Chapter 274: Give in Order to Take
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lee Cheng Wen was a government official from Country Z. Before the Earth’s catastrophe, his rank had already reached prefecture-city level customs bureau’s head personnel. His age was only 46, a veritable youth among his peers.
Cheng Wen didn’t come from an aristocratic family or married someone influential. He reached his stage by slowly climbing the administrative ladder. Those that didn’t know him thought it was because of his ridiculously good luck, but some knew it was because he was a hero who could rule the world. Of course, this was an exaggeration, but they would all agree that he was definitely a character!
Cheng Wen’s favorite pastime was to read ancient literature, especially books by Lao Zi. He always told his twin that life is like reading a book, cause the books would always teach us how to act, as history tends to repeat itself. However, Cheng Wen was sort of a prude, because he was ethnocentric even in his reading materials. Only ancient Chinese texts had wisdom in them, and those written by other barbaric races didn’t.
Cheng Wen’s son, Li Jing, had always argued with him about this point, especially bringing up the Han Dynasty’s downfall around the seventeenth century. Other people’s cultures weren’t as bad as Cheng Wen made it out to be.
Cheng Wen would go silent every time he was faced with this argument; therefore, Li Jing stopped bringing it up, thinking it might have offended his father somehow.
Deep within Cheng Wen’s heart was a seed of sorrow. He was brought up by his grandfather, who was a famous private school teacher during the period prior to the Red Revolution. Therefore, he was taught a lot of classical thoughts. Cheng Wen was a natural learner; he had always managed to thwart his grandfather in class. His grandfather used to say that if he was born 500 years earlier, he would be someone like Zhu Ge Liang, or at least a learned man like Xun Yu [1].
Cheng Wen had mastered the Han’s antiquated thoughts before he reached age thirty, and very often, the question of why the Han Dynasty had gone into downfall would come up in his mind.
This was a big question pondered upon by many men from Country Z, the Qing Dynasty, and New Country Z. Why was it? Why would such a glorious dynasty face downfall when mankind was entering the modern era?
Cheng Wen thought that the Han Dynasty didn’t start to face its own downfall near the modern era but rather during the Tang Dynasty.
The fall of the Han Dynasty was definitely not because, as many charlatans had said, of Confucianism. While it was true that there was no cultural explosion after the unification of Confucianism like there was during the Warring Kingdoms era, Confucianism too had been changing ever since its conceptualization.
What is Confucianism?
Human need is Confucianism!
Confucianism changes according to human needs. This was a philosophy most suitable for human society's development because it was the most inclusive and deep philosophy there was. As long as the society needed it, it could change to fit the agenda of the day. Therefore, it wasn’t Confucianism itself that killed Han Dynasty, the real killer had used Confucianism as a prop to achieve its own goal.
Then who was the real killer?
Cheng Wen thought it was conceitedness from assuming oneself was the best.
Ever since the Tang Dynasty and the Song, Ming, and Guang Dynasties following it, Han culture had been unbeatable. Other than the actual Han Dynasty, there was no civilization equal to the level of Han culture. The barbarians couldn’t do it, and the Europeans couldn’t do it either. There was no civilization on Earth that could rival the glory of the Han culture. No matter from which perspective, the best civilization on Earth was definitely the culture of the Hans.
In conclusion, the Han’s pride was not something that could be put into words. Calling itself the Kingdom of Gods was a good try though. Of course, when one was at the top, there were no others to compare to and learn from. This was when the Han Dynasty started to fall, when it started to focus only on itself. Its growth had gone stagnant and the Confucianism holding that was society together stopped changing.
Unlike European countries, which had never been united under the same banner, the internal communication and external communication with the Arabic countries had never stopped…
This self-seclusion could only lead to self-exhaustion. Confucianism couldn’t grow tall but instead had no choice but to grow wide like Li Xue [2] during the Song Dynasty and Xin Xue [3] during the Ming Dynasty. In actuality, this did nothing for Confucianism. Wide growth meant more students, but the philosophy itself remained unchanged. This carried on until the end of the Ming Dynasty.
Following the European Renaissance, the other civilizations started to catch up to the Han culture. With the advent of long-distance sailing, the communication between the Hans and the rest of the world began. This communication reached its peak during the end of the Ming Dynasty. At that time, many scholars saw the catalyst needed for improvement in Han culture. This was observable from the beginning of capitalism and scholars of Confucianism realizing the new changes in their studied philosophy.
However, at that time, the biggest threat to the Hans appeared on the scene, the Mans, the Qing Dynasty… had arrived!
In the 300 year period when the European countries were undergoing a metamorphosis, the Hans started to collapse…
The Han culture was completely destroyed during that 300 year period. What remained? Foot-binding? Qipao? What else? Were these the things that defined the glory of Han Dynasty that lasted for thousands of years? How laughable!
After losing the essence of the Han people, in recent years, the people started to turn outwards to look for new cultural inspirations by turning to the west. In reality, ever since the Qing Dynasty, Han culture had completely been unrooted. For example, was the new Z Country really a Han product? No, it was nothing more than an imported good…
Therefore, Cheng Wen realized that the real killer of the Han people was self-reclusion, and this started during the Tang Dynasty…
He fully believed that if given the same resources, the Hans packaged with the thoughts and learning of ancient China would definitely crush the white-skinned people like bugs!
Ever since the beginning of the Hope's government, Cheng Wen was a small level Hope government official worker. He worked tirelessly without complaint. He was a man of few words, but his every word was loaded and to the point. Slowly but surely, his rank started to rise. Thus far, other than people like Yao Yuan, he was the highest ranking Han in the Hope’s government, and also one of the few Hans actually working in the government.
Many Han public officials like himself always complained to him about Yao Yuan’s policies, especially the one about all Chinese people having to start from the bottom rung of the administrative ladder, during meals. How was it that the government, which was in Country Z people’s hands, had all the higher officials be westerners? It was the same thing with the House of Representatives. The speaker was white, 70 percent of the representatives were white, and the rest were Asians from other countries and Africans, only 1 percent was pure-bred Han. Why was that?
These complaints entered Cheng Wen’s ears after he had a small fever. It was a fever that lasted only for several hours. Even though it was during the period when the Homo Evolutis awakening was happening, Cheng Wen’s wife and kids didn’t think it had anything to do with Cheng Wen’s fever, because Cheng Wen’s fever was too short and he was wide awake through the whole process. Only Cheng Wen himself knew that he had become a Homo Evolutis… a Thinker.
This was how Cheng Wen answered those complaining officials.
"…As Lao Zi once said, give in order to take."
The officials were not familiar with antiquated literature, but the phrase itself wasn’t that complicated, so they seemed to have understood a thing or two…
One had to give before one could take… But what exactly was the meaning?
Cheng Wen, who was asked to elaborate, only smiled because he didn’t consider it necessary to do so. Certain things had to be left unsaid. However, according to his recent observations and his understanding of Yao Yuan, the caution the white skins had against Guang Zhen and the small actions taken behind Yao Yuan’s back to undermine his place, from all this he could see…
The plan that had been formed ever since the Hope’s government was created.
Give in order to take…
A few months after the Hope stopped in space, the first batch of corrupted officials, including westerners, Africans, and Asians, were captured. The government asked Cheng Wen to come in to have a talk. They discussed his years of hard work and their wish to commend him. At that point, Cheng Wen knew the plan that had been in planning for 10 years had been initiated!
Give in order to take!
Cheng Wen felt especially kindred to Yao Yuan then, like finding an old friend. He had no clue whether Yao Yuan was familiar Ancient Chinese thinking, but he realized that he was using it to clean up the trash that was plaguing the Hope.
In some way, there was communication without actually communicating…
That night, Cheng Wen got himself blind drunk. The next day, the first ever label of the most honest government worker in the 11 years of the Hope’s government induction was bequeathed onto Cheng Wen. At the same time, he was named the vice minister for the Hope’s ministry of labor and personnel. He was going to take the position of minister until the actual minister returned from being investigated….
Translator's Thoughts
Lonelytree Lonelytree
[1] a strategist and statesman who served as an advisor to the warlord Cao Cao in the late Eastern Han dynasty.
[2] a moral, ethical, and metaphysical Chinese philosophy influenced by Confucianism, and originated with Han Yu and Li Ao in the Tang Dynasty, and became prominent during the Song and Ming dynasties.
[3] School of Mind; Neo-Confucian Idealistic School (from Song to mid-Qing times, c. 1000-1750, typified by the teachings of Wang Yangming.