Chapter 47 Section 11 Collectivism "Dream of Great Harmony"

Among all kinds of Western thought trends that invaded China, socialist thought finally dethroned hundreds of schools of thought and gained a dominant position.This is of course because of the truth of socialist thought, but also reflects the natural spiritual resonance between socialist thought and Chinese cultural tradition. Not only Confucianism, but also a hundred schools of thought in China have a strong sense of collectivism and egalitarianism. "Book of Rites · Li Yun Pian" summarized the social ideals of various schools of thought, and formally put forward the idea of ​​Datong: "The journey of the great way is also the world for the public, the selection of the virtuous and the capable, the trustworthiness and the harmony, the old people are not alone. Dear, you are not the only son but your son, so that the old will be able to die, the strong will be useful, the young will be strong, and the widowed, lonely, disabled and sick will be supported... This is called Great Harmony."

Confucian's "don't worry about few but worry about unevenness", Mencius advocated "kingly and benevolent government" and implemented the well field system; "Those who rely on their strength live, those who do not rely on their strength do not live"; they advocate frugality and take food as the key link. Until the later "Tian Mu System", Kang Youwei's "Book of Great Harmony", and Sun Yat-sen's "Equal Land Rights", all clearly inherited the inner quality of average in traditional Chinese culture. Chinese politicians have always advocated "fixed in one", emphasizing the unification of people's thoughts to generate the greatest synergy.

Legalists advocated "one teaching", that is, unified education, unified thought, and unified value standard.Qin Prime Minister Li Si said: "In ancient times, the world was scattered and could not be uniform. Therefore, the princes stood side by side, favoring the past and deprecating the present, and advocating falsehood. Everyone thought that what he had learned was correct, and criticized the policies of the leaders casually. Today the emperor has unified the world. , to distinguish black and white for the people of the world, and decide on one statue." The "Ten Classics Chengfa" of the Huang-Lao school said: "The Yellow Emperor asked the ministers, saying, I own the world alone, and cunning people emerge in endlessly. They are eloquent and wise, and they don't obey my laws. I am afraid that the world will be chaotic. , May I ask how can I make the people abide by my decrees honestly? The minister replied: The world is a law, and the order lies in "not many", and one word stops it. Make everyone in the world abide by this "one", and the people will not violate discipline."

Mozi, who works hard, advocates universal love, and serves the people of the world, advocates unity of thought more than anyone else.His political principle is "still the same".Mozi and his disciples formed a well-organized warrior group capable of carrying out political and military actions. The leader of the group was called "Juzi", and Mozi was the first Juzi. ; The organization principle of this group is unity of will, unity of action and absolute obedience, advocating that "what the Son of Heaven is, is everything; The utopian ideal of the Chinese did not stop at the fantasy stage. More than one feudal emperor tried to use his power to practice on this land.Before Zhu Yuanzhang, Wang Mang's practice was the most pioneering and the most complete failure.Wang Mang's Wangtian Order implements the state's public ownership of land, and the state distributes 100 mu of land per capita.At the same time, he tried to let the government monopolize the operation of salt, wine, iron smelting and casting money to prevent wealthy businessmen from manipulating the market and blackmailing the people.He ordered the establishment of a national bank, and poor people can apply for state loans with an annual interest of one-tenth, so as to prevent usury from exploiting the people.Wang Mang implemented a fixed price policy, and the price of goods on the market was set by the government to maintain market order.Unfortunately, because these measures greatly exceeded the capacity of the society, Wang Mang's regime was quickly overthrown by dissatisfied Chinese.

Even after Zhu Yuanzhang, Emperor Yongzheng had a well field dream. In 1724 (the second year of Yongzheng), he allocated 240 hectares of official land, selected 100 unemployed households, allocated 100 mu of land to each man, and used it as private land. Every eight people managed a total of 100 mu of public land.The harvest of the public land belongs to the government as an agricultural tax.The government gave each man fifty taels of silver to buy seed tools and rations.The surplus land outside the public and private fields is used to build villages.However, this romantic retro fantasy didn't materialize.Soon after the implementation, the cultivators fled one after another.

Although these overly advanced experiments unfortunately failed, the ideal of Datong has always lived in the depths of the Chinese spirit.The Western individualism spirit that emphasizes individual freedom, individual rights and individual independence has never been in line with the Chinese psychological tradition of advocating collectivism.Taking the socialist road is in line with China's national character, historical traditions, people's psychology, and thinking habits. The longing for "the world is one family" led China to finally choose the road of socialism.This choice is not so much a historical choice as a cultural one.