Chinese virtue

Chapter 48

Before we have a general understanding of nepotism in Chinese society, I think it is understandable not to have a clear understanding of the Chinese social system.We have already talked about the issue of nepotism, but here we will revisit it and conduct a more in-depth analysis.Someone once pointed out that on this point, Chinese society is very different from most Western societies.Western society is highly mobile, unlike China, where nepotism keeps everyone tied to a fixed place, and there is little mobility.Take a foreigner living in China as an example, regardless of which western country he is from, if he has lived in China for a long time and has entered the interior of China, he does not want to stay in China now, but wants to return to his motherland , where will he settle after he goes back?He may not go back to his birthplace or a nearby village, or his wife's hometown, but chooses a place that he likes the most, feels the most, and suits him the most.If he has a piece of land, he may choose to settle on that piece of land, but it is also possible that he will sell this piece of land and go to a distant place to manage another piece of land.

If it is a Chinese, the situation will be completely different.There is only one place in the Chinese mind, just like bees, no matter how far they fly, they will eventually return to the hive.Westerners, on the other hand, are like grasshoppers with no sense of responsibility, jumping around non-stop, and will not show deep love for a certain place, or alienate other places because of unique feelings, but this must be eliminated. Certain situations that are closely related to survival.Although the radius of activities of the Chinese is sometimes relatively wide, they are usually rooted in one point on the vast earth, which is their hometown.We can get this inference from what we see with our eyes. China has such a large population, but almost no one travels. The only people we deal with on weekdays are neighbors in our hometown, and we have never had any contact with people from other places.Even after growing up, my childhood playmate still lives next door, no change from when I was a child, no one moves in or moves away.

Social change can only be reflected in a limited number of areas: the death of old people, death from disease or accidents, and the constant birth of children.This kind of situation usually happens in a village, or even in a family.It is conceivable that in this state, there is no secret at all.Everyone knows everything about everyone else, and everyone else knows everything about him.

Such a social group that shares information and interests is simply an ideal and beautiful countryside, quiet and simple.But in fact, there is no such beautiful countryside in Chinese society, and everyone will be involved in the eye-catching social disputes.Many people will use their power indiscriminately without any restrictions.

Chinese people do all kinds of harm to other people.The causes of this kind of injury can be roughly divided into two types: one is private affairs and the other is public affairs.The circumstances of private affairs included innumerable intrigues of every kind perpetrated upon those rich and powerful, such as burning their property, destroying their stockpiles of food, and the like.The amount of property those people own largely determines their chances of being harmed. If he can take some preventive measures like installing a lightning rod, then he can deal with the unknown attack, neutralize the attack or make it Go back and attack the opponent.We can indeed find that in order to protect themselves, those rich people have used many measures, some of which are even ingenious.Still, they face a significant risk of losing their property.

On the official side, almost all the pain comes from "legal fees."It's not just a single word, it represents a terrible expense, which is key to understanding the Chinese.Readers can roughly recall what they saw when they were in China. No matter where they are, they can see those around them worrying about "legal fees".Any of them, man, woman, or child, would be in dire straits when faced with a sudden lawsuit.As long as they are involved in the lawsuit, even if they have no fault, judging from the time and results, it will be a disaster for them.This kind of disaster often occurs in every place. Every Chinese is paying attention to the possibility of being involved in lawsuits. Always be skeptical about the merits of litigation.

There is such a story: a military officer's gala was held somewhere in India. During the gala, it was late at night and surrounded by various reptiles. Among them, a poisonous snake climbed onto a person and entangled him. , but this person has not noticed.It wasn't until the snake kept twisting and stretching its snake letter triumphantly that the man became soberly aware of the current situation.The poor man was so frightened that he didn't dare to move or make any sound, for fear that if he was not careful, he would die on the spot.So he lay there like a corpse, his eyes fixed on the devilish snake.After staring like this for three hours, a partner next to him woke up. His hand happened to touch the trigger of the revolver, and a mistaken shot smashed the poisonous snake's head.

It is really suitable to use this story as a metaphor for the living environment of the Chinese people.There is an enemy powerful enough to be deadly hidden around people at any time, and it may sneak attack them at any time and lead them into the boundless abyss.In view of this, the Chinese have produced in their nature a capacity for secrecy and have made it a feature of social life.Even an ordinary person may have enemies in disguise.Judging from this situation, no matter what time it is, if it is not yet determined whether the other party is an enemy, it will be safer to keep it secret.The consequence of this is that every Chinese is trying to understand others.But at the same time, it should also be clear that it is very difficult to really get to the bottom of a person, as the Chinese saying goes: "There is no impermeable wall." It means that "wind" (rumours) ) is invincible.However, it should be noted that China's "wind" can recognize the direction, and the object it attacks is only a special wall.If a person does not understand the mysteries of the "wind" (in fact, even a fisherman does), it will take a long time for him to figure out what other people carry in each "wind".In the consciousness of the Chinese, face is extremely important. If anyone loses face to a person with good face, he will suffer a huge threat, so no one is willing to take such a big risk.If a person can summon elders, high-ranking officials, wealthy businessmen, and famous people based on his own influence alone, then no one else dares to violate him no matter what good reasons he has.

To a large extent, China's officialdom is actually playing a game. The nature of not daring to offend people is the cards in people's hands, but people usually hide the cards in their wide sleeves.Whoever has the most cards in his hand and can maximize his resources will win the final victory and get all the rewards of the winner.Although this brief description is the absolute truth, it should not be taken as the whole truth, because in China, no one would be in trouble for knowing the whole truth.

In the Chinese government, we can also see the special phenomenon of not daring to offend others, which is referred to here as "supervision".Theoretically speaking, this huge crowd should be working for their ideals. As long as officials (not including the emperor here) violate the rules, they should report to the emperor at any time, and then the emperor will act like other officials. That way, show up at the final verdict.Although the emperor is the final arbiter of all cases, he himself is usually willing to accept supervision.From the perspective of the principles of China's social system, it seems that a system such as supervision cannot be tolerated in such a system, because after the establishment of this system, it sometimes even resists its own actual actions.However, there are exceptions. From the semi-transparent media "Beijing News", it can sometimes be found that some officials dare to abuse in public, or wholeheartedly reprimand all relevant people. After the reprimand, he will Looked quite happy.We don't need to have doubts about this. After all, they have to pay a price for this behavior, which is the possibility of being sanctioned by the law that seems to restrict the daily behavior of most Chinese people.

We can see from many places that Chinese people dare not offend their fellow countrymen or foreigners. This is very important. It has a restriction on the people we hire, so that they dare not think too much.On one occasion, when I was about to dismiss a servant I hated, I hastily promoted in his place another whom I thought fit.But both of them disappeared from my sight at once, which made me very angry, and they just went away, and one of them didn't even have any reason, but the reasons here are the reasons we can deduce.But the rest of the servants knew this very well. The second servant did not leave voluntarily. He did not dare to offend his companion, so he did not dare to stay.Other foreigners can also find that if they decide to hire a Chinese scholar to work for them, they cannot replace him with another scholar as long as he is not finally fired.This is a very good interpretation of their common saying: "If the old does not go, the new will not come." The new dare not come, this is the most solemn reason.

The question mentioned above can provide an explanation for what many foreigners see and hear in China.But whenever a complex event occurs, it's impossible to get to the bottom of it.It's easy to explain, it's not complicated, and like an honest advisor said, there's no truth to it.In some cases, even if we think that we are observing a group of gamblers or drug addicts, we still cannot conclusively identify this, and this is the secret, a Chinese who understands its importance. secret.Although they already know the truth, they will still keep it secret from foreigners for a long time.It is not difficult, therefore, to explain why it is difficult for a foreigner to ascertain the truth of a well-known event.Just like there is sufficient evidence to prove that there is a strong current in the atmosphere, but the specific process of electric spark generation is still not clear.

When encountering things that may cause them to get into trouble, the Chinese are usually very secretive, and this situation often makes Chinese trials achieve good results, which is completely different from our Western trials.The evidence we value is irrelevant in the eyes of the Chinese, and they don't even know the evidence.Many of the trials in China resemble the breakups between lovers that are popular in France.A man who is bored with his lover will leave only a note saying, "I know it all, so be it." In fact, there is still a lot he doesn't know, but that's where it ends up.Litigation tends to have consequences that one cannot afford, so that the truth is not usually obtained by serious investigation, but by a general balance of mutuality, or some shrewd reasoning and conjecture.This statement is completely tenable.There was an old man who was about to die, when a Taoist priest called him to sum up his faults and achievements, the old man gave a very instructive answer: "I am going to another place, and I don't want to offend people anymore. "This is the country the Chinese live in, they are fully aware of it, so they don't try to offend people, let alone just to make foreigners happy.

(End of this chapter)