48、The Universe Is Merciless and Treated Every Living Creature Without Dignity

Tao Te Ching: Chapter 5

Explanation:

‘The universe is merciless and treated every living creatures like domestic animals; the deity is merciless, he treated the people like domestic animals. The space between heaven and earth is like a big bellows. There is empty between heaven and earth and couldn’t force people to do anything. With the natural changes, everything happens naturally. People may feel days without changes if they talk too much, so please let people feel it themselves.’

Comment:

These two sentences are the most extraordinary expression from Lao-Tzu and also the most worth thinking expression.

‘Merciless’ is the thought of governed by law of Lao-Tzu. Mercy is the aim and merciless is the way; only through mercilessness can we realise mercy. Heaven and earth is mercy, expresses it through tangible natural Tao; the deity is mercy, expresses it through perfect social rules.

The universe is merciless and treated every living creatures like domestic animals

Heaven and earth runs by its own rules, the natural Tao, and the nature won’t pay preference to any creatures. Violating the rules of nature or ignoring it will definitely get punishment without any excuse to avoid.

What are the natural rules? Law of the jungle, survival of the fittest, the weak is doomed to die, and the winner takes all.

This is the real merciless. This is the truth. The Chinese learn from Lao-Tzu, listen to Lao-Tzu, but distorted it a lot and becomes a culture of sissy. But the most quintessence part of Lao-Tzu is falsified by fools.

Even a word like ‘chu dog’ dare not to direct translation—a typical black sheep, a good-for-nothing.

The deity is merciless; he treated the people like domestic animals.

Netizen think this sentence is the thought of governed by law from Lao-Tzu, it required the saint manage the country by law instead of emotion.

I think it is partly correct.

People regulated the law and changed it day to day; a different law made by different people may have a different purpose in favour of a different person.

Just like the laws of property, it aroused great discussion even before it comes out. Actually it isn’t an argument, it is power-changing; every force tends to gain interest from it.

So law may not govern the country successfully.

This book is Tao Te Ching; the thoughts of Lao-Tzu are not governed by law but by Tao.

Only the law that derived from Tao can govern the country. There is law if there isn’t Tao, but the law without Tao can only exaggerate the social conflict, letting people involved in pains and injustice, and cannot accomplish the purpose of administering a country.

Tao is objectives, justice, overall, and proved by the practice. It can weigh the advantages and the disadvantages and fully consider every corner of the society. It is also considered the natural justice and human instinct, and after a deep consideration through elites’ analysis, it can lead people to the right way.

Tao is the purest, absolute, without any affection, and only overall analysis and consideration. A result comes from reasonable sense. So Tao is merciless, without bothered by affection. It’s all-or-none thinking. For everything that happens in a normal person, especially the big event, we need perfect analysis.

It’s quite easy—those who reject to admit that it’s the state-owned enterprises that ruin the whole enterprises, those who reject to admit that Karl Marx has no certification to wrote Das Kapital, and those who don’t admit that the Islamic Wahhab is heresy, the people without Tao, they are blind, unable to see through the essence of issues and they are incapable of managing the country’s event and even don’t have the ability to talk about our country.

The space between heaven and earth is like a big bellows. There is empty between heaven and earth and couldn’t force people to do anything. With the Yin-Yang running, everything happens naturally.

Lao-Tzu takes the heaven and earth like the bellows, it seems to have nothing between them, but once the time runs, everything is derived from it.

Heaven and earth can be taken as the social environment and social system in society, which contains law, ethic, moral, and economic and political relationship.

The most outstanding social system never force people to do this or that. It makes people naturally do things by their instinct.

The country and the society never force people and bewilder people.

As the nature, there is no stipulated rule between heaven and earth that the lion can only capture a special goat, but the lion will strive to catch it. Why? Because it’s hungry. It responds to the call of nature. The fear of death drives the lion to chase the goat with great effort. This makes the Yin-Yang operating. The lion satisfies its need and accomplishes its mission as well.

It’s the same thing in human society that superior social relation and social environment shall not be obliged to force people to work hard for people pushed by their lusts would work hard naturally.

Capital is just such an amazing thing that fully meets the requirements and natures of natural law, heavenly Tao.

According to the Marxian theory, capitalists use capital to set up businesses and plants, which are called investment. And then they entrust professional managers and workers to work for them, manufacture products that shall be sold at the market, exclude workers’ salary, the spending of raw material, premises, management, power, etc., and the rest of the wealth is surplus value, also you can say capital income or capital gains.

When the business reaches at a certain level, capitalists can take all the investment back, reinvest in a new company, or spend the wealth at their own will. This is what we call natural circulation as in the problem of chicken and egg, also the circulation of heavenly Tao.

The function of the capitalist in the whole procedure is dominating, operating, planning, and bearing risks. Capitalists have by no means to compel workers to work for them or not. Labour force is the goods that are equally exchanged by capitalists at the labour market—service commodity. This is a fair deal and exchange based on mutual willing that if the worker feels the salary is low, then he can choose another job, and if capitalists think the worker is lazy, then they can dismiss him at any time. It’s the same thing anyway buying labour force that can benefit more, and this is the rule.

However, in order to keep a secure job and wage, workers have to bust their asses to satisfy their bosses. No need to threaten them and induce them. Fair deal is natural law. It is not a threat but a legal right to fire any worker by capitalists in a legal scope; moreover, this is the most basic right and also heavenly Tao for a large loss would occur if the occupations arranged by capitalists do not match the workers. The plant invested by capitalists is a machine that serves for capitalists and it is a legal machine. Capitalists surely have the right to arrange men who they think are proper to run their capital.

The main reason that the capitalist countries boost rapidly is that their production relations and social environment accord with heavenly Tao, endless heavenly Tao, and heavenly Tao of governing by non-interference.

All the capitalist have to do is to push their business onto the track and then naturally the wealth would flow into their pockets. No need to compel and threaten.

This is a system as well, namely, capitalists’ business is a system. The management theory is just the system culture. The basic principle of a business is just the system management. The system turns harmony, and then the wealth comes in continually, while if the system breaks down, then it is the bankruptcy.

A capitalist country is a country comprising small systems one by one.

But at the macroscopic level, their country is disordered, scattered, and individually independent, which has no complete system; in other words, it has a loose system.

Socialism country is to fund a big and wholesome system. Whether it is big or small, one principle shall conform to—heavenly Tao.

The reason I think that our egalitarianism failed is no Tao, and completely on the contrary to heavenly Tao and humanity, taking the social rules making and social environment construction for granted.

Chairman Mao led campaigns like great leap forward, egalitarianism, smelting steel, cutting the tail of capitalism, and abolitionist movement and so forth.

This old man’s intention was that he hoped to dominate people’s mind to control capital, holding the idea that the people would work for the country if their minds can be governed, and inspiring the people’s labour enthusiasm if examples can be set.

The result was severe that complaints were everywhere, hens gone and the eggs cracked, and everything broke down. Non-Tao, humanity has been killed and ignored, therefore this is the result.

Reach for success, then knowledge has to be studied and humanity is the largest knowledge and also the biggest environment. Meeting the humanity can profit from others’ conflict, gain wealth continually, get anything fluently, otherwise the moment that capital gone is the time to die.

Some people always boast the prosperity in Mao’s period. What was the situation then? The revolution just succeeded with the largest collective capital, which included political capital, economic capital, and national capital.

It’s just like someone picks up a hundred thousand RMB and plans to start a little noodle restaurant. He was astonished seeing his business runs hardly after a few months.

When our country has to restructure the enterprises, it is the time when only two thousand RMB remains out of the hundred thousand RMB. The capital is thoroughly eaten, spent by staff of the state-owned company, and still they are sleeping soundly. How hilarious.

For a nation system, the most effective management is capitalism, national capitalism.

The capitalism principle is just on the contrary to Mao’s theory.

Chairman Mao wants to control capital by dominating minds—bitterly beaten.

Capitalism is dominating minds by using capital—truth.

National capitalism is dominating people’s mind by using state-owned capital. This is the Tao how a country is supposed to be ruled.