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Title: Universal Revolution Date: September-November 1907 Source: From Robert Graham (Ed.), <em>Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas; Volume One: From Anarchy to Anarchism (300 CE to 1939)</em>. [[https://libcom.org/library/anarchism-documentary-history-libertarian-ideas-volume-1-2][libcom.org]] Authors: Chu Minyi Topics: Revolution, China, Chinese anarchism Published: 2020-01-29 15:40:01Z
NO REVOLUTION, NO SOCIAL PROGRESS. When justice flourishes, revolution approaches justice as well as peace. In the past, bloody destruction was called revolution. Nowadays, ideas in speeches and books can result in revolution. Everybody knows justice. Everyone will resist that which does not accord with justice. Therefore, might cannot arbitrarily repress the masses; the rich cannot enslave people. Government cannot abuse its power; money cannot buy ease. If nobody wants to be a soldier, armies cannot form, and war ends automatically. If nobody wants to accept the law, reward and punishment will be ineffective, and people will automatically break away from regulation. When might is overthrown, everybody can fulfill his position and get what he needs. They can work and study freely and enjoy freedom ...
Revolution relies on justice. Might does not accord with justice. So revolution is against might. Government is the most powerful location of might. So to oppose might is to overthrow government. However, opposition to government must be approved by the majority. Now is still not the time. The majority are still restricted by morality, indulging their interests and reputation, and afraid of misfortune. In most cases, people who assist might will damage others’ interests and benefit themselves. This causes the society of inequality. Therefore, revolutions in this century are still not peaceful. Relying on weaponry, government protects its regime with guns. How could revolutionaries fight government in the battlefield? Illegally smuggling weaponry is strictly forbidden; drilling the army underground is prohibited. Th is is still not the time to use the revolutionary army to overthrow government. If everyone agrees with popularizing revolution, might will fa ll down automatically.
When justice is apparent, people will know the necessity of revolution and understand that revolution is evolution. The more people endorse it, the easier to realize it, and the quicker progress is made. If revolution is endorsed just by one person or a few people, it will be more dangerous and progress very slowly, because the majority will still not understand its necessity and will oppose it. Revolution kills people like flies and disasters always happen ...If revolution is endorsed by most people, it will be less dangerous and progress very quickly, because few people will oppose it. So revolution succeeds by the majority’s agreement. If revolution is endorsed by everybody, it is peaceful and also progresses very quickly because there is no more opposition. Everything which accords with justice will be carried out accordingly; everything which violates justice will be discarded accordingly. This is what is called social revolution.
Government relies on weaponry to protect might. It can abuse its power. Since civilians have no arms, they have to tolerate what the government does to them ... In pre-modern times, if government did not follow the way, people could protest and overthrow it. Nowadays there is a popular adage, “Guns fire and revolutionary armies die out.” Might uses weaponry to consolidate itself. So if we are going to overthrow government, we must first destroy its base. The only way is to oppose weaponry, and let those who are oppressed by might be aware of the fact that weaponry only victimizes their property and lives to ensure might’s personal property and interests. Moreover, killing somebody for no reason is the most inhuman conduct. People who understand this will not be willing to do it. If everyone has the same idea, weaponry will be automatically discarded and government will lose its foundation. Even though there is no revolutionary army, government will be destroyed by itself. Otherwise, if we also advocate the weaponry that might relies on, although it is not used for conquering the land to serve our own interests and we just want to use it once to kill the enemy of humanity, we can only hope that it will work forever. The enemy of humanity uses weaponry to protect its might, oppress and exploit people, and oppose revolution. How could we still advocate and encourage weaponry? For me the only way to eliminate the enemy of humanity is to popularize revolution, vindicate justice, and educate soldiers in the common ways. Otherwise, how could we persuade soldiers to turn their back when they march for battle? If we could do this in the common ways, it would not be necessary for us at the same time to advocate the expansion of weaponry. We should protest it and make sure that might has no basis to consolidate itself. If we advocate and expand it, and neglect popularizing revolution and vindicating justice, people will be deceived easily by the wrong, indulge in selfish interests forced on them by the situation, and finally be used by might. It is like killing a person and then placing the weapon in his hands. How dangerous it is!
... Those who with ambition advocate and expand military power with the goal of revenge go against justice. Alas! I don’t know how to distinguish these people from those who work for their own interests in the name of the people. It also recalls to me the words, “violence begets violence.”
So opposition to weaponry not only destroys governments’ power base, it also avoids the killing caused by war. This is really the right way to maintain humanity ...
Government relies on weaponry to secure itself, and at the same time oppresses brave opponents. Relying on law, it also manages to restrict opponents ...
The human being is human because of freedom. Restricted by others (thus unfree), you are even inferior to the animal ... The law restricts humankind and violates freedom. So the law does not accord with justice. We should oppose it. Then might has no disguise to deceive and fool the common people, and we break away from its restrictions to achieve freedom. It is because the law violates freedom and does not accord with justice that we should eliminate it. Then might has nothing to rely on to restrict the people. And we get complete freedom ...
The mighty want to enjoy supreme glory forever. Unless they encourage the commoners to sacrifice their lives and property for them, they must submit to insult or rule by other powerful countries. Humiliation will decrease their glory; submission will end it. Therefore, the idea that people will be enslaved and live in pain if the country submits is in the interests of the mighty. If there were no government that cared about its glory and beat the drum of nationalism and militarism, how could people belonging to two sides have different feelings? Although there are ordinarily no wars between the two sides, why must there be war despite the people? Benefiting themselves and imperiling others-xenophobia and discrimination always originate from this. Alas! Government actually ruins people’s minds and disturbs the peace ...
No government, no boundaries; no boundaries, universal harmony comes. People will not enslave others, and vice versa; people will not depend on others, and vice versa; people will not harm others, and vice versa. This is what is called freedom, equality, and humanitarianism ...
When people are born into the world, they deserve to have clothing, food, and housing. How could people born into the world have no clothing to resist cold, no food to resist hunger, and no housing to resist sunlight, dew, wind, frost, rain, and snow? If one starves or freezes to death, this is society’s fault. Because of hunger and cold, more than tens of millions of people die each year. Although clothes for the rich pile up like a hill, food rises like a sea, they never think about the poor people. The granary is full; the national treasury is substantial. But the starving and frozen are everywhere. This is the result of the private ownership of property. Workers who work hard all their lives still cannot afford a life; sons of the rich who inherit property from their ancestors lead parasitical lives. One is a life of toil, the other of ease; one is a life of pain, the other of happiness. How unequal it is... It is this private ownership that makes people struggle with each other... Renting a piece of land, a single peasant cannot feed himself. How can a family which has many members? Workers who enter a factory to get a job must rely on capitalists. They work very hard everyday to ensure food. Once they get sick or laid off, their families are thrown into a terrible situation. Alas! If property is not eliminated, the gap between the poor and the rich will become bigger. How can we tolerate the fact that a few capitalists are satisfied with their ease, but a great number of commoners end up with miserable lives? So to oppose property is to eliminate capitalists’ ferocity and save commoners from hardship. When private property is eliminated and property is collectively owned, there will be no difference between the poor and rich. Worries about hunger and coldness will end. People will work and enjoy life together, work and rest together. Isn’t this the phenomenon of communist society?
... Religion restricts the mind, hinders progress, and makes people submissive. Superstition emerges out of it. Slavishness takes root from obedience. So-called high priests and saints ... frightened people by exploiting their weakness and their mortal fear of death; they animated them by visions of immortal spirits. They terrified people by promising harm for their dissolute lives ... They made people willing to abandon life here and now in exchange for happiness in heaven ... They rendered life an elusive dream, and the afterlife the real thing. Thus people came to undervalue this life ...
Religion has been turned into the tool of government. It advances with politics. Politics hinders the evolution of humanity visibly, religion does this invisibly ... We should replace religion with education, dispel superstition by science. How wrong it is for people to still regard religion as the way to redemption!
... Religion is also the opposite of revolution. Revolution aims at progress, religion adores conservation; revolution emphasizes action, religion adores inaction. If we aim at progress, society will reform daily. If we admire conservation, the world becomes more and more corrupt. If we emphasize action, new enterprise and a new society emerge daily. If we admire inaction, the abhorrent and disgusting become more and more prevalent. So religion hinders the universalization of revolution. To popularize revolution, we must oppose religion. Religion will also delay the development of science. To develop science, we must oppose religion. Therefore, opposition to religion must popularize revolution and develop science ...
Revolutionaries are not viewed in a favourable light by most people who cannot understand their ideas and methods of overthrowing government. However, revolutionaries cannot allow might to tyrannize people and hinder evolution. They have to practice assassination to kill one or two enemies of humanity. They hope their action will make people more aware of their plight, and also terrify the mighty ... Assassination will help arouse revolutionary agitation and quicken social evolution. Once agitation begins, the revolutionary engine will get started. Phony revolutionaries use revolution as a pretext, and only care about their own interests and fame. They easily retreat, or turn against revolution. Real revolutionaries believe in truth and justice. They march forward bravely. When might uses cruel killing and fierce torture to intimidate people, its cruelty is instead manifested, which awakens those who trust in the existing order and oppose revolutionaries. They start to understand why anarchists kill the enemies of humanity and destroy violent governments. Most truthful people do not dare to attack might but submit to the existing order, and rebuke revolution. The assassins not only arouse revolutionary agitation and jumpstart the engine of revolution, they create revolutionary movements .
... Assassination is for the elimination of evil, not for one’s own interests; for justice, not for fame; for the elimination of might, not for revenge. If assassination is for personal interest, it is not assassination but murder; if it is for fame, it is not assassination, but gratuitous violence; if it is for revenge, it is not assassination, but frantic killing. Only killing that has proper goals may be called assassination. Only people who have courage and purpose may attempt it. Assassination originates from extreme justice and sincerity. If people just rely on courage and temporary anger to do it, they will never understand the principle, and assassination will be used only for personal interests. Or they just do it for revenge ... Alas! How can this be assassination! Government slaughters the masses, and then relies on the law to justify it as legal killing. If assassination does not accord with justice, there would be no difference from government. Assassins have to be benevolent and righteous people.
Why are the rich always happy and the poor prisoners of toil? Because the rich rely on property to enslave the poor; they do not work but enjoy ease and happiness. The poor work with neither ease nor happiness. This is the greatest inequality. If we submit to it in order to maintain humanity, the rich will get richer, the poor will get poorer. What is the way to resist? Strikes, which serve to prevent the rich from using their wealth to avoid hardship and impugn the poor ...
Strikes help workers break away from enslavement, but not for rest and more money. Once they have eliminated enslavement, workers will not be restricted by others; they will seek social reform, pursue public welfare, work according to their ability, get what they need, bear the same hardships, and enjoy the same ease and happiness. This is called natural life.
Free work and natural life need the exercise not only of strength but also of the mind. Workers can choose work according to their temperament, and exercise both body and mind. The mind seeks knowledge; the body pursues physical force. Use of the mind alone will result in weak physical strength; use of the body alone will result in underdeveloped mind. Neither is healthy. The mind should secure strength; the body should secure the mind. Interdependence of the two is the healthiest way ...
Those who get used to parochialism, and are consumed with self-interest, cannot develop intellectually. When the intellect does develop, people extend former love of king and family to love of country, former love of one’s own body and parents to love of the race, and former love of country and race to love of humankind and the world. Philanthropy is natural. People always change their preference according to parochialism and interests. However, once they overcome this, philanthropy can be realized.
Parochialism is because of family. Family is because of marriage. If we want to eliminate custom, we must start with the family. To eliminate family, we must eliminate marriage. When marriage is eliminated, family cannot come into being. Then people will rise above their own interests. If there is no parochialism, then people will help each other. Then people from all over the world will belong to one family. The world can thus achieve great harmony. Then there is no difference between king and minister, father and son, husband and wife, and brothers. There is only friends’ love . So love can be universal.
Interests are people’s key concerns. They struggle for subsistence. The superior win and the inferior lose. Their struggle is over clothing, food, and housing. Therefore, private property is highly valued. Because individuals are weak, they gather together. When the group is big and powerful, they always win; when the group is small and weak, they always lose ... They have to set up government to maintain their advantages. Thus national boundaries are set lip. Therefore, to eliminate interest, we must start with national boundaries. To eliminate national boundaries, we must start with private property. When private property has been eliminated, there will be no way to determine national and racial boundaries. Then people will abandon ideas of interest. Humankind will achieve equality and enjoy great harmony. There will be no national and racial boundaries, but only philanthropy. love will thus be universal.