Once Again I Have Lived Through This Calamity-Stricken Human World
These past days I have been busy running around because of some family affairs, and I have also seen dark sides of society that I had never seen in my life. At first I could not help but feel pessimistically that certain places in this world are truly hell on earth. But then I thought: what world could be more miserable than the world before a doctor eyes? Apart from death, nothing is a great matter. Before death, all the right and wrong, the grudges and grievances of this human world amount to nothing.I have always known that this real human world is not perfect, but because for most of the past twenty-plus years I have lived in a relatively developed and civilized city, I have rarely encountered the bitterness and filth that the lowest strata face every day.Over time I developed the illusion that everything in this human world was basically rather beautiful. Sometimes I could not help thinking that although some people lived hard lives, it probably was not as hard as all that. But after living through this experience, I learned that some hardships are beyond my imagination. There are too many people in the world who have been insulted, bullied, harmed and trampled; those with power and influence do not do good, and there are many who do evil.In my fragmented moments a few days ago, I listened in WeChat Read to Mr. Feng Youlan Short History of Chinese Philosophy; I have lost count of how many times I have revisited this classic philosophical work. Listening to it, my greatest feeling was that from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods to today, Chinese intellectuals have tirelessly pursued only four characters: a Great Commonwealth (datong).What kind of world qualifies as a Great Commonwealth? Ancient Chinese philosophers called that world where governance accords with the Way (dao), everyone has virtue, the old and young are cared for, no one freezes or starves, and the sick are treated, a Great Commonwealth. Although the standards of the Way and virtue differ among different schools, the world with the Way and virtue that most people yearn for in their hearts is oriented toward goodness, with saving all beings (at the very least, not harming them) as the purpose of social construction. In a Great Commonwealth, human suffering can be reduced to a minimum.But how hard it is to build such a Great Commonwealth; the hardest part is building institutions to limit human evil and protect the weak from being harmed, so that the human world becomes civilized rather than a jungle where the strong prey on the weak. Unfortunately, to this day the law of the jungle is still very common. Those with power and strength easily do evil, because for them the cost of doing evil is simply too low, and doing evil is too easy.Even in the depths of our own hearts, do evil thoughts not often surge? Wealth, sex, fame, gain and power are all tempting; those who have not obtained them want them, and those who have obtained them do not want to lose them. In the end, many beings cannot help being drawn into the slaughter of plunder and seizure.But after the slaughter is over, is everything plundered truly our own? Not to mention that wealth evaporates at an unimaginable speed, and power is as fragile as glass, shattered by a single touch. Even this life of a hundred years passes easily; life and death are but an instant.The deaths I have witnessed are beyond count. How many people, worn beyond recognition by illness, were full of life and high spirits before they fell ill. When the angel of death arrives, all these people can take with them are the tears at the corners of their eyes and the sorrow in their hearts; quite a few feel remorse for the evil they did in their lives. Because the evil one has done indeed has the side effect of devouring one physical and mental health; merely living in fear is torment enough.If no one harbored evil thoughts and more people did good, this world would indeed be a Great Commonwealth. But it is truly too hard to make everyone harbor no evil thoughts; even we ourselves can hardly completely sweep away the evil in our own hearts. Moreover, sometimes people do evil out of necessity; many biologically instinctual reasons and external factors force people to do evil.We humans have always lived in a calamity-ridden world. The human species has survived for millions of years, and today we have become the overlords of the earth. But even so, all beings still face an existential crisis at every moment. There are many crises that require everyone to unite and respond together.But unfortunately, people have still not learned to unite and love one another, have not learned tolerance and reason, have not learned to treat others well. Selfish genes always make us humans harm our own kind for our own benefit; the world is therefore dark, and many people therefore despair.How should we survive in such a world? Should we join in the various slaughters, the life-and-death struggles, and become dark and dirty ourselves amid the darkness and filth, like everyone else? Or should we keep ourselves pure? Or leave this world and go to live in another, relatively better world? Is there a Peach Blossom Spring in the world? Even if there is, even if we live in it, would we truly be happy? Thinking of how most of our loved ones are still struggling in this dusty world, can we be at peace alone?These questions are not easy to answer. Some ambitious people always hope to personally transform this world, destroy those dark sides, and make the world move toward the Great Commonwealth. But unfortunately, new dark sides quickly reappear; the innate nature of beings to bully one another is hard to change, and many people still merely struggle to stay alive.The ideal of transforming society is not easy to realize, and if mishandled it becomes empty talk. The ancients said that if one cannot be a good prime minister, one should be a good doctor. I think it is more practical to learn some medicine: while protecting oneself, one can also save the dying and heal the wounded. At my age, I have still achieved nothing and have contributed nothing to building a Great Commonwealth society; perhaps retreating into the apricot grove (medicine) can comfort my heart a little. At least, most of the time we are helping patients relieve their suffering, rather than creating life tragedies for others.