Chapter 15 postscript

A Way of Reading General History of China 1. Peasants and Empire (1) Empire is the product of violent competition When the interests of predatory activities are higher than those of productive activities and can remain stable for a long time, there will be groups specialized in violent plundering in human society, and the social manifestation of this division of labor will be violence︱financial entities➀.Violence︱There are violent collection groups and welfare production groups within the financial entity➁.Violence︱All kinds of formal relations within the financial entity are always stipulated or recognized by the owner of the most harmful ability; while the owner of the productive capacity can only indirectly determine various political economies through the influence or control of the gains and losses of the violent subject. and social relations.Various rights arrangements in human society, from political power to property rights to various personal rights, including the beautification and deification of this rights system, are all titles for certain arrangements under the protection of violence.

In the early days of the history of Chinese civilization that can be documented, the common people in the well field system were lazy in the public fields.Grass shortage in the public fields is serious➂.The large-scale lazy behavior that is difficult for the main material producers in society to supervise and punish has caused losses to both nobles and common people, weakened the overall strength of the country, and put it in an unsafe position in the violent competition between princes and financial entities.This predicament forced the first division of land and the free sale of land in Chinese history, and labor on public land was also transformed into an object in the initial tax mu.

With the gradual disintegration of the well field system and the increase of private land transactions, owner farmers appeared, and landlords, tenant farmers, and hired farmers also differentiated and formed.Hereditary nobles were gradually replaced by bureaucrats, and the county system began to replace the enfeoffment system➃.The centralized monarchy system developed by the Qin State to the extreme has a self-cultivating peasant system at the bottom that can use the power of the people and land, a bureaucratic agency system driven by orders, rewards and punishments at the middle, and a dictator at the top who controls all resources.Relying on this system and the policy of rewarding farming and warfare, Qin State stimulated the production potential of farmers as the main material producers, stimulated the physical strength, intelligence and courage of various human resources, and gathered the powerful forces stimulated in the hands of the autocratic monarch , forming a huge advantage of centralized use.Relying on this advantage, Qin eliminated the great powers in violent competition and created the first unified empire in Chinese history.

For Chinese society in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, the establishment of the Qin Empire ended hundreds of years of war and semi-anarchy, and established order for the society, so it was very popular.However, when the imperial system solved the old problem, it created a new problem in which the bureaucracy pursued the interests of the agents under cover.At the same time, the unrivaled strength of the empire led to the unrestrained self-expansion of the ruling group, which led to excessive infringement on the ruled. The yeoman system was largely replaced by the heavy labor and penal system, and the foundation of the empire was destroyed. , the Qin Empire II died.

The imperial system is a form of social organization that is gradually established and perfected in an environment of competition between various violence︱financial entities.The ability of this system to mobilize resources, war capability and stability is close to the maximum allowed by the production and technical conditions at that time.This is a high-efficiency system formed through the intermittent accumulation and exploration of more than 20 generations in hundreds of countries, and the combination and matching of systems in different fields and at different levels.This system is highly adapted to the geographical environment where the nomadic peoples in the grasslands are constantly invading➄, and is highly compatible with the historical evolution path of many violent︱financial entities competing for hegemony in the Central Plains.This high-efficiency comprehensive adaptive system➅ has become a historical activity subject with independent life that has ruled the world for more than two thousand years, occupied the center of the historical stage, and written a glorious chapter in the history of human civilization.

(2) The balance and imbalance of the empire The Western Han Dynasty summed up the lessons of the Qin Empire and established a balanced relationship between violent taxation groups and welfare production groups within the empire➆. Confucianism perfectly describes and demonstrates this equilibrium relationship.In the ideal design of Confucianism, thousands of households of self-cultivating farmers pay 10% of taxes to the empire every year; the monarch collects taxes through a multi-level bureaucratic agency network and grass-roots Lijia organizations, recruits soldiers, and protects the safety of the empire and its subjects. Maintain the hierarchical order of the monarch, minister, father, father and son, maintain the relative rights bestowed by the monarch to subjects at all levels, and provide welfare to the society.Confucianism, transformed by Dong Zhongshu, portrayed this order as the embodiment of the way of heaven, established by the emperor as the exclusive official ideology, and became the generally accepted view of fairness and justice in Chinese society.

The ruling group, composed of the royal family, nobles and their bureaucratic agents, possessed a powerful deterrent of violence and ideological persuasion, and thus dominated.However, their options are not unlimited.Agricultural producers use countermeasures such as sabotage, tax avoidance, escape, and rebellion when they are desperate, which determine the risks and benefits of the ruling group when they choose different land systems, personal rights, tax forms and tax ratios, and determine the costs of different governance methods. and earnings.In the eyes of the ruling group, the relationship between them and the material producers is similar to the relationship between the shepherd and the flock, and the requirements of the flock for growth conditions, the likes and dislikes of the flock, and their ability to bear have a major impact on the behavior of the shepherd.

However, in real life, in terms of the basic relationship between the ruling group and the ruled group, the actual relationship always stubbornly deviates from Confucian ideals and regulations, deviates from the so-called kingly way and the way of heaven, showing a general trend of degeneration.This tendency to deviate from the equilibrium point originates from the relentless pursuit of the agent's self-interest by the bureaucratic agency group.The supreme ruler is unable to restrain this huge private pursuit, and the weak and scattered small peasant class is unable to resist the plundering and plundering of power groups at all levels as a whole or individually, so there is a realistic hidden rule system that replaces the formal rules preached by Confucianism, and there is The cycle of dynastic change and chaos ➇.Dynastic succession is the imperial system's self-correcting mechanism for excessive imbalances.

The empire had to bear the ills of bureaucratic agency.When the bureaucratic agency system appeared on the stage of history on a large scale in the form of the county system, China was bleeding in the wars of the princes and officials cultivated by the enfeoffment system.The ability of the official agent to dominate and control the various resources under his rule is much weaker and shorter than that of the enfeoffed princes and officials, and his ability to confront the central government is much weaker.For the monarch, this is an efficient and stable system that is relatively easy to control.But new problems also emerged: the relationship between officials and the people under their rule was more transient and fragile, just like a shepherd hired to herd other people’s flocks, and the official agency group cared less about the life and death of the people than the feudal aristocratic group.

Peasant households under the imperial system existed in a state of disunity.Peasants live under the strict control of the Lijia system. They are weak, and their income from resisting the government's oppression is very meager, but they face a huge risk of killing chickens and scaring monkeys.Under this pattern of interests in which the risks of individual resistance far outweigh the benefits, retreating and forbearance is usually the best survival strategy for farmers.In addition, the self-sufficiency level of the small-scale peasant economy is high, and the number of transactions with the outside world is small and the quantity is small, so it is not very important to bear it.

The small-scale peasant economy has a strong tolerance to corrupt officials and a high adaptability to the imperial bureaucracy. The direct result is that it supports the imperial rule, just like the livestock breeds that are resistant to rough feeding support the extensive grazing method. The small-scale peasant economy also supported the extensive and slow management of the empire, and indirectly inhibited the development of industrial and commercial groups that were less tolerant of imperial rule.In addition, the small peasant economy's ability to withstand corrupt officials gave birth to hidden dangers that led to the collapse of the empire.Because corrupt officials are more likely to succeed in extortion and extortion, the income level of this group is higher, which encourages a higher proportion of the population to join the ranks of corrupt officials, and encourages the level of oppression to gradually escalate, until the survival crisis of ten sheep and nine shepherds appears, triggering Massive violent resistance. The decentralized and self-sufficient nature of the small-scale peasant economy determines that the peasant class exists alternately in two forms: a state of disunity in the period of peaceful production and a state of grouping in the period of rebellion.The impact of these two states on the interests and interests of the ruling group is very different in terms of ability and direction. Therefore, in the same composition pattern of several major social groups, two very different social orders have been produced.The reverence for the state of the rebel group determines the respect for the formal order prescribed by Confucianism by the ruling group, and the contempt for the state of disunity leads to the prevalence of unspoken rules for the common people.In the early days of the dynasty, the remnants of peasant rebel groups still existed, and the formal order of Confucianism was relatively high.With the passage of time, unspoken rules have grown and developed on the soil of weak and deceitful scattered small farmers, and the basic balance of the Confucian order has been gradually destroyed. Obviously, the above imbalance process is an inevitable trend, and the longer the history of the empire, the more obvious this trend will be.At the end of this process, there is a cycle of imperial collapse and subsequent anarchy, and warlords' melee in the Central Plains.And in the chaotic battle for the world, the system that finally gains a competitive advantage must belong to the imperial system that is familiar and does not require risky experiments.This is the system with the highest war efficiency and the widest social recognition.Thus, the imperial system appeared again at the beginning of a new dynastic cycle. When the empire was at peace and the population increased, the land resources that agriculture depended on became increasingly tense, and the competition for land resources among the various classes of the empire became increasingly fierce.Resource competition led to serious polarization. On the one hand, it destroyed the small-scale peasant economic system on which the empire depended for survival. On the other hand, it forced a large number of people into the bureaucratic group that had a dominant position in the competition for survival, which intensified the expansion of the imperial bureaucratic group. The original trend of corruption and corruption deviates more significantly from the Confucian stipulations of the basic order.In the end, the order collapsed, the world was in chaos, and the population dropped sharply until resources were relatively abundant.Raiding is less profitable than conservation or engaging in productive activities. The inability of the empire to absorb the excess population it created was a deeper crisis that the Confucian cognitive framework was unable to analyze and never took seriously.The simultaneous intertwining of the disruption of imperial order and the increase in population pressure does tend to confound the analysis of this question.However, the periodic deviation and restoration of the Confucian order by the empire is, after all, different from the destruction and reconstruction of the balanced relationship between population and land on the basis of agricultural civilization. mechanism. The imperial system has been reincarnated more than ten times without changing the basic structure. The fundamental reason is that it cannot form the power to break out of agricultural civilization.Therefore, neither can it solve the long-term problem of the relationship between population and resources, nor can it form a social force to construct a new political balance, thereby solving the periodic problem of the degeneration of the ruling group. (3) Government-run industry and commerce and private industry and commerce Europe formed a force to break out of agricultural civilization, which was driven by private industry and commerce. In Chinese history, the formation and development of industry and commerce were closely related to the government.Government-run industries and commerce directly occupy and control human and material resources by means of coercion, engage in industrial production and internal and external transactions, and meet the needs of the ruling group for weapons, sacrificial supplies, transportation, and daily necessities such as food, clothing, and housing. The empire's government-run industries have made brilliant achievements, produced exquisite products and magnificent buildings, and created a complex system of division of labor and cooperation.The acting officials of the empire are the direct managers of this production system. However, the government-run industrial production system faces a boundary that is difficult to break through: in the development of its own division of labor and specialization, the finer the division of labor, the longer the agency chain, the higher the management cost, and the lower the benefits brought by the division of labor.When the management cost is higher than the benefits brought by the division of labor, the process of division of labor development will be terminated. Private industry and commerce under the imperial system also developed slowly, but the survival and development of private industry and commerce were always subject to many external restrictions.The power of the empire is too great, and profitable areas will definitely be occupied and monopolized by it, but the efficiency of administrative management is gradually decreasing, and it is doomed to be poorly managed.The consequences of poor management will be passed on to private industrial and commercial groups in the form of cost apportionment and free collection.Therefore, through the two methods of monopoly and apportionment, government-run industry and commerce not only encroached on the development space of private industry and commerce, but also weakened their development ability. Private industry and commerce that survived in this environment could not develop into the main bearers of taxes, and their ups and downs were not so important to the empire.In a peaceful environment, the development and expansion conditions they demanded were difficult to obtain the support and cooperation of imperial officials; in times of crisis in the empire, private industry and commerce were usually the objects of persuasion for donations and relief or even free deprivation. Europe has a competitive environment similar to the violence in the Warring States Period︱financial entities. Although this has led to the fragmentation of the market and the loss of wars, it has led to a backwardness relative to the prosperity of Chinese civilization and its empire, but it has also reduced the ability of violent taxation groups to do whatever they want. capacity, while also providing a place for capital flight.The additional demands of European rulers cannot exceed the cost of capital flight, and the excess has to be exchanged for power, otherwise it will destroy its own financial foundation and political stability.In contrast, China's unified empire is not afraid of capital flying away. There is no king in the world, and private capital has no room to withdraw when bargaining fails, and can only be shrunk in a corner by the empire.If things go on like this, when China's agricultural financial base is overtaken by distant industrial and commercial financial bases, the unified empire, which has an overall backward production capacity and damage capability, will sooner or later be replaced by a new type of competition with a much smaller territory and a much higher level of violence and productivity. defeated. In the European feudal separatist environment, private industrial and commercial groups can purchase urban autonomy from relatively weak violent taxation groups, and can also rely on their own financial resources to organize armed forces or hire mercenaries to maintain autonomy.In relatively independent political entities such as England or the northern Netherlands known as the province of Holland, relatively powerful capital forces may even have the opportunity to make partial breakthroughs and establish a system for capital to control violence, thereby providing greater support for the operation and accumulation of capital. More suitable political conditions promote the evolution of a more professional and efficient division of labor system and form a powerful industrial civilization. The so-called capitalist system is such a system in which capital controls violence and persuasion.The capitalist system was possible in Europe because of the lack of fully developed violent organizations and bureaucratic agency in Europe during the period of agricultural civilization.Those small violent financial entities are scattered throughout the feudal system, and the whole of Europe is torn apart. Even the most powerful country can hardly mobilize millions of troops to defend the order of the empire like China.At the same time, Europe's violent financial︱entities lacked successful integration with ideological organizations, independent churches weakened the authority of the king, and the authority of the king weakened the power of the church.Finally, Europe still lacks a relatively isolated geographical region of a single civilization and a single nation, and it is difficult to establish and maintain a comprehensive and adaptable unified imperial system at low cost like China.Yet it is precisely because of these flaws, because of the weak links in the system of control of violence and persuasion, that Europe's loss in troubled times has brought it unexpected gains. Chinese capital does not lack the desire to control the government to formulate laws and regulations, but under the unified imperial system, despite the highly developed industrial and commercial cities like Suzhou and Jingdezhen, the interests of capital are still a partial group interest under the imperial rule. Its rise and fall are but easily replaceable figures in imperial finances.The interests of such a partial group that has limited contribution to the empire's finances, specializes in the last technology in an agriculture-based society, and is unable to influence the rise and fall of the world but is dragged down by the rise and fall of the world are too far away from the status of doctrine.From this point of view, the well-developed, well-controlled, well-integrated, and powerful imperial system has brought unexpected losses to China. The so-called unexpected gains and losses refer to the fact that behind such a profit-making group that is despised by Confucianism and Catholicism, there is actually a brand-new powerful force that can change the face of the world, a civilization system that spontaneously develops through division of labor in competition.In the mid-nineteenth century, the victors who stood out from the competition environment of thousands of sovereign states in Europe, after dozens of generations of trial and error in an environment more colorful than the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, eliminated the capitalism system that stood out, and opened up their own development. During the journey of space, he broke into the house of the Qing Empire, and fought against the imperial system of more than two thousand years in order to legally sell drugs.At this time, the Qing Empire was at the end of the traditional dynasty cycle, with population expansion, refugees everywhere, financial crisis, bloated officialdom, corrupt army, and low management efficiency, so it was about to collapse. The defeat of the empire marked a historic turning point: the violence under the direct control of the violence-extracting groups was no match for the violence under the control of the welfare-producing groups.The social form in which violent extortionist groups dominate everything has lost its best advantage in the struggle for survival. 2. New Thought and the Scholars (1) Ideological ruling group The scholar class outside the enfeoffment system was formed in the Spring and Autumn Period, flourished in the Warring States Period, and was finalized in the Han and Tang Dynasties.Just as the managerial class is attached to the bourgeoisie, the scholar class is attached to the monarch. After the imperial system unified the world, the scholar class faced the demand for talents monopolized by the royal family, and their bargaining position was greatly reduced.Among many competing theoretical systems, Dong Zhongshu persuaded Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to respect Confucianism exclusively, and to use the order described by Confucianism as the blueprint for establishing a country. potency. The Confucian group is an ideological ruling party group. According to the degree of mastery of Confucius and Mencius, this group is divided into different grades by different levels of selection and examination, and corresponding official teaching positions and privileged positions are awarded.As an ideological governing group, the Confucian group has a dual nature: it is both the inheritor of the Confucian orthodoxy and the employee of the royal legal system. As employees of the legal system, officials of Confucian origin may sincerely believe in Confucian orthodoxy, and are more likely to use it as a means of promotion and wealth.As the inheritors of orthodox tradition, the Confucian group strived to control the imperial power and strive for the status of the emperor's mentor and friend, and even concealed the illusion of the system of Yao and Shun's abdication system.However, in the actual competition to control the imperial power, the Confucian scholar group was no more successful than the eunuch group, military group or descendant group.The Confucian group lacked the strict organization of the European Catholic Church, and its political opponents were not as fragmented as Europe, so it was difficult to get rid of the state of attachment to the imperial power. (2) Efforts to explain the changing situation After the Opium War, the Western powers broke the isolation of the empire, and China was drawn into a vast and unfamiliar political, economic and cultural competition environment.This is equivalent to a catastrophic environmental mutation, and the adaptation of the imperial system to the new environment is in crisis.Facing this new situation, Confucian ideology must come up with convincing explanations and countermeasures. Wei Yuan put forward the countermeasure of learning from the barbarians to improve their skills to control the barbarians. The empire continued the tradition of government-run industries and established dozens of enterprises centered on the arms industry in the past 30 to 40 years. However, the government-run industries and businesses were still poorly managed. The failure highlighted the shortcomings of the imperial political system and ideology.Kang Youwei used the Confucian concept system to reinterpret the history and situation of the empire, trying to catch up with Europe and the United States through the fundamental reform of constitutional monarchy.However, the failure of the Reform Movement of 1898 showed that Kang Youwei's views on major domestic interest groups were too simple and broad. In the field of Chinese ideology, all the heroes competed, and the scholar-bureaucrat group organized hundreds of societies in various places, looking for a guide in an unfamiliar environment that had lost traditional guidance.Theories from the West, such as the Three People's Principles, liberalism, and Marxism, have appeared one after another, giving their own interpretations of history and reality, and winning their own believers.The Three People's Principles prescribed nationalism and democracy to expel the Tartars and establish the Republic of China. It concentrated the dissatisfaction of all strata of the Han people on the upper ruling group of the Manchu Qing Empire, which disintegrated its little deterrent and cohesion, and caused Wang Gang unleashes the momentum of the New Zealand. The Manchu Qing Empire soon fell, and the banner of the Republic of China was easily put up. However, the small peasant base of the imperial autocratic system, the bureaucratic agency system, and various old and new problems of the empire remained almost intact under the banner of the Republic of China.China has entered the traditional situation of warlords fighting for success in the Central Plains after the collapse of an autocratic empire. China needs a deeper understanding of itself and the world around it, a thorough explanation of history and the present.At this time, the Russian October Revolution aroused people's attention to Marxism-Leninism, which has a huge system and rigorous logic. (3) Selected Marxism-Leninism The core part of Marxism is the analytical presentation of the history and logic of European capitalism represented by Das Kapital.That is the logical development of the commodity economy, and it is the picture of the generation and development of surplus value and the resulting crisis and revolution. China's weak and small capitals are squeezed to the margins of society by warlords, bureaucrats, landlords and farmers, which is far from the core picture painted by Marx.In the European capitalist society that Marx focused on, the organizers of commodity production chose and hired night watchmen for themselves, and the bourgeoisie controlled legal violence and made them obediently serve the order they chose.But in the imperial order, the supreme representative of the violent expropriation group claimed to own the world, and became the nominal ultimate owner of various factors of production.Violent groups have established economic relations and political systems that are most beneficial to themselves, and have screened and transformed the ideology that justifies this system.Orthodox Marxism’s emphasis on the decisive role of productivity, its assertion that the economic base determines the superstructure, and even the conceptual division between the economic base and the superstructure are quite reluctant to explain the cycle of stagnation and chaos in the empire for more than two thousand years. However, despite the huge differences between China and Europe, the grand and sharp vision of Marxism, especially the theory of historical materialism, class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat, still helped the founders of the Chinese Communist Party to find a set of logical and rigorous principles for their own mission. statement.Chinese society is full of contradictions and wars, and the theory of class struggle must be more explanatory than peaceful and tolerant liberalism.More importantly, the world historical picture depicted by Marxism-Leninism contains a major benefit distribution plan, and this kind of benefit distribution can especially meet the various expectations of Chinese society. China has always been the center and pinnacle of the known civilized environment. This rapid loss of historical status has caused a huge tension in the national psychology and a strong desire to restore the traditional status and national glory.According to Leninist theory, in the weak link of the capitalist world system, the proletariat of a backward country can seize power first and enter the socialist society first.This theory hides a distributional relationship that rearranges national seats: backwardness can be transformed into an advantage, and China can gain an extremely important position in world history.This is exactly the position expected by the tension of the national psyche. According to the theory of Marxism-Leninism, the proletariat will seize power under the leadership of the Communist Party, establish a socialist country under the dictatorship of the proletariat, and finally realize communism.This theory hides a more tempting plan for the distribution of interests: first, a special ideological group withholds the most noble central position in its own theory, they will hold state power, dominate everything, and finally go down in history.Second, the proletariat and other working classes will get rid of the exploited and oppressed status, and what they get is the whole world.In the end, all human beings will eventually benefit from the cause of the Communists, and human beings will enter an ideal world where material abundance is abundant and everyone can develop freely. The above profit distribution plan is hidden under the objective and scientific expression of the law of historical development.Chinese scholars are very familiar with this method.In the Confucian way of heaven, there is a major benefit distribution plan hidden: the emperor is supreme, the bureaucratic group replaces the emperor's herdsmen, and the laborers pay the emperor's grain for labor.Marxism-Leninism redistributes interests while reinterpreting the world and history, and the fate of Marxism-Leninism in China depends to a large extent on the proper distribution of interests. 3. Mao Zedong Thought (1) Combining Marxism-Leninism with Chinese revolutionary practice The emphasis of orthodox Marxism-Leninism on the historical role of the urban proletariat made the initial steps of the Communist Party on the Chinese political stage stumble. Mao Zedong said in "Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society" in 1926: Because of China's economic backwardness, the number of modern industrial proletariat is not large.Among the two million or so industrial workers, they are mainly workers in the five industries of railways, mining, shipping, textiles, and shipbuilding.And a large number of them are enslaved by foreign industries. If the distinction is made more carefully, it should be added that a greater number of them are under the slavery of state-run industries.A large number of workers are engaged in wage labor in traditional government-run enterprises, and Chinese bureaucrats have replaced European capitalists➈.In the early stages of the labor movement, the Chinese Communist Party launched mine and railway workers' strikes to fight for workers' right to organize and raise wages. Its targets were mainly government-appointed management authorities rather than private capital.The Chinese workers' struggle for rights against the autocratic government was suppressed and even massacred successively, and the labor movement failed. After the successful Northern Expedition, Chiang Kai-shek became full-fledged and began to strengthen the party-state system established by Sun Yat-sen imitating the Soviet Union, massacring Communists who threatened his own rule and party-state order.The armed riot organized and launched hastily by the communists initially aimed at occupying the central city as Russia did, but it suffered a disastrous failure. China is an agricultural country. In the 1930s, farmers accounted for 79% of the country's total labor force➉, which was 100 times the number of industrial workers.China is also in a troubled time where dictatorship and warlordism coexist, and the strength of military force determines the size of political power.In order to dominate the world on this land, no matter what the orthodox theories say, the reality of the power structure is doomed that the Communist Party must inherit the successful strategy that has been repeatedly verified over the past two thousand years: form an armed group, fly the banner of justice for the sky, eat big families, mobilize Peasant wars, exhausting the opponent's strength, and finally besieging the city to seize power. China's regime change mainly relies on peasant rebellion, while Marxism-Leninism has a very low evaluation of the role of peasants in the revolution.Marx believed that when encountering industrial civilization, peasants tried to force modern means of production and means of exchange into the frame of old ownership relations.The political influence of small farmers is manifested in the dominance of administrative power.Such a class obviously cannot represent the future. Mao Zedong was the son of a farmer, and he was familiar with the pattern of traditional and realistic power in China. He used the vocabulary and logic of Marxism-Leninism to reinterpret the meaning of the traditional peasant rebellion, and clarified the path for communist believers to seize power in China and their enemies. Goals and strategies for each stage of the struggle with allies.The core content of this system is that the Communist Party leads farmers to carry out land reform. The class analysis perspective of Marxism-Leninism helped the Chinese Communist Party see clearly the conflict between landlords and peasants.Mao Zedong believed that the Kuomintang's autocratic rule was a joint dictatorship of the feudal landlords and bureaucratic capitalists with the support of imperialism, and that the class struggle of the poor and lower-middle peasants against the exploitation of the landlords would inevitably lead to an armed conflict with this superstructure, and the result would be the failure of the various revolutionary classes in China. Under the leadership of the proletarian party, the united front will overthrow the three mountains of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism, establish a new democratic China, and then transition to socialism. The historical and social picture drawn by Mao Zedong highlights certain facts, but also omits and downplays certain facts.Mao Zedong highlighted China's weak proletariat and its role, downplaying the state-run or party-run nature of the main employers of this class.Mao Zedong emphasized the proletarian nature of the Chinese Communist Party, downplaying the fact that this organization was founded by patriotic intellectuals and enriched by peasant fighters; Mao Zedong emphasized the conflict between peasants and landlords in history, portraying this conflict as the main contradiction in Chinese history, Diluted the contradiction between farmers and the government.Mao Zedong emphasized the common interests of the landlord class and the government, played down the differences and conflicts between them, and downgraded the violent expropriation groups with clear self-interests to the agents of the landlord class; Mao Zedong emphasized that peasant wars are the fundamental driving force for the advancement of history, However, the peasant wars in Chinese history have repeatedly appeared as a tool for dynastic change, as a self-regulating way for the imperial system to rebuild the Confucian order. The above-mentioned highlighting and downplaying are understandable.Once the Communist Party is established, the party has its own life and interests, and the construction and development of ideology will naturally be guided and influenced by its own survival and development needs.The purpose of Mao Zedong's construction of ideology is very clear, which is to unite the whole party to seize power and realize the ideal of social transformation.He presupposes a holy and just goal, selects facts and argues around this goal, and the brilliant goal attracts his sight and also causes his blind spot.Having deified the proletariat, one can logically deify its vanguard organization.The reason why they are unwilling or unable to point out the history and reality of administrative power dominating everything and leading to social collapse is because the Communist Party also relies on administrative power to establish socialism and realize industrialization.It emphasizes that the conflict between landlords and peasants is not only related to the ideal of fair society and good conditions for realizing industrialization, but also directly related to the political mobilization ability of the Communist Party, as well as the source of troops, morale and logistics supply of the army. Violently dispossessing landowners of their land and property is an expansionary tactic exclusive to armed groups that confront the government.The rebel armed forces of all dynasties can eat big families, kill the rich and help the poor.A violent group employing this logistical and staffing strategy, with its concentrated wealth and negligible ability to defend itself, could expand at high rates until the wealthier members of society were drained and eaten.Moreover, this strategy is difficult for any legitimate government to imitate, and the rebels can kill chickens to grow themselves while destroying the financial foundation of the legitimate government.Another significant benefit of adopting this logistical supply strategy was the mobilization of peasants who had been assigned landowners to join the Communist army to fight in defense of their interests. The interests of the empire or the party-state and the landlord class were not exactly aligned.The ideal foundation of an empire is a piece of self-cultivating farmers, while the landlord class’s heavy lease and large-scale land occupation have caused a large number of refugees, affecting social stability and reducing the overall purchasing power of the countryside. This is not good for the Kuomintang’s autocratic rule and industrialization plan. of.Therefore, the Kuomintang also had a land reform plan, and the peaceful land reform launched after arriving in Taiwan also achieved success. Using the theory of class struggle to describe the violent land reform as a historical necessity, and to describe the interests of the Kuomintang ruling group and the landlord class as a unified whole, this is a very clever strategy for political and military struggles.This discourse largely reflects the Communist Party's political interest in mobilizing the peasantry to seize power, rather than reflecting the true relationship of the thing itself. In summary, the principles and policies proposed by Mao Zedong strictly met the requirements of the traditional strategy of conquering the world, and at the same time used the language and logic of Marxism-Leninism to assign lofty nature and great historical significance to its own activities: this is The continuation of the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal bourgeois-democratic revolution that began in 1840 is a new democratic revolution led by the proletarian party instead of the weak bourgeoisie, and is a great part of the world's proletarian socialist revolution⑪. Mao Zedong and his comrades selectively combined part of the Marxist-Leninist concept with part of China's history and part of reality, and constructed a theory that was most conducive to the development and growth of the Communist Party. The way of being the master points out the way for the whole society to move towards a world of equality, prosperity and purity. (2) New Democracy Under the onslaught of the Western capitalist system, the imperial system collapsed at the end of a cycle of its own life.It attempts to find new self-supporting frameworks.The competitive environment of violent groups in the ruins is destined to be a powerful political and military organization as the pillar of this framework.The soil of the small peasant economy in the ruins determined that the basic structure of the system was one in which administrative power dominated everything.The administrative power that dominates the world attempts to forcefully transfer the means of production and exchange created by Western capitalism by administrative means, and stuff them into the framework of government-run industry and commerce in the name of public ownership. The above characteristics are fully reflected in the new democratic order designed by Mao Zedong.In terms of politics, the new democratic order is that the Communist Party leads everything.On the economic front, the big banks, big industries, and big commerce were brought under the government's control, and national capitalism was allowed to develop within the limit of not being able to control the national economy and the people's livelihood.In the countryside, the land of the landlords was confiscated without compensation, and the land was evenly distributed as the private property of the peasants, while allowing the existence of a rich peasant economy.對比帝國制度，在新民主主義制度中，家天下被黨天下替換了，儒家官僚被幹部替換了，官營企業也被全民和集體所有制企業替換了，土地兼併被限制在富農水平，其他因素則無實質性變化。 新民主主義秩序注定難以穩定存在，因為它多變的領導集團與多變的福利生產集團不能構成均勢。領導集團稍微左一點，就是大躍進和文化大革命；稍微右一點，就是歷代帝國和前朝黨國腐敗墮落的老路。民間的經濟力量逐漸增強，又會造成國民黨在台灣遇到的局面，黨國體制不得不面對風起雲湧的民間政治要求。 在跨越新民主主義秩序近三十年後，這種允許資產階級和富農經濟在籠子裡發展的制度設計，又以社會主義初級階段的名義登上了歷史舞台。此時，在實現現代化的道路上，中國共產黨已經領導一個晚發外生型社會基本完成了模仿階段的工業化任務，卻沒有建立充滿活力並自發演進的現代化社會。無論是帝國還是黨國的官營經濟和官僚體制，都不能提供這種活力。 （三）社會主義 執政的中國共產黨是在一個農業帝國的廢墟上起步的。它要利用傳統的行政優勢，集中全社會的資源，完成農業社會向工業社會的轉型。中國共產黨要根據自己的馬列主義信仰，有計劃按比例地搭建出一個工業化的平等社會。 在上述意義上，中國的社會主義試驗，是傳統的集權制度在更加集權的方向上竭盡全力的一躍；是挾立國之威，對西方工業化列強的衝擊的激昂回應；是中華民族在新環境中努力適應並爭取優勢的百年探索的持續；也是共產主義信仰激發的對理想社會的狂熱追求。 在毛澤東時代，全社會的資源配置主要靠國家計畫委員會的下達的行政指令進行。政府建立了農產品統購統銷的壟斷體制，在將近三十年的時間內，以低於市價百分之二十左右的價格徵收農產品。同時，國營企業按照政府規定的壟斷價格，把工業品賣給農民。以工農業產品剪刀差的形式，中國農民為建立國營工業體系做出了份額最大的貢獻⑫。 在國營工商業內部，職工工資長期凍結在低水平上，政府以這種方式提高積累率，將職工個人的住房和養老積累轉變為建立國營工業體系的資金。 中國的工業化取得了巨大的成就。一九五二年中國工業已恢復到戰前的最高水平，此時工業在國民生產總值的比重不過百分之十九．五二，一九七八年，這個比重上升為百分之四十九．四⑬，一個門類比較齊全的工業體系粗具輪廓。這是持續了兩千年多年的帝國歷史上破天荒的大事件：帝國的小農經濟基礎，被中國共產黨利用小農的經濟力量及其支持的強大行政手段徹底破壞並迅速提升了。高效廉能的共產黨為這破天荒的一躍提供了關鍵性的組織和精神力量。 但是，由於中國的工業化與市場化脫節，與農村城市化的進程脫節，計畫經濟及其選擇的重工業優先的發展戰略造就了一個嚴重畸形的工業體系。大量投資被浪費掉，建成的工業企業又有濃厚的軍工色彩，且效率極其低下⑭。同時，農民工業品的最大消費群體又被吸納勞動力能力較低的重工業優先戰略排斥在工業化進程之外。 國營工商業體系延續了帝國時代的管理弊病。由於職工收入以固定的計時工資形式發放，企業管理官員和工人對福利最大化的追求，就表現為在不受到行政懲罰的算計下對閒暇最大化的追求。對行政懲罰的躲避則主要表現為壓低計劃指標的討價還價和謊報計劃完成情況。怠工的後果無須自己承擔，可以轉嫁給全社會。 農村人民公社的所有制結構是三級所有、隊為基礎，生產隊是基本核算單位。社員偷懶的後果只能由本隊的其他成員承擔。農民無法向生產隊之外轉嫁低效率的平等體制造成的產出損失，又不甘心泡在一起挨餓受窮，便開始了前仆後繼的探索。最初的探索是擁有強勞力的農戶拉牛退社，被壓制後轉變形式，隱蔽為小包工之類的責任制，再變為包產到戶，更進一步就是包幹到戶。當這一切都被批判後，剩下的便是集體土地上的怠工和對自留地的熱情，以及平等的貧窮和農產品嚴重短缺。 工農業生產全面的低效率，迫使政府強化非經濟的激勵︱威懾體制。在無產階級專政條件下繼續革命理論這一後期毛澤東思想的解釋體系裡，農民對自留地的熱情屬於小生產者的自發資本主義傾向；多吃多佔的農村黨支部書記和國營企業的管理官員屬於官僚主義者階級，後來進一步定義為黨內資產階級；偷懶怠工屬於私有制時代剝削階級思想的殘餘；解決上述問題的主要辦法是，堅持思想政治領域中階級鬥爭和路線鬥爭。 上述激勵機制和資源配置體制在工業化初期的模仿階段中成效可觀，但在較長時段的國際比較之中，則既不如市場機制那樣有效，又不如市場機制那樣充滿活力和創造性⑮。 （四）無產階級文化大革命 毛澤東建立的體制承受著多方面的內部壓力。一是農民對包含了巨大利益的自耕農制度的追求壓力；二是工人和管理集團對利潤掛帥和物質刺激的興趣；三是領導集團順應上述壓力向傳統的管理方式復歸的壓力，這種復歸是追求較低的管理成本和較高的代理人收益的自然過程，其中也包含了對農業自耕農制度和工業企業利潤掛帥與物質刺激原則的讓步和推崇。毛澤東認為，領導集團的當權派性質決定了他們是毛式社會主義的最大危險，因為他們有選擇制度改變道路的權力。作為對上述圖景及其內在關係的把握，毛澤東創造了黨內走資本主義道路當權派的概念。 毛式社會主義也面臨著巨大的外部壓力，一是資本主義世界的競爭壓力，二是蘇聯式社會主義的競爭壓力。毛澤東堅信資本主義是垂死的制度，他更看重來自第一個社會主義國家蘇聯的競爭壓力。這是關係到民族和領袖本人的世界地位和歷史地位的更加直接的競爭。由於蘇聯的官僚集團具有更顯著的走資本主義道路當權派特徵，毛澤東又有代替蘇聯為人類指明前進道路的宏偉抱負，國內反對走資派的鬥爭就成了反帝、反修的世界總圖景的一部分，成了解放全人類的歷史總圖景的一部分。 無產階級文化大革命是解決上述問題的一攬子方案。毛澤東參照帝國治亂循環的被動調節方式，試圖建立一種主動的自我調節機制，在最高當局的控制之下製造小型的治亂循環，每隔七八年來一次，利用民間革命群眾的力量，監督官僚集團沿著毛澤東設計的道路前進。毛澤東堅信他設計的道路合乎人民群眾的利益，文革就是憑藉革命群眾力量建立毛式社會主義的根本制衡機制的努力。 在這種制衡機制中，毛澤東把勞動人民擺在了至高無上的地位，但是這個人民又要由他根據歷史規律予以定義。人民的根本利益必定也必須與領袖心目中的歷史規律一致，正是這項苛刻條件，成了最激烈的民主與最極端的個人專斷的匯合點。文革的大民主就建立在這個微細的重合點上。 在毛澤東時代，中國體制的確出現了許多偏離設計的失衡，但最嚴重的失衡是由強大自信的最高權力引發的。這是歷代帝國戰功卓著的早期統治者經常造成的問題。 大躍進是由最高領袖發動，由農民承擔主要代價的最嚴重的失衡。剛剛建立起來的人民公社制度，將農民根據自身利益和小集體利益安排生產的權利剝奪了，把他們與未收穫的莊稼的利益聯繫切斷了，人力物力被高度集中的行政權力控制著，調配到原始的大煉鋼鐵試驗中，調配到設計粗劣的興修水利工程中，造成了荒唐而巨大的浪費。吃飯不要錢的共產主義試驗加速了集體糧食儲備的消耗。 大躍進造成國內生產總值的急劇下降。毛澤東被迫放棄了國民經濟發展計劃的高指標，降低了農業領域的集權程度，所有制單位由人民公社退到了生產隊，一度還默許了包產到戶的存在。 無產階級文化大革命造成的失衡，一方面是毛澤東的巨大權力直接侵犯了官僚集團和平民百姓的傳統權利，一方面是毛澤東製造的半無政府狀態引發了對各種社會集團的合法權利的全面侵犯。這兩方面的侵犯造成了巨大的生命和財產損失，卻沒有建立文革發動者試圖創建的治亂循環式的防修反修的制衡機制。恰恰相反，各個社會集團對毛式社會主義的反感隨著各自損失的增加而增加了。 毛澤東的去世削弱了對異己力量的清剿、壓制和勸說能力，舊的權利邊界有了恢復的可能。 四、改革開放 （一）壓力下的開放 當毛澤東緊閉國門試驗一個理想的社會制度之時，人類社會正在各種群體的生存競爭中自發地開闢自己的演進道路。資本主義將人類社會拉入了一個新型的競爭環境，所爭的是如何以更低的成本更充分地滿足人們的需要，這是對人的理解和尊重的競爭，也是降低交易成本和生產成本的競爭。競爭中的優勝者，在世界上擁有遠大於其人口規模和領土面積的影響力，而競爭的失敗者，則日益淪為無足輕重的邊緣國家。 毛澤東身後的中國，與歷代帝國一樣，孕育著決定命運的三大趨勢。在與國外列強的關係方面，中國的相對實力越來越弱⑯；在人與自然的關係方面，人口過剩的壓力越來越大；在國內關係方面，幹部集團的規模日益膨脹，各個社會集團的權利邊界受到嚴重壓縮，反彈的力量越積越強。鄧小平順應國內外各方面的壓力，開啟了改革開放的洩洪閘。這是中國的體制調整自我以適應內外環境的又一次努力， 相對人民公社制度，傳統的自耕農制度中蘊藏了巨大的利益。家庭聯產承包責任制是對農民追求這種利益的壓力的讓步，在扣留土地所有權的條件下，農民的生產積極性仍然大幅度提高，政府的行政管理成本不增反降，農產品短缺問題迅速得到解決⑰。 相對計劃經濟和國營工商業制度，傳統的民間市場和私營工商業制度也蘊藏了巨大的利益。政府無力在國營工商業體系內安排城市剩餘勞動力就業，無力吸納農村的剩餘勞動力，無力解決流通渠道不暢和供應短缺問題，因而積累了越來越大的社會不滿。政府不得不容忍民間商販和城鄉貿易市場，不得不容忍個體戶、私營企業和鄉鎮企業的存在和發展。結果，在政府獲得巨額稅收的好處的同時，數以億計的勞動力在國營工商業體系之外獲得了就業機會，一個在規模、產值和利潤方面全面超越國營的民營工商業體系與市場一起迅速壯大，各類商品由普遍短缺轉為全面過剩。 相對封閉而言，向世界開放同樣蘊藏了巨大的利益。中國短缺的資金、技術、設備、知識和市場，都可以在開放中獲得至關重要的補充。開放政策一方面將國外產品和企業引進了中國，一方面將中國的企業推向了世界市場。中國經濟在優勝劣汰的競爭環境中，踏上了分工和進化的良性軌道，並且逐步熟悉並接受了世界通行的有利於降低交易成本的規則體系。 在各個社會集團調整權利邊界的同時，帝國時代官吏集團的老症狀也表現得日漸鮮明。一套架空正式規定的潛規則體系逐漸擴張和強化，利用權力從各方面擠搾的油水，吸引並滋養了一個規模日益擴張的集團。 （二）前所未有的新格局 四項基本原則約束下的改革開放，在推動中國經濟高速發展的同時也造就了一個新格局，一個帝國從未見過的、與歐洲的憲政誕生即資本控制暴力初期近似的政治經濟格局。 這個格局的基本特徵，就是作為歷代帝國財政基礎的小農經濟退居三線，作為國家財政基礎的國營工商業正在退居二線，而民營工商業和非國有資本控制之下的市場經濟企業正在成為國民經濟和稅收財政的主要支柱⑱。 國有企業做出了頑強努力，但是屢戰屢敗。國有企業吃完了財政吃銀行，吃完了銀行吃股民，已經將數以萬億計的銀行存款變成了呆帳壞帳⑲，正在將數以百億計的股民資金變成垃圾股。 與上述趨勢相反，民營資本正在中國社會發揮越來越重要的作用，他們在吸納過剩人口、交納各種稅費、增強國力和推進中國經濟高速發展等方面越來越舉足輕重。而且，民營企業集團與帝國依存了兩千多年的小農大不相同，他們交易頻繁，競爭激烈，交易費用的任何微小變化都會引起他們的敏銳反應，影響他們的競爭能力。他們對生存和發展條件的要求更加苛刻，同時又見多識廣，善於比較。他們有願望也有能力進行權錢交易，像他們的西方前輩那樣為自己購買適宜的公共產品及其產生機制。如果不能在公開交易中合法地買到，他們就會在私下交易中購買。事實上，局部性的私下交易已經大量存在。 假如公開和私下的交易都不成功，他們可以退出交易，這意味著資本抽逃，其結果便是稅收減少，失業增加，社會動盪。中國人口規模的增長要求每年維持相當高的經濟增長率，勞動市場上的所有新來者，急需就業機會的工人，渴望進城就業的農民，已經成為投資者的同盟軍。 不能營造一個交易成本較低的制度環境，就要創造一個勞動力或其他生產要素更加便宜的環境。這就意味著降低土地價格，降低對勞動和環境的保護，以全社會甚至子孫後代的利益補償高成本的制度環境，以維持對資本的吸引力，維持經濟增長和政權穩定。 總之，千年帝國安身立命的小農經濟基礎，已經被中國共產黨領導下的工業化成就破壞了；千年帝國生存的閉塞環境，已經被西方文明帶來的競爭破壞了；帝國體制解決自身利益分配失衡和人口問題的希望，已經被數十次徒勞的王朝循環破壞了。面對這些無法挽回的破壞，即使純粹出於自身利益，舊體制合乎邏輯的最佳選擇也是自我改革，為福利生產集團創造一個可控制因而可靠可信的、低成本的、高效的政治法律環境，挽救社會母體於危難之中。不過，這個選擇恰恰意味著千年帝國的自我終結。在這個意義上，黨國是帝國的最高階段，黨國是帝國的掘墓人。 Notes: ➀這項條件可以如此表達：掠奪（防禦）收益減掠奪（防禦）成本大於生產收益減生產成本。顯然，初次掠奪需要鎮壓反抗，需要建立掠奪體制，一次性成本會比較高。此後只要支付維持威懾力和掠奪體制的成本就可以了。暴力與生產的專業化分工在社會性昆蟲那裡已經出現，譬如兵蟻。在蜜源緊張（蜂蜜生產成本上升）的時候，蜜蜂的盜性也會隨之上升。盜蜜行為可以導致蜂群之間的戰爭，導致蜜蜂的大批死亡和逃亡。 ➁在文明史早期，暴力賦斂集團的核心通常是一個有血緣關係的共同體。在帝國時期，暴力賦斂集團主要由皇室、貴族、軍官和官吏集團構成，他們憑藉超經濟的權力分配並佔有資源。而福利生產集團，主要由農民、手工業者、商人、土地和資本等生產要素的擁有者構成。生產要素的擁有者與暴力賦斂集團在成員上有部分重合。此外，在提供安全秩序等公共產品方面，暴力賦斂集團也有生產性的作用。 ➂《詩經．國風．齊．甫田》：無田甫田，維莠驕驕。無思遠人，勞心忉忉。無田甫田，維莠桀桀。無思遠人，勞心怛怛。甫田即大田（毛亨、朱熹），大田為貴族所有（程俊英《詩經譯注》，上海古籍出版社，一九八五；華鋒等《詩經詮譯》，大象出版社，一九九七）。相當於井田制中的公田。 "The Book of Songs."Xiaoya.甫田》中對甫田上的勞動場面和勞動關係的描繪也支持這種解釋。 ➃準確的用語應該是封建制。兩千多年來，封建二字在漢語中一直指稱西周創建的那種制度，即柳宗元在<封建論>中論述的那種制度。這種制度與八世紀首先出現於法蘭克王國，隨後在歐洲流行數百年的那種制度頗為近似。不過，封建二字近五十年來在中國共產黨創造的話語體系中獲得了額外的涵義，指稱了另外的東西。為了避免混亂，我在這裡暫且用分封二字代替。 ➄遊牧民族的侵掠行為是應付災害的生存策略之一。《史記．匈奴列傳》云：其俗，寬則隨畜，因射獵禽獸為生業；急則人習戰攻以侵伐，其天性也。因此，來自草原地帶的暴力掠奪威脅，構成了帝國外部環境的一個固定存在。 ➅建立帝國制度是對中國社會一次重組，重組後的社會只需要同樣甚至更少的生命和財產的投入，就可以獲得優於春秋戰國時期的安全和秩序。這既是司馬遷筆下士庶的共同信念，也是後代帝國臣民的普遍感覺，故有寧為太平犬，莫作亂離人之說。在這個意義上，帝國制度是費用更加節省的制度，因此本文反覆強調其高效率的特徵。找到並且建立這樣一種費用更加節省的制度，成功地實現這樣的社會重組，不能不稱之為偉大的文明成就。 ➆均衡是指博弈論（或作為其特殊形態的微觀經濟學的均衡理論）所描繪的一種狀態：在相互作用的關係中，每一方都同時達到了約束條件下可能實現的利益最大化的目標，因而這種狀態可以長期持續存在。 ➇在理論上，官吏集團對代理人利益的追求將在邊際收益等於邊際成本的那一點止步。如果邊際成本由上級監督和民眾反抗共同構成，那麼，在官吏平均分攤到的監督力度逐步下降的現實趨勢中，真正能夠阻止官吏集團侵犯腳步的，只有民眾的反抗。由於個別性反抗的勝算極低，迫使侵犯止步的那一點只能是大規模造反，而這一點恰恰是社會秩序的崩潰點。這是民眾權利不敵官吏權力的專制制度的衰亡常規。 ➈國營資本在工業中所佔的比重在各個時期有很大不同。一九四六年上半年，國民黨政府接收敵偽產業之後，國營資本在工礦業中所佔的比重超過百分之八十（沈春雷：《中國戰時經濟志》，第十六頁，台灣文海出版社，一九八六年版）。 ➉劉大中、葉孔嘉：《中國大陸的經濟：國民收入和經濟發展》，第一四○頁。普林斯頓大學出版社，一九六五年版。 ⑪毛澤東：《新民主主義論》。 ⑫據計算，在近三十年的時間內，通過上述方式從農民身上獲取的積累達六千五百億至八千億人民幣，大約相當於同期中國投資總額的百分之七十二（參見嚴瑞珍等：《中國工農業產品價格剪刀差的現狀、發展趨勢及對策》，《經濟研究》一九九○年第二期，第六十四︱七○頁）。 ⑬參見國家統計局《中國統計年鑑（一九九二）》，中國統計出版社，第三十五頁。 ⑭以單位國內生產總值能源消耗