From common people's disapproval to common people's rights: three thousand years of common people's participation in public affairs

§1. Mao Zedong's Question of the Century

Since stepping out of the monarchy, how to connect the common people and between the common people and the regime has become the primary problem in the process of Chinese social modernization. If this problem cannot be overcome, neither social unity nor a stable political system can be established. The CCP finally established its political power, not without its own method. In it, standing on the side of the "people" rather than the "emperor" is the foundation of all its legitimacy, and the method by which social unity is constructed is both the CCP's The secret of success is also where its life and death lie.

In 1916, not long after the transition from the monarchy to the Republic of China, the President of the Republic of China Yuan Shikai had a great reputation. However, when he tried to restore the monarchy, he was immediately opposed and attacked by the whole country. In just a few months, he died in disgrace. Just a few years ago, people lived under the monarchy, and after only five years, it has become impossible to restore the monarchy. In the contest between the Empire and the Republic of China, "people" won an irreversible victory, and since then, "people" has become a sacred word. But in what ways do people participate in public affairs? This is still the problem of the century.

In 1919, under the age of 26, Mao Zedong wrote, "The country is extremely bad, human beings are suffering to the extreme, and society is extremely dark." At such a time, he believed that "the great unity of the people" was to remedy and transform society. fundamental method. However, easier said than done, how to unite the people? At that time, Mao Zedong's method was to "call in unison", "call out loud" or "rise up and call out". It is conceivable that just by shouting, how could it be possible to build a stable social relationship among the people? At that time, it was not just Mao Zedong who shouted. In 1922, Lu Xun published a collection of his short stories from the May Fourth period, which he named "The Scream". It can be seen that at that time, no matter who wanted to unite the people or improve the society, the main thing was to rely on "shouting", and there was no cure.

Even if the people all want to unite, as long as there is no concrete plan, "the great union of the people" is still an empty slogan. A "big alliance" could not be built for a while, so Mao Zedong turned to a "small alliance". What Mao refers to as small alliances refers to the alliances of various social identities based on common interests, such as the alliance between peasants and peasants, between workers and workers, between students and students, and so on. That is to say, Mao Zedong first hoped for a large number of NGOs to achieve "small unity of the people". On this basis, Mao Zedong asked: "Do we have the ability to carry out our country's 'people's great unity'?" He immediately realized: "When it comes to ability, there will be doubts."

This question of Mao Zedong is the question of the century. At that time, in Western societies, the traditional hierarchical social structure was being driven out of the public sphere and into the private sphere, which had to be equal. Mao Zedong's question was originally the question of how to get out of the private sphere of the hierarchical structure and build a public sphere where everyone is equal. However, the distinction between the public and private spheres was not consciously realized even in the West at that time. In the end, Mao Zedong could only end his article with a slogan: "You gentlemen! You gentlemen! We must always work hard! We must always move forward with all our might! Our golden world, our glorious world, is right in front of us!"

After shouting the slogan, Mao Zedong's doubts were not lifted, and his exploration did not end. It was not until 1933, in the "Field Inspection Movement", when he successfully organized the "People's Union" for the first time, that he found his own method of "people's participation in public affairs": mass movements.

Why mass movement, this unique Chinese method of "civilian participation in public affairs", is possible in China can only be answered in the depths of history. In the past, when we went back to history, we always started from the earliest historical materials. For example, when we talked about Western history, there was a saying that "words must talk about Greece". However, since the rise of the structuralist trend of thought, "words must talk about Greece" has long been It is far from enough. Based on the study of mythology, starting from the era of epics, "talking about myths in every word" has become a new standard for tracing the origin of various humanities.

§2. How did the primitive society realize "people's union"?

At the same time that Mao Zedong issued the question of the century, in 1919, on the other side of the Eurasian continent, the French yearbook school sociologist Marcel Granet published "Festivals and Ballads in Ancient China", which was the first time to use the methods of modern social science. Interpretation of "Poems (Classics)", restore the life of ancient Chinese ancestors society.

There are different research approaches to trace the ancestors' society. From the oracle bone inscriptions, Guo Moruo pointed out that the pictograph with the thorn in the eye is "people", which means the slave who was blinded in one eye. Guo Moruo's textual research caters to the five-stage social theory of Stalinism: the original society was a slave society. However, Xu Zhongshu believes that this word is "unclear" and cannot draw conclusions. Contrary to Guo Moruo's view, Ge Lanyan believes that the original commoners in ancient China were not only not enslaved, but were in a natural and simple state of complete laissez-faire.

Through the study of "Poems", Ge Lanyan outlines the basic social form of ancient China: residents in a certain area form a community, and for most of the year, they live in scattered families as units. In the family, men farm and women weave, and life is monotonous. The different families are alienated from each other and have little common social life. Only in certain slack seasons, residents from all over the world gather together to form a market, and social life begins to become active. Among them, the spring gathering is a sex carnival, and the autumn gathering is a food carnival. These gatherings are the public life of the ancestors' society. After the rally, people retreated back to the private lives of their families, and social life cooled again and came to a standstill. At that time, men did not marry, and women did not marry. People lived with their mothers, mothers’ brothers and sisters, and their own brothers and sisters for generations, and they were all blood relatives. In this initial social form, without sex orgy, there can be no multiplication of ethnic groups, so sex orgy is the most important public affair.

Due to the lack of social activities, the freedom of the primitive people is not what modern people call freedom today. The former is freedom in nature, without the constraints of human society, just like animals; the latter is freedom in human society, subject to the relationship between people, and is the measure of human civilization.

§3. The transformation of King Wen: the formation of the social situation of the commoner/aristocratic dichotomy

From these social activities, "people" gradually differentiated from "people". In the beginning, "born to steam the people" ("Poetry · Prosperity of the People")": all "people" are born in a natural state. Later, "there is a destiny from the sky, and this King Wen ("Poem · Daming")", who can obtain the destiny from the sky, will assume the responsibility of managing the public affairs of the world. Since then, those who have obtained the mandate of heaven become "people", and "people" are in the society that has been educated, while "people" have not obtained the mandate of heaven, and have always stayed in nature, like animals as "class members" [1] ] " exists, the life of any "people" has no meaning, only the continuation of the population has meaning. All the idioms that reflect the precious life of "people", such as "people's life depends on the sky" and "can't care about people's life", have nothing to do with "people". In response to "the people are suitable for people and people" in "Poetry, Taiga, and Fake Music", Mao Heng explained that "people should be safe and people should be officials." Zhu Xi noted that "people are common people; people are those who are in power". That is, "people" refers to commoners, as opposed to rulers or nobles that "people" refer to. The differentiation between "people" and "people" pointed out by Zhu Xi started in the era of "Poems", and arrived when the concept of "Mandate of Heaven" matured in the early Western Zhou Dynasty.

In the "Poem Preface", the function and purpose of the "Poem" was mentioned: "The first king believed that the husband and wife, filial piety, respect for human relations, aesthetic education, and changing customs." The system of male marriage and female marriage was praised as King Wen (active in AD 11th century BC). This system requires young women who marry, before the age of twenty [2] , to live in another strange family. Families in the farming era were alienated from each other and lived in groups on their own land, which meant that young women were permanently separated from their relatives, a system that bordered on cruelty. In order to form an alliance between the princes and for the greater interests of the group, the hostages had to make this unavoidable sacrifice. The exchange of hostages between princes was already very common at that time. Compared with the simple exchange of hostages without affinity by marriage, the exchange of hostages in the form of marriage can be said to kill two birds with one stone, and it is a more popular form of hostage exchange.

The conclusion of the marriage was hailed as the achievement of King Wen. So, how did King Wen do it? The Erya and Songs collected in the "Poems" belong to the nobility. In "Da Ya", King Wen welcomes a girl hostage from a "great country" with a grand ceremony. He greatly enriched and sublimated the ceremony of marriage, and since then, the wedding has become the most cherished moment in almost every girl's life.

In these poems, the marriage ceremony is sung over and over again, and the sex orgy disappears. These transformations are the core content of what Zhu Xi called "the transformation of King Wen". "Hua" is a concept unique to Chinese culture, referring to a transformation without resistance. How to make the resistance in social transformation invisible? The character "hua" in oracle bone inscriptions is like two people writing each other upside down, one up and the other down, walking opposite each other. Therefore, "transformation" is first of all differentiation. Some people are going to be expensive, and some people are going to be cheap. It is precisely by separating the noble and the lowly that the aristocratic way of life is respected, and it is possible for the common people to pursue the "male and female marriage" lifestyle because of advocating the aristocratic life. Therefore, the distinction between the noble and the lowly has become the "chemical transformation" with the least resistance and the least cost. ".

Glenyan notes, "With the disappearance of knowledge about the original function of festivals, people's respect for the rules that originated in festivals naturally disappears. Especially in times of chaos, village festivals are likely to degenerate into debauchery and sexual indulgence. Therefore, village festivals are now held in a despised atmosphere, and in the eyes of native scholars they are also evidence of chaos, but the fact has long been forgotten that their original purpose was to consolidate Social Cohesion [3] ". However, Ge Lanyan did not have the opportunity to further observe that the contempt of village festivals was the result of King Wen's transformation: the function of "consolidating social integration" had been quietly transferred by King Wen from "sex carnival" to "male sex". Married Girl" went up. It is precisely because the transformed society is more consolidated that the function of rural festivals to consolidate the society is overshadowed. In this way, the ancient society quietly completed the structural transformation. The system of male and female marriage has since become the biggest public affair.

a) The distinction between "closeness" and "benevolence" during the Shang and Zhou dynasties

American sinologist Chen Rongjie noticed that the word "ren" in the oldest Chinese classics "Shangshu" and "Book of Songs" are all interpreted as "qin". "Book of Rites • Doctrine of the Mean" says: "The benevolent person is also a person, and the person is a person." They all interpret "ren" as "close", however, what is the difference between benevolence and affection?

The Guodian Chu bamboo slips unearthed in 1993 confirmed that the ancient character of "ren" is the "benevolence" of the upper body and lower heart structure. ”, whose abbreviation “忎” is still included in the dictionary. According to the explanation of Russian sinologist Guo Jingyun [4] , the ancient word “shen” expresses the meaning of belly and life, and means pregnancy and fetus.” Erya Shi "Yan II": "Body, pro. ". So the initial "忎" has relatives of flesh and blood and blood. And the word "pro", "Shuowen": "Kin, to also. From seeing, close to each other"; "Guang Ya" "close, close". Therefore, the family affection expressed by the word "qin" is the closeness within the family, and there is intimacy that can meet each other. And the word "benevolence (忎)" expresses Family affection has the original meaning of a mother's compatriots, from the mother's womb, the compatriots, and then to the blood relatives. In matrilineal tribes, the difference between "kin" and "benevolence" is not prominent. King Wen advocated After the marriage was concluded, the marriage of men and women rose between Zhou and the nobles who were allied with him. If a daughter married far away, she would not be able to see her family often, and she would be neglected in "kinship", but she would not lose the "benevolence" of blood. For Zhou, who replaced the hostage exchange with the marriage system, the importance of "benevolence" began to greatly surpass that of "kinship". Compared with Shang Zhou, only his close relatives had the right to participate in public affairs. The concept of "benevolence" of in-laws has been strengthened and greatly expanded. During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the dispute between relatives and benevolence, "although there are relatives of Zhou, is not as good as a benevolent person" is actually a dispute between two social systems.

b) The patriarchal system and its governance model extended from kinship

From a sociological point of view, especially the basic exchange principle of sociology expounded in Mauss's "Gift", a married daughter is equivalent to a hostage between two families. This exchange of hostages strengthens the degree of social connection between the two families. This social structure is more compact and firm, which is much better than the social form in which men do not marry and women do not marry.

The marriage of men and women at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty was a new social system, which used the "benevolence" of blood to realize the close connection of social members. During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, there was a social system dispute between the two major groups of Shang and Zhou, and its importance was no less than the social system dispute between socialism and capitalism in later generations. In the process of King Wu conquering Shang later, this form of close and firm social integration defeated the scattered Yin Shang. Since then, the patriarchal system based on the family ethics of male marriage and female marriage has laid the initial foundation for Chinese cultural traditions. Correspondingly, the patriarchal system entered the core of public affairs.

c) Royal family and nobles compete for public space

However, the patriarchal system has been undermined continuously since the day it was established. Rather than saying that the patriarchal system was not strictly observed, it is better to say that the defects of the patriarchal system itself led to the collapse of the Western Zhou Dynasty.

King Wen's transformation only considered the rules for the conclusion of marriage, but did not take into account the rules for dissolution of marriage. According to "Historical Records: Zhou Benji", King You of the Western Zhou Dynasty wanted to abolish Queen Shen because of his preference for Bao Si. Empress Shen is the daughter of Marquis Shen. Marquis Shen used his daughter as a hostage to form an alliance with King You. If Shen was abolished, the marriage contract would be abolished, and the covenant would be destroyed, and the alliance with the Marquis Shen would be terminated. After Baosi gave birth to her son Bofu, King You really abolished Empress Shen and the prince she gave birth to, with Baosi as the queen and Bofu as the prince. Marquis Shen, who was unilaterally terminated the alliance, was furious and formed an alliance with Quan Rong to attack King You. King You was killed under Mount Li. The Duke of Shen united the princes and established the abolition of the prince, that is, his grandson Yijiu as the King of Ping. The turmoil caused Zhou Zhou to slump, and in 770 BC, King Ping was forced to move east. The relocation of the Zhou family to the east opened the Eastern Zhou era. However, the sequelae of the dissolution of the marriage contract did not become invisible. Whether or not the king should be established is a new controversy, and it is the controversy left over from the dissolution of the marriage contract. When King Ping died, the State of Lu did not even go to mourning. The State of Lu was originally a descendant of Duke Zhou, and most upheld the rituals of Zhou. He did not go to the funeral because he did not recognize King Ping. It can be seen that the authority of King Ping is not as good as before, so that in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, "the king's life cannot be ordered", and "the government is governed by Fang Bo". The decline of the Zhou royal family provided preparations for more social classes to intervene in public affairs.

Later Confucians recorded this event in the history books and became a collective memory. Ethics based on marriage and family are seen as the reason for the rise and fall of nations. The entire Chinese history since then has been developed through the improvement of family ethics under the social structure of the dichotomy between the monarch and the people established by the transformation of King Wen.

After King Ping moved eastward, the first prince to rise was Zheng Bo. Duke Zhuang of Zheng and King Ping of Zhou had conflicts and even wars, which led to the joint crusade of the princes. Zheng Zhuanggong's lessons were learned by other princes. In 651 BC, Duke Huan of Qi assumed the responsibility of the world through "respecting the king and repelling the barbarians", and was able to meet the feudal lords, and finally obtained the hegemony of "Rite and Music Conquest" to lead the world's public affairs. The principle of "respecting the king" in the two-division structure of the ruler and the people in Chinese culture, which was put forward at that time, remained unchanged until the end of the Mao era.

§4. There is a way in the world, but the common people disagree: civilians are excluded from public affairs

Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC) once pointed out the proper positions of the emperor, nobles and commoners in public affairs:

 When there is a way in the world, ritual and music conquests come from the Son of Heaven; when there is no way in the world, ritual and music conquests come from princes. Since the princes came out, Gai X hopes not to lose. Since the doctor came out, the fifth generation hope is not lost. Accompanying ministers to rule the country's life, three generations hope not to lose. When there is a way in the world, the government does not belong to the doctor. There is a way in the world, but the common people do not discuss it. ("The Analects of Confucius, Ji's Sixteenth")

According to Confucius' opinion, the most important powers involving public affairs, "the ritual and music conquest", can only come from the emperor alone. The nobles, as the emperor's agents, manage the public affairs in their fiefs under the authority of the emperor. Civilians, on the other hand, are completely excluded from public affairs.

The competition for public affairs within the nobility and the decline of blood monopoly

The breaking of the blood monopoly of the aristocracy first originated from the struggle within the noble family for the right to participate in public affairs. The initial struggle was launched within the princely family. Beginning in the first year (722 BC) recorded in the earliest extant chronicle of history in China, the Spring and Autumn Period, the cannibalism among princely families for the control of public affairs has never stopped. In 722 BC, the most powerful vassal state at that time, Zheng State, had a civil strife, and Duke Zhuang of Zheng defeated his younger brother Gongshu Duan in Yandi. Only 50 years later, the cannibalism of brothers among princes and nobles has developed to the extreme. In the state of Jin, one of the great powers of the Spring and Autumn Period:

 Jin Huan, Zhuang's clan forced them, offering Duke to suffer. Shi Kuo said, "Go to the rich sons, then the group of sons can make a plan." The public said, "I will try it." ("The Twenty-Three Years of Zuo Zhuan Zhuanggong")

The descendants of Uncle Qu Woheng and Zhuangbo, a nobleman of Jin state, are strong and threaten the office. Duke Xian of Jin was deeply troubled. In 671 BC, Duke Xian of Jin listened to Shi Shu's strategy of "going away from rich sons", and began to gradually design and cut off the most prosperous and powerful "rich sons" among the sons. In 669 BC, "the marquis of Jin gathered around and killed all the sons [5] ." In 656 BC, in a new round of power struggle, the marquis of Jin favored his concubine Li Ji in order to replace the prince Shen Sheng with his son. He poisoned the sacrificial meat offered by the prince to the Marquis of Jin to frame the prince. Prince Shen Sheng was forced to commit suicide, and the other two princes fled to another country. At this point, the Dukes of Jin died, escaped, and the nobles withered away, so the non-hereditary county system was adopted to manage the newly annexed land [6] . This is the first appearance of the county system. It opened the initial channel for civilians to change their identities and participate in public affairs.

Make it popular: the initial relationship of the common man to public affairs

After the transformation of King Wen differentiated princes from commoners, the relationship between princes and commoners became the focus of discussion among Chinese intellectual elites in later generations. Confucianism in the pre-Qin period used the concept of "benevolence" to summarize this relationship between the ruler and the people.

As mentioned earlier, the original meaning of the word "ren" is "pro". Confucianism was originally aristocracy. Inheriting the distinction between the noble and the low in the transformation of King Wen, the Confucian nobleman is noble and the villain is low. The so-called gentleman originally meant "the son of a gentleman", that is, the descendants of the princes, that is, the nobles; the villains are the commoners. Therefore, the distinction between nobles and commoners was originally based on blood relationship.

Confucius no longer identifies a gentleman by blood relationship, but distinguishes a gentleman from a villain by virtue. The descendants of Confucius used the benevolence of all virtues to summarize the relationship between the ruler and the people after King Wen differentiated the princes from the commoners, and changed the term from morality to politics, giving it a new connotation. Guo Jingyun found in his research on the bamboo slip "Jinyi" unearthed in Guodian, "As far as the pre-Qin chapter "Jinyi" is concerned, the concept of 'benevolence' can be described as the ideological center of the whole text", "the concept has two key points: first, it points out that The necessity of 'friendship' between the ruler and his subjects. As stated in Chapter 5: 'The people take the ruler as their heart, and the ruler takes the people as their body.' ^] It directly points to the principle that the ruler acts on the people, the ruler and the people are integrated. Second, it emphasizes the rule of rule The educational function of the people who are close to the people.” Confucianism directly uses the structure of “body and mind” "The word signifies the relationship between the two classes, the ruler and the people." " is the ancient word for "benevolence", and its character structure of "integration of body and mind" is also the original origin of "integration of ruler and people" in the concept of "benevolence". the moral " "Benevolence" was transformed into the political "benevolence" of Mencius later. The status of "benevolence" as the basic concept of Confucianism was established from then on. The entire development and perfection of Confucianism was carried out under the framework of "the unity of the ruler and the people". , and even continued to the "Chairman Mao and the People's Integration" system." (benevolence)" can be regarded as one of the key clues to understanding China's continuous cultural tradition.

a) Civilians change their identities to participate in public affairs through military exploits

The war between the feudal aristocrats intensified, requiring more and more warriors. Originally, nobles were warriors, but during the Warring States Period, more and more commoners were required to join in, and they gradually changed to commoners who were warriors and became nobles through military exploits. Wu Qi (440 BC - 381 BC) in Chu State, Shang Yang (390 BC - 338 BC) in Qin State, both implemented reforms to obtain noble status by military merit. The patriarchal feudal aristocracy of blood is completely out of date. The Qin state began to replace the aristocracy with the bureaucracy.

At this stage, in order to participate in public affairs, civilians do not strive for direct participation, but through changing their identity as civilians.

b) Civilian participation in public affairs through rebellion

After Qin unified China in 221 BC, there was no longer an opportunity to change civilian status through military exploits. At the same time, the existence or abolition of the aristocracy is still being debated within the ruling group. Starting from family ethics, Confucianism advocates the preservation of aristocracy based on blood hereditary. Confucian scholars lost in this political struggle and were buried alive, which is the famous incident of Confucianism in history. The Qin Empire re-established the bureaucracy. Although Qin had already started a bureaucratic system, the establishment of the Qin Dynasty was the result of a long-term melee among the nobles. After all, the king of Qin came from the feudal aristocracy. The new rule of the Qin Empire did not last long, and before it even had time to gain the most basic experience of rule, the Chen Shengwuguang Uprising in 209 BC took place. The most resounding slogan in this civilian uprising was "Is there a kindness between princes and generals?" That is to say, at this time, civilians did not ask to directly participate in public affairs, but asked to change their civilian status, obtain aristocratic status, and then obtain public affairs. The right to speak, to decide their own destiny.

After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, the first real king of civilian origin finally appeared. It effectively ended the aristocratic system that had lasted for 800 years since the transformation of King Wen. The Han Dynasty affirmed Confucius's theory of distinguishing noble and inferior by virtue rather than blood, "rejecting a hundred schools of thought and respecting only Confucianism", and took the Confucian Five Classics as the official orthodoxy with the maintenance of ethics as the main axis. This tradition continued until the beginning of the twentieth century.

Despite some minor back-and-forths in the actual political process, the bureaucracy decisively defeated the aristocracy in the Han Dynasty. This conversion only broke the hereditary system, and the power of the local governor, similar to the princes of the past, was still very large. So the relationship between the emperor and the bureaucracy has once again become a new structural issue in public affairs. This problem was not solved structurally until the Song Dynasty more than a thousand years later.

c) Civilians change their identities to participate in public affairs through the system of election of officials

In 220 AD, the Han Dynasty perished in a long period of chaos. It was replaced by the State of Wei. Chen Qun, the minister of the State of Wei, suggested the implementation of the Nine-Rank Officials Law, whose original intention was to examine and absorb officials from the previous dynasty. This set of rules began to be implemented in 230 AD. According to the importance of the position, it was divided into nine grades, with a relatively strict qualification examination and promotion system. The Nine-Rank Official Person Law provides a framework that can be continuously improved for the bureaucracy, and this framework and some principles are still in use today. For example, the "Renzi" system provided priority for the sons of officials and eunuchs. The sons of first-rank officials could start from the fifth rank when they first entered politics; those who were selected from the commoners could only start from the bottom. The Nine-Rank Official Person Law can be seen as an institutionalized effort to resolve the structural conflict between the emperor and the bureaucracy.

d) Civilians participate in public affairs by changing their status

In order to participate in public affairs that mainly focus on maintaining ethics, it is necessary to receive certain ethical education. During the Han and Wei Dynasties, China experienced a long period of war and the population plummeted. Only the large families who survived the war were able to preserve their cultural traditions and ensure the education of their children. For most of the 3rd to 6th centuries AD, the sons of the gatekeepers were the main human resource for common people to participate in public affairs.

e) Civilians change their identities to participate in public affairs through the imperial examination system

In 605 AD, the Sui Dynasty (581-619) started the imperial examination system. The jinshi examinations taken by commoners were low-level subjects and were used to supplement the lowest-level officials. After entering the Tang Dynasty (618-907), Jin Shike gradually became the representative of the imperial examination. Due to the popularity of literature in the aristocratic society, the jinshi subject, which takes poetry and poetry as the main examination subject, has become increasingly popular .

The imperial examination system became the best channel for civilians to participate in public affairs, and gradually achieved great success. This system continued until the beginning of the twentieth century.

§5. Worry before the world: the scholar-bureaucrat and the emperor share the world

At the same time as civilians were gaining more and more ways to participate in public affairs, another foreign religion, which advocated the withdrawal of people from secular public affairs, became popular. This is Buddhism. Buddhism was introduced in the Han Dynasty and became popular in the Tang Dynasty. At first Buddhism spread among the elite. After the spread of Zen Buddhism, the method of epiphany did not require long-term and hard study, and became popular among the common people. Zen masters were very popular, while Confucian masters had a difficult life. Confucianism was forced to respond. Han Yu (768-824) put forward "teacher, preaching, teaching, and dispelling doubts." He formulated professional norms for Confucian teachers and began to compete head-on with Zen masters. Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan and others launched the Ancient Prose Movement, which prepared the conditions for the revival of Confucianism, which advocated participation in public affairs. All of these advances have greatly improved the educational attainment of civilians. More and more educated civilians are equipped to have a voice in public affairs. But the limited positions of officials involved in public affairs make it impossible to meet demand. If proper arrangements cannot be given to these people, they may break away from the constraints of the imperial power and intervene in public affairs on their own, becoming a major concern for the imperial power.

On the other hand, Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty (960-1279) completed the absorption of the essence of Buddhism. It is proposed to start from the individual's "Mingming Virtue" (checking things, acquiring knowledge, sincerity, uprightness, self-cultivation); exerting it to "close to the people" (regarding the family, governing the country, and pacifying the world), in order to achieve the state of "stopping at perfection". It integrates self-cultivation, self-governance and public affairs, and endows it with the meaning of examining things, gaining knowledge, sincerity, righteousness, and self-cultivation in order to engage in the foundation of public affairs in the world. This made it unnecessary for the literati in the Song Dynasty to pursue administrative power, and self-cultivation at home was equivalent to taking responsibility for the world. Under this circumstance, the scholars of the Song Dynasty proposed that "the worries of the world should come before the worries of the world, and the pleasures of the world should come after the joys of the world."

However, the emphasis of Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty was on "respecting the king" and "mingling the way". This means that Neo-Confucianism is based on the premise of "respecting the king" when it comes to participating in public affairs. The scholar-official class does not participate in public affairs independently, but only after the self-examination of "respecting the king".

With the maturity of the nine-rank official-person law and the establishment of the Neo-Confucian "respect for the king", the structural conflict between the emperor and the bureaucracy was resolved, and they became one "official family". Since the Song Dynasty, the basic social structure of the two camps of the Chinese official family and the folk has been formed.

§6. Every man is responsible for the rise and fall of the world: civilians have the responsibility to participate in public affairs

The Song Dynasty Neo-Confucianism, which also adhered to the "respect for the king", also appeared to be differentiated. Qian Mu once traced the source of this differentiation:

 The Chinese often say the word "reason" in a row, and it can also be said that this is the subject of discussion in the entire history of Chinese thought. It can also be said that the two words have different meanings. Confucius and Meng mainly talked about "Tao", while Cheng and Zhu mainly talked about "reason" [8].

As for the difference between "Tao" and "Li", his explanation is:

 Zhuangzi said: "The way is done." Han Yu said, "It is called Dao from what it is." This is the most concise explanation of the word "dao". Dao comes from people. The way you walk is different, the way is different. Therefore, there are the so-called way of heaven and the way of human beings, and there are also the so-called way of kingship, hegemony, the Dao, and the little way, the way of Yao and Shun, the way of Jie and Zhou, the way of gentlemen and the way of petty people, etc. Therefore, there are phrases such as "the Tao is different, and not each other's conspiracy", "that is, to treat the body of the other person with the Tao of the other person", and "the Tao runs in parallel without contradicting each other" [9].

In other words, "Tao" comes from experience. The "reason" is different:

 The first person who specially proposed the word "li" was Wang Bi during the Three Kingdoms period. He said: "There is nothing wrong with things, and there must be a reason for it." That is to say, everything has its reason, that is, the reason. [...] Buddhists are like Zhu Daosheng, who will have an epiphany, which is also based on this word. He said, "Principles are inseparable." To understand this principle, one should fully realize it, and not gradually realize it in layers, which is an epiphany. According to the above, "reason" is a "why", and the Tao is a "already", or "actually", which is only seen when it is formed. [...] "Li" is a kind of preexisting [10].

Physicists are thus divided into two schools. One school is called "Tao Wen Xue", which moves from the empirical "Tao" to the abstract "Li", and the direction of investigation tends to clarify the definition of "Li", represented by Cheng Zhu's Neo-Confucianism. The other school emphasizes "respect for virtue", moving from the inner "reason" to the "Tao" of reality, and finally to the "unity of knowledge and action" from the inner to the action, represented by Lu Wang Xinxue.

Neo-Confucianism is becoming more and more focused on clarifying the heart, ignoring the external power of action. Those who attacked the sciences became scholars who were "incapable of holding a chicken in their hands" and "useless". The Song Dynasty was weak and was destroyed by foreign Mongols, and later generations tended to attribute the responsibility to Neo-Confucianism when they reflected on it. Psychology, on the other hand, focuses more and more on the alignment of heart and action. In the face of foreign aggression, Neo-Confucianism has no effective solution, while Psychology emphasizes action, which can be applied and gradually prospered. Wang Shouren (1472-1529), the master of mind studies in the Ming Dynasty, was both a scholar and a military strategist who was accustomed to fighting. Wang Shouren emphasized that "the reason why saints are holy is that their hearts are pure in nature." He also pointed out that "conscience is the law of heaven." What is conscience? The word "liangzhi" first came from Mencius, and was brought to the extreme by Wang Shouren. He elaborated: "Liangzhi is just a mind of right and wrong, right and wrong are just likes and dislikes." According to this, everyone has likes and dislikes, then everyone has Can lead to conscience. Conscience is the principle of heaven, and if the heart is pure, it can be a saint. In this way, commoners can also become saints. Previously, only those who had received long-term strict and standardized Confucian ethics education could become saints, but Wang Shouren opened a channel for those who have not received normative education to become saints, making theoretical preparations for future generations of commoners to take on the responsibilities of the world. Finally, in the 17th century, Gu Yanwu (1613-1682) proposed that commoners also have a responsibility to participate in public affairs. This is what the later Liang Qichao summed up "every man is responsible for the rise and fall of the world". Gu Yanwu's proposal responded to the goal that the common people have been striving for for thousands of years. It has been widely recognized and has become the consensus of all Chinese people.

So far, Confucianism has completed its entire process when it comes to the participation of commoners in public affairs: from "the world has the way, the common people do not discuss it", and the common people are completely excluded from public affairs, to "every man is responsible for the rise and fall of the world" in the public space. Fully accept civilians.

§7. From Empire to Republic: A Decisive Shift in Civilian Accountability of Public Affairs

Whether civilians should participate in public affairs is no longer a question. The intellectual elite has given a positive answer: the rise and fall of the world is the responsibility of the individual. However, how do civilians participate in public affairs and take responsibility for the world, and what are the specific ways? In seventeenth-century China, this was an entirely new question, and no one knew how to answer it.

a) From Taiping Rebellion to Boxer Rebellion: How Civilians Can Participate in Public Affairs

The largest civilian movement after this was the Taiping Rebellion that broke out in 1851. This massive peasant uprising nearly overthrew the Qing government and was not completely suppressed until 1872. However, the movement failed to establish any effective mechanism for civilian participation in public affairs and failed in chaos. Marx once commented:

 Apart from changing the dynasty, they did not give themselves any tasks. They don't have any slogans. The terror they gave the people was greater than the terror they gave the old rulers. [11]

Then, at the end of the 19th century, the Boxer Movement took it a step further and put forward the slogan of "support the Qing Dynasty and destroy the foreign countries", which is exactly the same as the "respect the king and fight the barbarians" to participate in public affairs proposed by the princes in the Spring and Autumn Period.

b) The unstoppable sanctification of the "people"

Although the Boxer movement quickly failed. "People" is still more and more sacred. The Qing Empire collapsed suddenly in an unexpected mutiny in 1911. For the first time in history, the new regime called itself the "Republic of China". It shows the indisputable legitimacy of the "people" to take responsibility for the world. The operation of the Republic of China was not smooth sailing. In 1916, Yuan Shikai tried to restore the monarchy and ended in disastrous failure. From then on, it is no longer possible for anyone to restore the monarchy in China in the face of the common people's continuous efforts to participate in public affairs for three thousand years. "People" became the most sacred word.

c) The historical moment of being hit

In 1917, the year after Yuan Shikai failed to proclaim himself emperor, the October Revolution took place in Russia. As Mao Zedong said, "The October Revolution brought us Marxism with the sound of a cannon. [12] "

In the Chinese tradition, when the common people finally obtained the legitimacy of participating in public affairs, but did not know how to participate, after the failure of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Boxer Movement, after the retreat from "people" to "emperor" has been After being never tolerated by the Chinese people, at this critical historical juncture when all the people were confused and confused and the new regime of the Republic of China was still groping in chaos, a set of Marxist ideas on how civilians should participate in public affairs seemed to have a complete set of theory and methods. The doctrine of ideology has entered this vacuum and hit the crux of history.

On the one hand, the introduction of Marxism has given the common people dual legitimacy to assume public responsibility: from Chinese tradition and from Marxism. On the other hand, the Communist Party program, which was introduced from the Russian Revolution, centered on "the proletarians of the world, unite", "to gain power through violent revolution", and "to implement the dictatorship of the proletariat until the realization of communism" is simply like a book on how the common people take responsibility for the world. Responsibility Instruction Manual. In a land that has never been nurtured by the spirit of freedom, when the participation of civilians in public affairs has become the consensus of all Chinese people, and at the same time no one knows how to participate, the Communist Party program provides the clearest solution. Marxism and the unremitting pursuit of Chinese civilians for three thousand years to participate in public affairs can be done in one shot. If it hadn't hit the crux of history, Marxism would not have been so powerful in China, and Maoism would not have been so appealing to the Chinese.

§8. The construction of the party-people relationship and the crisis brought about by the transformation of the social structure

After Marxism was introduced into China, after more than 20 years of running-in with the Chinese revolution, Mao Zedong invented the "mass movement" to realize "people's union", and finally completed its sinicized variant around 1940: Maoism [13] . The concepts of the working people and the proletariat in Marxism are integrated with the common people and ordinary people in Chinese tradition, and are integrated into the new connotation of the word "people", giving the "people" the dual and highest participation in public affairs. sacredness. "People" became the most inspiring word of the era. With the slogan of "serving the people", the Communist Party of China, with the thousand-year passion of the Chinese people, took power in 1949 through a violent revolution. The sanctity of the people was once again confirmed by the new regime. The new country is called "People's Republic", the highest authority is "People's Congress", there is "People's Political Consultative Conference", the government is "People's Government", the court is "People's French", the procuratorate is "People's Procuratorate", and the army is "People's Procuratorate". People's Liberation Army," the bank is the "People's Bank", and all institutions involved in public affairs must be called "the people", demonstrating the unquestionable sanctity of the "people" participating in public affairs.

Therefore, in the new regime, the relationship between the party and the people has become the primary political relationship. After the socialist transformation was completed in the mid-1950s, the regime monopolized all economic resources. Without the system, no one can find even a grain of rice. At this time, the party firmly occupied the position of the ruler who "made the people popular" in the traditional Chinese ren (ren) religion. The party represents the people, takes the traditional "popularity" as the cornerstone, establishes heroes, role models, models, advanced and typical, and organizes "mass movements" to realize the integration of "party and people".

The Communist Party and Mao Zedong have not changed the social structure that has been divided between the noble and the lowly since the transformation of King Wen, and later the government and the people. change". Thus, by means of mass movements, "serving the people", etc., the common people are forced to go through the leadership and representatives of "Chairman Mao" before they can participate in public affairs. In 1976, with the natural death of Mao Zedong, the "unification of Chairman Mao and the people" naturally disintegrated. In 1979, the structure of "integration of the Party and the people" was reaffirmed by the "Four Cardinal Principles" proposed by Deng Xiaoping.

However, with the rapid modernization of Chinese society today, this "exemplary model" based on the teaching of ren (benevolence) has encountered an unprecedented crisis. Since Adam Smith discovered that the division of labor and cooperation can bring about a surge in national wealth, the wealth of mankind has been accumulated unprecedentedly. At the same time, the division of labor and cooperation in modern society has become more and more detailed, and all walks of life have formed their own fields of competition and have their own authority. If the "paradigm model" of unified power is to penetrate into various fields of competition, it will inevitably face competition and conflict with the authority of the field.

In pre-modern society, people could not distinguish between "authority", "force", "violence" and "right" contained in the concept of "power", as a result, authority and force conflict, force and force conflict, force and violence conflict, Violence and violent conflict, authority and power conflict, the conflict between them and even the melee, bring about the disintegration of power again and again. Due to the low degree of division of labor and cooperation in pre-modern society, and the field of competition is still underdeveloped, these conflicts are far less obvious than in modern society. However, people often see that power is always disintegrated from the inside, but they fail to realize that the stability of power lies in clearly distinguishing different parts of power so that they perform their duties without conflicting with each other.

Modern man understands power in the sense of will (volonté), and any power is derived from law as will. Power (pouvoir) is right (droit) as long as power is derived from law. Modern civilization is a process of constantly excluding violence, force and authority from power. When only the connotation of power is left, the modernization process of power is completed. Authority comes from history. Authority as a natural attitude is inherited from the past. Based on the recognition of the existing order in society, the legitimacy of authority is left in the air. The difference between force and right is that it is also an order and obedience between people. Right requires the consent of the other party, while force does not require the consent of the other party, but only the obedience of the other party. The object of violence is things, and even people are regarded as crops, and people are not regarded as people, and they do not require obedience. They only act according to the law of cause and effect in nature, and have nothing to do with the value of all human society. Modern society excludes violence, and violence should only exist in the relationship between man and nature, not in the relationship between man and man.

§9. Conclusion

"Party-people relationship" is the most important and sensitive structural relationship in contemporary Chinese public life. "Party-people relationship" is built on the "exemplary model" that runs through the entire Chinese history. The "model model" has long assumed the function of "consolidating society", but society has never stopped transforming. Social transformation runs through the history of China's 3,000-year-old demand for participation in public affairs. The natural and legitimate desire of generations to claim their rightful share in public affairs. With the irreversible structural transformation of society, today, the function of "consolidation of society" has shifted from "exemplary model" to "definition of rights". Therefore, the relationship between the party and the people is faced with the transformation from "model model" to "definition of rights" in substantive connotation.

Since China's accession to the WTO, the modern division of labor and cooperation in line with international standards has brought about a transformation of social structure. Countless diversified competition fields have replaced the unified class identity and become the most basic structural feature of modern Chinese society. brought unprecedented economic prosperity. This differentiation makes the ancient unified power also face modern transformation. If the power itself does not actively define the boundaries of the rights, authority, force and violence it contains, so as to realize the peaceful coexistence of all parts of the well water without committing the river water, then any small incident may affect the rights, authority and power in the power. The potential conflict between power, force and violence translates into intense real-world conflict that ultimately disintegrates itself from within power. Only by defining power as rights, can we protect rights from being damaged or deconstructed, and protect ourselves from the scuffles that may be brought about by the rights, authority, force and violence contained in power itself. The "definition of rights" between the party and the people is a requirement of the structural historical process. Avoiding this requirement means that the party-state will have to face the life and death of the party-state in a structural crisis.

Notes:

[1] For an understanding of the term "member of a class", see Hannah Arendt: "It is only when man ceases to act as an individual, no longer concerned only with his own existence, but becomes a 'member of a class' (Marx habitually Gattungswesen used); the collective life process of a 'socialized human' can proceed along its own 'inevitability', that is, in the The double sense of the great abundance of objects proceeds along an automated process." Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition, traduit par Wang Yinli, Shanghai People's Publishing House, coll. « Century Humanities Series· Century Library », 2009, p. 83.

[2] "Book of Rites, Song Li".

[3] Ge Lanyan, Festivals and Ballads in Ancient China, traduit par Zhao Bingxiang et Zhang Hongming, Guangxi Normal University Press, coll. « Modern Anthropology Classics Translation Series », 2005, p. 181.

[4] Guo Jingyun, "On the Origin and Original Meaning of the Pre-Qin Confucian Concept of "Benevolence", published in "Confucius Studies", No. 1, 2010.

[5] "Twenty-five years of Zuo Zhuan Zhuanggong"

[6] Qian Mu, Outline of National History (up and down), Commercial Press, 1996, p. 82.

[7] Ichita Miyazaki, Research on the Law of Nine-Rank Officials and Persons, traduit par Han Sheng et Liu Jianying, Zhonghua Book Company, coll. «Japanese Scholars Chinese History Research Series», 2008, p. 40.

[8] Qian Mu, History of Chinese Academic Thought (5), Kyushu Publishing House, coll. « The Complete Works of Mr. Qian Mu », 2011, vol. 10/5, p. 325.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Ibid. , p. 326.

[11] Marx, The Complete Works of Marx and Engels (Volume 15), traduit par Compilation Bureau of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin Works of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, People's Publishing House, 2001, p. 545.

[12] Mao Zedong: "On the People's Democratic Dictatorship", June 30, 1949.