Wang Xiaoli sat in his seat, closing his eyes slightly. The documents compiled by officials in the past few days were piled up like mountains.

The documents include previous prefecture and county regulations, actual systems, packages for each city, town, ferry, etc., and carefully sorted out the tax amounts of various taxes, the actual amount collected, and the actual burdens of the people in the city and rural areas. In addition, how many main households, how many customers, how many situations, how many households and the fifth-class households have? How many actual burdens are there in Ruzhou?

The place is not big, but these contents are diverse and have many names. It is sorted out clearly, and it is really a big project. More complex things are still to come. The harsh taxes must be reduced, and many items must be cancelled. But the taxes should be reduced, which ones should be reduced, and how much the amount should be reduced, all must be carefully considered. Various names include officials, public officials, officers, supervisors, officials, specialists, and those who douzi, callizi, pickzi, and kuzi, etc., and which ones should be saved and which ones cannot be saved.

It must be understood that the government must require manpower management. These manpower must be raised by local people, and there is no doubt that Wang Xiaoli should do is to minimize the manpower and minimize the burden on the people. At the same time, it is necessary to crack down on local tyrants. While the people's income increases, the government's income also increases. These things are all intriguing.

What has always troubled Wang Xiaoli is actually a theoretical problem.

As I learned in my previous life, human society was developing forward. Primitive society, slave society, feudal society, capitalist society, and all the way to socialist society and communist society. What happened? I don’t know after that.

To be honest, this method of phased human society is based on the historical analysis of Europe, especially Western Europe. It is difficult to get involved in other parts of the world. Is it a capitalist society stronger than feudal society or Western Europe? It is difficult to say clearly that Western Europe is classified as capitalism. The social stage is higher, but it is stronger than the low stage? Song, who has been defeated again and again, and Jin, who has just walked out of the primitive society, obviously disagrees. Liberating productivity and developing productivity cannot be so simple.

Things in China still depend on China's history and facts. What Wang Xiaoli taught was not those social stages, but several important theories.

In other words, historical materialism means that the people are the masters of history. Similarly, the people are the masters of their own country. Whether it is history or reality, standing on the side of the people is also on the side of victory. However, for most of China, the people were only absent from the initiative or passively. When the people stand up and unite into one, they will truly influence history.

This theory is not uncommon in Chinese culture. From Mencius, the people are the most important, the king is the least, and the country is the next. Attention to the people and discovering the strength of the people is an important idea of ​​Chinese culture.

This idea is very important. The literary and artistic revolution and ideological enlightenment in Europe also began with the recognition of the importance of the people. Whether it is natural human rights, freedom, equality, fraternity, parliament, vote politics, they are all step by step, realizing that ordinary people are the masters of the regime.

If before that, human political power was theoretically a chain, after the people entered the political stage, the political chain began to slowly close into a circle.

Political chain, Europe has the power of monarchy and China has the mandate of heaven. The emperor and monarch get the power of rule from the destiny of heaven or god, and then there are appointed officials or lords who are divided to rule the entire country. From the destiny of god or destiny to the bottom, they are passed down layer by layer, like a chain. The emperor or emperor, as well as officials at all levels and feudal lords, are in various positions in this ruling chain. The top heaven or god has no intersection with ordinary people.

Such an open political chain determines the political system. No matter how you package it or what theory you use to explain this political system, it cannot change this system of layer-by-layer suppression and layer-by-layer enfeoffment. It is just that in different systems, the status of destiny or God is different, and the status of emperors, officials and lords facing destiny or God is different. The people at the bottom basically have no political power.

When the lowest people were integrated into politics step by step, destiny or god was slowly removed from politics. The people replaced the original destiny or god's status. Western parliamentary and vote politics theoretically made the people the masters of the country. Similarly, later the Soviet Union and China adopted the congress system, and the people also replaced the original destiny or god.

From an open political chain to a closed political circle, the biggest difference between the modern and modern political systems and the previous political systems. What specific systems are actually not that important. Differences between ideology and political systems are more about the differences between allies and hostile forces.

The more different the political system and the open political chain, the closer it is to the closed political circle, the more advanced the political system will be. The impact of class solidification and the gap between the rich and the poor on the country should be analyzed from this aspect.

Wang Xiaoli in his previous life, most countries, most politicians and theorists did not have a clear understanding of this. Most people conduct various analyses in ideology, political systems, and economic management. These analyses actually have no theoretical basis, they can only analyze from productivity, people's living standards, the country's military strength, and so on.

The people are the masters of history, the people are the masters of the country, the people are the masters of their own affairs, and the government must serve the people. These words sound very simple and familiar. But when it comes to real analysis, they are very knowledgeable. There are very few people who can truly understand clearly.

In the past life, Wang Xiaoli learned only a few political knowledge. The first is that in the country and society, the people are the masters. Destiny or God has gone forever. As the masters, the people have closed the political chain into a political circle. The second society is developing and adapted to the ever-developing society. Politics should be constantly reformed. Apart from this, it is not very important.

What troubles Wang Xiaohu is the people and the masters, but who is the people? The farmers are, the workers are, are intellectuals? Are capitalists? Are officials? Are soldiers? Are soldiers? Are even prisoners in prison? Are beggars on the streets?

The people are the masters. But how does the country know the people's opinions? How can the people be masters of their own country? Even if they distinguish who is the people, do what they say and what they do really represent the opinions in their hearts? Even if they represent the opinions in their hearts, are these opinions correct? Now they think it is correct, but what should they do if they find that they are wrong one year later, ten years later, or more?

If you ask people, many people can talk about these questions in a long way, express countless opinions, and put forward countless opinions. But to be honest, most of them are basically useless. These simple questions involve all aspects of society, but are actually a big question.

During the development of Confucianism in China, there were two people under Confucius who were very important. One was Mencius and the other was Xunzi. Their thoughts were very famous, one believed that human nature was good, and the other believed that human nature was evil.

Before the Song Dynasty, Xunzi's status was higher than that of Mencius. After the Song Dynasty, Mencius' status was higher than that of Xunzi.

Why? Some scholars were confused and the court was fainted? Or were there any profound social reasons? Wang Xiaolie couldn't explain it clearly because he had never seen any research on this in his previous life.

Whether human nature is good or evil is directly related to the political system and social governance. Whether it is a country or society, it is composed of people. The understanding of people determines the political system and social governance.

In economics, people who participate in economic activities are often regarded as rational people, and are considered to be self-interested and rational. This assumption is also a knowledge of people, which leads to various theories.

The understanding of people, such as the belief that people are free, people are self-interested, and have natural human rights. This understanding directly produces corresponding theories, corresponding political systems, and corresponding social governance methods. In other words, the understanding of people is the basis of research on the entire country and society. The belief that people are and what kind of people should be has different political ideas.

Change to another perspective, get out of what a person is like and re-understand the country and society.

The core of Confucius' thought is "benevolence". He also said that my Tao is consistent and loyalty and forgiveness is just about being loyal and forgiving. From this we can see that Confucius' thoughts are actually clearer. It is to take "I" as an existence, and others, country, society, etc. as an existence, how to deal with the relationship. The most core is loyalty and forgiveness. To others, country, society, clan, family, etc., and to oneself, one's demand is forgiveness.

Mencius's thoughts were relatively complicated and somewhat confusing. He proposed "righteousness". But what righteousness is actually not clear. People in later generations were even more confusing, and they often mentioned benevolence and righteousness, losing their specific meaning.

There is monism and dualism in understanding people. Dualism is very simple, believing that man is a natural person, has natural nature, and at the same time, man is also a social person, with social innateness. The state system and social governance are based on human social innateness, but also consider natural nature. Monoism believes that man is social monotonous, and natural nature itself is also a part of social nature. In the governance of human beings, there is no need to consider natural nature.

In Wang Xiaoli's opinion, man is human being, and there is no monistic dualism. The distinction between monistic and duality is just that people have different understandings of society, nature, etc. From the perspective of a cognizer, we should study human beings. How to distinguish, people are still there, and people are still like that.

In other words, what is human nature and what does human beings look like are actually not that important.

This is what a person looks like, or that, how to know is the matter of the person who knows. But a person is different from two people, not a simple addition of two people. Because two people are together, they have mutual relations, entanglement of interests, and their common characteristics. This common characteristic is born, and has both relationships with two people and their own independence.

All research on humans, theories, family relations, clan management, and national systems must take this common characteristic into account. Moreover, this common characteristic must be distinguished from humans, and be clear about it and managed seriously.

Simply put, in the study of people and all theories of people, we must clearly understand the differences between collectives and individuals. This is not only an emphasis on the differences between individualism and collectivism, and the differences between individual interests and collective interests, but a separate list of collectives and management of them separately.

This question is a bit confusing, and many people think it is nonsense and think they understand it. In fact, they don’t understand it.

In Taoist terms, it means that one produces two, two produces three, what is that three? Three is not divided into two. Instead, the two individuals of two have connections and contacts, their overall three. In the set theory, it is a collection. This collection may have intersections and other aspects, but has its own nature.

Once you recognize this, you will understand that the people are the masters of the country, but you cannot simply think that things are decided by the people. Even if you count all the people in the country, you cannot make decisions by these individuals, and you cannot use the method of a minority obeying the majority and simply voting. Governors must face both individuals and this whole composed of individuals.

Who is the people? The people are not just composed of people from the state, not just workers, farmers, merchants, capitalists, intellectuals, not just officials, soldiers, students, etc., but also the whole.

Many times, people think that the whole is nothing, just a kind of understanding and a means. In fact, it is not. The whole is real, with its own interests, its own understanding, and its own needs.

When you realize this, you will break away from analyzing what human beings are and what human nature is. You have a new perspective on the understanding of politics and society. You will no longer be vague in the analysis of politics, society and economy, but you will be able to have a clear understanding.

If you travel through a thousand years and come to ancient China, what should you do to help China avoid backwardness in history and to let China stand on the top of human civilization? Without a clear theoretical understanding, but just relying on historical memory to change certain historical nodes is actually far from enough. Now that you have defeated the Jin people, there are even more harmful Mongols behind it. As for simply copying the Western European system and some practices, it is also not possible. Don’t say that a person lacks understanding of Western Europe, what is Russia that has been copying in history?

It should be admitted that the various civilizations and different groups of people on the earth have their own characteristics. It is not accidental that they are like that. It should also be admitted that this difference and the pace of human progress should be different. It is incorrect to think that humans are the same, and human society should be the same. Human development is colorful.

It is a prejudice to think that you are civilized and others are barbaric and backward. It is even more arrogance to think that others should be your own. West Asia and Europe have their own special circumstances and a missionary complex, which is incorrect.

Human civilization has assimilation. Assimilation is conditional and takes time. Forced assimilation is incorrect.

What confused Wang Xiaolie was the China he lived in in his previous life, which had too many external factors. However, there were insufficient research on China's own civilization and culture. Wang Xiaolie actually didn't know what China would be like when he came to this world. He had to explore what he wanted to do and the system he designed.

This is how people are. As long as there is a reference, they think they understand something. Many people think that foreigners are richer and stronger than us. Of course, we must do this if they do this. Foreigners have strong ships and cannons, and their country is rich and the people are strong. They have such a political system, and we must do this. Even food and clothing must be the same.

How can you do it without your own thinking? Where is the same country in the world? There is also no identical family. Human society has commonalities and speciality. Emphasize your own particularity and don’t forget the commonality of human beings.
Chapter completed!