Chinese virtue

Chapter 55 Lack of altruism (3)
Regarding the hospitality of the Chinese people, it has already been mentioned earlier.At the same time, they follow an old rule, that is mutual benefit.In China, this is a science.If you give me a cow, I will give you a horse; if you give me a foot, I will give you back a foot; if you take a box from you, I will give you back another one.We have seen that at weddings and funerals, people come from all over to give gifts, and they have invented a method of accounting, which is accurate and practical, and can know who has given gifts and what gifts.Moreover, whenever someone has a wedding or funeral, the family member will return it according to the standard received last time.In dealing with people and the world, no one can show what is called "you will reap melons if you sow melons, and you will reap beans if you sow beans" like the Chinese.

It is an obvious phenomenon in Chinese society that nepotism plays a huge role in the competition for survival.

Also losing basic power, a person from a big family is in a more difficult situation than a person from a lesser-known family.The same village, the same surname, the same ancestor, and the same ancestral grave are obviously more difficult to deal with than villages with fewer people, different surnames, and only neighbors.

If there is a conflict of interest between these two kinds of villages, friction will be inevitable.

Flooding is the most important type of such friction.A village or several villages side by side are on flat land, and it is easy to be submerged when a flood comes.In order to prevent flooding, some villages united to build river dams, possibly with official support behind them.However, the water always has to be drained.

China is such a densely populated and vast country that it is impossible that no one will be harmed.

Therefore, after the dam is built, some people naturally hope that the dam will collapse as soon as possible.Correspondingly, the village sent a lot of people to patrol, day and night, to prevent accidents from happening to the river dam.People in those villages that might be flooded went out at night to dig the dam. If it was done, it would be impossible to tell whether the gap was dug or the river flushed it.When the two groups meet together, bloody conflicts will erupt.

Usually, the conflicts between villages cannot be resolved by the judges.No judge is willing to intervene in this kind of dispute, and hide as much as he can.Even if they are willing to intervene, the efficiency of doing things is low. By the time it is decided what to do, the disputes and conflicts have either passed or been resolved.Sometimes the conflict is very fierce, and many people will die. Such lawsuits are usually covered up by officials, so as to keep their black hats.Therefore, in the "Beijing News", generally you will not see reports of such things.Such things can easily happen, and China is so big, so you can get a good idea of ​​how many such things happen.

Regarding the contradictions between neighboring villages, one can get a glimpse of the safety of those movable properties, especially crops.Crops are more likely to be spoiled than other properties, so they are generally closely guarded.Sometimes, people will organize themselves to guard the crops, and once the vandals are caught, the end will be miserable.However, this is only the case for those villages that have organized together to watch over the crops.Theft occurs elsewhere, and even if neighbors are stolen, they will regard the thief as a capable person.

For this reason, the crops on the land bordering two villages were especially vulnerable to theft, and therefore these fields were cheaper than those elsewhere.

We heard of a family of six brothers, five of whom had joined the Catholic Church.Asked why only one of them did not join, they said: "If something unexpected happens, one must be left who can make a statement, and must establish prestige."

The Chinese have an instinctive distaste for strangers, which is well reflected in their treatment of businessmen from the provinces, mostly concentrated in commercial centers.They hate people from other provinces not because they are poor, on the contrary, these people from far away are generally very rich, and they also set up a powerful business mutual aid group; make money.They hated businessmen from the provinces simply because they were strangers, they were different from themselves.They both called each other barbarians, and the spirit of fairness was quite Greek.

In the eyes of northerners, Guangzhou people have many advantages that they do not have, such as being able to play with machines, being good at doing business, etc., but even so, they still call Guangzhou people "Southern Man".For the same reason, when northerners go to the south, they will be called "Yankees", which also means barbarians.

Shanxi people can be called the Jews of China. The most powerful bankers in this empire are basically from there. No one can replace their role in this empire. Few nicknames are insulting.

As these words were being written, a Chinese newspaper in Guangzhou published the following message: A Guangzhou businessman complained that he was treated as a Caucasian when he went to the neighboring province of Fujian to buy vegetables.

This Guangzhou person is really pitiful, because being regarded as a Caucasian can only pay high prices for things, not only for vegetables, but also for other things.

The Chinese are prejudiced against foreigners, so foreigners who come to a certain place for the first time are basically regarded as bad people in the eyes of the locals.There is no public interest in the eyes of the Chinese. This point has also been discussed in detail above. As for the examples, there are too many and countless.After the Chinese dug a well, they basically installed a lever device to lift water, but this device was placed across the road, as long as someone lifted the water, the carriage would not be able to pass. This is simply the epitome of this empire.The same kind of people who pour dirty water into the dirty streets and muddy water on dirt roads, and say hello to travelers as they do so.An innkeeper turned a blind eye to a big hole and didn't fill it in because the road led to another inn, but there was no evidence that the big hole would actually help him take away much business.Under normal circumstances, the carriages would gather in the morning and set off from the small inn together on the road.They chose to go together because they wanted to take care of each other and save trouble, but the bandits were also very smart. They chose the last carriage to rob and let the one in front escape.Anyone who knows anything about it knows that such robberies are usually easy, unless the driver of the car has other connections.

In Western society, the best reason to get people to support a project is to say it serves the public.Of course, there are people out there who don't like this, but if the whole community tolerates such people, and tolerates them to obstruct and destroy actions that are beneficial to the public interest without harming someone's interests, then the community is an anomaly.However, things are quite different in China.We heard about such a case, a port wanted to buy a piece of land for a pharmacy and a hospital, but was eventually opposed by the local scholar-officials.There is no reason for their objection, only because this matter was planned by a foreigner.

Regarding the lack of altruism, the mode of getting along between Chinese and foreigners is very important.There is not much difference in human nature among people all over the world, only in the way of expression.The most convincing performance of the Chinese is reflected in the relationship between master and servant, which has also been mentioned earlier.

In many ways, the Chinese are excellent servants, and we have always believed this, including in arguments with foreigners who have just arrived in China.We have devoted a certain amount of space to expounding that the characteristics of those outstanding nationalities are also found in Chinese servants.Many servants are very loyal to their masters. One of the most common manifestations is that for those Chinese who work as nannies, foreign children are more attached to her than to their biological mothers.We have heard of such a case, a foreigner who left China and came back to stay for a while, the result was that their previous servants quit all their jobs and went to the original master's house to serve them well, although only for a short period of time. time.Everyone knew that this man had been the foreigner's servant for thirty years.

However, one side supports another side, and the servants in some places are indeed better than those in other places.Generations have passed since the first people came here to hire servants, and you'd be convinced that the good qualities of those days are still there.In order to find out the quality of these servants, the best way is to go to the interior in person and look for those servants you meet.Give it a year and you can become a man with more experience than someone who has lived in the port for 20 years.There was a child who cleaned the table and was sent to work as a waiter in a foreigner's family. The foreigner's family wanted to hold a banquet for another Chinese family.Unexpectedly, the child disappeared after the banquet started, leaving the guests there without receiving them.When I found him later, he said he had gone home.With a sad face, he looked aggrieved, saying that there were guests at home, and he had to go back to entertain them.The foreigner had already paid for the child's time and services at the time, and that's what it turned out to be.That's what they are, irresponsible, arbitrary, always putting their own interests first.Later, this person was sent to do other things, and he went home again, saying that he couldn't work today and had an appointment.

(End of this chapter)