The Useless Tree

More Details, Please

    This headline caught my eye in The China Daily: "Ancient ideas could illuminate poverty fight."  But the story that follows gives very little idea of what this might mean.  It starts off well:

Insights from Confucianism and Taoism could inform the government’s
anti-poverty policies and help narrow the widening wealth gap between
the haves and have-nots both in China and Europe.

 After this, there is virtually no follow through.  The only explication is:

Professor Luo Guoxiang of Wuhan University, in Central China’s Hubei
Province, said economic development had created "many billionaires in
terms of wealth, but also many beggars in terms of social
responsibility".


We should go back to China’s traditional values, such as caring for others, to improve the situation," said Luo.

     I’m sure that if Professor Luo was given a chance, he could say much more about the modern relevance of Confucianism and Taoism besides the notion of "caring for others."   He might even offer this passage from Mencius as an outline of ancients-inspired progressive social policy:

When
every five-acre farm has mulberry trees around the farmhouse, people wear silk
at fifty. And when the proper seasons of
chickens and pigs and dogs are not neglected, people eat meat at seventy. When hundred-acre farms never violate their
proper seasons, even large families don’t go hungry. Pay close attention to the teaching in
village schools, and extend it to the child’s family responsibilities – then,
when their silver hair glistens, people won’t be out on the roads and paths
hauling heavy loads. Our black-haired
people free of hunger and cold, wearing silk and eating meat at seventy – there
have never been such times without a true emperor. (1.3)

     All we have to do is come up with modern analogues for "mulberry trees" (something like targeted tax cuts?) and "the proper seasons of chickens and pigs and dogs" (universal health care?) and this could be the platform for the 2008 Democratic Party presidential candidate.

     Oh, and I like the idea of silk at fifty….

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2 responses to “More Details, Please”

  1. gmoke Avatar
    gmoke

    Mencius means exactly what he says. It is the same point that Gandhi was trying to get to with his concept of swadeshi, local production.
    Once upon a time, the Commonwealth of MA had a program to plant food-producing perennials, trees, bushes and plants on public access land, the Fruition Program. I did a survey of existing plantings in Cambridge with an associate and we developed a plan with suggestions for planting grapes and raspberries and such around the fences of various parks and using black walnuts for streets trees. Some of it even happened.
    The foundation of any viable community is agriculture. If you don’t have a food supply you don’t have a viable community.
    There’s a “solar swadeshi” too. You can read about it at http://solarray.blogspot.com/2005/05/solar-swadeshi-hand-made-electricity.html

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  2. justsomeguy Avatar
    justsomeguy

    You ask me, the PRC needs to start with this gem:
    “Now when food meant for human beings is so plentiful as to be thrown
    to dogs and pigs, you fail to realize that it is time for garnering,
    and when men drop dead from starvation by the wayside, you fail to realize
    that it is time for distribution. When people die, you simply say, ‘It is
    none of my doing. It is the fault of the Harvest.’ In what way is that
    different from killing a man by running him through, while saying all the
    time, ‘It is none of my doing. It is the fault of the weapon.’ Stop
    putting the blame on the harvest and the people of the whole Empire
    will come to you”
    They’ve certainly been blaming the weapon a lot lately . . . or at least not really caring.
    The Dems, I think, could take some inspiration here:
    King Xuan of Qi asked about ministers Mencius said, ”What sort of ministers does Your Majesty mean?” The king said ‘ Are there different kinds of ministers?” “There are. There are noble ministers related to the ruler and ministers of other surnames.” The king said, “I’d like to hear about noble ministers.” Mencius replied, “When the ruler makes a major error, they point it out. If he does not listen to their repeated remonstrations, then they put someone else on the throne.” The king blanched. Mencius continued, “Your Majesty should not be surprised at this. Since you asked me, I had to tell you truthfully.” After the king regained his composure, he asked about unrelated ministers. Mencius said, “When the king makes an error, they point it out. If he does not heed their repeated remonstrations, they quit their posts.”
    Bo Gui said, “I’d like a tax of one part in twenty What do you think?” Mencius said, “Your way is that of the northern tribes. Is one potter enough for a state with ten thousand households?” “No, there would not be enough wares.” The northern tribes do not grow all the five grains, only millet They have no cities or houses, no ritual sacrifices. They do not provide gifts or banquets for feudal lords, and do not have a full array of officials. Therefore, for them, one part in twenty is enough But we live in the central states How could we abolish social roles and do without gentlemen? If a state cannot do without potters, how much less can it do without gentlemen Those who want to make government lighter than it was under Yao and Shun are to some degree barbarians Those who wish to make government heavier than it was under Yao and Shun are to some degree [tyrants like] Jie.”
    King Xuan of Qi asked, “Is it true that King Wen’s park was seventy li square’,” Mencius answered, “That is what the records say.” The King said, “Isn’t that large?” Mencius responded, ‘The people considered it small.” “Why then do the people consider my park large when it is forty li square?” “In the forty square li of King Wen’s park, people could collect firewood and catch birds and rabbits. Since he shared it with the people, isn’t it fitting that they considered it small? When I arrived at the border, I asked about the main rules of the state before daring to enter. I learned that there was a forty-li park within the outskirts of the capital where killing a deer was punished like killing a person. Thus these forty li are a trap in the center of the state. Isn’t it apprpriiate that the people consider it too large?”

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