Chapter 2 Section 2: Human nature is inherently good

In China today, since we Chinese have the religion of good citizenship, a man does not feel the need to use the forces of nature to protect himself, and he seldom even needs to call and use the forces of the state police for his protection.In China, a man is protected by his neighbor's sense of justice; he is protected by his fellow man's sense of moral obligation to obey at all times.Indeed, in China, one does not feel the need to use the forces of nature to protect oneself, because he is sure that everyone recognizes justice and justice as a higher force than the forces of nature, and therefore everyone believes that moral duty is something that must be obeyed .Now, if all men could be made to unanimously recognize that justice and justice are a force higher than natural forces, and that moral duty is something to be obeyed, then the use of natural forces would be unnecessary, and the world would be There will be no more militarism.Of course, in every country there are still some people, criminals, there are some brutal people in this world who will not or cannot recognize justice and justice as a force higher than the forces of nature, and therefore will not or cannot Recognize that a moral obligation is something that must be obeyed.Therefore, a certain amount of natural or police power and militarism has always been required in every country and in this world to guard against criminals and tyrants. (z-74)

But people will say to me, how do you make mankind realize that justice and justice are a higher force than the forces of nature.It seems to me that the first thing that must be done is to convince mankind of the validity of justice and justice, of the power of justice and justice, in fact of the power of good.But how?Well, in order to do this, in China, the religion of good citizenship teaches every child, as soon as they can understand the meaning of words, that human nature is inherently good. (At the beginning of human beings, nature is good) (14) The essential insecurity of European civilization today, it seems to me, lies in its false conception of human nature; it is the idea that human nature is evil, and because of this false conception the whole social structure of Europe has always been based on force .The two things that Europeans use to maintain civilized order are religion and law.In other words, Europeans kept order out of fear of God and fear of the law.Fear implies the use of force.Therefore, in order to maintain the fear of God, Europeans must first maintain a large number of expensive idlers, so-called priests.Not to mention anything else, in terms of such a high cost, it eventually became an unbearable burden for the people.In fact, during the Thirty Years' War of the Reformation, the Europeans tried to get rid of the priests.After the removal of the priests, who is going to ensure that the people fear God to keep order, and the Europeans try to do this through the fear of the law.But to keep the fear of the law alive, Europeans need to support another, more expensive class of idlers: the police and the army.Today, Europeans are beginning to discover that maintaining order by maintaining police and armies requires even more catastrophic expenditures than maintaining priests.Indeed, just as Europeans wanted the abolition of the priest during the thirty years of the Reformation, what the Europeans really want today in the present war is the abolition of the army.But if the Europeans wanted to abolish the army, the options before them were either to recall the priests and keep the fear of God, or to find something else that would help They maintain civil order.Putting the question into plain terms, I think everyone will admit that it is the greatest question of civilization that confronts post-war Europeans.

I don't think Europeans want to recall priests now that they have had pastors.Bismarck once said: "We will never return to Canossa (15)" Besides, it is no good even recalling priests now, because Europeans now no longer fear God.Therefore, if the Europeans wanted to eliminate the police and the army, the only other option before them was to find something else that would help them maintain civil order as much as the fear of God and the law .I believe, like the evil I have already said, that Europeans will find it in Chinese civilization today.This is what I call the religion of good citizenship.This Chinese religion of good citizenship enables people to maintain order in a country without priests and policemen or armies.Indeed, with this religion of good citizenship, the populous Chinese, if not more numerous than the entire Continent of Europe, have practically maintained peace and order without priests and police or armies.In China, as everyone in this country knows, the priests and the police or the army play a very minor, very unimportant role in helping to maintain public order.Only the most ignorant class needs priests in China, and only the worst criminal class needs police or army to keep them in order.So I say that if Europeans really want to get rid of religion and militarism, get rid of priests and armies that keep them in trouble and bloodshed, they have to come to China and learn what I call the religion of good citizenship.

In short, at a time when this civilization is threatened with collapse, I would like to call the attention of Europeans and Americans to the fact that here in China there exists an invaluable and as yet undisputed cultural wealth.This wealth of civilization is not the country's trade, railroads, mineral resources, gold, silver, iron and coal.I want to say here that the wealth of civilization in this world today is the Chinese, the unspoiled true Chinese with his good civil religion.A true Chinese, I say, is an invaluable asset to civilization, because he is one who can keep himself in order at little cost to the world.I do want here to warn Europeans and Americans not to destroy this invaluable wealth of civilization, not to change and destroy the real Chinese, as they are now trying to do with their new knowledge.If the Europeans and Americans succeed in destroying the real Chinese, the Chinese paragon of humanity; successfully transforming the real Chinese into Europeans or Americans, say, into a country that requires a priest or an army to make it Those who maintain order, then they will certainly increase the burden of religion or militarism in this world, and the latter has now become a danger and threat to civilization and humanity.But on the other hand, assuming that somehow European or American humanity could be changed, that Europeans or Americans could be changed into real Chinese, then there would be no need for a priest or an army to keep it in order; think See what a burden this is lifting the world.