Chapter 34 Those who live are many, those who eat are few

Therefore, if a gentleman has the Dao, he must be faithful to gain it, and arrogant to lose it.There is a way to make money.Those who live are many, those who eat are few, those who do it are sick, and those who use it are comfortable, then the wealth will always be sufficient.The benevolent get rich with wealth, the unkind get rich with body.There is no such thing as good benevolence at the top, but no righteousness at the bottom.If there is no good righteousness, the matter will not end; if there is no treasury wealth, it is not the wealth. ——"University" (excerpt) At the press conference of the First Session of the Tenth National People's Congress, Premier Wen Jiabao, in response to a question from a reporter from the Central People's Broadcasting Station about the reform of rural taxes and fees, borrowed "there is a way to make money" from "University". The phrase "the one who uses it is sick, the one who uses it is comfortable" emphasizes that the essence of rural tax and fee reform is to reform certain links of the superstructure in rural areas that are not suitable for the development of productive forces, and the most important thing is to streamline personnel. ... At the same time, we must increase financial support for rural areas.In the end, Premier Wen said: "Our ultimate goal is to reduce all taxes and fees that should not be collected from farmers, but this requires a process."

The book "University" covers the spiritual connotation of early Confucianism in concise and meaningful language, and reveals the general process of Confucian ideal personality cultivation.Among them, the "Classic" chapter puts forward three guidelines of "clearing morality, being close to the people, and striving for perfection", and also puts forward eight items of "investigating things, extending knowledge, sincerity, rectifying one's heart, self-cultivation, regulating the family, governing the country, and pacifying the world".The way to realize the Three Programs is eight items. The eight items, starting from "getting things" and taking "flat world" as their goal, are a unified whole from inside to outside, interrelated and inseparable. The ideological and theoretical system of the Way of the Outer King.In this system, the principle of governing the country of "sharing the likes and dislikes of the people and not focusing on their own interests" and "each relative to the virtuous and happy, and the world is at peace" is its core and the ultimate destination of the "eight items".And "making wealth" is an extremely important part of realizing this principle of governing the country, and it is an indispensable process to realize the goal of "leveling the world".The excerpt at the beginning of the article is to discuss how to "make money".

"University" says that a gentleman wins the world by virtue of his loyalty, and loses it by being extravagant and dissipated. This is the way to govern the country.Similarly, there is also a way to manage money, and the program of this "way" is nothing more than the following four points: one is to live with the masses, the other is to feed the few, the third is to treat illness, and the fourth is to use comfort.That is to say, in the author's opinion, the way to increase wealth is: people who increase production, people who consume less, work hard and spend slowly, so that wealth will always be sufficient.Excessive amassing of wealth, competing with the people for profit, or even harming the power of the people, will lead to natural disasters and man-made disasters. At that time, even if there are good people, there is nothing they can do.Literally speaking, these four guidelines talk about several ways to increase wealth in a period of relatively low productivity, but in fact, this kind of thinking is an important reason for the development of human society and the increasingly rich material civilization. It expresses Several conditions necessary for a stable, united, prosperous and prosperous society are laid out: living a large number of people, that is, expanding employment as much as possible and creating as much production space as possible. Policies and measures for employment opportunities; lack of food, that is, saving expenditures, and institutional measures such as reducing redundant staff and subordinates, all belong to this type; for diseases, it is to speed up production as much as possible. The result of this pursuit; using comfort is to consume in a planned way.With the development of human society to this day, the above four guidelines have played a key role.Therefore, in this sense, the "way to make money" proposed in "The Great Learning" is a powerful means to enrich the country and strengthen the people, and it is also the only way to realize the ideal of Datong.

The "way to make money" mentioned in "University" is simple in principle, but it reflects profound problems, so it has had a great influence on later generations.One of the most in-depth and systematic studies of the taxation system in ancient my country, Huang Zongxi, a thinker in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, pointed out in his "Ming Yi Dai Interview Record · Land System III" that the taxation system in history has "three evils", that is, "If you ask that the wells can be restored, you have heard the order. If the husband sets the tax, how can you do it later? He said: The people of Si have been suffering and taxing for a long time. There is a harm of accumulating and never returning. There is a harm of taxing but not getting it. There is no such thing as land. The first harm".In other words, the results of tax reforms in all dynasties are similar, that is, every time there is a reform, the tax will be increased, and each time will be heavier; After the grain is sold, the tax is paid with the currency exchanged, and there are layers of exploitation by the merchants in the middle. When the government collects taxes, it does not matter whether the land is good or bad, but it must be uniformly collected.Huang Zongxi's views and the historical phenomena reflected were summarized as "Huang Zongxi's Law" by modern scholar Qin Hui in his article "Tax Consolidation Reform and "Huang Zongxi's Law".The essence of Huang Zongxi's criticism of the taxation system and the ideas on which Huang Zongxi's laws are based is actually the "Four Programs" for generating wealth proposed in "The Great Learning".

On March 6, 2003, during the National People's Congress, Premier Wen Jiabao participated in the discussion of the Hubei Provincial People's Congress: "Every tax reform in history, the burden on farmers will rise to a higher level than before the reform. level, and walk into the vicious circle of 'Huang Zongxi's Law'." And solemnly stated: "Communists will definitely be able to get out of the 'Huang Zongxi's Law' vicious circle." At the press conference of the First Session of the Tenth National People's Congress held on March 18, 2003, Premier Wen He reiterated this question and answered it with these four sentences from "University", which deeply showed the Prime Minister's close attention to the issue of people's livelihood and his deep thinking on this issue.