VOLUME VI, CHAPTER 5, SECTION 14
Law Back in Its Place, the Machine Turned Back to Protecting the People, and a Thousand Labors Come Down to One Thing, Letting the People Live and Work in Peace
This whole chapter before, shining all along the road, set down the true face, shone on the contrast, shone on that chain that harms the people lawfully, set down that the first step is to save and not to strike, landed those four strengths on method after method, saw to the harmed. It shone all along the road, shone through a full thirteen sections. Come to this section, what is to be done is not to shine again, but to take back in all that was shone on, set down, saved, undone, and bring this whole chapter round. First look at that machine of the law, what it has been turned back into. Then look at where, in the end, all the thousand labors of this whole chapter come down, to which one thing.
One. That Machine, the Look of It Turning Wholly in Reverse
Take back in and bring round what? Bring round this machine of the law, turning it back to its original position, its proper place of protecting the people. Look back at this machine, what it was like before the sections before shone on it. The intent, used in reverse. The law that ought to protect the people, turned around and used as a tool to torment the people, hold them down, rob them, drive them to their deaths. The representatives, the ones illiterate in the law, lawmakers, judges, lawyers, law-enforcement officials, with eyes only for the letter, and in their hearts not that heart of protecting people.
That single thought, that single thought holding life and death, pinched in the hands of the ones illiterate in the law, in the dark, handled by the letter whenever they wished to handle it by the letter, lawfully driving people onto the road of death. The clauses, piled as high as a mountain, mostly a fog the ones illiterate in the law piled up to patch loopholes, to make revenue, to leave themselves room to drill through. The harmed, no one to speak for them, no one to set down a line for them, no one to give back to them, no one to clear their names. That machine, turning wholly in reverse. It ought to protect the people, and turned around it harms the people. It ought to be what guards the law for the people, and turned around it became the chain that harms the people lawfully.
Think of it as a machine built well, but installed backwards. A machine was meant to turn forward, to put out rice, put out flour, to feed people, but it was installed backwards, its gears biting back, and the more merrily it turns, the more force it puts out, the more people underneath are crushed by it. This machine of the law has exactly this installed-backwards look. It ought to protect the people, but the ones illiterate in the law, that lock, installed it wholly backwards, and so the more it turns, the more clauses are set, the more completely the procedures are walked, the more often the rulings come down, the more people underneath are lawfully crushed to death by it, lawfully driven to death, lawfully stripped of their homes. It is not that it does not turn, not that it has stalled. It turns very diligently, but every turn it makes harms people. This is the most fearful thing about this machine, not that it is broken and does not move, but that it is installed backwards and still turning with all its might.
Two. Five Sections Shone Through, Turning It Back One Thing at a Time
Shining all along this road, the intent was set down clear, protecting the people, leading people to keep themselves in check, a living ruler, not coercive power. The ones illiterate in the law were swapped down one by one, reforged as people, barred for life, the door of holding the law welded shut. The good people who truly understand the law were swapped in, resting on that heart, hold a license, be reviewed yearly, be reforged, with the good people culled by AI as the reserve. That single thought was put under the sunlight, oversight, no longer hidden in the dark, harming people lawfully. The clauses piled as high as a mountain were cut down, made precise, the yardstick of the intent measuring through them one by one, the ones protecting the people kept, the ones to patch loopholes and make revenue abolished. And the people harmed before began to be seen to as well, give back, clear the name, raise a stone, heal the heart, and not one may be left out.
That machine, inside and out, has been turned back. That single thought inside it, from harming people lawfully by the letter, is turned back to protecting the people by the intent. The people sitting on the machine, from that nest of the ones illiterate in the law who read the letter and harm people lawfully, are swapped for people who truly understand the law, who have that heart, who can read the intent. The pen in the machine's hand, what it signs is no longer words that harm people lawfully, but words that protect the people. The laws the machine sets are no longer a mountain piling up fog, but a few of the most important, most exact living rulers that everyone can understand. The harmed the machine takes in are no longer the ones with no one to speak for them, but ones who, one by one, have someone seeing to them, someone giving back to them, someone healing them. This machine has been turned back, inside and out, clean and clear, turned back.
Three. Turned Back to Its Original Position, Guarding the Law for the People
Turned back to where? Its original position, the position of guarding the law for the people. This machine, from this moment on, the work it does is the same thing as the two characters in its name, fa and lü, the law. Its fa is a few of the most important, most exact, most people-protecting living rulers. Its lü is leading every person to look at that ruler himself, measure himself, keep the bottom line himself, keep himself in check.
It is not there to enforce coercive power over the people. It is not a chain that harms the people lawfully. It is that machine guarding the law for the people, standing there for the people to look at themselves, keep to themselves, keep themselves in check, live and work in peace themselves. The law is back in its place. But in your heart you probably want to ask, this machine turned back to its proper place, does that mean it is done turning, solved once and for all? No. In one line, nailed dead. The machine turned back to its proper place means its direction is right, its whole working has come back onto the track of guarding the law for the people. But how exactly it goes on, how it makes that intent shine more and more precisely, how it saves that nest of the ones illiterate in the law one by one to the last, how it sees to the people harmed before one by one to the last, that is for the generations after, one after another, the people who walk this road, to do themselves. The machine is turned back to its proper place. The track has come back to the right direction. What remains is walking, walking year after year, walking generation after generation, walking until this machine is clean inside and out, everyone in it at ease, never again running into that chain that harms the people lawfully.
Four. Turned Back to Its Proper Place, What This Machine Turns For
Then, turned back to its proper place, what in the end does this machine turn for? It turns for one thing only, letting the people live and work in peace. This one thing is that most fundamental thing this whole chapter, this whole volume, has set down all along the road, and in this section it is set down once more, at the last.
This machine, turned back to its proper place, is for what? It is for letting the people live and work in peace. Just this one thing. The new order for law, a thousand times setting the intent clear, a thousand times saving the ones illiterate in the law, a thousand times overseeing that single thought, a thousand times swapping people, a thousand times license and yearly review and reforging, a thousand times cutting down the clauses, a thousand times saving the harmed, a thousand methods, ten thousand methods, come down at the bottom to just this one thing, letting the people, under this living ruler of the law, keep the bottom line themselves, not harm one another, live and work in peace, and get on with their days. Just this one thing. Apart from this one thing, everything before, however clearly the intent is set, however precisely the clauses are cut, however thoroughly the ones illiterate in the law are swapped, is all for nothing. All of this serves this one thing. Not so that the law has dignity, not so that procedure has a system, not so that some kind of people have standing, all for one thing, letting the people live and work in peace.
Five. Living and Working in Peace, What It Looks Like
Then what is living and working in peace? It is this. A person can settle down to live, has a room, can go in, can sleep, can grow old, can die in it without being driven out. A person can get food to eat, three meals a day, need not fret over the next one, works a day and draws a day's wages, and going home can set a bowl of hot rice before the whole family, old and young. A person can walk a steady road, go out to get a thing done without being tormented, without being held down, without being lawfully robbed, without being lawfully driven onto the road of death, and with the thing done, can go home with his head held high.
A person can afford to raise the young. The children can study, learn a trade, find a living. Grandpa and grandma can look after the grandchildren, need not worry about being driven out of the home, need not worry about being unable to pay the land tax. A person can afford to honor the ancestors, at festivals and holidays can light a stick of incense for father and mother, add a handful of earth to the family graves, and those who have gone are remembered by someone, seen to by someone, have someone to set down a line for them. A person can get through the night. When the night is deep and still, there is no panic in the heart, no pain, no knot, he feels this day was not lived for nothing, feels the people around him are good, feels this world protects him. Person and person are real person and real person, not cat and mouse, not tool and tool, not a hand on the chain that harms people lawfully and a life harmed lawfully, but two living, real people, you protecting me, me protecting you, neighbors in harmony, family and friends holding each other up, strangers meeting still able to nod. This is living and working in peace.
Six. Thousands of Years of This World, and Most People Never Lived These Days
It sounds simple, but in this world, for thousands of years, most people have not been able to live days like these. Tormented, held down, lawfully robbed, lawfully driven onto the road of death, the root of all of this, going round and round, comes round to this machine of the law. The law ought to have protected the people living and working in peace, and turned around it became the chain that breaks the people's living and working in peace.
So this chapter, the new order for law, turns this machine back. Turned back, to do what? To let the people live and work in peace. One thing. Should there come a day when what this machine does strays from letting the people live and work in peace, a day when it starts again to harm the people lawfully, measure it with this ruler, and at once it is seen, at once it is pulled back. Letting the people live and work in peace is the intent this machine must keep its whole life long, and also the ruler that measures whether this machine has done right its whole life long.
Seven. This Is That Most Fundamental Thing the Whole Book Has Set Down All Along
This one thing is that most fundamental thing this book has set down all along the road. From the first chapter, putting out the fire, what was saved was whether the real people the fire burned out of their posts could settle down to live, get food to eat, walk a steady road. The second chapter, growing that heart, what it raised was whether person and person could be real person and real person, neighbors in harmony. The third chapter, making the pie bigger and returning it to the public, what it made was that every household has that share of a floor beneath which no one starves. The fourth chapter, returning the government to administrative service, what it turned back was that machine of government, to serve the people living and working in peace. The fifth chapter, setting the law up as a living ruler, what it set up was this living ruler of the law, under which the people keep the bottom line themselves and live and work in peace themselves.
Five chapters down, every chapter is for this one thing, the people living and working in peace. Come to this section, the machine of the law turned back to its proper place, it does what? It lets the people live and work in peace. Set on this one thing, not straying, not leaving. See how deep, how steady, this book's most fundamental thing is nailed in. However high I lead you to look, however that contrast makes your scalp crawl, however that chain makes your spine go cold, in the end it always has to land back on this one most plain, most warm thing, letting people live, well, safe and steady, and get on with their days.
Eight. An Order Was Never the End, It Is a Means
Do not look down on this one thing for being too plain. I led you to shine through the ones illiterate in the law, cut that chain of thousands of years, set up that living ruler, and in the end it is all for such a homely thing, letting the common people get on with their days, safe and steady. But think, the thousands upon thousands of people in this world, what they seek, is it not just this one thing? A steady meal to eat, a home to keep off wind and rain, children able to go to school, someone to rely on in old age, the days going on, solid, one after another. This is no earth-shaking great wish. This is the most plain, and also the most fundamental, one thing. How many earth-shaking great principles, great orders, if in the end they cannot land on this one thing, and the common people still cannot live steady, are all empty.
An order was never the end. An order is a means. The end, forever, is whether those people, one by one, living people, can live and work in peace. The law, that living ruler, oversight, hold a license, be reviewed yearly, be reforged, all are means. The end is whether the real people underneath, one by one, can, under this living ruler, keep to it themselves and get on with their days, safe and steady. All the setting clear, all the undoing of locks, all the saving of people, all the toil, is for these people, one by one. This is the heart this book, from beginning to end, does not leave by half a step. This machine is turned back to its proper place, landed back on this most fundamental thing, but this chapter is not finished yet. The intent, the light is fixed on it, but the door is not sealed. The next section takes this whole chapter back in, leaves the door, and passes over to the next chapter.
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.
Fifteen. In Closing: The Light Is Fixed but the Door Is Not Sealed, and On to Volume VII