Crazy life, Zhang Wuchang

"Crazy life" is a recognized name for Zhang Wuchang.

Exiled in southern China as a young man, Zhang Wu often wandered around the city since he was a child, and liked to observe the human world more than to write school texts. When he went abroad in his youth, Zhang Wuchang "exchanged" with the American economist master, and his ideas were wild and unconstrained, so that he gained unconventional insights. Indeed, Zhang Wuchang is like a "living fossil", allowing us to see the "hundred flowers competing" of the Chicago era up close, and feel the wind of the master and the wind of freedom.

Parallel to the master, Zhang Wuchang's various "genius" deeds are endless:

Someone once asked Stigler: Is mathematics really that important to economics? Stigler replied: This is a stupid question! There are only three economists in the world who can stand without mathematics: Coase, Archchin, and Zhang Wuchang.

However, after returning to China in 1980, Zhang Wuchang's aura was gradually taken off by the world.

Unlike the traditional people, he never hid his pride and pride, and he was never afraid to say outliers. Some people think that Zhang Wuchang's return to China is intended to be utilitarian, and some "self-destruction signs". However, Zhang Wu is often addicted. In 1986, in an interview with Zhang Wuchang by economist Yang Xiaokai, Zhang Wuchang summed it up this way: "In the past seven years, I have looked at China's economic reform from the perspective of property rights and transaction costs, which is extremely exciting, but it seems that I am the only one who can borrow this "program" audience. ”

Zhang Wuchang himself introduced that in addition to his career as a student and professor, he escaped the wilderness, did business, sold antiques, engaged in art exhibitions, fought lawsuits, and worked as an analyst. Among the many economists, Zhang Wuchang is an odd man. His arrogance is mixed with true temperament, and he is still a naughty boy in the economic beach, a madman.

This article is logical

First, the wizards of the chaotic world

Second, the master party

Third, the return of the madman

Fourth, Zhang Gong sells oranges

【Text 8000 words, reading time 30', thanks for sharing】

01 Wizards of the Lost World

Zhang Wuchang was born in 1935 on the second floor of 12 Tai Fu Street, Sai Wan Ho, Hong Kong. Except for the stage when he fled to Guilin with his mother and studied in Foshan, most of his time in Hong Kong was spent in the Xiwan River area.

At the time of his birth, Zhang Wuchang's family was well-off, and the electroplating shop opened by his father was thriving. Zhang Wuchang's father, Zhang Wenlai, came to Hong Kong from Huizhou, Guangdong province at a young age, worked as a servant boy and picked stones. When he was an electroplating apprentice, he taught himself English, translated an electroplating manual, and was regarded as the "grandmaster" by his peers. Later, Zhang Wen came from the portal "Wen Lai Xing" and sold electroplating raw materials. Nowadays, Wenlaixing has become a century-old signboard.

Zhang Wuchang has many brothers and sisters, and his family home is located in Aobeilong Village, across the Xiwan River. Zhang Wuchang's parents chose land on a hill in Aobeilong Village to build a new house. Zhang Wuchang recalled his childhood, when he was only three years old, he was ordered by his mother to supervise the work in the yard, "three shovels of sand to use a shovel of cement."

At the age of six, the warm childhood of Aobeilong Village came to an abrupt end. In 1941, the Japanese bombed Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong, and the flames of war burned into Hong Kong. Zhang Wuchang and his family discussed well, and the soldiers were divided into two roads. The mother fled to Guilin with her seven children, while the father and the remaining children stayed in Hong Kong to take care of businesses and shops. After fleeing for three years, Xiao Zhang saw the suffering of the world.

Although the escape is painful, it is still necessary to learn. Zhang Wuchang's three older sisters attended the Guilin Medical College, and Zhang Wuchang and his brother entered the attached primary school. In the academy, although there is a stable reading, it is not uncommon for young students to fall because of hunger and illness. At that time, the situation of children of the same age was unforgettable for many years.

In 1944, the Japanese army was about to attack Guilin, and the commander of the guilin city defense issued the first and second evacuation orders. By September, a forced evacuation order no. 3 was issued, requiring all residents of Guilin to leave the city within three days. The school was gradually empty, and Zhang Wuchang, who was only eight years old, was also mixed in the exile team of soldiers and horses. He fled alone and followed the train back to Liuzhou. Under the chaos, the mother and son and their party went through the toss and turns, and finally met at Guiping and continued to find a place to take refuge.

The mother took her seven children and traveled all the way to Nasha. Zhang Wuchang's siblings recuperated from illness, and the older sisters exchanged clothes for the villagers in exchange for food. Zhang Wu often carried his young sister on his back, looking for as much food as possible between the grassy fields and streams. In Nasha, a small village far from human habitation, Zhang Wuchang watched farmers cultivate in the farmland every day and ran through the wilderness. Later he wrote, "Twenty-two years later, what I saw in Nasha gave me a great reward. I was able to clearly unravel the code of China's agricultural operation in "The Theory of Sharecroppers" because when I looked at those dense data and data, in my mind, the scenes of farming that I saw in Nasha when I was young came up one by one. This also explains why, for years, I don't agree with economists frequently using regression statistics to analyze data, because I think they basically don't know exactly how the industry or market in question works. On the other hand, if the person engaged in the research clearly knows the real operation of an industry, to explain or infer, the method of regression statistics is of little use. ”【1】

In 1945, after the end of the war, Zhang's mother finally arrived in Hong Kong with her six children unharmed.

Maybe it is the natural personality, or perhaps the experience of fleeing for the past three years has made Zhang Wuchang accustomed to being imaginative and unrestrained. After returning to normal campus life, he often suffered from school discipline and education. "I like to come and go freely, to think alone, and what the teacher said I didn't like to hear was going around. When my classmates were in class, I would run to the countryside of Foshan and sit until the sun set. (Foshan) Huaying's days are not enough to eat, torn clothes, no money for haircuts, mention zhang Wuchang, teachers and classmates all shake their heads and sigh. ”

At the age of 17, Zhang Wuchang was promoted to Queen's College in Hong Kong to continue his studies, but his stubbornness did not change. After repeating the grade for one year, he failed the main subject composition subject and was eventually expelled from school. After leaving school, Zhang Wuchang worked in his father's shop. In his spare time, he wandered around Taining Street, met a group of strange people, and talked with them. None of this group of people has higher education, but they are active in thinking and have their own endowments, including Rong Guotuan, who later won the world championship of table tennis, Huang Wenhua, who played football, shu Xiangcheng, a famous poet, and so on. Zhang Wuchang himself was also versatile, and he later made some small achievements in calligraphy and photography.

Childhood, fleeing, surviving in the wilderness, and then playing between the city, all of this made Zhang Wuchang extremely proficient, so that later when he did economics, he was not satisfied with just looking in the theoretical pavilion, but always wanted to go to the field himself and look for it.

For many years, Zhang Wenlai has been doing business outside for many years, and he has paid little attention to Zhang Wuchang's care. In the year that Zhang Wuchang left school, the father and son talked more and more. However, in the same year, Zhang Wuchang's father died of illness. When his father died, he was taught, "I think you are a craftable material." You don't like to read, you can do business. But don't forget, I'm on the ground for learned people. ”

In 1957, zhang Wuchang, who was already twenty-two years old, left Hong Kong for Toronto, Canada. The trip was for business, but he also wanted to "try his luck." After only a few days in Toronto, Zhang Wuchang decided to stay here and study. He spent two years studying English on his own, and at the age of twenty-four he was admitted to the University of California, Los Angeles. Since then, he has opened a period of study experience that is difficult for ordinary people to encounter.

Zhang Wuchang coincided with the neoliberal era when the economics community was blooming. From undergraduate to postdoctoral fellow, Zhang Wuchang met nearly ten twentieth-century masters, and his unconventional and wanton way of thinking was unique in free scholarship and won the favor of many masters.

02 Master Party

After making up his mind to study, Zhang Wuchang moved forward academically. He received his bachelor's degree in 1959, his master's degree in 1962, and his doctorate in 1963. Zhang Wuchang later lamented that "naughty" people like him were successful in the American education system, as were their sons and nephews.

At the undergraduate level, Zhang Wuchang took many elective subjects and was extremely interested in history. After the compulsory course was completed, he spent his time in the audit class, and specially selected professors with superb skills to observe and seek advice.

In 1962, Zhang Wuchang, who had already received a master's degree, went to observe the price theory course taught by Jack Hersolafa. Hersurafa previously taught economics at Harvard and the University of Chicago. In Zhang Wuchang's impression, Heshulafa was an extremely humble teacher. Zhang Wuchang was active in his thinking, constantly asking questions in Heshi's class, and sometimes the class even evolved into a question and answer for two people. Two years later, Heshi found that Zhang Wuchang was still observing his own course, which felt strange, and Zhang Wuchang replied: I have long learned your theory through your writings, and I only observed it to learn your way of thinking.

After graduating from graduate school, Zhang Wuchang has become famous in the academy, known for being able to answer questions and be bold and active. At this time, Professor Aman Alchin came to the university. In 1950, Archin published Uncertainty, Evolution, and Economic Theory, which is well-known in academic circles and the founder of modern property economics. Zhang Wuchang once felt sorry for Alchin, who wrote most of Alchin's theories about property rights in the classroom, rather than written in books.

Earlier, Alchin was famous among his classmates for his whimsical and eclectic teaching, which attracted Zhang Wuchang. Moreover, Alchin's skill in price theory has been affirmed by many teachers. Zhang Wuchang has always believed that price theory is the foundation of economics, and it is extremely difficult to master it thoroughly. Therefore, "anyone who is a master of price theory will not let it go." ”

In class, however, Alchin does not discuss difficult problems, but often throws out some of the most superficial and simple questions. In the first lesson, Archin left a question: "Suppose you are on a beach with many stones but no measuring tools, how can you know the weight of a certain stone?" The students answered one by one, and Alchin did not make a sound. In successive lessons, Alchin did not give an answer, leaving the students to talk to themselves. It wasn't until the fifth week, when Archin entered the classroom, that he asked, "Do you understand?" Student asks: What do you understand? Archin said: The difficulty of measuring the weight of a stone. Later, Alchin elaborated on the relationship between measurement and inference, the difference between objectivity and values, which impressed Zhang Wuchang. In the second semester, Archin opened with a question, "What is currency?" and asked the students to discuss the answer to this question. Zhang Wuchang observed Professor Alchin's six-semester course. It was not until the third semester that I slowly understood. After that, I can listen to it all.

Under the influence of Archin, Zhang Wu often repeatedly thought about the most superficial answers and phenomena. Before asking questions to the teacher, Zhang Wuchang spent the night in the library to read the data before he could confront Alchin several times. After a long time, Alchin allowed Zhang Wuchang to go to his office to ask questions, and only Zhang Wuchang was the only student who was treated like this.

In 1964, Zhang Wuchang began to prepare for his doctoral dissertation. Several topics could not be formed, so he simply abandoned the paper and went to photography for six months. In early 1966, Zhang Wuchang was teaching at Long Beach University when he stumbled upon a full set of Taiwan Agricultural Yearbooks in the library. After the land reform, the government imposed a ceiling on the share of landlords, and under this control, the output of agriculture increased significantly. This aroused Zhang Wuchang's curiosity. He found the book informative and not unusual. The latter drumbeat took a few days to do theoretical deduction, and the theoretical model was successful. As Zhang Wuchang said, "If you can't think of such a thing as theory, you can either think of it or if you touch it by a clever opportunity, you can collect the troops in three days." Then he spent four months, using data calculations to multiplely verify his conclusions and found a comparison.

In November, Mr. Zhang sent the first draft of his 11-page paper to professors at the University of California for review. On the day of the first draft seminar, Zhang Wuchang drove to the seminar, and more than a dozen professors participated in the discussion, and Hersurafa and Alchin were listed. However, Zhang Wuchang's conclusion triggered controversy among many professors at the scene. Reading the first page, many professors thought that Zhang Wuchang's conclusion was very wrong and began to argue. The explanation on the second page took another three hours, and Zhang Wuchang's explanation was repeatedly questioned by the tutors. So, from five o'clock in the afternoon to eleven o'clock in the evening, the argument was endless and fruitless.

On the way back, Zhang Wuchang was disheartened and called to ask if Heshurafa needed to give up the topic, but he was highly praised by Heshurafa. A month later, Archin called and told Zhang that he could open the question.

Zhang Wu used 8 months to complete the paper, the two supervisors also corrected Zhang Wuchang's first draft, Andchin's revision was word by word, and the first page was unrecognizable. Zhang Wuchang was about to cry when he first got his hand, and when he returned home, he digested the modification one by one, "The more he looked at it, the more he was shocked, the more he looked at it, the more he admired it", and unconsciously a night passed. Writing a thesis under the guidance of a master has benefited Zhang Wuchang endlessly. Since then, he said, he has learned how to write "clear articles." Academic composition should avoid dancing and ink, ambiguous, clear concepts, and coherent thinking. Such a creed Zhang Wu kept in mind for a lifetime.

Zhang Wuchang's graduation thesis, "Tenant Farmer Theory: Cited on Land Reform in Taiwan," later became the founding work of modern contract economics. The tenant farmer theory has several prerequisites: first, the market is fully competitive, so that there is a market salary, and all peasant households and landlords can choose each other; second, the peasant household can negotiate with the landlord to share the proportion. In this case, Zhang Wu often used Taiwan's agricultural yearbook data to argue that whether the contract model of quota or proportional sharing is adopted, the efficiency of the final land is not affected, and the income of landlords and farmers is not affected.

In fact, the "Sharecropper Theory" is through the theoretical deduction and data argument of different contract incomes, thus re-validating the theory proposed by Coase in "The Cost Problem of Society" published in 1960. This paper originated from a great debate between the University of Chicago school and the classical economics school in which Coase was at the time, and was originally intended to expound the problem of externalities, but has now become a masterpiece of modern property rights theory. This theory is named "Coase's theorem" and explains that under the premise that property rights are clear and transaction costs are zero, no matter who owns the property rights, it does not affect the final efficiency sharing. In addition, the study of the theory of sharecroppers also led to several important propositional studies, and Zhang Wuchang later wrote separately on externalities and private property.

The "Tenant Farmer Theory" was approved by many economic masters at that time, and the University of Chicago only saw the first chapter and decided to give Zhang Wuchang a postdoctoral scholarship and give him a one-year invitation to a researcher position. The theoretical part of the paper, "Private Property and Sharecropper Division," was also published in the University of Chicago's Journal of Political Economy. In fact, Friedman had noticed Zhang Wuchang earlier at a seminar and had recommended Zhang Wuchang to the Department of Economics. In this way, in 1967, Zhang Wuchang came to the University of Chicago.

It can be said that this is the golden age of Chiba University's economics. Among the colleagues Zhang Wuchang met, there were six who later won Nobel Prizes. Moreover, Zhida's academic style is active, and the seminars and banquets are non-stop day by day, and Zhang Wuchang can chat with these economic masters shoulder to shoulder. Zhang Wuchang's office was arranged next door to Friedman's office, and both of them were quick-thinking people, chatting about economic issues on the way to and from work, and forming a deep friendship. Later, Zhang Wuchang's wedding was presided over to Friedman, and Friedman came to China, which was also arranged by Zhang Wuchang all the way.

Talk about the era of Zhida, who is five permanent, can not leave Coase. The two men were the same at first sight. Zhang Wuchang described the acquaintance scene of the two people like this:

I introduced myself to Coase: I spent three years reading your Social Cost Problem. Coase asked: What do you think I said in that article? I replied: I mean the limitations of the contract. He stood up and said, "Somebody understands me!" [1] Gradually, Zhang Wuchang found that Coase's thinking was most similar to his own, without mathematics or logic, especially in empirical research. Together with Coase, Zhang Wuchang's research on contracts, property rights and transaction costs has become increasingly sophisticated. In 1937, Coase published The Nature of The Enterprise, in which the concept of "transaction fees" was proposed. If, according to the conclusion, since several contracts have the same effect, why would the market choose different contracts? Zhang Wuchang's doubts derived from the tenant farmer theory were inspired by Coase's "transaction fees". "I suddenly realized that Coase's company article was also about contracts." Contracts are a system that restricts competition. In the real world, there are also costs to constrain competition, that is, institutional fees.

After less than two years at the University of Chicago, Mr. Zhang received an offer from the University of Washington, a lifetime offer for a higher salary. Zhang Wuchang originally felt that the University of Chicago was too lively, and he preferred to find a clean place to be alone in the world of thought. In 1969, Zhang Wuchang went to Seattle to take up a post. There is also a sea view that he loves to see in Hong Kong.

03 Return of the Madman

In 1979, Margaret Thatcher's office sent Zhang Wuchang an invitation to ask him: What path will China take?

Zhang Wuchang just visited Guangzhou in the same year, combined with his experience in China, did a good job of theoretical construction, and finally completed an article. Zhang Wuchang concluded at the time: "The property structure adopted by China in the future must be very similar to the private property structure. ”

This transformation is not out of thin air, nor is it based on what has been predicted, but is still based on theoretical deduction: the system is the law and regulation that defines the structure of property rights, people compete and interact according to the system, and the system stipulates the limited conditions and rules for people to compete and communicate with each other; and private property rights and public property rights are two different systems. In reality, the operation and selection of the system have transaction costs. Following the basic assumption of economics, which is limited to profit, society will choose a system with low transaction costs. To explain the choice of regime, it is necessary to prove that, under limited conditions, the transaction costs of such a regime are minimal. "Similarly, if we know that the limits have changed, we can speculate about the change in the system."

In 1980, at the American Economic Association, Coase met with Zhang Wuchang. He said briefly: "I heard that China may reform, and you have to go back to China." You may know more about the workings of an economic system than anyone else, and you may know Chinese. They don't change, they have nothing to say, but if you really want to change, your contribution back to China will be greater than staying in the United States. ”

Coase's instructions to Zhang Wuchang did not respond, but they were taken to heart. A few months later, Mr. Zhang was told that hKU's chair professor of economics was vacant, and Coase urged him to invite. In this way, Zhang Wuchang returned to China at this turbulent crossroads. Since then, he has followed China's reforms.

After returning to China, Zhang Wuchang wanted to start the habit of Chinese writing. The first Chinese article "A Thousand Laws, Ten Thousand Laws, Only One Economic Law" was dictated by Zhang Wuchang and written by a friend. In his article, he pointed out that only the price mechanism would not lead to the dissipation of rental values; the price system would only be possible under private property rights. This article is just facing the fate of economic reform and singing the echo of the times. Subsequently, Zhang Wuchang frequently posted articles. In 1984, he wrote "The Words of the Seller of Oranges", in 1985 he wrote "The Future of China", and in 1987 he wrote "On China Again". The language of these articles is direct, the style is sharp, and sometimes follows current events, which has aroused a lot of attention and controversy.

In fact, before and after returning to China, Zhang Wuchang spent a lot of thought, how to get the Chinese decision-makers to accept the market theory he brought back?

"Which friend's name tag am I going to sell?" My teacher, Archin, is known as the father of property economics, but his important contribution was the relationship between property rights and competition, and it would not hit the lifeblood of China's need for reform in one move. Friedman was a top guru of the free economy, but mentioned 'freedom'... Moreover, the word is very troublesome to interpret from the perspective of limited constraints. 【2】”

In the end, Zhang Wuchang chose the card of Coase. Moreover, he believes that China wants to reform its economic system, and property rights and transaction costs are the best perspective. It also comes at the right time for this field, which he and Coase have been delving into for many years.

Zhang Wuchang knows, "Private words are the head, and Beijing is taboo." He chose Coase's theory not to emphasize the superiority or importance of private property rights, but to look at private property from the perspective of the definition of rights. In 1970, Zhang Wuchang proposed in an article that the definition of private property lies in the right to use, the right to free transfer, and the right to enjoy income, not related to ownership. Around the 1980s, at the intersection of seeking talents and giving reforms, Zhang Wuchang was repeatedly invited by local officials to ask for advice and answer questions. He also explained this theory to important people.

In 1985, Zhang Wuchang wrote: Chinese mainland's institutional reform has reached a more difficult situation, and if it is to continue to improve, shocking decision-making measures are needed. He boldly advised on the policy of lifting foreign exchange controls, dissolving state workers, changing state enterprises to private ownership, and selling land pending revolution.

In 1985, Zhang Wuchang was invited to Beijing to do research on land reform. Zhang Wuchang boldly proposed that ownership is not important, and suggested that ownership and use rights be separated, and the ownership rights should be owned by the state or the public, while the use rights can be transferred to private individuals and circulated in the market. As the leader of reform and opening up, the Shenzhen government has taken a bolder step. In the spring of 1986, the Shenzhen government invited Zhang Wu to discuss the possibility of transferring land, and Zhang Wuchang proposed that the co-ownership of land remained unchanged, while the right to use, income and transfer could be defined as private ownership, and the scope of the right to use should be clearly defined. In June 1986, Zhang Wuchang published an article entitled "Selling Land for Three Victories in One Fell Swoop".

Zhang Wuchang did not expect that the following winter, Shenzhen opened the country's first land to hold an "open bidding" attempt. At that time, someone even went to the University of Hong Kong to find Zhang Wuchang and asked him where he could borrow a mallet for auction. In the end, Shenfang Group won the right to use State-owned land in China's first public auction for a sky-high price of 5.25 million. Shenfang Group built Shenzhen Dongxiao Garden on this land. After the new house was sold out in less than an hour, the deep house company earned nearly 4 million yuan. Later, this mallet that recorded the era was also collected in the Shenzhen Museum.

The change of role after returning to China seems to be less important to Zhang Wuchang. His position has never changed: "It can be said that when I returned to Hong Kong in 1982 to work, I was a person who could open the meridians for my friends in Beijing if they needed it." But I'm not a reformer and don't think I can improve the world. On the other hand, I feel a responsibility to do something for China's youth.

Later, when explaining the operation of the system in plain language, my position was neither to take the credit nor to force it. I only hope that many, many text explanations are released, and friends in Beijing will consider and choose. ”【1】

04 Zhang Gong sells oranges

In early 2000, criticism and controversy over Zhang Wuchang reached a peak.

Tracking reality and daring to speak has brought Zhang Wuchang a lot of exposure, and the media once praised him as "the head of Chinese economists", but he was also criticized by domestic scholars. After mastering the economic theory, Zhang Wuchang likes to explain it clearly in the simplest and most essential words. He has written a series of best-selling essays that have been widely circulated online. Zhang Wuchang's flying white curly hair and bronze skin logo looks are common on the home pages of various portals. In the face of the unpredictable economics, Zhang Wuchang is the leader of a group of young people, popular because of his transparency and clarity. However, these achievements are often looked down upon by the mainstream economics community.

Secondly, Zhang Wuchang's personality, which is not easy to hide, is completely different from the image of Chinese Confucian intellectuals who are self-absorbed. In a series of short articles, Zhang Wuchang said it freely, not afraid of some views that made people drop their jaws. He once said, "Corruption has nothing to do with morality ... The shift from backdoors to embezzlement is a good sign, as it reflects the gradual shift in the definition of rights from the class privileges of cadres to the definition of rights in terms of assets." For example, his remarks that China does not need minimum wage protection and his opposition to the new labor law have attracted many criticisms.

It is normal for the true disposition of characters who often appear in public discourse to provoke controversy. However, when the trend of the times is slightly sharper, out-of-the-box views become the target.

In 2004, eleven domestic university professors jointly criticized Zhang Wuchang, pointing out the reforms of "private property rights" and "privatization of state-owned enterprises" proposed by Zhang Wuchang.

When Zhang Wuchang decided to return to China to follow up on China's reforms, this was almost inevitable. Moreover, the reason why the madman is a madman is because he himself does not value these war of words, "My article is written for you to comment on, and it is not interesting to attack me personally." You say I can't do it, and it doesn't matter if I can't. It's easy for you to beat me, you show me an article. ”

In Zhang Wuchang's heart, the evaluation of economic achievements cannot be more primitive: "In the industry of learning, on success or failure, nothing can compare with an important article." "The article is the essence of theoretical achievements, and it is also a presentation that can withstand the test of practice and time."

One of Zhang Wuchang's long-standing beliefs is that it is important to be able to explain phenomena in reality with practical, simplest and most essential principles. This is also reflected in his economic research. Zhang Wuchang vigorously advocates and practices positivist research methodology in academic research. Coase once told his assistant that no one who does empirical research in economics can surpass Zhang Wuchang. Zhang Wuchang self-evaluation: "As a person who studies price theory, I am good at empirical work. ”

Indeed, Zhang Wuchang frequently saw various empirical samples in his academic articles, he wrote "The Myth of the Bee", went to the farm five times, and became an expert in beekeeping himself. Studying the price difference, he took students to sell oranges on the streets of Chinese New Year's Eve night, and eventually published it as "The Words of the Orange Seller", which was widely circulated. Writing papers, Zhang Wuchang also does not like to use mathematics or statistics, "likes to run in the streets and alleys, paying attention to the small phenomena of eccentricities."

Zhang Wuchang also firmly believes that economics is no less correct in explaining the world than natural science. "It's just a pity that economics doesn't have a man-made laboratory, and the existence and transformation of limitations can only be examined by economists to the real world, and the instruments cannot be adjusted arbitrarily in the laboratory."

The search for limitations, including how to convert theoretical limitations into observable variable indicators in reality, is where the skills of today's economists are tested. Zhang Wuchang lamented that today's economic research is on the decline: today's economists cannot continue the research of economics in the real world because of their limitations, and can only turn to weaving new concepts.

Whether it is with the mentality of compatriots and approaching the drastic changes of the times, Zhang Wuchang has done a lot of things on the line of following up China's reform, China is just like the testing ground of new institutional economics, Zhang Wuchang is full of addiction and at the same time also lives up to the expectations of his teacher and close friend Coase at that time.

In 2008, in response to a seminar on China's reform organized by Xie Kos, Zhang Wuchang wrote an article entitled "China's Economic System", which gave the reason for the high growth of the "China model": county competition. Zhang Wuchang's theory of county competition argues that the competition between local governments between counties is the most important reason for China's rapid development in the past few decades. This view is also based on the evolution of contract theory, the division between local governments and the central government is a kind of contract, after the property rights are clarified, local governments will spontaneously compete with each other. This view was highly influential and later drew a response from many economists.

In addition, what Coase and Zhang Wuchang are looking forward to is to be able to re-exert efforts in new institutional economics and innovate the appearance of economics. In his later years, Zhang Wuchang published the book "Economic Interpretation", which combined transparent explanation with superb skill. So far, Zhang Wuchang is eighty-six years old and still works hard. After the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, the old man who lived on an island was still concerned about what was happening in China, and he wrote down seven suggestions for the Chinese economy. In June and July 2021, he also published an article on China's university system, which was clear and transparent, and maintained a consistent style. Last week, he still updated his blog to meet with "classmates."

If you want to explore the significance of Zhang Wuchang for today's China, you may have to return to the idea of property rights and contracts. There is a passage in his "Words of the Orange Seller": "China's long history of raising fish in fish ponds proves that the implementation of China's private property system in real estate is much earlier than in Europe and the United States - China's wealth during the Tang and Song dynasties is not a poop." In terms of the natural environment, how can the conditions for fish farming in fish ponds be comparable to those of the Great Lakes? The need for private property security is clearly to bring fish from the lake to the pond. 【3】”

Crazy Five Constants, a funny soul!

bibliography:

[1] Wuchangxue Economics, Zhang Wuchang, CITIC Publishing House;

[2] Economic Interpretation, Zhang Wuchang, CITIC Publishing House;

[3] Orange Seller Yan, Zhang Wuchang, Sichuan People's Publishing House.