Controversy surrounding the rich and poor has become a hot topic
both in newspapers and on the Internet.
Behind the heated discussions is the harsh reality of a widening
gap between the haves and have-nots.
The former can live in a villa, drive an expensive car or afford
to fly around the world to sightsee and some even have their own
private planes. In the meantime, the impoverished among the latter
can hardly make ends meet.
This is not what the reform experiments the country has
conducted in the past three decades were intended for.
How different interested groups look at the gap between the rich
and poor makes a difference to the stability and future development
trend of the country.
Those who detest such a gap and miss the good old days when
almost all residents were equally poor from the early 1950s to late
1970s like to cite Confucius: "He (the head of State) is not
concerned lest his people are poor, but only lest what they have
should be ill apportioned; he is not concerned lest they should be
few, but lest they should be divided against each other."
Many have omitted the "he" (the head of State) in using this
quotation to justify their detest for the gap between the haves and
have-nots.
Some have never read the original text and overlook the fact
that the ancient sage considered such a gap a social problem.
Others have intentionally segmented the saying to mislead the
minds of the public to the concept that such a gap is the root of
all evils.
But it is quite clear that Confucius intended to remind those
who rule a country that there should be concern about the
disparity. And leaders should take measures to ensure the wealth is
proportionally and reasonably distributed.
Confucius, on another occasion, also said, "Wealth and rank are
what every man desires, but if they can only be retained to the
detriment of the way he professes, he must relinquish them. Poverty
and obscurity are what every man detests, but if they can only be
avoided to the detriment of the way he professes, he must accept
them."
These two quotations explicitly demonstrate that Confucius never
claimed that wealth was something that should be detested nor did
he say that there should never be a gap between the rich and
poor.
Instead, he stressed that government must be concerned about the
gap, and the wealth must be obtained and retained in a legal manner
or it should otherwise be relinquished.
Back in the 1950s until late 1970s, the haves were detested by
the entire nation in quite a funny manner, by which I mean there
were not extremely wealthy residents at the time after the
properties of capitalists and landlords had been either confiscated
or incorporated into State-owned enterprises.
The luxurious life (left only in the memories of those who had
enjoyed them before 1949) was denounced as decadent, and even the
exquisite manners or tastes that used to be exhibited by the
well-educated or wealthy people were labeled as belonging to a
bourgeois lifestyle.
Wealthy people as a class had been annihilated and they had been
driven to the bottom of social strata while poor peasants and urban
residents without properties enjoyed high political status.
The labels of capitalists or landlords that had been attached to
them became symbols of evil that the love of wealth might have
brought about.
The political tarnishing of those capitalists and landlords had
instilled a notion in the minds of the general public that there
was a natural connection between wealth and evil. Therefore the
pursuit of wealth in whatever manner was considered an unhealthy
practice.
However, such a notion was only established and maintained when
social structure was regulated in such a manner that no approach
was available for anyone to obtain wealth and the state of being
poor had become the only option for life.
Under such circumstances, all possible temptations for material
comfort had been blocked. When everyone was wearing the same kind
of clothes, eating the same type of food, living in houses of the
same size and standards, there was no need to "keep up with the
Joneses."
But it is human nature to pursue wealth and seek material
comfort, just as Confucius said more than 2,000 years ago.
That explained why this notion that wealth is associated with
evil shattered as soon as the economic reform and opening up
provided people with chances to change their life for the
better.
So wealth should never be the focus of controversy over the gap.
Instead, the means by which the wealth is obtained should.
Wealth should, however, be regulated and so should the ways to
obtain wealth. And the responsibility for doing these things lies
with the government, as Confucius said.
The gap should not be the target that needs to be detested, but
the policy or social mechanism that fails to function as a
regulator or even function as a stimulator instead should.
A widening gap between the rich and poor may probably lead to
confrontation between the two social groups. The grudges or even
enmity from the latter toward the former pose a potential danger
for social unrest.
The government must do something to make sure that the way the
riches is legal and establish mechanisms be to reasonably and
proportionally redistribute the wealth accumulated in the form of
taxes, so that the basic living of the poor can be maintained.
(China Daily May 13, 2006)