Lu Xun has always been revered as the enlightenment teacher of the new era, his words are sharp and sharp, like a sharp blade, straight to the low disadvantages of traditional Chinese culture, but also like a thunderstorm in the summer with hail, booming and rumbling into this hot and dry world, smashing these people who are addicted to layers of illusions and fanaticism, Lu Xun left a lot of golden sentences, through the times, until today' modernization, we can still get inspiration from it.
For example, Mr. Lu Xun mentioned a sentence in the "Two Hearts Collection": "When a slave becomes a master, he will never abolish the title of "old master", and his shelf is probably more than his master, and it is still ridiculous." ”
This sentence can be described as deafening and deafening, reminding us of the fickleness of human nature, the same person, today creeping in the slave position to survive, praying for the master's mercy, but he really turned over and became the master, I am afraid that he will not pity his slave either.
Lu Xun's words not only embody human nature, but also have historical causes, since the unification of Qin Shi Huang, China has been under the whole world, can not be the king's land, the coast of the land, can not be the king's subjects. Since then we have all had a common master, the Emperor.
But in today's modern era, when everyone is equal, it seems that there are no masters and slaves, so does Mr. Lu Xun's words still apply?
The repression of the feudal system
Before the unification of Qin, whether it was the sub-feudal system implemented by the Zhou Dynasty or the Seven Kingdoms Struggle for Hegemony in the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period, the whole of China was not completely under the rule of a master, but Qin Shi Huang unified the world, combined the three emperors and five emperors together, and called himself emperor.
It can be said that since the feudal imperial power overrode the supreme position, both officials and commoners have automatically become slaves, with a common master, in addition to the emperor's father and mother, who see the emperor does not have to prostrate themselves and bow down, Confucian culture is also actively advocating the king as a subject, the king wants the subject to die, the subject has to die.
In the feudal period, in a broad sense, the only master in all of China was the emperor, so there were really several civilian emperors in history, even if they became masters from slaves, their behavior could really be summarized by Mr. Lu Xun's words, that is, the slaves who became masters could oppress slaves more than the original masters.
For example, Zhu Yuanzhang, Lu Xun's golden sentence was first tailored for Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang was born low, a peasant, in addition to farming, there is no cultural insight, he worked hard at home before the uprising, in the face of local officials and landlords is also only a promise, the atmosphere does not dare to make a sound, and later joined Guo Zixing's rebel army, made a name on the battlefield, and the suppressed bloodiness was slowly revealed.
Later, he finally succeeded in founding the Ming Dynasty, his identity has been changed dramatically, and the power that once oppressed him is now in his hands, so will he still take care of the peasant slaves who are the same as he once was?
Obviously not, he continued to maintain feudal rule, and later he abolished the chancellor, further strengthened the imperial power, pioneered the eight shares of soldiers, controlled people's thoughts, and imposed a sea ban to restrict the flow of people to the outside world.
Shady revenge mentality
The oppression of the feudal system deified the power of aristocratic officials, very few people can be masters, most people are slaves, people in this oppressive environment, the formation of the psychology of power is both fear, and yearning, once the slave turns into a master, he gets the power he dreamed of, and the dark side of his heart that was previously oppressed by power will be eaten out and vented to the slave.
Psychological revenge psychology may be able to more intuitively explain this phenomenon of regurgitation, psychology believes that human emotions have the dual characteristics of endurance and rebound, when one person has harm to another person's interests, the latter will expect to produce corresponding or more excessive damage to the former.
Like a spring, driven by constant pressure, there are only two results, either excessive deformation directly damages the function of the spring, or it rebounds with greater force. This is also in line with another sentence that Mr. Lu Xun said: "If you do not erupt in silence, you will perish in silence."
From this point of view, under the feudal system, not only will the extremely rare commoners become emperors, but will further concentrate the imperial power, even if it is a small peasant, accidentally get an official and a half-job, or just follow the people with some power, get a little privilege, he will regard it as a treasure, hold it in the palm of his hand, and immediately turn his face and exert coercion on people who once had the same status.
Of course, this also represents a change of identity and position, first of all, in the feudal environment, the lack of enlightenment of more advanced modern democratic ideas, resulting in the oppressed slaves can rarely have the consciousness of resisting this oppressive environment, or even if some rebels, and also resist successfully, but when their identity has changed from the oppressed to the capable oppressor, their original intention of resistance will change.
For example, the modern Taiping Rebellion was originally to resist the exploitation of the Qing Dynasty, and the leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Hong Xiuquan, once vowed to his brothers who followed him that he would divide the land and grain among everyone when he laid the foundation for the world, but when he settled the capital tianjing, he enjoyed the glory and wealth, and his position changed from a commoner to a ruler, then his interests came from the collection of civilians, and if he considered the land and grain of the commoners, his own interests would be damaged.
Is it still popular in modern times?
With the progress of modernization, not only is our living conditions getting better and better, but also our ideological concepts are progressing, the feudal era is gone forever, the concept of equality is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, the public generally believes that whether poor or rich, people are equal, and the era of power oppressing people seems to have gone forever.
In the mainstream values of society, there is no longer a definition of slave and master, so can Mr. Lu Xun's sentence "a slave turning into a master, and can still put up a shelf than a master" continue to apply?
In fact, although the law stipulates that everyone is equal, in real life, there is still a difference in status and wealth, and a person with wealth status in society still has greater ability than a low-level person.
Today, money has become the object of social fanatical pursuit, then people who have more money will also get the support of more people and will have many privileges, so Mr. Lu Xun's words of slaves replaced by masters today's ordinary people and officials, or capitalists, in fact, this sentence still works.
Revenge psychology is still a normal psychological phenomenon that is difficult for human beings to avoid, today although there is no oppression of ordinary people by imperial power, but there is also the control of capital or privilege over ordinary people, today's ordinary people are still hot for money and privileges, then as long as this ordinary person suddenly has the property of dreams and becomes a capitalist or a big leader, he may still be more likely to put up a shelf.
For example, the famous big guys in the business world now are just ordinary people decades ago, but when they become capitalists, they will still give priority to their own interests, such as forcing employees to work 996, overtime, or some ordinary person around us, suddenly promoted, the subordinates can suddenly manage people, may also be rampant, will show off in the open and in the dark.
But with the development of social civilization, when one day society may eliminate complete poverty, everyone can grow up in a relatively good environment, receive a wealth of humanistic and artistic education, the dark side of people's hearts will be better controlled, people will no longer have excessive enthusiasm for money and power, can find other things to enrich the heart, this kind of villain to get the ambition, the rampant things may be much less.
brief summary:
The slave became the master, and the better way to put up a shelf than the master is a special phenomenon based on feudal history and human revenge psychology, Mr. Lu Xun's words are still so to the point, poking at the dark side of people's hearts, but also forcing us to seriously reflect on the reasons for the formation of this dark side, find reasons from history, so as to improve reality, in the hope of building a better future.