Recently, I read two good articles about China's national character, and went to my blog and WeChat official account. It suddenly occurred to me that at the end of 20 1 1, I wrote a long article, "I made suggestions for the 18th National Congress", and the subtitle of the fifth part was "We must rebuild social integrity and morality and crack down on the bad habits of cheating in officialdom." This paper puts forward some very specific suggestions on how to rebuild the honesty and morality of China people. Although this article was thrown into a neglected "middle ground" column by Katie because of some sensitive content, it still got more than 1 10000 hits and was reprinted on the Internet.
Five years later, although some suggestions on strengthening the central authority and combating corruption in the above-mentioned long articles have been reflected in the policy, most ideas related to the future destiny of the country have become flowers in the mirror and the moon in the water. I really realize that rebuilding the noble character of China people under the current system is tantamount to seeking fish from the edge of a tree, as I reprinted in my blog, "How did the Chinese nation deteriorate from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Ming and Qing Dynasties?" For the title of this article: Millennium autocracy destroyed the conscience and honesty of China people, it is absolutely impossible to produce a large number of honest citizens in the soil of autocracy (although officially speaking, China is now a democratic country where the people are truly masters of their own affairs, which is completely beyond my understanding and cognitive ability of freedom and democracy). So I decided to rewrite an article on this topic, making a simple summary of China people's bad habits and an overview of what people's integrity is, hoping that China should rebuild China people's integrity in the future.
Although this article places hopes on how to rebuild the national character of China in the future, that is, all the suggestions are based on the successful democratic transformation of China, and now it seems to be daydreaming, I firmly believe that this day will come, and it will come soon.
Second, the inferiority of China people.
Since the late Qing Dynasty, countless scholars have deeply reflected on the inferiority of China people, among which Lu Xun and Bai Yang left many impressive words. I recently read the book "The Virtue of China People" written by Arthur Heng Smith, an American missionary more than 0.00 years ago, based on his life experience in China for more than 20 years. It is particularly profound, accurate and thought-provoking. The description of China people's inferiority in the book corrects my point of view, that is, the folk customs in China are mainly corrupted after the founding of the People's Republic of China, that is, the inferiority of China people stems from the long-term oppression and slavery of feudal autocracy for thousands of years, and the cruel political movement in the past 70 years has only wiped out the extremely precious conscience and integrity of a few people.
Arthur Heng Smith described the inferiority of China people in his book The Virtue of China. Blog Daily made a relatively complete summary when introducing this book:
● From officialdom to folk, China's complicated etiquette is purely for show. The purpose is to maintain the relationship between seniority and seniority, achieve the order of seniority, and satisfy the vanity on the face;
China people lack numerical accuracy, and they do things so-so. Even if they don't deliberately cheat, the statistics made by China people are not credible at all;
China people are born to take advantage of loopholes, whether they are officialdom people, scholars or people at the bottom;
China people's thinking logic is chaotic, so they are used to beating around the bush and full of hints, which require listeners to understand hard. Once you offend what they want to express, you will get their revenge;
China people are good at duplicity. It is one thing to specify clearly, but how to implement it is another matter.
China people don't care about public resources, especially like to take advantage of petty advantages. They like to take all things that are undefended and easy to get for themselves;
The patience of China people is superb. They all silently endure all the pressure from those in power and never dare to fight hard. Those in power only need to give them a little charity, and they will be satisfied;
China people are indifferent and unsympathetic to the sufferings of others. Many old, weak, sick and disabled people can't even get the care and care their relatives deserve, let alone get help from strangers;
China people are suspicious of each other and undermine each other. They like to create and spread rumors and slander each other, which makes everyone feel insecure.
China's parents taught their children hypocrisy from an early age. The most difficult thing to get in China is the truth; The official announcement is grandiose and watertight, but it never tells the public the truth;
China people either have no faith, or they don't trace back to the source of all beliefs, so that they believe in all gods, just for their own interests, or because they feel at ease after doing bad things, lacking a sense of solemnity and sincere repentance;
Smith's conclusion is that China people don't lack wisdom, what they really lack is personality and conscience.
As a member of China, the above-mentioned bad habits of China people are more or less manifested in almost everyone, including myself. I am deeply ashamed of this and hate it.
Third, what is integrity?
In my opinion, rebuilding the integrity of China people is related to whether China can join the historical trend of human civilization and progress, establish a truly free and democratic social system, and whether the Chinese nation can stand among the world's outstanding nations and win the respect of the people of the world.
What is honesty? As a person, honesty is by no means embracing the so-called history and culture with China characteristics, nor is it infinite loyalty to a certain political party or doctrine. People's integrity is an excellent sentiment recognized by all mankind. I can sum it up in four words: honesty, kindness, responsibility and courage. These four excellent qualities are exactly what every China person needs to strive to improve and cultivate.
1, integrity. Honesty is the first of all good qualities. What is honesty? First of all, we must overthrow the definition of utilitarianism that China officials have been promoting. In China Chinese Dictionary, "sincerity" is defined as follows: (1) Mind is consistent with words and deeds, and it is true. (2) Explain the whole story accurately to win trust. In order to illustrate the class nature of honesty, the official textbook also gives an example: "For example, a criminal who truthfully tells his own murder process, we will not praise him with honesty, and a person who is forced to lie in order to protect the innocent, we cannot accuse him of dishonesty." I think the above statement makes a utilitarian definition of honesty very shamelessly In fact, in most countries, when criminals truthfully confess their crimes, they will be relieved or exempted from sentencing, which is approval. No one can deprive criminals of their right to honesty. The so-called lying to protect the innocent is dishonest, but it shows courage and responsibility and is praised by the world. The character of "honesty" recognized all over the world is not to lie, that is, to truly describe the facts you know. In my opinion, except for the need to protect the innocent in the face of evil or the need to protect national security in the face of enemy countries, any lie is dishonest and should be condemned or even prosecuted by law. A person can tell the truth frankly even if he knows the fact that he doesn't want in his heart, and even leads to unfavorable results. This is called frankness; Similarly, honesty is not to win people's trust, but should be a code of conduct that comes from the heart and consciously abides by. Only by rooting out the root causes can our compatriots not be misled by the official long-term utilitarian explanation.
2. Kindness. "Kindness" means being kind to others and everything in the world, without malice. Kindness, as an excellent quality of life, I think it has three meanings: (1) Unless you are faced with evil people and things that hurt human beings, you have love for all mankind and even everything in the world, and you care from your heart; (2) to help the weak, protect the innocent and care for the natural environment within the scope of our power; (3) Do good deeds, but seek peace of mind for yourself and do not ask others for any material or spiritual return. Kindness is a unique emotion of human beings and a noble character that distinguishes human beings from other animals.
3. responsibility. "Responsibility" has two basic meanings: first, it refers to doing what you should do wholeheartedly at work or in life, ensuring quality and quantity, including the responsibility of being a parent, a child, a husband and wife, a boss at work, a subordinate and the responsibility of completing your own work. The second is to show that you have not done your job well, dare to bear the corresponding adverse consequences or due obligations, and do everything possible to remedy it. The latter is also called responsibility. Responsibility has no class at all, and there is no distinction between justice and injustice. A kind-hearted person can be very responsible and responsible, and a heartless person who helps others can be very responsible and responsible. In other words, bad people, as human beings, also have some excellent qualities of human beings.
4. Courage. Courage, as an excellent quality of human beings, refers to the courage to fight against evil forces for the legitimate rights and interests of oneself and family members and personal safety, and to protect the weak and safeguard social fairness and justice without fear of personal gain and loss and sacrifice. Simply put, courage is based on safeguarding individual rights and interests or social fairness and justice. If you set yourself up as a strong person, you are willing to be a thug of evil forces and kill people in front of good people. That is not courage, but unnatural and insane.
As an upright and kind person, one should have four excellent qualities at the same time: honesty, kindness, responsibility and courage, all of which are indispensable.
Fourth, how to rebuild the integrity of China people?
To rebuild the credibility of China people, we must let the people enjoy freedom of speech and freedom from fear after the country has established a truly free and democratic system, and then promote it together through legal restraint, media supervision, official moral demonstration and the advocacy of folk scholars. Specifically, I have the following suggestions:
1. Formulate national laws to severely punish fraud and dishonesty in society. In particular, officials deliberately lie, businessmen produce and sell fake and shoddy goods, provide false documentary evidence, physical evidence and witness testimony in criminal and civil courts, and all kinds of illegal and criminal acts such as fraud, theft, tax evasion, hiding property to avoid debts, evading due family and social responsibilities, and false advertisements; And uncivilized behaviors such as occupying public space, arbitrarily building, stacking, urinating and doodling on scenic spots and cultural relics. , occupy and destroy public resources.
2. Stop hatred education, conspiracy theory education and the rogue struggle philosophy of "using revolutionary hands to deal with counter-revolutionary hands" that has been officially promoted for decades. Advocate truth, goodness and beauty in human nature and oppose all false ugliness. We should use this principle to guide activities in the fields of education, culture, propaganda, literature and art, sports, etc., and through unremitting efforts for decades or even hundreds of years, we can reverse the reversed moral concepts in the past.
3. Encourage religious development and make truth, goodness and beauty a heartfelt belief of everyone. For thousands of years, atheism and loyalty to the monarch and ignorance of the people have not cultivated saints who are selfless and dedicated to benefiting others, but have cultivated countless villains who are fearless and dedicated to harming others. A nation that doesn't believe in gods, ghosts and retribution for good and evil has no bottom line for doing bad things. It must be a jungle society where the law of the jungle prevails, which is incompatible with world civilization. Therefore, we should encourage the development of religion, let the people have spiritual sustenance and cultivation, and find the power of truth, goodness and beauty from the deep heart.
4. Change the official saying one thing and doing another, and there are other rogue habits inside and outside, so that words and deeds are consistent, both inside and outside are consistent, so as to set up a positive demonstration of honest officials and win the trust of the people. In order to correct the bad social atmosphere, we should formulate a code of integrity for officials, requiring officials not to reveal any secrets or temporarily not to know the situation, but never to lie. All officials who deliberately lie in public will be dismissed or demoted; Any official who habitually lies without knowing the truth will be investigated for supervision and demoted. If we can do this, we can quickly correct the habit of officials lying and set an example of honesty and trustworthiness for the public.
5. Give play to the supervisory role of the media, restore the true colors of history, and strive for transitional justice. At present, this aspect is a red line that cannot be touched. On the one hand, I am not a brave person, and I dare not risk going to jail. Secondly, even if I have the courage, such an article will never be published, so I can only make it up tomorrow.
6. Encourage the development of various charitable organizations and non-governmental organizations, protect and encourage various volunteer activities, and make the society full of love.
I believe that in the future, after decades, hundreds of years or longer of unremitting efforts, China compatriots will be able to find back the excellent qualities such as honesty, kindness, responsibility and courage that any upright person has.