In 1951, Melvin Leroy and Anthony Man co-directed "The Record of the Burning City of Tyrants", with the male and female protagonists starring Robert Taylor and Deborah Cole, respectively. This movie vividly shows the primitive instinct and impulse of a tyrant. When a tyrant does a certain amount, he is a cruel beast. I have always felt that the greatest ability of a tyrant to govern the people is to allow people to give him three shouts of long live after endless torture, fraud and suffering, and to let people not hesitate all the beautiful words to praise the tyrant’s various benefits and virtue. Harshness is fierce than tigers. The source of the tyrant's ability is nothing more than to make the people of the world fear everything. The so-called unity of mind and body, when people are afraid, they dare not say the truth and dare not do anything good.
During the Roman Empire, Nero was such a tyrant. He drinks poems and often sings a song. The beautiful name is "creation". The slackers and horsemen around him tried their best to flatter him and compared him with Dante, so he wanted to surpass Dante all day long. what to do? Creation needs inspiration. Where does the inspiration come from? Nero said only from pain. What kind of pain can inspire him. He thought of the Roman city that had existed for thousands of years. He wants to burn down the city of Rome and rebuild a new Rome. He has to make the people hysterical and groaning, so that he can feel the nourishment of creation from the pain of the people. He really dared to do this. Of course, he is the world, he is a god, he will do this. A fire burned down the city of Rome. As a result, even though the tyrant Nero wanted to put blame on those who spread the Christian gospel, he would eventually inevitably destroy his fate.
The second greatest ability of a tyrant is that after the tyrant is wiped out, there are still people who applaud him. This may be suffering from "stress disorder after the tyrant disaster." Those who applaud them are nothing more than disciples and grandchildren who have the idea of a tyrant. This kind of stubborn person is extremely capable of deceiving himself and others. As long as someone says "no" from the tyrant, the black eyeballs immediately turn into white eyeballs, and he has to fight you desperately.
The history of Chinese civilization is 5,000 years, and there are written records as well as 3,000 years. Most of these three thousand years of history are history of harsh governance. From slave society to feudal society, there is very little tyranny. Closed to the outside, unified to the inside, this is a blanket. But the content is different. The time of the rule of the Han and ethnic minorities is basically the same. The Han is a bit longer. Whether it is the Han people or the so-called barbarians who have entered the Central Plains, few do not rule the people with an iron fist. "Work at sunrise and rest at sunset." China has always been such a small peasant economy and society. Rakes and hoes have followed Chinese farmers for thousands of years, and they have basically changed in the past two decades. In other words, the Chinese have always depended on heaven for food. The biggest function of the political system, or ruler, is to levy, levy, levy, and levy excessively, which has kept most Chinese people out of breath. For the self-sustaining small peasant economy, if it is not repeatedly disturbed by the ruler, they can cultivate a few acres of land with them, but they can settle down. Therefore, China has a feudal system that has existed for thousands of years, which does not benefit the small-scale peasant economy or the peasants at all. The problem is that the petty people have low lives, pay food and taxes, and suffer all kinds of oppression, but they also have to act as cannon fodder for the poor and armed tyrants.
In other words, there is really nothing to brag about the five thousand-year-old Chinese political system. The only thing worth remembering for future generations is literature and art. This is a great contribution to world civilization. From "The Book of Songs", "Chu Ci", "Historical Records" to Tang Poems and Song Ci, and then to "A Dream of Red Mansions" and other classics. This cannot be overstated. Science and technology must also be analyzed calmly. The "Four Great Inventions" are certainly great. But then there was no development and it was interrupted. Papermaking and printing are still related to culture, just like the "Four Treasures of the Study". This shows that there is no fault in Chinese culture. The occurrence of faults is only the peak of the "Cultural Revolution", which is often referred to as the "decade of catastrophe." The cultural relics as large as the national level, especially the countless various physical cultural relics standing upright on the land of China, were almost destroyed, except for the cultural relics that were explicitly protected. Most of the family treasures from every family can't escape the ravages of "sweeping all monsters, ghosts, and snakes", and a small part of them are hidden and buried thoroughly before they can be "unearthed" again. This is truly an unprecedented catastrophe.
Why do you want to say this?
It's because some scholars nowadays are gradually becoming arrogant, almost writing down, revealing some stale thoughts. Everything is better than a win. Those of us who are a little more sober, and those who have a little ability to reflect, should be clear: China has three thousand years of history, and it is good to pursue reunification. There is no benefit in ruling the people's "home world". Chinese literature and art are good, but their creativity is getting weaker and weaker, they are exhausted and there is no life. So there was the "New Culture Movement" a hundred years ago. Obviously it was the "Cultural Revolution" that caused irreparable damage to Chinese culture, but some people blamed the "May Fourth Movement". During the period of the Republic of China, there were private schools, and they had to read the "Four Books and Five Classics". Even in some rural areas before the "Cultural Revolution", private schools still existed in some form. Only when the "Cultural Revolution" arrived, everything related to traditional Chinese culture was destroyed. This is the destruction of the greatest energy from reality to imaginary, from outside to inside, and from body to mind. Anyone who does not admit this is hardly qualified to comment on Chinese history and the history of Chinese civilization.
Some people who were supposed to call Kant and Sartre back then, they must call the traditions of China all kinds of good. China’s good ones are all there, and there is no need to list them one by one. Those who "everything in the west will turn against", if they are asked not to play computers, mobile phones, or use the good things brought about by Western civilization, he may not be willing. Let him go to remote areas, be isolated from the world, learn from Mr. Wuliu, and plant chrysanthemum under the South Mountain. He may not be able to get rid of his impetuous heart. Western medicine was introduced into China with a history of 100 years. The West is not good, it's not good, so what can I do with it. Looking at the treatment alone, it is impossible not to rely on Western medicine.
In short, think about it calmly, if everything we use now, if we exclude the scientific creation of the West, how much is still available for use. Those flying in the sky, those running on the ground, and even the shavers are foreign. Not convinced, it's useless. There is a kind of person who always implies a "tyrant" mentality in his heart, and always wants to get rid of what he hates or fantasizes that does not exist. The West is a reality, a community of shared future with vital interests. It is time to accept this reality. Country to country is the result of mutual benefit, not the tip of a needle to cheat on the wheat. There are no natural enemies and no permanent allies. It's better to face reality instead of turning a blind eye. As long as the common interests are tied up, the two countries are friends. It's better to be in peace than a sword, light and sword. Only with harmony can make money. This is the reason why national power has grown stronger in the past 30 years. In other words, we have friends all over the world, so this is the right way.
2009, 8, 16
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