VOLUME VII, CHAPTER 7, SECTION 1
The Human World We Come Back To Is Earth
The end of the last chapter drew out a question: this human world that people come home to, what kind of place is it, really? This section makes it plain, head-on. This human world is not somewhere else. It is Earth, this one and only planet under our feet. To come home to the human world is to come home to the days on Earth, a meal and a dish, a morning and an evening. To guard the five is to guard the living, breathing real humans on Earth, one after another. The human world this volume has laid down, guarded and come home to all along the road, brought down to solid ground, is this blue planet. The last few chapters spoke of institutions, of the mechanism, of settling people in place, all so that people could be real humans on this planet, well, and live the days of real humans. And this planet itself is the place where all of it can be set down. This section makes this layer plain, and lays the root for the layers of the sections ahead, "Earth is the one and only paradise, Mars is murder."
One. The Human World Is Not Somewhere Else, It Is This Planet Under Our Feet
First, make this layer solid. The last few chapters spoke of coming home to the human world, of that ordinary smoke and warmth, of that kindness, help, respect. All of this, where does it land? It lands on Earth.
The human world is not an abstract, mysterious idea hanging in the air. It is a real, solid place: this planet that has mountains and water, grass and trees and living creatures, the turning seasons, the smoke and warmth of the human world. To come home to the human world is to come home here. Home to this land, to till it and make a living. Home to this water and soil, to live and to raise a family. Home to the spring, summer, autumn and winter of this one planet, the sun rising and the moon setting, to be a living, breathing real human. Where are the five nurtured? In the days of the living people on this planet, one after another. Where do kindness, help, respect flow? Between person and person on this planet. Leave Earth, and there is nowhere to set this human world down. Leave this planet, and the five, the smoke and warmth, the days, have nothing to rest on. The human world and Earth were always one thing: the human world is on Earth, and Earth is where the human world is.
This line looks ordinary, and yet people often forget it without noticing. People talk of the human world, talk of it so much that "the human world" turns into an abstract word, as though it were a cloud of feeling drifting somewhere, with little to do with the real, solid land underfoot. It is not so. Not one inch of the human world hangs in the air. The warmth of sitting round the table to eat leans on the grain this land grows. The seasons of spring plowing and autumn harvest follow this planet's round about the sun. The life in each breath in and out rests on the air in this layer of atmosphere. Every bit of warmth in the human world, every bit of feeling, every stretch of days, grows firmly on the soil, the waters, the air and the sunlight of this planet. Pull this planet out, and the human world is a tree without roots, water without a source, dried up in an instant. So to say the human world is Earth is not a figure of speech. It is a plain fact: all of this that people hold dear, not a hair's breadth off, is set down on this one planet.
Two. This Planet Is the One and Only
One layer further. This planet is not only where the human world is. It is also the one and only.
Look out over this vast universe. Of all that people know and all that people can reach, there is only this one planet fit for real humans to settle their bodies and set their lives. Other planets are scorching like a furnace, or bitter cold like ice, or have no air to breathe, or no water to drink, or no soil to till. Only this one has just the right air, just the right water, just the right soil, just the right sunlight, just the right seasons, nurturing grass and trees and living creatures, nurturing generation after generation of real humans. It is not one among many. It is the one and only. It is not a thing you can take or leave, swap out when it breaks. It is the one and only home, and when it breaks nothing can replace it. The human race, together with the five, the smoke and warmth, the days, all of it hangs on this one planet. If it breaks, people have nowhere to go, the five have nowhere to be nurtured, and this human world has nowhere to come home to. One and only, these words are the most important part of what this planet is. They are also the root reason the sections ahead must guard it with their lives.
People often take these words, "one and only," lightly, because they are too big, too far off, not as close to the skin as the firewood, rice, oil and salt in front of them. But think one layer further and you know what one and only means. It means there is no second one, no spare one, no road back of "this one broke, there is still that one." Most things in the world can be replaced. A tool breaks, make another. A house falls in, build another. Only this planet cannot be replaced. It is the human race's one and only household, and once ruined it is ruined, with no second place to shelter in. Precisely because it is the one and only, it cannot bear the least slip. Precisely because it is the one and only, guarding it is not an idle matter to take up slow or fast, but the first great matter of life and death for this generation. If a thing has tens of thousands of copies, losing one is no great pity. If a thing is the one and only in all the world, not a hair of it can be harmed. This planet is exactly that thing, the one and only in all the world, not to be harmed in the least.
Three. This Layer, the Earlier Volumes Never Got to Say Plainly
This layer, the earlier volumes, with all their lawmaking, unlocking and laying down of institutions along the road, in fact stood on it silently all along, but never said it plainly.
The earlier volumes saved people, guarded the five, laid down the four institutions. Whom did they save? People on Earth. The five they guarded, where are they nurtured? In bodies of flesh on Earth. The four institutions they laid down, where do they run? On this water and soil of Earth. Everything in the earlier volumes took this planet as the stage by default, the place by default, but never picked the stage itself out to speak of on its own. Come to this volume, coming home to the human world, sending people back to the ordinary days on this planet, the stage itself can no longer stay silent. For one most important question has, in this generation, floated up: this planet that bears everything, is it itself well? Will it be ruined? And if it is ruined, all that the earlier volumes laid down, all that they guarded, all that they saved, would it not lose the ground it stands on? So come to this volume, this planet must be picked out with all seriousness and set up as a proper subject: what it is, whether it is well, how it should be guarded.
Why is it only in this generation, of all generations, that this planet itself has become a question that has to be faced head-on? Because the dozens of generations before, for all their troubles and worries, never had the power to shake this planet itself. Slash-and-burn tilling, carts and horses, boats and oars, the power in the hands of those before, however great, was never greater than this planet. People labored and lived on it, but could not harm its root. This generation is different. The tools in people's hands are strong enough to stir up the atmosphere, foul the rivers and seas, overturn the living web, strong enough to leave wounds on this planet that are hard to heal. Power great enough to harm the home itself, this is a situation this generation is the first ever to be in. Precisely for this, this planet, which always bore everything silently and needed no one's care, needs, for the first time in this generation, people to turn round and care for it, guard it. This is a heavy turn, and one there is no dodging: for the first time, people have the power to ruin their own one and only home.
Four. Picking the Planet Out and Setting It Up as a Proper Subject
So this group of chapters is to lay down this planet head-on.
What this group of chapters is to lay down, layer by layer, is this. What is this planet? The answer: the one and only paradise in this universe. This paradise, is it well right now? The answer: it is being pushed toward hell. Some say people can abandon this planet and move somewhere else, Mars for instance. Can that be done? The answer: Mars is a barren waste, and that so-called moving is a murder, and also a robbing of wealth and a taking of lives. This generation of real humans, what should it do for this planet? The answer: guard it, keep this one and only paradise. These layers are what this group of chapters is to lay down, section by section. And the starting point of all of it is the line this section makes plain: the human world we come home to is Earth, is this one and only planet. The human world is Earth, to guard the human world is to guard Earth. See this line clearly, and only then can the weight of the sections ahead come down where it belongs.
This group of chapters carries the most weight and moves the heart the most precisely because what it guards is not an abstract principle, but this real, solid land under our feet that bore us and raised us. The groups before laid down institutions, the mechanism, the settling of people, much reason and little feeling. Come to this group, what is laid down is the home itself, the mountains and rivers and the great earth that raised generation after generation. To guard institutions is to guard principles. To guard the home is to guard the very ground we and our children and grandchildren depend on to live. So every section of this group does not only speak reason. It also pleads, calls out and keeps watch for this one and only planet. And the starting point of all this pleading is the line this section has made solid: the human world people come home to is not in the sky, not on some other planet. It is right here, on this blue, one and only planet that gives birth to and raises all living things.
Five. The Layer This Section Makes Plain
This section makes plain that the human world we come home to is Earth.
The human world is not somewhere else. It is this planet under our feet, with mountains and water, grass and trees and living creatures, the seasons and the smoke and warmth. It is not only where the human world is, it is also the one and only planet in this universe fit for real humans to settle their bodies and set their lives. The earlier volumes, their lawmaking, their guarding of the five, their saving of people, all stood silently on this planet. Come to this volume, coming home to the human world, this planet itself must be picked out with all seriousness and set up as a proper subject. The human world is Earth, to guard the human world is to guard Earth. With this line seen clearly, the next section follows on and makes plain: this one and only planet, what is it, really? It is the one and only paradise in this universe. It has air, it has water, it has soil, it has sunlight, it has the turning seasons, it has the smoke and warmth of the human world, it has life that renews itself without end. These seven, each one of them, are the proof that paradise is paradise, and each one of them is a treasure this planet alone has, not to be found anywhere else. The next section will count these seven out clearly, one by one.
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.
Section Two. Earth Is the One and Only Paradise: Counting Out the Seven.