Iconic quotations of Zhongjing Liu, translated (2)
Preamble: The Auntology Fandom has a collection of the most iconic quotations originated from Zhongjing Liu, but only in the Chinese language. Here, I have translated the second chapter of these quotes.
For over a hundred years, those Chinese who consider themselves liberal and Westernized rarely pay respect to the customs and the things that are time-tested. As a matter of fact, the "progressive" notions and methods they have introduced have been mostly the antitheses of liberty in English traditions. Those who sow melons will not reap beans. If you misread the fundamental threads of history, working on the precision of details will not lead you to salvation.
1. Law is born from the will of the Almighty Lord and age-old customs. The lawmaker should only uncover a law, and never invent one. To invent a law for the purpose of altering existing societal order is not only a hazardous innovation, but also a potential blasphemy against the Lord.
2. Pure reason has advanced beyond the constraints of piety and commandments, and will most certainly deconstruct its own. It does not take a long march to reach post-modern values from modern values. Neither is reaching nihilism from humanism.
If the monarch is but a man who you can kill, the law is but the strongman's demands, and the traditions of law and monarchy are but the hypocrisy of the men in power and the illusion of their subjects, then humans are but the predators of ruminants and the prey of panthera: Being capable of killing will be the only necessary license to kill, and having been killed will be the only necessary proof of guilt.
Life under such reality brings nothing but miseries and abasement. Any increase in individual intelligence or strength can only worsen the vicious circle on the whole. A society under such reality nurtures only one type of philosophy, which we familiarly call it the post-modern philosophy or the ways of Taoism and Zen. The wise "last man" boasts his intellectual gifts to destroy, merely so to delight his remaining vanity which oddly hasn't been destroyed.
3. For over a hundred years, those Chinese who consider themselves liberal and Westernized rarely pay respect to the customs and the things that are time-tested. As a matter of fact, the "progressive" notions and methods they have introduced have been mostly the antitheses of liberty in English traditions. Those who sow melons will not reap beans. If you misread the fundamental threads of history, working on the precision of details will not lead you to salvation.
4. The Western conservatism in our dialogues, in its essence, is also a complex collection of concepts. However, once sorted out, every concept can be directly or indirectly attributed to two basic sources: One is the principles of universalism from Christianity. Two is the customary law from Germanic traditions.
All tenets of conservatism in the West, from whichever school of thought, ultimately traces back to one of those two sources.
5. You can test any tenets of Western conservatism by a touchstone, which is their view of the nature of Christianity. An authentic conservative inevitably respects the truths of Christianity, although they might disagree with some specific denominations. One way or another, the authentic conservative defends Christianity, while atheists and liberal thinkers who oppose Christianity cannot perfectly mask themselves as conservatives and are not supposed to be called so. This is the touchstone.
6. An English conservative respects both the principles of Christianity and the complex system of time-tested Anglo-American customary laws.
7. The divine will is assuredly the origin of all legitimate rights. But how can you discover the divine will? How can mortals who are full of errors, blindness, and ignorance discover the divine will? You can discover it by trial and error.
All mortals, nations, and political mutualities are constantly attempting to discover the divine truth. Some attempts yield only falsehood, and so are soon discarded. Other attempts have yielded truths, and so they are reinforced time and time again, finally becoming a custom that is followed for ages.
An example is English common law. Why has English common law been more robust than competing systems? Because it has withstood the many tests over a long time. The elements in the English common law that have proven inconsistent or have yielded falsehood have been eradicated in a Darwin-like way. Therefore, the English common law as it stands now, having been tested through thousands of trials, is reliable enough for us to be taken as conformal to the divine order.
8. A character of empiricism is its instinctive aversion to abstract theories. And abstract theories happen to be the specialty of the Germans. Therefore, you can discover that, in the English world, the more abstract theories are either created by the disciples of the Germans, or they are created as a stimulated reaction.
9. The touchstone to test conservatism can be broken into two. One is that those who do not respect customary law is not an Anglo-conservative. Two is that those who do not perceive Christianity as the keeper of civilization is not a conservative.
To put it bluntly and simply, Confucian nationalists, Shinto nationalists, Islamic fundamentalists, and other such fundamentalists who deny Christianity do not suffice to be called conservatives.
10. Irreconcilable core values will lead to the breakup, sooner or later. A civil war is more dangerous than a foreign war, and will surely be harmful to both sides. If an adult lacks the willpower to make decisions, then he or she should be but a hermit, and avoid answering to the higher calling. Answering to the higher calling is about actions and the way of life, not a hobbyistic preference of some theories. What will conforming to the minimal and refusing to join a side lead to? Consult the outcome of (post-USSR) Ukraine. A young woman should not marry a man from a different religion. A young man should not marry a woman with differing political beliefs. Otherwise, the struggle over which side will overcome the other will soon arise. It's a losing proposition even if one side soon wins. It spells doom for both sides if none wins.
11. The classic is characterized by its high complexity. There are rumors that President Thomas Jefferson disliked the bloody history of Israel in the Bible, so he edited those out and created a non-explicit version of the Bible. The non-explicit version keeps only the accounts about compassion and fraternity, which he felt beneficial to morality. That approach is the opposite of the classic.
T. H. Huxley opposed the church, but supported the reading of the Bible in schools. It was because for the countrymen who never leaves their village for their entire lifetime, the highly complex Bible is the only way to understand the greatness of the world and the magnificence of time. Without the Bible, those countrymen will inevitably become narrow-minded. Huxley is an example of someone who understands the classic.
In modern times, Dr. Hu Shih and some other philosophers have very wrong views about the classic. They believe that the classic should be benevolent and concise. But in fact, a promoted "classic" free from the malevolent and the labyrinthine is hazardous.
12. Japan is about precision and refinement. She pays great attention to the details. When it comes to Japanese cuisine, it is the decorations that attract the most of my attention; decorations like sasa-giri (tree leaves) that are not edible. The chefs make such decorations exceedingly pleasant in anyone's eyes, like painting a landscape. Anyway, in modern days you'd be hard-pressed to find a chef from another cooking tradition who pays such great attention to detail. That requires a very stable mindset, as if everything is eternal. A chef won't be like that with the mindset that all things are only transient.
If you ask me to cook according to my own mindset, I will be certain to pay no attention to the sasa-giri. My mindset would be to catch a couple of the most important clues from from a cluster of matters, as if I won't live to see the sunset of tomorrow. I will hurry to finish with a couple of the most important clues, not caring about the other matters that would be lost. This is the mindset of a refugee, ready to flee any day from a calamity that's chasing him. With this type of mindsets, you would absolutely have no motivation to craft sasa-giri. You would guzzle to finish only the core elements, and give little attention to the other matters, even if you accidentally crack the plate.
Therefore, island countries like Japan have a bit of the character like Noah's Ark's. So is England lying closely to the continental Europe. Things that are easily trampled and are not preserved elsewhere can find asylum and constancy there. In fact, she has always been preserving. The "great deluges" have hit East Asia numerous times, and the only remaining relics now reside in Japan.
13. A dying civilization will create a generation of last men, differing shockingly from the brutes that once founded her.
The last man is a coward, because he no longer believes the promise of freedom by the acts of valor. The last man is lazy, because he no longer believes the promise of wealth by hard work. The last man is deceiving and lawless, because building integrity and earning renown means giving up immediate gains for future well-being. But the last man has only the present and no future.
These last men have lost the power to receive awe. They seek nothing but instant carnal gratification. They have lost the willingness and ability to organize or be organized into a mutuality. Self-governance means nothing to them, unless as an excuse to plunder. They are foreordained to compete for ever-diminishing resources with ever-growing lawlessness and cruelty.
Only conquerors can save the last men from their cannibalizing selves, using shackles and chains to bestow upon them safety in the animalistic sense. In the face of valorous, upright, and unenlightened conquerors, the last men's deceits, servile flattery, and diabolicalness are useless. They are like the carrion insects living on a corpse, which would be effortlessly crushed by wild beasts. For the last men, even slavery is a gift of order. They merely consume order, and any organizational resource is incredible desirable for them.
14. Humans did not come to the world for comfort. The world might be a prison of atonement, or a trial to differentiate souls, but it is most certainly not a retirement paradise.
Those who prepare for war are rewarded with peace. Those who prepare for peace perish. The Kuomintang sold out her rich inheritance for but a bowl of red bean soup, and betrayed the forsaken heroes who fought for her till the last gasp. The Party now lives in her twilight years like a disgraced young wife. In this world, who can be more cruel, snobbish, and cold-hearted than the experts of the United Front? God might have created William Shakespeare so that he can tell us the last words of Cardinal Wolsey: "Had I but served my God with half the zeal I served my king, He would not in mine age have left me naked to mine enemies."
No one can escape the sentence that he has handed down to himself. Even martyrs might not understand why they are martyred. Humans are survived by calling, even more so than by eyes and breads. In the world of calling, nothing is more important than founding and continuing a tradition.
15. Humans are social animals. Objectively speaking, a strong man is not strong because he is strong as a person, but because he has powerful social connections. If his social connections are dismantled, he would be strong no longer.
Subjectively speaking, humans are not entirely survived by breads. The effect and utility that the symbolic and the conceptual can bring are more important than we usually imagine.
16. Imperialism has three sutras, ranked in the following order: the Bible, chivalry, and free trade. These three interdependent sutras form a system. If the system is taken apart, they will lose half of their power. The so-called leftism is a targeted destruction of these three sutras. The so-called leftists and rightists in China, however, are no more sophisticated than the shepherds of Palmyra, who mixed the Roman marble fragments with adobe, and built shacks where they cohabit with livestock.
These refugees vaguely feel the degree of pretense from living under the marble fragments, dizzily showing off and scolding each other. But, at the end of the day, they gather round and return to the filthy shacks, never figuring out what the ancient giants truly fought and died for.
17. Everyone is cruel to enemies and affable to friends. If a paramour doesn't understand where the boundaries of her mutuality situate, and fall into the arms of her married lover, imagining herself as his wife, she would certainly be punished. John Locke(?) is that type of people. Those who demand that Muslims must secularize are also that type of people.
18. Typically, someone who is particularly cruel to his enemies are incredibly loving to his friends. Usually, someone who is virtue signalling that they love all humankind indiscriminately is doing so to cover up the fact that they don't even have the heart to love their spouse and neighbors. Usually, those who promote the theories that justify the latter are exposing the the proletarian class instinct that they desire to exploit the creators of order. Only God can indiscriminately love all humankind, and the truth implies that humans are not capable of doing so.
19. The Great Unification is not a system of governance, but a system of beliefs. It is the East Asian provinces' unilateral imagination about the conquerors from Inner Asia. To provide order, conquerors require complex structures of governance. However, to consume order, the slaves require only a simple and consistent form of slavery.
20. Anyone who cares more than a little of their dignity will flee from China. China is a but an exploratory arena for the Machiavellians to play out their greatest schemes, because in China, the absence of rules is the highest of all rules. You can always break any existing rules you discover and make a fortune for yourself, and doing so while crushing those who are not as lawless as you are and making them look like fools.
In a hole like China, scoring a victory is never difficult. You don't need any ingenuity or superior techniques. You only need to be more lawless than your competitors. That's why China is a paradise for law-breakers and a splendid exploratory arena. However, it is impossible in China to earn a peaceful and decent life, because everyone else can also employ the same type of Machiavellian tactics, and score a victory against you.
In that theater of struggles, it is impossible to earn any lasting and assuring victories, any wealth protected by law, any honor respected by many, or any assets that you can steadily enjoy over time. Everything can be taken by capricious struggles. Therefore, you can never expect to live a decent life with stable expectations in China.
百年來，自居自由派、歐化派的中國人很少尊重時間與習慣。事實上，他們當作「進步」引進的事物，在盎格魯傳統中大抵是自由的反面。種瓜者不能得豆。如果你誤解歷史脈胳，細節的精密並不能挽救你。
For over a hundred years, those Chinese who consider themselves liberal and Westernized rarely pay respect to the customs and the things that are time-tested. As a matter of fact, the "progressive" notions and methods they have introduced have been mostly the antitheses of liberty in English traditions. Those who sow melons will not reap beans. If you misread the fundamental threads of history, working on the precision of details will not lead you to salvation.
1，法律是全能上帝的意志和古老風俗的總結，立法者只能發現法律，不能製定法律。為了改變既有的社會秩序而製定新法，不僅是危險的創新，而且帶有褻瀆神明的味道。
1. Law is born from the will of the Almighty Lord and age-old customs. The lawmaker should only uncover a law, and never invent one. To invent a law for the purpose of altering existing societal order is not only a hazardous innovation, but also a potential blasphemy against the Lord.
2，純粹理性沒有敬畏法則的背景約束，幾乎不可避免地解構自身。從現代到後現代、從人本主義到價值虛無主義的路途並不遙遠。如果君主只是可以殺死的人，法律只是強者的命令，君統和法統都是統治者的虛偽和臣民的幻想；那麼人類也只是牛羊的捕食者和虎豹的食物，捕食就是捕食者資格的唯一證明，被捕食就是食物罪行的唯一證明。這種生活只能是悲慘和屈辱的，任何個體的智慧和力量只能加重整體的惡性循環。這種社會只能產生一種哲學，就是我們俗稱的後現代主義或莊禪之道。 “末人”智者誇耀自己的解構能力，從而滿足不知為何尚未解構的殘餘虛榮心。
2. Pure reason has advanced beyond the constraints of piety and commandments, and will most certainly deconstruct its own. It does not take a long march to reach post-modern values from modern values. Neither is reaching nihilism from humanism.
If the monarch is but a man who you can kill, the law is but the strongman's demands, and the traditions of law and monarchy are but the hypocrisy of the men in power and the illusion of their subjects, then humans are but the predators of ruminants and the prey of panthera: Being capable of killing will be the only necessary license to kill, and having been killed will be the only necessary proof of guilt.
Life under such reality brings nothing but miseries and abasement. Any increase in individual intelligence or strength can only worsen the vicious circle on the whole. A society under such reality nurtures only one type of philosophy, which we familiarly call it the post-modern philosophy or the ways of Taoism and Zen. The wise "last man" boasts his intellectual gifts to destroy, merely so to delight his remaining vanity which oddly hasn't been destroyed.
3，百年來，自居自由派、歐化派的中國人很少尊重時間與習慣。事實上，他們當作“進步”引進的事物；在盎格魯傳統中大抵是自由的反面。種瓜者不能得豆。如果你誤解歷史脈胳，細節的精密並不能挽救你。
3. For over a hundred years, those Chinese who consider themselves liberal and Westernized rarely pay respect to the customs and the things that are time-tested. As a matter of fact, the "progressive" notions and methods they have introduced have been mostly the antitheses of liberty in English traditions. Those who sow melons will not reap beans. If you misread the fundamental threads of history, working on the precision of details will not lead you to salvation.
4，我們所說的西方保守主義，其實也是一個複雜的概念叢集。但是梳理這個概念叢集，它直接和間接地都可以歸因於兩個基本來源：一個是基督教的普世主義原則，一個是日耳曼的習慣法原則。現在所謂的西方意義上的所有保守主義，無論是哪個版本，最終都要追溯到上述兩個原則之一。
4. The Western conservatism in our dialogues, in its essence, is also a complex collection of concepts. However, once sorted out, every concept can be directly or indirectly attributed to two basic sources: One is the principles of universalism from Christianity. Two is the customary law from Germanic traditions.
All tenets of conservatism in the West, from whichever school of thought, ultimately traces back to one of those two sources.
5，任何西方保守主義，你可以用一個試金石來判斷，就是說，你看他們對基督教本身的看法是怎樣的。一個真正的保守主義者必定是尊重基督教的真理的，即使他們對某些具體教會可能是反對的，但他總體上必須是一個護教者，無神論者或者反對教會的自由思想家不可能自稱為或者被稱為保守主義者。這是一塊試金石。
5. You can test any tenets of Western conservatism by a touchstone, which is their view of the nature of Christianity. An authentic conservative inevitably respects the truths of Christianity, although they might disagree with some specific denominations. One way or another, the authentic conservative defends Christianity, while atheists and liberal thinkers who oppose Christianity cannot perfectly mask themselves as conservatives and are not supposed to be called so. This is the touchstone.
6，盎格魯的保守主義者，他必須同時符合兩種條件：他必須既尊重基督教原則本身，同時又尊重英美經過長期考驗形成的這個複雜的習慣法體系。
6. An English conservative respects both the principles of Christianity and the complex system of time-tested Anglo-American customary laws.
7，神意無疑是一切正當權利的來源，但是，你怎樣才能發現神意呢？充滿謬誤、盲目和無知的人類怎樣才能發現神意呢？你可以通過嘗試錯誤的手段。所有的人、所有的民族、所有政治共同體，都在不斷地嘗試和發現上帝給出的真理。有些嘗試是錯誤的，因此很短就會被人拋棄；有些嘗試被證明是正確的，一次又一次被強化，最後就變成了長期沿用的東西。英格蘭的普通法就是這樣的。它為什麼比其他東西強呢？因為它是經過長期嘗試出來的。嘗試錯誤、不適合的東西，就按照一種類似達爾文的方式被淘汰了。因此現在保留下來的這些，都是經過千錘百煉考驗過的，我們可以相信它是符合神意秩序的。
7. The divine will is assuredly the origin of all legitimate rights. But how can you discover the divine will? How can mortals who are full of errors, blindness, and ignorance discover the divine will? You can discover it by trial and error.
All mortals, nations, and political mutualities are constantly attempting to discover the divine truth. Some attempts yield only falsehood, and so are soon discarded. Other attempts have yielded truths, and so they are reinforced time and time again, finally becoming a custom that is followed for ages.
An example is English common law. Why has English common law been more robust than competing systems? Because it has withstood the many tests over a long time. The elements in the English common law that have proven inconsistent or have yielded falsehood have been eradicated in a Darwin-like way. Therefore, the English common law as it stands now, having been tested through thousands of trials, is reliable enough for us to be taken as conformal to the divine order.
8，經驗主義的特點就是本能地憎惡太抽象的理論，而抽象的理論恰好是德國人的特長。因此你可以發現在英語世界當中，比較抽象的理論，要么就是德國人的徒子徒孫做的，要么就是在這些人的刺激之下所產生的反應。
8. A character of empiricism is its instinctive aversion to abstract theories. And abstract theories happen to be the specialty of the Germans. Therefore, you can discover that, in the English world, the more abstract theories are either created by the disciples of the Germans, or they are created as a stimulated reaction.
9，保守主義是有兩塊試金石的。不講習慣法，不算盎格魯保守主義者；不尊重基督教作為文明守護者的基本原則，不足以稱為保守主義者。直截了當、簡單粗暴地說，就是儒家的國粹主義者、神道教的國粹主義者、伊斯蘭教的原教旨主義者和其他諸如此類的否認基督教的原教旨主義者，不足以稱為保守主義者。
9. The touchstone to test conservatism can be broken into two. One is that those who do not respect customary law is not an Anglo-conservative. Two is that those who do not perceive Christianity as the keeper of civilization is not a conservative.
To put it bluntly and simply, Confucian nationalists, Shinto nationalists, Islamic fundamentalists, and other such fundamentalists who deny Christianity do not suffice to be called conservatives.
10，核心價值觀不合，早晚翻臉。內戰比外戰更危險，肯定耽誤雙方。如果當事人決斷力不足，那就只能做居士，不可能活出任何價值觀。價值觀體現於行動和生活方式，不是理論愛好。勉強敷衍，下場參見烏克蘭。女生不宜嫁給宗教信仰不同的人，男生不宜娶政治信仰不同的人。否則就會爆發誰吃掉誰的鬥爭，就算一方成功也不划算，不成功雙方都完蛋了。
10. Irreconcilable core values will lead to the breakup, sooner or later. A civil war is more dangerous than a foreign war, and will surely be harmful to both sides. If an adult lacks the willpower to make decisions, then he or she should be but a hermit, and avoid answering to the higher calling. Answering to the higher calling is about actions and the way of life, not a hobbyistic preference of some theories. What will conforming to the minimal and refusing to join a side lead to? Consult the outcome of (post-USSR) Ukraine. A young woman should not marry a man from a different religion. A young man should not marry a woman with differing political beliefs. Otherwise, the struggle over which side will overcome the other will soon arise. It's a losing proposition even if one side soon wins. It spells doom for both sides if none wins.
11，經典，就是高蕪雜度。據說杰斐遜總統討厭聖經裡面流血的以色列歷史，自己編了一部潔本，只留下他覺得有益道德的慈悲博愛理論。這種做法就是經典的反面。赫胥黎一面反對教會，一面反對廢除聖經教育，因為對於一輩子不出村子的鄉下人，聖經的蕪雜是他能夠理解世界之大光陰之長的唯一途徑，否則他必然會變成狹隘之徒。他就是懂得什麼是經典的人。近代以來，胡適等人對經典的看法完全錯誤。因為他們都以為經典就是好和精，實際上沒有壞和亂的所謂經典是危險的。
11. The classic is characterized by its high complexity. There are rumors that President Thomas Jefferson disliked the bloody history of Israel in the Bible, so he edited those out and created a non-explicit version of the Bible. The non-explicit version keeps only the accounts about compassion and fraternity, which he felt beneficial to morality. That approach is the opposite of the classic.
T. H. Huxley opposed the church, but supported the reading of the Bible in schools. It was because for the countrymen who never leaves their village for their entire lifetime, the highly complex Bible is the only way to understand the greatness of the world and the magnificence of time. Without the Bible, those countrymen will inevitably become narrow-minded. Huxley is an example of someone who understands the classic.
In modern times, Dr. Hu Shih and some other philosophers have very wrong views about the classic. They believe that the classic should be benevolent and concise. But in fact, a promoted "classic" free from the malevolent and the labyrinthine is hazardous.
12，日本是精細的，它對細節上極其註意。它的菜裡面，我最注意的就是它的配菜，就是樹葉之類的東西，那些實際上不吃的東西，它弄得非常美觀，像是畫一幅畫那樣。反正現在很少有誰在這些細節方面能夠這麼處處留心的。這種東西，背後就需要有一種很穩定的心態，好像一切都是天長地久，一切都很匆忙（是不會這樣的）。這種心態如果換到我，我肯定不會那麼做。我的心態一定是在一大堆事情中抓出一兩個最重要的線索，好像明天就要死了一樣，趕緊把這兩個線索做掉，其他的事情就算丟掉也沒有關係。這是一種難民一樣的心態，好像隨時準備逃難一樣。有這種心態，你就絕對不會去做什麼配菜。你一定會狼吞虎咽地抓出最核心的那幾樣，其他的東西，盤子哪怕是破了也沒有關係。所以像日本這樣的島國，它就有一點諾亞方舟的性質，像英國在歐洲一樣。在別的地方保留不下來、很容易被踐踏的東西，在它這兒就是安全和穩定的。其實它不是一直都是這樣麼，亞洲大陸上的洪水來過了好幾次，留下來的殘餘都保存在日本了。
12. Japan is about precision and refinement. She pays great attention to the details. When it comes to Japanese cuisine, it is the decorations that attract the most of my attention; decorations like sasa-giri (tree leaves) that are not edible. The chefs make such decorations exceedingly pleasant in anyone's eyes, like painting a landscape. Anyway, in modern days you'd be hard-pressed to find a chef from another cooking tradition who pays such great attention to detail. That requires a very stable mindset, as if everything is eternal. A chef won't be like that with the mindset that all things are only transient.
If you ask me to cook according to my own mindset, I will be certain to pay no attention to the sasa-giri. My mindset would be to catch a couple of the most important clues from from a cluster of matters, as if I won't live to see the sunset of tomorrow. I will hurry to finish with a couple of the most important clues, not caring about the other matters that would be lost. This is the mindset of a refugee, ready to flee any day from a calamity that's chasing him. With this type of mindsets, you would absolutely have no motivation to craft sasa-giri. You would guzzle to finish only the core elements, and give little attention to the other matters, even if you accidentally crack the plate.
Therefore, island countries like Japan have a bit of the character like Noah's Ark's. So is England lying closely to the continental Europe. Things that are easily trampled and are not preserved elsewhere can find asylum and constancy there. In fact, she has always been preserving. The "great deluges" have hit East Asia numerous times, and the only remaining relics now reside in Japan.
13，文明的衰亡將會造就一種末人群眾，完全不同於文明開始前的蠻族。末人是怯懦的，因為他們已經無法保證勇敢與自由的聯繫。末人是懶惰的，因為他們已經無法保證勤勞與富裕的聯繫。末人是詭詐而卑劣的，因為正直和聲望意味著為長遠利益犧牲眼前利益，而他們只有現在、沒有未來。末人就是消除了一敬畏，除了眼前的感官享受外無所追求，組織共同體的能力與願望都已經消失。自治對他們毫無意義，除非作為相互掠奪的藉口。他們注定要以越來越卑劣殘酷的手段，爭奪越來越少的資源。只有征服者才能阻止他們在自相殘殺中滅亡，用奴役的鎖鏈保障他們的動物性安全。他們的詭詐、陰柔和狠毒在勇敢、正直、愚昧的征服者面前毫無用處，就像分解屍體的蟲豸根本沒有猛獸捕獵的戰鬥力。對末人而言，甚至奴役都是一種秩序的輸入。他們是純粹的秩序消費者，覺得任何組織資源都無比珍貴。
13. A dying civilization will create a generation of last men, differing shockingly from the brutes that once founded her.
The last man is a coward, because he no longer believes the promise of freedom by the acts of valor. The last man is lazy, because he no longer believes the promise of wealth by hard work. The last man is deceiving and lawless, because building integrity and earning renown means giving up immediate gains for future well-being. But the last man has only the present and no future.
These last men have lost the power to receive awe. They seek nothing but instant carnal gratification. They have lost the willingness and ability to organize or be organized into a mutuality. Self-governance means nothing to them, unless as an excuse to plunder. They are foreordained to compete for ever-diminishing resources with ever-growing lawlessness and cruelty.
Only conquerors can save the last men from their cannibalizing selves, using shackles and chains to bestow upon them safety in the animalistic sense. In the face of valorous, upright, and unenlightened conquerors, the last men's deceits, servile flattery, and diabolicalness are useless. They are like the carrion insects living on a corpse, which would be effortlessly crushed by wild beasts. For the last men, even slavery is a gift of order. They merely consume order, and any organizational resource is incredible desirable for them.
14，人類不是為了安逸而來到世界。世界可能是贖罪的監獄，可能是甄別的考驗，但肯定不是養老的樂園。求戰者安，求安者亡。國民黨為一碗紅豆湯賣掉了繼承權，辜負了為她盡節死義的孤臣孽子，換來了紅顏未老恩先斷的暮年。世界上還有誰能比統戰專家更殘酷、勢利、涼薄呢？上帝創造莎士比亞，大概就是為了讓他通過沃爾西紅衣主教之口告訴我們：如果我老用侍候君侯的一片苦心侍奉上帝，何至於在垂暮之年落入敵人之手。沒有人能逃避自己給自己下達的判決，犧牲者仍然不會明白自己為什麼犧牲。人類依靠意義生活，甚於依靠眼睛和麵包。在意義世界中，沒有比傳統的建立和延續更重要的事情。
14. Humans did not come to the world for comfort. The world might be a prison of atonement, or a trial to differentiate souls, but it is most certainly not a retirement paradise.
Those who prepare for war are rewarded with peace. Those who prepare for peace perish. The Kuomintang sold out her rich inheritance for but a bowl of red bean soup, and betrayed the forsaken heroes who fought for her till the last gasp. The Party now lives in her twilight years like a disgraced young wife. In this world, who can be more cruel, snobbish, and cold-hearted than the experts of the United Front? God might have created William Shakespeare so that he can tell us the last words of Cardinal Wolsey: "Had I but served my God with half the zeal I served my king, He would not in mine age have left me naked to mine enemies."
No one can escape the sentence that he has handed down to himself. Even martyrs might not understand why they are martyred. Humans are survived by calling, even more so than by eyes and breads. In the world of calling, nothing is more important than founding and continuing a tradition.
15，人總是社會動物。從客觀上講，一個人強大，不是因為他本人強大，而是因為他的社會關係強大。拆散他的社會紐帶，他自然就弱了。從主觀上講，人不是完全依靠麵包生活的，符號和象徵的作用之大，超過我們平常的想像。
15. Humans are social animals. Objectively speaking, a strong man is not strong because he is strong as a person, but because he has powerful social connections. If his social connections are dismantled, he would be strong no longer.
Subjectively speaking, humans are not entirely survived by breads. The effect and utility that the symbolic and the conceptual can bring are more important than we usually imagine.
16，帝國主義有三大法寶，排名分先後：聖經，騎士精神和自由貿易。三者構成連環互保的體系，孤立就會失去一半力量。所謂左派，就是對這三者的針對性解構。桂枝所謂的左派右派，其實都是帕爾米拉的牧羊人，把羅馬人廢墟的大理石殘片和土坯混在一起，搭起了自己和畜牲同居的窩棚。這些殘民模模糊糊地感到大理石碎片的逼格，迷迷糊糊低相互炫耀攻擊，但最後還是一起回到骯髒的窩棚裡面，到死都沒有弄清古代巨人撕逼的真相。
16. Imperialism has three sutras, ranked in the following order: the Bible, chivalry, and free trade. These three interdependent sutras form a system. If the system is taken apart, they will lose half of their power. The so-called leftism is a targeted destruction of these three sutras. The so-called leftists and rightists in China, however, are no more sophisticated than the shepherds of Palmyra, who mixed the Roman marble fragments with adobe, and built shacks where they cohabit with livestock.
These refugees vaguely feel the degree of pretense from living under the marble fragments, dizzily showing off and scolding each other. But, at the end of the day, they gather round and return to the filthy shacks, never figuring out what the ancient giants truly fought and died for.
17，人人對外人都是殘暴的，對自己人都是友好的。沒有弄懂共同體的邊界，小三投怀，冒充正妻，當然要挨打。漁洛克就是這種人，要求穆斯林世俗化的人也是這種人。
17. Everyone is cruel to enemies and affable to friends. If a paramour doesn't understand where the boundaries of her mutuality situate, and fall into the arms of her married lover, imagining herself as his wife, she would certainly be punished. John Locke(?) is that type of people. Those who demand that Muslims must secularize are also that type of people.
18，對外人特別殘暴的人，往往對自己人特別親愛。號稱無差別愛全人類的人，一般是為了掩飾他連妻子鄰居都不愛的現實。喜歡這種理論的人，一般是暴露了自己無產階級的渴望剝削秩序生產者的階級本能。唯神能無差別愛所有人，其實就是說人不是這樣的。
18. Typically, someone who is particularly cruel to his enemies are incredibly loving to his friends. Usually, someone who is virtue signalling that they love all humankind indiscriminately is doing so to cover up the fact that they don't even have the heart to love their spouse and neighbors. Usually, those who promote the theories that justify the latter are exposing the the proletarian class instinct that they desire to exploit the creators of order. Only God can indiscriminately love all humankind, and the truth implies that humans are not capable of doing so.
19，大一統不是一種體系，而是一種意識形態，是東亞行省對內亞征服者的單方面想像。征服者輸出秩序，需要復雜的統治結構。被征服者消費秩序，只需要簡單一致的被統治形式。
19. The Great Unification is not a system of governance, but a system of beliefs. It is the East Asian provinces' unilateral imagination about the conquerors from Inner Asia. To provide order, conquerors require complex structures of governance. However, to consume order, the slaves require only a simple and consistent form of slavery.
20，稍微有點尊嚴的人都會離開中國，這裡是一個適合馬基雅維利主義者大顯身手的實驗場，因為在這裡，沒有規則就是最大的規則，你隨時都可以通過破壞原有的遊戲規則給自己撈到額外的好處，每一次都可以犧牲掉那些比你更遵守規則的人，把他們變成傻瓜。在這樣的地方，取得勝利是不難的，是用不著什麼高新技術，你只要比別人更加沒底線就好了，所以它是一個冒險家的樂園和偉大的實驗場。但是在這裡想過安定和體面的生活則是不可能的，因為別人隨時都可能用你自己用過的那一套馬基雅維利手段來對你，從而扭轉勝局。在這個鬥爭的場合中，是不可能有什麼持久的和穩定的勝利，不可能有什麼合法的財產，廣受尊重的榮譽，或者是任何使你能夠穩定享受的東西，一切都是可以通過臨時的鬥爭來奪取，所以你不可能指望在這裡過上有穩定預期的體面的生活。
20. Anyone who cares more than a little of their dignity will flee from China. China is a but an exploratory arena for the Machiavellians to play out their greatest schemes, because in China, the absence of rules is the highest of all rules. You can always break any existing rules you discover and make a fortune for yourself, and doing so while crushing those who are not as lawless as you are and making them look like fools.
In a hole like China, scoring a victory is never difficult. You don't need any ingenuity or superior techniques. You only need to be more lawless than your competitors. That's why China is a paradise for law-breakers and a splendid exploratory arena. However, it is impossible in China to earn a peaceful and decent life, because everyone else can also employ the same type of Machiavellian tactics, and score a victory against you.
In that theater of struggles, it is impossible to earn any lasting and assuring victories, any wealth protected by law, any honor respected by many, or any assets that you can steadily enjoy over time. Everything can be taken by capricious struggles. Therefore, you can never expect to live a decent life with stable expectations in China.
