Unspoken rules vs. big history "The Fifteen Years of Wanli" did not say clearly Since its publication, "Hidden Rules" has attracted wide attention from all walks of life. It is regarded as the most creative historical work since Huang Renyu's "Fifteen Years of Wanli". A good book of the year, it has long been on the bestseller lists in Beijing, Shenzhen and other places, with sales of nearly 100,000 copies.The term unspoken rules seems to be a key to interpreting Chinese history and understanding the social and cultural outlook of Chinese people. Gan Qi, founder of Wansheng Bookstore, a famous private bookstore in Beijing, once compared this book with "Fifteen Years of Wanli" and had an in-depth conversation with the author.

The first question: What are the flaws in Huang Renyu's "Fifteen Years of Wanli"? Gan Qi: After reading your "Hidden Rules", I naturally think of Huang Renyu's "Fifteen Years of Wanli", because you are all familiar with Ming history, you are all concerned about the fiscal and taxation system, and you are even interested in the same characters, such as Emperor Wanli, Zhang Juzheng, Hai Rui.Also, your way of writing is a bit weird, saying that academics are not academics, and telling stories is not stories, so I think you may be able to answer a question I have had for many years: What are the flaws in "The Fifteen Years of Wanli"?

Wu Si: I have read "Fifteen Years of Wanli" four times.When I first read it in 1986, I only felt that the writing was good, and it hit the point, but I couldn't tell what the point was. A few years ago, I finally found the perspective of unspoken rules. When reading history, I began to pay attention to those unspoken rules, that is, the rules that are hidden under the formal rules but actually govern the operation of Chinese society.After having this kind of accumulation, I watched "The Fifteen Years of Wanli" again, and found that what Huang Renyu went around trying to explain but failed to explain was precisely this unspoken rule.

Huang Renyu knew very well that the society of the Ming Dynasty was definitely not run according to the publicly declared formal norms, and the high-sounding moral laws were mostly just rhetoric, so he tried hard to describe this situation.As for what rules that society operates according to, he failed to figure it out, let alone analyze and pursue its formation mechanism.In other words, Huang Renyu did grasp the key point, but failed to grasp the key point and study it thoroughly.He heated the water to more than ninety degrees, but the fire was short of boiling point. The second question: Those who acted according to the teachings of the sages fell, and those who did not follow the teachings of the sages also fell. Where are the rules governing the game?

Gan Qi: I know that the boiling point you mentioned is the rule that really governs the game.So let's analyze those games.What is particularly interesting in Huang Renyu's works is the fate of Hai Rui and Zhang Juzheng. Whenever Huang Renyu talks about these, he is like a master storyteller, often telling a surprising ending reasonably.For example, Hai Rui, who was upright and dogmatic, failed in the end; Zhang Juzheng, who had far-reaching calculations, exquisite arrangements, extraordinary intelligence, and unscrupulous methods, also failed in the end because he was sued.Those who followed the teachings of the sages fell, and those who did not follow the teachings of the sages also fell. Why?Is it accidental or inevitable?Is it the exception or the rule?

Wu Si: Of course it is a general rule.Whether it was Hai Rui or Zhang Juzheng, they had violated the unspoken rules of the officialdom, so they received retribution.Hai Rui strictly followed the official regulations, forbidding arbitrary charges of various names, took the lead in rejecting bad rules and routines, and stopped enshrining bad rules and routines to his superiors. This was tantamount to depriving officials at all levels of their vested interests.Zhang Juzheng used various formal or informal means to force the imperial officials to complete taxation tasks, squeeze their leisure time, and squeeze the emperor's leisure time, and supervise them to improve efficiency without providing additional income.The two of them compressed the vested interests of the official group from different directions and destroyed the deep-rooted official rules.Their failure or downfall is but the inevitable punishment for violators.

In fact, Huang Renyu has revealed these meanings in the story. His question is not clear enough, which makes readers still feel inadequate, and needs to ask: Why is this?Is it the exception or the rule?I don't want to leave this kind of ambiguity and deficiency, so I discuss this kind of phenomenon separately, and give a name to this kind of phenomenon that can be summed up as a pattern.For example, "Yan's Transformation" (Chapter 2), it is said that Yan Zi was ordered to govern Dong'e, and when the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, Yan Zi was criticized by Qi Jinggong, and Yan Zi changed his policy.The problem lies in the information channels. Even if the interests of the common people are damaged, as long as the distribution of benefits is beneficial to the powerful group that controls the information channels, it will be good words, otherwise it will be bad words.So the facts themselves are not important, but the preferences of the information filter.

The third question: Why are high officials afraid of small officials?Why can the right to legitimately cause trouble or harm others be sold for a lot of money?What is the legal right to harm? Gan Qi: In your book, you tell a story about how a county magistrate settled a case.If the case is slightly vague, they have a wide range of legal choices, they can kill or release, they can be light or serious, and the officials will decide ten ways, whichever way they decide is justified.You also relayed a story told by Zhang Juzheng, the story of a big official bribing a small official. Zhang Juzheng has an incisive summary of this, saying that a big official is afraid of a small official, not because he expects to gain benefits from them, but because he is afraid of their harm. Own.In short, you found that the right to legally cause trouble or harm others is valuable, and indeed it continues to sell for a lot of money, so you gave this power a name, the legal right to harm.

The legal right to harm is a word that can help us gain insight into the hidden and the truth. With this word, many difficult-to-understand phenomena suddenly become clear.The legal harm authority is huge and cheap, and people can almost create something out of nothing and grab benefits out of thin air; in contrast, the power to benefit is much limited and cannot be separated from the support of actual resources.Therefore, the legal right to harm has a far-reaching impact on the actual operation of society and history, and is also the basis for the formation of unspoken rules. Wu Si: It should be said that the control of violence is the ultimate basis.The legal right to harm is nothing more than a legal application of legal violence.Various social groups, as well as within each group, are distributed according to their ability to harm, and various resources follow this ability to flow. As you said, the ability to benefit people comes second.Machiavelli also said the same thing. He believed that whether a favor can be reciprocated depends on the conscience of the beneficiary, and the benefactor cannot control the conscience of the beneficiary; the perpetrator can control the situation unilaterally, because the perpetrator only needs to rely on the other party. of fear.Everyone has fear, but not everyone has a conscience.

The impact and significance of applying the legal right to harm to ordinary people is the most thrilling.I did some calculations on behalf of the people of the Qing Dynasty who petitioned to sue. How much risk would I have to take, what price would I have to pay, and what were the chances of winning in order to sue for the arbitrary fees imposed on me?Conversely, officials extort money and collect exorbitant taxes. Once they are sued by the people, how much risk and loss will they have?After a few calculations, the conclusion is two shocking words: being taken advantage of is the most cost-effective choice for ordinary people, while being a corrupt official is the most cost-effective choice for officials.This is not a moral issue, but determined by the pattern of interests.

This pattern of interests further determines that the profits of squeezing into the officialdom are very high, so we see the unstoppable expansion of the bureaucratic group.For example, in the era of Zhu Yuanzhang, the official establishment of county officials and officials was only about 20 people. Serving as yamen servants was unpaid labor among the people, but they got some food subsidies.However, because the yamen servants have the legal right to harm, they have instead become a status that needs to be exploited or even purchased with money. As a result, the team of yamen servants has rapidly expanded, and there are also assistants and temporary workers under the yamen servants.Zhu Yuanzhang made a statistic: Songjiang Mansion has 1,350 market thugs who are working in the officialdom. They help out in the officialdom. , Banghu and many other names.Zhu Yuanzhang ordered to clean up, and one Songjiang mansion actually got rid of more than 900 people including small prisoners and wild prisons.There is a huge difference between the formal regulations and the unspoken rules that actually operate.This intensified, until ten sheep and nine shepherds, the sheep were eaten to extinction, and the carnivores also became extinct. Question 4: Who is the biggest beneficiary of the legal right to harm?Who is the biggest victim? Gan Qi: It seems that the biggest beneficiary of the legal right to harm is the entire bureaucratic group, not even the emperor, and the biggest victim is the peasant group.If we compare the modern industrial and commercial society, the biggest beneficiary is not the boss but the managers, and the biggest victim is the consumer group. Wu Si: Yes, ignoring the relationship between the bureaucratic group and the peasant group is my biggest criticism of the overall layout of "The Fifteen Years of Wanli".Huang Renyu described the relationship between the emperor and the bureaucratic group, the relationship within the bureaucratic group, and even the relationship between the civil official group and the military group, but he did not use special pen and ink to describe the relationship between the official group and the peasant group.This is like describing how the kings of the mountain drink in big bowls, divide the meat in large pieces, and how they ask for seats, but they don't talk about how they cut paths and kidnap tickets, and how they rob houses, and that is the basic relationship that determines fate.The fat and water divided by the bureaucratic group ultimately come from the common people; the problems that Zhang Juzheng and Hai Rui are trying to solve, such as the implementation of the one-whip law, are also attempts to adjust the interest relationship between the bureaucratic group and the common people, not to mention the most basic relationship , It's like talking about the company and only talking about internal management, but not mentioning the market and consumers. Fifth question: From the perspective of a company researcher, what do you think of the digital management that management professors value? Gan Qi: It seems that you are all concerned about the same issue, which is the fate of the company; the crux of your worries are different. What Huang Renyu is most worried about is company management, but what you are most worried about is the relationship between the company and the market.In contrast, Huang Renyu is more like a management professor, and you are more like a company researcher.So what do you think of the digital management that management professors advocate? Wu Si: I think digital management is just talk, not a real problem.If Huang Renyu's digital management refers to the set of technologies corresponding to the industrial and commercial society, calling for it in the Ming Dynasty or expecting to use it to save the Ming Dynasty is a fantasy.That is to say, this kind of function cannot grow on the body of the Ming Dynasty at all, and even if this kind of function is introduced, it cannot survive on that body.The real question should be why the Ming Dynasty could not grow into a business society that could produce digital management. If he refers to the more instrumental numerical management, it is not that the Ming Dynasty did not have field measurement, household registration statistics, resignation audits, and money and grain collection. The will and interests of digital needers and providers that conceal more than they reveal.We are not unfamiliar with such history.