A crescent moon in the western sky slowly slid to the end of the sky. The cool breeze has risen, blowing on people's bodies with a cool feeling.
Wang Qingxiu looked at the younger brother in front of him. He was so familiar, but a strange feeling lingered.
Sighing, Wang Qingxiu said: "My brother has done a lot of great things in the past two years, and has changed a lot. In my eyes, you are still the same as before. But sometimes when I think about it, you are so strange, and you are no longer what you used to be." When I was young, my father was studying, taking exams, and working as an official. He had little time to take care of us, so you grew up with me. Now I feel strange, is it because you have grown up, or because you have become an official? "
Wang Xiaolie said: "Sister, most things in the world can't be explained clearly. Maybe it's because I've grown up, maybe it's because I've become an official, maybe it's both, or maybe it's because of other reasons. I can't say If something is clear, don’t explain it clearly, so don’t ask for trouble.”
Wang Qingxiu smiled and said: "You said it, but you didn't say it. - No, maybe it contains Zen wisdom, but my qualifications are too shallow and I can't understand it."
Wang Xiaolie shook his head: "What kind of Zen ideas come from the words of my sister and brother? What I tell is the truth, but the truth is often not what people want to hear. In this world, there are not many people who tell the truth and do practical things. It can be done.”
Wang Qingxiu smiled and shook his head: "How come no one can do it? Who in the world doesn't want to hear the truth?"
Wang Xiaolie said: "Actually, very few people in the world want to hear the truth. Those who say they want to hear the truth are just talking. The truth behind this was only slowly realized after I became an official."
Wang Qingxiu thought for a while and couldn't think of a reason. He took a sip of wine and said, "When you become an official, you will have so many crooked ideas."
Wang Xiaolie also thought about it. Finally he smiled and said: "These are not wrong truths. It's just that the world doesn't like to hear or think like this. What can we do? This world is like this, the world is like this, and our life is like this. . But most people feel that the world is not like this, the human world is not like this, and we should not live such a life. They always imagine a world, a human world, and a life based on their own imagination. How people should live.”
"It's so hard to talk!" Wang Qing shook his head. "After you become an official, do you have to talk about such nonsense? To me, this is all nonsense. But it is also difficult to understand, as if you have a Zen idea."
Wang Xiaolie took a sip of wine, looked at the waning moon in the sky, and didn't speak for a long time.
Zen machine, where did it come from? But when you calm down and study the world in a down-to-earth manner, you will find that this world is very different from the world you know. It’s not that the world has changed, it’s that we have never seriously understood the world.
For many people, hearing such a statement would make them laugh. I live in this world. Eating, dressing, working, and sleeping are all things I truly feel. How could I not recognize this world? The fact is that the world a person really feels is only part of it, and most of what he knows is what he hears, learns, or even imagines.
In my previous life, there were some knowledge-based games on the Internet. A common knowledge question that often comes up is how many relative provinces there are in China. For example, north and south are opposite and east and west are opposite. This is the most basic geography knowledge question, but people still often get it wrong, and everyone laughs. But few people really think about it. There is no such statement in geographical knowledge, only provinces. Some teachers watched this video online and thought it was a good teaching subject, so they taught it to their students. I learned it in class, not from formal geography textbooks, but from the teacher.
In fact, some of these opposite directions of north and south and east and west are true. For example, Guangdong and Guangxi came from the Song Dynasty and divided Guangnan Road into two parts, Guangnan East Road and Guangnan West Road. For example, in Hunan and Hubei, it was also the Song Dynasty that divided Jinghu Road into two parts, namely Jinghu South Road and Jinghu North Road.
But there is another part that is not the case and is just a coincidence. For example, Shandong and Shanxi were not divided into two political regions, but appeared one after another. Whether it is because of the Taihang Mountains in the middle is only speculation by future generations. Shandong and Shanxi, which were truly divided into two, according to later generations, should be the two administrative regions of Shannan East Road and Shannan West Road in the Tang Dynasty.
Such as Henan and Hebei. During the Tang Dynasty, there were indeed Hebei Road and Henan Road based on the Yellow River. The Song Dynasty inherited Hebei Road and renamed it Hebei Road. However, Henan Road was not inherited, but because the capital was in Kaifeng, it was divided into two parts, Jingdong Road and Jingxi Road. After the establishment of the Puppet Qi Dynasty, Jingdong Road was renamed Shandong Road, and most of Jingxi Road was renamed Henanfu Road. At this time, the name of Henanfu Road clearly comes from Henanfu. The name of Henan Prefecture comes from Henan County, which is south of Luohe River. Henan and Hebei are not relative, the names are just coincidence.
Without studying the origins, it is easy to regard Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, and Hebei as the same province naming forms as Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, and Hubei. For ordinary people, this is nothing. But experts and scholars should not make such a mistake. As for using it to test others, it's a joke. The person who cannot answer the question may not be knowledgeable, and the same is true for the person who asked the question.
There are too many such problems in this world. So that for ordinary people, the world they know is actually far from the real world. Experts and scholars should have eliminated the false and preserved the true, removed these misunderstandings bit by bit, and restored the true nature of the world. But when experts and scholars fail to do this, the problem becomes serious.
Common sense issues are just commonplace for people to talk about every day, but some major issues are not so simple.
In life, there are often conflicts between the people and the government, and the government's handling of the conflict is unsatisfactory. At this time, some people said, why do the government people waste taxpayers' money? The word "taxpayer" can be understood from the name, and it does not come from the common political tradition. In fact, in European and American civilization, most local governments come from either the nobility or local autonomy. Local self-government, government finance comes from taxpayers. Most of these taxpayers are industrial and commercial owners and are economically superior people in the region. Because of this, there are taxpayers asking this question. The bourgeois revolution, in which local government focused on industry and commerce, overthrew the aristocracy and established a new country. The scope of taxpayers has expanded, and many people feel that they have become taxpayers in the traditional sense after paying taxes. Obviously, this is the political tradition of European and American civilization and has nothing to do with other places.
In China, the people are the masters of the country and the government serves the people. Citizens receive government services regardless of whether they are taxpayers. In fact, if beggars on the street don’t pay taxes, the government doesn’t care? According to taxpayer logic, anti-poverty policies are simply baffling.
How many people are confused about such an obvious thing? Many people feel that this term comes from the West. When used, it appears that they are well-informed and in line with international trends. Even some officials use it this way regardless of political principles.
For another example, I don’t know when, suddenly the idea of rural autonomy appeared in many places. Some people actively advocate it, saying it is the essence of traditional Chinese culture. Some people objected fiercely, saying that the dross of tradition was rising. Those who advocate it quote scriptures and say that it has many benefits. Those who opposed it dug deeper into history, from the aristocrats of the pre-Qin Dynasty to the squires who took the imperial examinations, saying that rural sages only represented the interests of a small group of people.
In this bustle, Wang Xiaolie also attracted attention. But after reading the accounts from all parties, and looking through the history books a little bit, I couldn't help but have a doubt in my mind. Is this rural autonomy a Chinese tradition?
If this is Chinese tradition, what was the unification of Qin Shi Huangdi? In the political tradition and social reality of China's past dynasties, the shadow of rural virtuous autonomy is rarely seen. If there is any similarity, it can only be that in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered retired officials to return to their hometowns, thus creating a class of gentry. At other times, except when society collapsed in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, no trace of rural virtuous autonomy was visible.
Those who advocate it say it is a Chinese tradition and extremely funny. Those who opposed it read through history books and counted the sages from all generations, but they were all ignorant and incompetent. A non-existent thing has been turned into a Chinese tradition by people from both sides, which is a big joke to the world.
Where is the tradition of rural self-government? In his previous life, Wang Xiaolie was a country bumpkin. He had never been abroad, had never seen the outside world, and was not as knowledgeable as he was rich. Only through the knowledge I have learned in history books and through movies and TV series, I also know that it is a European and American tradition.
To put it bluntly, rural self-government, like the taxpayers mentioned above, is an autonomous urban tradition in towns that are beyond the control of European aristocrats. To put it another way, these rural sages are taxpayers. The bourgeois revolution overthrew the nobility, and autonomous towns became the background of European and American politics.
What about taxpayers and what about rural autonomy are just some people using European and American political traditions to put them on the heads of the Chinese people. There has never been such a tradition in Chinese history. To refute according to Chinese tradition can only make people laugh at the shallowness and ignorance of those who refute.
However, from a standpoint, Wang Xiaolie agrees with the opponents. However, Wang Xiaolie was ashamed to be associated with such a person.
Cultural workers cannot be fools. A cultural worker must have a clear mind. Know what you support, what you oppose, and what you say. I am confused, I am impassioned, but completely irrelevant, how can I do it?
The world that people know, or think they know, is far from the real world. What you think you know may be completely different from what the world really needs.
In his previous life, Wang Xiaolie was a nobody. These things were just daily conversation topics and could not be taken seriously. Now Wang Xiaolie, as the leader of a party, must figure it out. Otherwise, we will end up being passers-by in history.
