Chapter 29 3. Lawlessness and Heavenlessness

The indistinction between public and private and unclear property rights have caused many serious problems for our country and nation.One of them is the extreme neglect of individual rights and individual existence. I said in the book "Gossip about Chinese people" that in China, individuals are small and groups are great.Because the individual is "private", the group is "public".Public is big, private is small.The more private the smaller, the more public the bigger.The individual is the most private, so the individual is the smallest.The country is the most public, so the country is the largest.Among the countries, the state is more private than the empire, and the county is more private than the world, so the empire is greater than the state, and the world is greater than the county.As for the family, it is private to the country and public to others.Therefore, when there is a conflict between the individual and the family, one should sacrifice personal interests (such as personal desires, aspirations, interests, and love) to fulfill the family (such as doing things you don’t want to do, marrying someone you don’t love).Similarly, when the family conflicts with the country (for example, loyalty and filial piety cannot be balanced), the family should be sacrificed to the country.This approach of "considering the overall situation" has always been regarded as a virtue.Few people seem to think that it is this concept of "selflessness" that caused the "lawlessness" of the empire.

Say "impossible" first. What is "law"?Why do we have "law"?It's not because "you can't make a circle without rules", although this is the most general understanding of "rule of law" by us Chinese.But this is actually just "rule of law", not "rule of law"; it's just "ruling the country by law", not "ruling the country according to the law".Just because "rule of law" is regarded as "rule of law" and "law" is regarded as "rules", the "laws" of states and empires are all "laws of kings" enacted by emperors, not "laws" agreed by the whole people , which is the fundamental reason why traditional Chinese society cannot become a society ruled by law.

Here, a strict definition of "rule of law" is necessary.The rule of law is relative to "rule by ritual", "rule by virtue" and "rule by man".The characteristic of the rule of man is that "the people live in politics, and the government rests with the death of the people". .The difference between them and the rule of law is so obvious that there is no need to repeat them.What is difficult to distinguish is the rule of law and the rule of law.In the eyes of ordinary people, as long as a country or society has a complete legal system and can be governed by laws, it is the rule of law.This is actually a big fallacy.Because an authoritarian country (such as the Qin Kingdom or the Qin Empire) can also achieve a complete legal system and law enforcement like a mountain.At that time, Qin was in charge of Shang'an, and his laws and regulations were like a cow's hair.Qin Law is both numerous and detailed.Legislation is strict and law enforcement is also strict.Not only are the common people often offended, but even Shang An himself is troubled by his self-supporting law, becoming a typical example of "self-defeating by doing the law", and being exposed by those who advocate the rule of virtue and the rule of propriety? ? ?laugh.But how?As long as there is a brain, it will only be regarded as an autocratic society and an autocratic country, not a society ruled by law and a country ruled by law.

Therefore, a strict distinction must be made between a society ruled by law and a society ruled by law (or a country ruled by law and a country ruled by law).These are two related but distinct concepts.What they have in common is that they all advocate the rule of law and the rule of law.In this sense, all societies and countries that advocate and actually implement the rule of law can be called legal societies and legal countries.The question is who legislates, for whom, and how.In countries like the Qin Kingdom and Prussia, legislative power was firmly in the hands of the supreme ruler.Law, like discipline, regulations, and orders, is regarded as a special tool of governance.A ruler can use the laws he promulgates to compel everyone and all institutions to obey, while he himself is above the law.Once the law promulgated is found to be unfavorable to oneself, it can be amended arbitrarily through the legislative power in its hands to achieve the purpose of maintaining its absolute rule.This is actually a despotism in the name of the rule of law.In such a situation, it is natural that the more legislation there is, the farther it is from the rule of law.Even if the legal system is highly complete, it is not a country ruled by law.Therefore, I advocate calling it "rule of law" so as not to be confused with "rule of law".

Different from a society ruled by law and a country ruled by law, the legislators of a society ruled by law and a country ruled by law must be the people, not the rulers.The constitution of the whole people is not necessarily the rule of law, it may also be the dictatorship of the majority.But without a universal covenant, there can be no rule at all.Because the rule of law not only requires laws to abide by and govern the country according to the law, but also requires the laws to be followed to be legal, which means that these laws must reflect the universal principles of human beings, respect the basic human rights of the people, and protect the individual rights and social justice that human beings jointly safeguard.Such a law can only be the result of an agreement by the whole people.In fact, in the eyes of a society ruled by law, any legislator is nothing more than a trustee of individual rights and liberties.Therefore, the law can only reflect the free will of the client, not the will to power of the ruler.On the contrary, in order to protect the rights and freedoms of individuals, the rule of law also requires the limitation and decentralization of government power, so as to prevent any regime from being despotic in any name.Obviously, although the contract does not equal the rule of law, the premise of the rule of law must be the contract.

The premise of the contract is the individual.That is to say, only when all members of the society are separate individuals with independent personality and free will, a universal convention is both necessary and possible.Because everyone is an individual with independent personality and free will. If there is no mutual agreement, everyone will act on their own, and society will not be able to organize. In the end, everyone's personality and will must not be respected. Everyone's life and rights cannot be protected.This is why society must make laws.Since the purpose of the contract is to protect the rights and interests of the individual's life and respect the will and personality of the individual, it is of course only possible when the members of the society are all independent individuals with independent personality and free will.

However, traditional Chinese society does not have this possibility.Because neither the state nor the empire recognizes private property that belongs only to individuals.Mencius said: "Those who have no property have no perseverance." ("Mencius Teng Wengong 1") Similarly, those who have no property have no selfishness.There is no personal property and no independent personality.Just imagine, without economic independence, how can there be personal independence?Without personal independence, how can there be independence of personality?That is, there are only personal attachment relationships and awareness of personal attachment, such as "the ruler guides his subjects, the father guides his sons, and the husband guides his wife."Why can the husband become the guide of the wife?Because the wife is not financially independent.Her insignificant "private money" is not enough to make her an independent individual, but only a vassal of her husband.The husband was not financially independent before the separation.He must be attached to his father, so "the father guides the son".Parents are also not really independent economically, because "under the sky, is it the land of the king".As a "royal subject" on this "royal land", he must be attached to the emperor.But this by no means means that the emperor's personality is independent, although he very much hopes to be so, even going so far as to call himself "solitary widow".However, if everyone in the world does not have an independent personality, the emperor's "union" and this "other person" will not really have an independent personality.In fact, because the property rights of family property and state-owned assets are also unclear, the emperor, as the "father of the country", and the father as the "head of the family", neither have purely personal property, so neither has independent personality.

Without an independent personality, there is no free will.The so-called "free will" does not mean lawlessness, doing whatever one wants, just as "self-awareness" is not "self-centered".Understanding self-awareness as self-importance (such as the emperor), and free will as doing whatever you want (such as a knight), or even doing anything wrong (such as a bully), just proves that we don't know what free will is, and we don't know what self-consciousness is. What is "free will"?Free will is actually a kind of psychological ability, an ability to freely make choices according to one's true wishes, and to be responsible for the results of such choices and choices.Obviously, there are three key words here: true desire, free choice, and taking responsibility. All three are indispensable, and taking responsibility is the most important.If you can't take responsibility, or don't have a sense of responsibility, you can't call it "freedom", it can only be called "indifference".This person's behavior cannot be called "free choice", but can only be called willful, casual, nonsense or mischief.

This requires knowing what you want (true desire), what you don’t want (free choice), and what you can do (take responsibility).That is, you must know yourself.Therefore, free will can only be premised on self-consciousness.What is "self-awareness"?It is not only knowing who you are (being aware of your own existence through thinking), but also being able to see yourself as someone else (seeing yourself as an object).For example, look in the mirror.When you look in the mirror, you put yourself on the opposite side and see yourself as someone else.Humans can look in the mirror but animals cannot, because humans have self-awareness but animals do not.Self-awareness is the ability to see the self as an object without even looking in a mirror.Because of this, people can self-knowledge, self-improvement, and self-appreciation.But for a person to have self-awareness, he must first have a "self", that is, an independent personality.Since the traditional Chinese with unclear property rights and no distinction between public and private has no independent personality, it is impossible for him to have self-awareness.

Without self-awareness, there is only attachment-consciousness, and its opposite, rebellious-consciousness.Rebellion does not necessarily mean overthrowing the regime and rebelling against the government.As long as it is the dependents (such as parents and husbands) who resisted the past, it can be called "rebellion".In fact, whenever children or wives and concubines are disobedient, disobedient, or even retort, parents or husbands will say "rebellion" in a rage. It can be seen that "rebellion" is actually a very easy thing to happen.Moreover, all rebellious acts in Chinese history have a common feature, that is, the status of the two parties must be reversed, so that the ruler becomes the ruled, and the dictator becomes the dictator.To be extreme, it is necessary to "knock the other party to the ground and step on another foot", and to be more polite, at least let oneself change from the dependent to the dependent, so it is also called "turning over", that is, turning the other party over. The personal attachment relationship is "turned over".This is not surprising either.Because we never have self-consciousness, only attachment consciousness.As a result, it is either "you are attached to me" or "I am attached to you"; either "the east wind overwhelms the west wind" or "the west wind overwhelms the east wind". Therefore, such large and small "rebellion" actions in history may be "You die and I live"; and the "good people" who usually rely on obedience can easily become "mobs" who kill and set fire.

Riot is impossible.Riots can only bring society into anarchy, but it is impossible to bring society into a state of rule of law.In the state of autocracy, although there may be "darkness", but after all, "sky" is still there, and there is still hope for "blue sky and white sun" (enlightened autocracy).The state of anarchy is "the sky is falling apart", and it is simply "the people are in dire straits."Anarchy is therefore a worse state than despotism.But this does not in any way mean that autocracy should be maintained.On the contrary, since the autocratic system is "lawless" in nature, the result must be "no sky".It is not difficult to understand this point just by looking at how "dark and dark" Chinese society was at the end of the dynasty and when the dynasty changed. Therefore, there is only one way out, that is, to build a society ruled by law; the premise of a society ruled by law is the independent personality and free will of all members of the society.The fundamental difference between the rule of law and the rule of law is that the laws in a society ruled by law come from the will to power of the ruling class, while the laws in a society ruled by law come from the free will of all citizens.It can be seen how important free will is to a society ruled by law.Some people worry that if everyone has free will and can "do whatever they want", wouldn't the world be in chaos?This is actually an overthinking.As Mr. Deng Xiaomang said, corruption and turmoil are definitely not because everyone can "do what they want", but precisely because most people can't, only a few people can ("Dance of the Spirit").Most people can, and everyone should take precautions. On the contrary, the contract law should be regulated.What's more, free will does not mean doing whatever you want and lawlessness.On the contrary, the more a citizen has free will, the more he has a sense of the rule of law.For free will means above all responsibility, and responsibility to oneself.As long as the law is made out of his free will, then he must be responsible for this law (obey the law).If the law comes from the free will of all citizens, then all citizens will be collectively responsible (all law-abiding). This sounds almost like a dream: how can the free will of all citizens be exactly the same?This is actually another misunderstanding of free will.Free will is not a decision, but a possibility, which includes the possibility of choice and compromise.When the law comes from the free will of all citizens, it must be the result of their choices and compromises, that is, the "bottom line" that everyone can and should accept.What a society ruled by law needs, first of all, is such a "bottom line."It must first figure out which things cannot be tolerated by everyone and must be prohibited, and which must be protected because no one can do without, and then establish the fundamental law of the country—the Constitution.Only when there is a constitution can there be constitutional government and the rule of law.How important is free will!