Author: Yang Jianhai (School of Economics, Beijing Technology and Business University)
The Chinese nation has a history of more than 5,000 years of civilization and has made indelible contributions to the progress of human civilization. From the pre-Qin "going in and out of friendship, watching out for each other" to today's "one side has difficulties, the eight parties support", although the expression of mutual assistance has changed, its essence has always been evergreen. Especially with the advent of an aging society, mutual assistance for the elderly as a way of providing for the elderly that is close to China's customs and customs has quietly emerged. In today's social landscape of pluralistic governance, mutual assistance plays an increasingly important role.
The cultural origin of mutual aid ideas
Mutual aid has a long tradition in the mainland, and it can be traced in the pre-Qin classics. The Book of Poetry daejeon's "He has a legacy, this has a stagnant ear, and the widow's profit" describes a kind peasant with compassion and deliberately leaving some grain for orphans and widows to pick up when they are busy harvesting. The Confucian classic Book of Rites concerns the ideal of the "Datong" society: "The deceased does not kiss his relatives alone, nor does he have only sons and sons; Let the old have an end, the strong have a useful, the young have a long, the widow, the lonely and the sick have some support", which is a comprehensive description of the spirit of mutual assistance.
Among the sons of the pre-Qin Dynasty, in addition to Lao Tzu's ideas of "more than enough to make up for the deficiencies", Confucius's "renxue", Xunzi's "Nengqun", Mozi's "both love" and other ideas, the most talked about mutual assistance is also the most well-known to posterity is Mencius. In the "Mencius Teng Wen Gongshang", he advocated that "there is no going out of the countryside, the countryside and the well, the in-and-out friends, the watchfulness and mutual support, the support of the disease, then the people are harmonious", which describes to us a harmonious picture of mutual care and mutual help in an ideal society. In addition, there is also the well-known "old and old and old, young and young and young", which is a powerful embodiment of the idea of friendliness and mutual assistance. Obviously, in Mencius's thought, a society of mutual help is the most ideal society.
In addition to the pre-Qin Dynasty, the Song Dynasty was another peak of traditional Chinese culture, and a large number of mutual aid ideas also arose in this era of flourishing ideas. For example, Zhang Zai proposed in the "Xi Ming": "Respect the high year, so it is long; The love is weak, so the young are young; Holy, its virtue; Hyun, its show also. All the worlds are tired, disabled, lonely, widowed, and unsuaded by my brothers. Obviously, this kind of thinking implies many elements of mutual assistance, even the idea of modern social security. In addition, in the Song and later Ming and Qing dynasties, there were a large number of county records, fangzhi, notes, letters, inscriptions, epitaphs, etc., which recorded the deeds of the folk townspeople and the Zhishi officials who put forward and practiced the idea of mutual assistance.
The social practice of the idea of mutual aid
Due to the frequent natural disasters, successive governments have used the idea of storage reserves to solve the problems of disaster relief and relief in the country and the hardships of the people's lives. At first, although it was led by the government, in the process of evolution, there were gradually private forces involved, so it had the essence of mutual help. In particular, the evolution from Yicang to Shecang and Guanghuicang has occurred, and the main body of relief has sunk, from the city to the countryside, from the government to the people, and the idea of mutual assistance has become more and more obvious. For example, the grain of the social warehouse was originally derived from the government and the rich family, and later the villagers raised their own grain, which to some extent reflected the innovation of Confucianism in the social system.
Another traditional social organization with a deep sense of mutual assistance is the clan, which plays an indispensable role in the handling of matters such as life care, the establishment of righteous schools, disaster relief, old-age services, and marriage and funeral. Especially in the Song Dynasty and beyond, the influence of clans in grass-roots society has become increasingly far-reaching, including the clan fields, Yizhuang, and Yixue with disaster relief and mutual assistance functions. For example, the purpose of Fan Zhongyan's establishment of Yizhuang is to achieve mutual assistance and cooperation within the clan in addition to "respecting the clan and receiving the clan". It can be seen that this blood-based clan mutual assistance guarantee and the geographically-based neighborhood mutual assistance network have shaped China's non-governmental informal security system and non-governmental informal economic system.
Since traditional China is a typical rural acquaintance society, the practice of mutual aid ideas in rural society is even more numerous. From mutual help in the busy season of farming, marriage and funeral dowry, and joint workers in house building, to various forms of mutual aid organizations such as chambers of commerce, guilds, and hometown associations, all of them show the importance of mutual assistance in civil life in the absence of modern social security and commercial organizations. For example, in Mao Zedong's "Investigation of Seeking Wu", social mutual aid organizations such as "Building Public Lands" and "Fighting Associations" vividly present the mutual assistance culture of Chinese rural society, which not only effectively solves the difficulties of peasants, but also effectively maintains rural order.
The new era value of the idea of mutual aid
Since the founding of New China, especially after the reform and opening up, the social structure of contemporary China has undergone tremendous changes, gradually from the traditional rural acquaintance society to the modern urban stranger society, but the idea and essence of mutual assistance has long been embedded in people's deep consciousness, its own vitality can not be underestimated, once the conditions are met, it will inevitably follow the change of social form to produce new forms of mutual assistance. For example, the reconstruction of rural clan organizations that have emerged in recent years, and various forms of organization such as hometown associations, alumni associations, and chambers of commerce, are all new manifestations of the idea and practice of mutual assistance under the new forms of social and commercial organizations.
If the essence of mutual assistance is summed up by "watching over each other", then in modern times, mutual assistance is to mobilize all parties in society to face the difficulties that may be encountered. In real life, everyone may suffer from unforeseen risk accidents, but everyone's strength is always limited, so in the design and organizational structure of the social system, strive to create an atmosphere or mechanism of mutual cooperation and mutual help, which is an effective integration of social resources. For example, in the context of an aging society, the elderly is not only related to economic development, but also related to social services. Relying solely on the care of children for the elderly is obviously unrealistic and impossible to achieve, so all localities strive to explore and continuously innovate mutual assistance for the elderly to solve the problem of shortage of human resources.
In the new era, mutual assistance can also be understood as mutual help and mutual assistance internally to make up for the lack of government and individual security capabilities. Externally, as a whole, we jointly resist natural and social risks. In terms of internal, the traditional society of clan pension, intra-clan relief, etc. are good mutual assistance practices, and the current mutual assistance pension model should also be reformed and innovated, which can encourage clans and associations to supplement the problem of insufficient rural pension supply in the form of charity or mutual assistance. In terms of external affairs, mutual assistance can not only alleviate the adverse effects of various natural disasters and accidents, but also be used as a kind of social capital for the construction of water conservancy and the establishment of schools in traditional society. Modern society can fully exert the spirit of mutual assistance, vigorously develop volunteer organizations, and engage in poverty alleviation, social governance and disaster assistance. These are the values of the idea of mutual aid in the new era.
Source: China Social Science Network - China Social Science Daily