Chinese virtue

Chapter 15 Lack of Public Morality

There is a saying in China's "Book of Songs": When it rains on my public land, it affects my private land.Roughly speaking, the farmer wants the rain to moisten the public fields first, and then his own fields.Perhaps there were such prayers in the prosperous Zhou Dynasty, but such prayers certainly would not appear in modern times.The Chinese government implements patriarchal rule, and the ruler hopes that his subjects will obey him like children treat their parents.A slave working on a plantation changed "All for himself and God for all" to "All for himself and God for himself."This slave inadvertently expressed the feelings of ordinary Chinese people: I can only take care of myself.For ordinary Chinese people, it is not their turn to worry about government affairs, because the government is very powerful.As for government officials who are parents, family members should take care of themselves. What I want to maintain is this family.

All in all, the government will not do anything until the disaster strikes.People are well aware that the reason why the government manages various disasters is not to affect tax revenue.The people will also instinctively take some protective measures for asylum, because they don't want the government to increase their exorbitant taxes for this reason.

From the road conditions in China, we can fully see how much the government cares about public affairs and the people.

In China, every city has a road paved with gravel, which extends in all directions and connects many cities.

It doesn't take a lot of money to maintain roads, but the government and the people never maintain them.In the end, the roads in many cities have already been damaged. Instead of providing convenience for everyone, these dilapidated roads have become obstacles when going out.Even if these roads were destroyed during the wars in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, there will be more than 200 years to repair them after the war.But these roads have never been repaired, and no one thought of repairing them, and finally turned into the dilapidated appearance we see today.

Both the government and the people are equally selfish. The people feel that there is no need and no obligation to care about the so-called "public property", as long as they guard their own property.The people always have the idea that "the whole world is the king's land". The whole country belongs to the emperor, and so do the roads, so we don't need to worry about the emperor's affairs.But the roads next to the fields are different. Farmers think that after paying the tax, the roads and fields next to the fields are their own.So farmers make full use of the roads beside the fields to expand the area, dig ditches, and finally the roads that can be used by people become narrower and narrower.Once the farmland is repeatedly washed away by heavy rains, the road in the field will become completely impassable and become a ditch.Chinese people don't understand what Westerners call "the right of way".

Some passengers sailing from Beijing to Tianjin occasionally find that some small flags are always erected in some places on the North Canal.After inquiring, I realized that there are mines under the water, and the flag is a sign to remind ships to detour!There was also a unit that put cannons on the main traffic line during training, which frightened the livestock in the surrounding villages, caused traffic jams, and caused serious traffic accidents.

Some merchants parked their carts in the middle of the road to load and unload goods, and some farmers laid down trees directly across the road.They don't care about other pedestrians at all, they only care about themselves.

Life in the city is pleasant and comfortable, but the roads in the city become very crowded because of the miscellaneous stalls on the street.Vendors won't move their stalls until the emperor is here.After the emperor left, the peddlers would return to the original place to yell and sell.The streets of many cities in China are lined with things. All kinds of craftsmen have set up temporary shops on the side of the road, such as pig butchers, hairdressers, carpenters, snack sellers, buckets, and even some women because of their own yards. Too young to hang the bedding on the street to dry.In China, it seems that anything can be placed on the street.

It’s not just the itinerant hawkers who hinder the traffic. The carpenters put piles of wood in front of their stalls, the cloth dyers hang colorful fabrics to dry in front of their shops, and the noodle makers hang their stretched noodles in front of their stalls… For these stall owners, the open space in front of the pavement is their own, and they can put anything they want.

The Chinese never recognize the concept of "since you have possession, you should take the responsibility of repairing it".

And every Chinese has this idea, how can I repair it if I have no money and no time?It is even more impossible for a group of people to cooperate to build roads. Everyone wants to exert the least amount of effort and get the most benefits.People have selfish thoughts, and the roads are getting dilapidated.Even Chinese county magistrates never thought about keeping the roads open within their jurisdiction, let alone ordinary people.

The Chinese are always indifferent to public property, but they always want to take that public property for themselves.The blue bricks on the city wall were stolen, and the paving stones were taken home to pad the yard.The most exaggerated thing is that in a port city, all the bricks on the wall of a foreigner's cemetery were taken away.A few years ago, a theft occurred in the imperial palace in Beijing: a large number of copper tiles from a palace in the Forbidden City were stolen. This theft was a sensation.Many Chinese feel that among the [-] provinces, the things belonging to the emperor are the most likely to be stolen.

People always ask, are the Chinese patriotic?This question cannot be answered in one sentence.Chinese people have very strong national feelings, especially among intellectuals.They are hostile to foreigners and believe that Western inventions come from China.In recent years, many articles slandering foreigners have appeared in Hunan Province. These authors hope that the "foreign devils" can be driven out of China through chaos.Publishing such xenophobic writing is as laudable as Western resistance to anarchism.

The hatred and misunderstanding of Western countries have led to such extreme xenophobia.Some see the movement as a manifestation of Chinese patriotism.But what was the purpose of the Chinese who caused this movement?Is it out of "spirit of patriotism" or for grandstanding to get money?No one can answer these questions without evidence.It's not that a Chinese doesn't care about the fate of the dynasty, that's a sign of being unpatriotic.We can completely say that no matter what dynasty they are in, the Chinese people's national feelings will not change, but they are extremely indifferent.

There is a very philosophical sentence in Confucius' "Analects", which is very in line with the Chinese attitude towards public affairs.Confucius said: "If you are not in the position, you will not seek the government." In our opinion, this sentence fully explains the reason why the Chinese are indifferent to things that have nothing to do with them.

Regarding the indifference of the Chinese, Mr. Gu Bocha, who is known as the "Lama of the West" in France, talked about his experience: "The year Emperor Daoguang died, I was traveling around. While drinking tea in a teahouse, I saw some people chatting. Chinese. We are very interested in which prince will inherit the throne after the death of the emperor, so we asked them: Who knows which of the three sons of the emperor will succeed? The officials at that time were divided into two factions, which faction would the prince depend on? What kind of policy will the new emperor have? Wait. As a result, they smoke cigarettes, drink tea, and ignore me completely. Their indifference makes me very uncomfortable. At this time, a Chinese came over and patted me shoulders, and said sarcastically, these are the affairs of the ministers, why do the common people worry about it. The people around also echoed. Finally, these Chinese people signaled to me that the tea is cold and it is time to leave. "

I still remember that when the British and French coalition forces attacked Beijing in 1860, Tianjin and Beijing Tongzhou agreed to the British and French coalition forces for their own interests, as long as they did not harass their cities, they would provide everything the coalition forces needed.As a result, the British army had mules bought in Shandong.Foreigners hired many Chinese from Hong Kong as coolies, and these Chinese had their braids cut off as captives.We can see that the patriotism and public morality of the Chinese are completely different from our Anglo-Saxons.

In some places, armed uprisings were organized in order to oppose the oppression and heavy taxes of the rulers.Under the leadership of the leader, the government will soon compromise.But after things subsided, those who took the lead in the uprising would be persecuted to death.They gave their lives for the benefit of the public. This is the truly selfless public spirit.

In Chinese history, especially when there is a change of dynasty, there will also be some warriors who sacrificed their lives for the country.They fought bravely for their ideals and for the benefit of the country.They are real heroes, and only under the leadership of such fearless heroes can the Chinese become true patriots, arousing the passion hidden behind their indifference.

(End of this chapter)