The subjects tell lies, and the crux of the matter lies with the emperor

"The Psychology of Subjects under Authoritarian Rule" takes the relationship between monarchs and subjects in ancient China and the psychology of subjects as an incision, analyzes the connotation of absolutism, and presents the production process of absolutism, the determination of power structure and the game of monarchs and subjects under centralized politics with the stroke of criticism, as well as the various manifestations of the mentality of subjects in this game of power, accurately revealing how the evils of the system stimulate the evil of human nature.

Historian Xie Tianyou graduated from the General History of China Research Class of the History Department of East China Normal University in 1958, and then stayed at East China Normal University to teach and research. On April 26, 1988, Xie Tianyou unfortunately died of a stroke, leaving behind a posthumous manuscript of "The Psychology of Subjects Under Authoritarian Rule". The outline of the book was originally 21 verses, but was eventually discontinued in section 10. In 2021, the new edition of "The Psychology of Subjects under Authoritarian Rule" was released, which once again attracted the attention of the academic community. Scholar Shao Qin believes that Mr. Xie Tianyou is not only a historian, but also a thinker, economist and essayist.

"The Psychology of Subjects under Authoritarian Rule" does not have the vagueness of academic works, and the reader is more like being brought into the context of ancient times by historical notes, thinking about the relationship between monarchs and subjects at that time and a series of social problems.

Since the unification of the Qin and Han Dynasties, the rulers have on the one hand instilled in the people the idea of heaven and man induction, and shaped themselves as gods representing "Providence". On the other hand, through external Confucianism and internal law, violence is used to maintain the legitimacy of the rule. Why should the emperor be portrayed as a god who wields all power and overrides all beings? In Xie Tianyou's view, this is not only the emperor's personal will, but an inevitable requirement of chaotic order.

Mortals must fight in groups, and "strife is chaos", so the emergence of the "Son of Heaven" is the need to end the disorderly strife. The price is that he no longer represents one person after his birth, but represents a whole set of orders, that is, the ruling order of authoritarian centralization.

In the opening section, "Order in Disorder," Xie Tianyou points out that the king has a full view of his subjects, his subordinates regard the king as unpredictable, the king becomes an "unfathomable god", and the courtier becomes a slave who can be completely controlled.

In fact, since the Spring and Autumn Period, the people have not been deeply impressed with the so-called divinity of kings and emperors, otherwise there would be Han Feizi's saying that the dragon is also a worm that can be tamed and ridden, "but there is a reverse scale under its throat." That is to say, the "Son of Heaven" is called a dragon, but in fact, it is a mortal, and it is a time when mortals have joys and sorrows and even make a blessing, that is, the aspect of "insect nature". In order to prove the "insect nature" of the king, Han Feizi told such a story.

It is said that once upon a time there was a scholar named Mikoto who was favored by the monarch of the Wei kingdom. At that time, the law of the Wei State stipulated that those who drove the king's car to do private affairs would be sentenced to execution, which was an ancient kind of torture, and one foot or both feet of the punished person should be cut off. One day, Yako's mother was seriously ill, and in a hurry, Yako's mother pretended to be a prince to drive the jun car home to see her mother. When Wei Jun heard about this, he did not cure Yazi's flawed sins, but instead praised him for his good virtues and was a great filial piety, for the sake of his mother, he forgot that he would commit the crime.

Another time, When Yazi and Wei Jun visited the orchard, he ate a peach and felt sweet, and before he finished eating, he gave the remaining half to Wei Jun. Wei Jun exaggerated Miko's flaws again. When Miko fell out of favor and offended Wei Jun, Wei Jun said to others with a blue face: "This person originally drove my car privately under the pretense of the king's order, and once gave me leftover peaches to eat." "Yako's past behavior has not changed, but the reason why she was previously praised and later convicted is that Wei Jun's love and hatred have changed.

The king, who wields all power, is wanton and moody. Xie Tianyou further pointed out that due to his environment and his own status, the psychology of the king is more "two more" than ordinary people: suspicious and changeable. Over the centuries, the courtiers have evolved a set of unspoken "psychology", most of them dare not touch the emperor's "reverse scales", not only that, but also try to distort the facts, follow the emperor's will to speak and do things, and even confuse black and white, pointing to deer as horses.

Xiao He and Han Xin climbed the dragon and attached the phoenix, the former was everywhere for Liu Bang's sake, Liu Bang thought of it, liu Bang did not expect it, he also thought of it; the latter did not know how to restrain but was proud of his achievements and finally died tragically. Xie Tianyou also enumerated one by one the circumstances in which Chen Ping and Li Ji were cautious in avoiding disasters, and Wang Anshi and Zhang Juzheng were deposed and stripped of their homes, in order to show that even if there were "slanderous subjects" and reformers under the absolute monarchy, their survival and abolition also depended entirely on the emperor's power skills, preferences, and patience, because the essence of the absolute monarchy was "degeneration is the law", "doubting that the subject is the privilege of the monarch, and the subject only has the right to be doubted, and only the right to not complain when doubted, and to release the grievance with sincerity."

Therefore, in order to win the favor of the emperor, telling lies and talking against the heart has become the fashion of the court and even hundreds of officials, as Xie Tianyou said, this is not entirely a matter of personal morality of officials, in essence, it is a manifestation of the psychological state of fear of authoritarian dictatorship. Xie Tianyou reveals the destruction of the psychology and humanity of the subjects by feudal social and political culture, and the system cannot save itself and thus get out of the cyclical law. If the rulers transgress the law and are not subject to supervision, then it can be said that the fatal flaws of the system are still there.

Visual I Yang Xiaodong

Edited by I Deng Miaomiao

Audit I Liu Lan