Back in April I commented on the "Eight Honors and Disgraces" campaign in the PRC press. It is a throwback to old-fashioned socialist, and quasi-Confucian, ethical exhortation: a series of slogans meant to define public and political morality.
Well, while perusing Chuang Tzu the other day I found this passage, which seems to presage the "Eight Honors:"
When there's Tao, boundaries haven't yet begun being. When there's language, the timeless hasn't yet begun being. "Yes this" happens - and so being gets demarcated. Let me tell you about demarcation: There's left and there's right. There's relationship and there's Duty. There's difference and there's division. There's strife and there's struggle. Call them anything - how about the eight virtues? (27)
Of course, he is scoffing at the entire enterprise of distinction and division. Categorization is, for him, meaningless: it causes us to lose track of the meaning of the whole of Tao. So, the "eight virtues" is an empty label, a pathetic human attempt to put a name to an indefinable Way. Here is how he clinches the point:
Hence, in difference there's no difference, and in division there's not division. You may ask how this can be. The sage embraces it all. Everyone else divides things, and uses one to reveal the other. Therefore I say: "Those who divide things cannot see."
I wonder if the CCP propaganda people have ever read that?
Love the country; do it no harm.
Serve the people; never betray them.
Follow science; discard ignorance.
Be diligent; not indolent.
Be united, help each other; make no gains at others' expense.
Be honest and trustworthy; do not sacrifice ethics for profit.
Be disciplined and law-abiding; not chaotic and lawless.
Live plainly, work hard; do not wallow in luxuries and pleasures.
Posted by: sdfgbh | May 30, 2011 at 08:15 PM