swapped down, the ones who truly understand the law swapped in, and then the law itself, those clauses piled as high as a mountain, what is to be done with them? Think back, the law of this world, what does it look like? It is row upon row of bookshelves, with thick codes set on them, adding up to tens of thousands of clauses, hundreds of thousands of clauses, and there are people who spend a whole life reading them, reciting them, arguing over them. The clauses are piled as high as a mountain, and the more there are, the more tight-knit it looks, the more complete it looks, the more this society looks to have the rule of law. It was set up for you before, this look of the-more-clauses-the-better is exactly wrong, it is piled up by the illiterate in the law.
Why are so many piled up? Think back to the second chapter, the biggest root of sickness in this world is tormenting. Tormenting rises, and law is made to manage it, you torment one way, a clause is set; he changes his way, another clause is added; the more tormenting, the more clauses, and the clauses grow more and more, but the tormenting is just as much as ever, because that urge in the human heart to harm people has not been cured. Deadlier still, the more clauses, the more loopholes, and the more gleefully the illiterate in the law drill through them. Set one law, and a new stretch of loopholes opens; set another law to patch it, and a still newer stretch of loopholes opens. The higher the clauses are piled, the more the loopholes are drilled. The common people stand at the bottom, looking at mountain after mountain of clauses, stretch after stretch of loopholes, pressed until they cannot breathe, unable to carry a suit through, unable to understand the law they read, unable to afford a lawyer. So clauses piled as high as a mountain are not the look of this world's rule of law growing better and better, they are the look of this world's tormenting growing fiercer and fiercer, that root of sickness in the human heart growing worse and worse, the illiterate in the law piling up more and more fog.
Seven. Character as the Floor, and the Clauses Ought to Come Down
Where is the true way out? Not in piling up clauses, it is in that root of the second chapter, character education, curing tormenting. A person of character, that urge in his heart to torment, to harm people, is gone at the root. It is not that he is frightened by the clauses into not daring, it is that he himself has no wish to at all. Then a person like this, how many clauses does it take to manage him? Next to none. He has in his own heart that line of protecting people, not harming people, and he has no need to leaf through the codes, no need to read the provisions, no need to ask a lawyer, he keeps to it himself.
Then what if everyone were like this? Then the clauses of this world ought to come down, and most of them would be of no use. Protecting that bottom line of do not kill people, one. Protecting that bottom line of do not steal from others, one. Protecting that bottom line of do not cheat others, one. Protecting that bottom line of do not take another's home, one. Protecting that bottom line of do not drive another to the end of his road, one. And a few more of the most important bottom lines. Just these few most important ones, which everyone knows in his heart too. The thousands upon thousands left over were mostly piled up to patch loopholes, to treat the surface, to make laws for revenue, to leave room for the illiterate in the law to drill through loopholes. Once the root of sickness is cured, everyone with character, not tormenting, matched with saving the illiterate in the law out one by one and swapping in the good people who truly understand the law and have that heart, and those clauses as high as a mountain, most of them, are of no use. They stand there to treat a sickness that has already been cured.
Eight. What Is Wanted Is Precision, Not a Great Heap
This is the true meaning of that word precise that has been told all along. What is wanted is not more light, but more precise light; not a great heap, but shining on the exact spot. The highest reach of the law is not the more clauses are piled, the more tight-knit it is, it is the clauses coming down, growing precise, every one of them the most important, the most exact, the one that most ought to be set, every one of them aimed at that intent of protecting people, every one of them something everyone can understand and keep to himself. Few clauses, clear bottom lines, everyone able to understand, everyone keeping himself in check, this is precision. Many clauses, many loopholes, not even the experts able to read them all, everyone's head swimming at the sight of them, this is the fog piled up by the illiterate in the law.
Then this mountain of clauses, what is to be done with it? Once this set of methods lands on the ground, the illiterate in the law swapped down one by one, the ones who truly understand the law swapped in one by one, character education curing that root of sickness in the human heart, those clauses as high as a mountain ought, one by one, to be invited back under the yardstick of the intent, and measured, one by one. Did this clause protect the people? It did, keep it. Was it to patch a loophole, to block the letter? The root of sickness underneath is cured, abolish it. Was it to make revenue, to make it convenient for the illiterate in the law to drill through? Abolish it. Does it repeat those few most important bottom lines, or go round in circles? Merge it clearly, say it plainly. Time after time, the yardstick of the intent measures through, and that mountain of fog settles down, and what is left are those few most important, most exact, most understandable to everyone, living rulers of protecting the people that people can keep to themselves. This is not a thing done in one stroke. As character education grows in, as the illiterate in the law are swapped down one by one, as the third chapter makes things enough and that urge in the human heart to grab loosens too, year after year, generation after generation, clause by clause, they are measured through and come down naturally. This book is a lamp, shining out this road; how fast it is walked, how many generations it takes to walk it through, is for the generations after to walk themselves. But the direction is this, fewer, precise, living, everyone keeping himself in check. The next section tells the last thing, and the most wrenching one, those who were harmed by this chain before, how they are saved.
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.