"What is the goal of the Civilization Party? We are Chinese, so let's start with China's problems as the entry point. The continuation and development of Chinese civilization have undergone many dynastic changes. Among the effects produced by dynastic changes on China, is the promoting effect greater, or the destructive effect greater?"

After throwing out this question, He Rui scanned the hesitant youths. Seeing that everyone dared not make a judgment immediately, He Rui simply asked everyone to vote.

The voting result was quite interesting. Those who believed the promoting effect was greater, those who believed the destructive effect was greater, and those who believed both were equally great, each accounted for one-third.

He Rui then said, "Comrades have all participated in land reform. You should know that in every dynasty, except for the Yuan and Qing, from Liu Bang to Zhu Yuanzhang, every dynasty implemented a nationwide land distribution policy at the beginning of its founding. Tell me, why is that?"

The youths had received a lot of education and read some study materials these days. But they hadn't had time to gather and exchange ideas before, so various answers came out. Most said it was to smooth out the means of production and learn from the demise of the previous dynasty; some also suggested it was to gain the support of the people.

He Rui said, "The fundamental reason is that too many people died during the dynastic change, leaving a large amount of land empty. Distributing land can quickly restore production and obtain tax revenue. In the few times when wars were extremely fierce during dynastic changes, the death toll in China could reach one-third of the population."

The youths were all shocked into silence by the death toll of one-third. After the shock, their expressions were full of compassion.

Xu Chengfeng sighed. "The Ten Days of Yangzhou, the Three Massacres of Jiading [^1]..."

He Rui interrupted Xu Chengfeng. "Such tragedies are inevitable during periods when social order is completely gone. The collapse of dynasties stems from unprecedentedly intense social contradictions. A dynasty lasts two or three hundred years. After a long period of population growth and land annexation, social contradictions reach a level that the state system cannot mediate at all. When contradictions reach this stage, the contradictions themselves can only be eliminated through the complete destruction of all parties involved. The 'people yearning for peace' mentioned in history books is because those at the core of the contradictions are all dead. And the social status quo of anarchy and disorder harms the interests of all the living, so the people's desire for peace and order completely overwhelms social contradictions. If we cannot solve this fundamental problem, such tragedies will happen again in the future."

Xu Chengfeng spoke no more, only sighing slightly. The other comrades were much the same. Seeing everyone's mood affected, Statistics Section Chief Xu Jia asked, "Does the Governor think the destructive effect of dynastic change is greater?"

"We can't view the problem from the perspective of the people at that time; we can only view it from the perspective of later generations. Every dynastic change did not solve the fundamental problem that generated social contradictions. Moreover, in every dynastic change, the vast majority of those who died were ordinary people. Attempts at the development of Chinese civilization were interrupted, and accumulation in many fields was wiped out, forcing a fresh start. So from the perspective of later generations, the destructive effect is greater. The goal of the Civilization Party in China at the current stage is to solve this problem."

The young comrades didn't speak; they all looked at He Rui expectantly. He Rui continued, "The productivity level of a small-peasant society is low. In comparison, the productivity of an industrialized country is almost infinite. And technological development can greatly promote the process of productivity development. Only by developing China into an industrial country can we jump out of the cycle of order and chaos that has lasted for thousands of years and enter a new stage of civilization development."

"The core composition of civilization is survival and development. The realization of survival and development manifests as production and distribution. In practical application, production and distribution manifest as the unsolvable problem of efficiency versus fairness. The problem of the insolvability of efficiency and fairness was not discovered just now. Two thousand five hundred years ago, the Chinese sage Laozi said in the *Tao Te Ching*: 'The Way of Heaven reduces the surplus to supplement the deficiency. The Way of Man is not so; it reduces the deficiency to offer to the surplus.' This insolvability lies in human greed, but at the same time, the motive force for improving productivity also lies in human greed."

Seeing some young comrades frowning slightly at the word "greed," He Rui smiled. "But comrades need to note that the manifestation of greed is not exactly the same. Some people are greedy for money, some for fame, and some are filled with endless longing for unknown things. Tell me, what are you greedy for?"

Hearing this, the youths laughed. Xu Chengfeng asked, "Governor, we definitely have greed, but I think greed cannot develop without limit. For example, if landlords have infinite greed, they would wish to own all the land under heaven. Thinking about it doesn't matter, but if they really do it, it will inevitably lead to countless tragedies. So it is solved by the state system. But how should fairness be practiced?"

"Absolute fairness does not exist because the standard of fairness is a very subjective view. So the field of application for fairness should lie in guaranteeing the bottom line. For example, equality before the law is a bottom line that must be ensured. But have you noticed one thing? The more it is a time when fairness should be discussed like this, the more the vast majority of people do not want fairness. This is also why fairness should not be abused."

The youths nodded one after another. After studying and working, everyone felt the reality that fairness was hard to come by more clearly.

"The process of developing productivity is a process of change. No change will satisfy everyone completely. One of the government's jobs is to formulate policies based on the status quo, restrict destructive sectors within it, and adjust the social injustice caused. But one point is very important: comrades must never think that productivity development and social development will create an entirely fair world. On the contrary, the more rapid the development, the huger the unfair gap caused. Solving injustice relies on social management, on the adjustment of production and distribution. Not on the restriction of development."

"Will development really bring unfairness?" Chen Deli was very curious about this.

"I'll use education as a case study. It also serves as preparation for discussing technology, education, and industrial development next. Some people really have low interest in studying, while some are exceptionally excellent at it. If everyone only receives primary school education, the difference between the two sides is actually limited. But we must vigorously develop education; university education will be universal in the future. At that time, everyone will find that some people only master the knowledge provided by school education, while others can bring forth new ideas based on school education and become academic leaders. This is the injustice brought by development."

Chen Deli suddenly realized. "Development indeed brings unfairness, but I can accept the unfairness in this example."

"This is reality; of course, we must accept reality. So in the education system, we must ensure that everyone has the opportunity to receive fair education, and the exams themselves must be fair. China's development certainly cannot do without the universal development of science, technology, and industry. Scientific development is built on the foundation of a large enough educated population. But apart from a large number of basic scientific workers, breakthroughs in science often rely on talented researchers. To put it extremely, every leader in the field of science and technology is not taught, but learned by themselves through study. So wanting to surpass the Great Powers comprehensively in the scientific field in the short term is unrealistic."

After speaking, He Rui stood up. "But technology and industry are not as difficult as imagined. Both fields are engineering fields. Engineering fields require execution ability and self-correction ability. Executing according to the laws of engineering, the larger the industrial labor population, the faster the development speed. Our China has a large population; the people have high IQs and are diligent and hardworking. As long as the direction is correct and the system is reasonable, the development speed in the fields of education and industry will be much faster than other countries."

Facing the smiles of the youths, He Rui continued, "The government must create a social environment suitable for developing productivity by providing social services, provide a good production environment by combating illegal crimes, and inject power into productivity development by providing funds and infrastructure. It must also establish a good distribution system so that the entire society can enjoy the dividends brought by development, solving the social injustice triggered by development. All this is the Civilization Party's goal in China at the current stage."

Since China was mentioned, there naturally were foreign countries. But most youths felt foreign countries were somewhat distant.

But Cheng Ruofan asked, "Governor, what kind of injustice do we want to sweep away in the world in the future?"

"Dominating the current world order is a predatory order established by Europe and America. Europe and America rely on the advantages of first-mover industrial countries to plunder benefits from weak countries. They transport these benefits back to their countries and distribute a small part of the plunder dividends to their nationals to improve their lives and alleviate domestic contradictions. When China completes the domestic nationalist revolution, we must break the existing international order. Help weak countries and even the exploited people within the Great Powers to obtain liberation. The international order we want to establish then is to complete the fiscal transfer from strong countries to backward countries through a brand-new international order, helping backward countries develop productivity. For us Chinese, it is very easy to understand and accept an international order where *it is better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish*, rather than adopting an international order like Europe and America that *drains the pond to get the fish* and artificially creates gaps to facilitate easy plunder. Our Civilization Party wants to bring liberation to China domestically. In the world, we want to bring liberation to the people of the world. This is the goal of our People's Party [^2] in the country and the world."

Hearing this, the youths were all delighted and expressed their approval one after another.

He Rui, however, told everyone not to get excited yet. "The philosophy of the Civilization Party is actually not hard to understand. I believe comrades can understand it more deeply during the work process. But the purpose of establishing a political party is not simply to hold meetings and study, but to complete the Party's work more effectively. In work, we must pay attention to politics. Our understanding of politics is based on our common desire to change the current world. The people may consider politics, or they may not. But what they will definitely consider is how to live well in this world. The people will support any government that allows them to live well and gives them hope. The support of the people is the legitimacy of the regime. Regime legitimacy is a political issue concerning our life and death. Paying attention to politics, largely refers to the issue of regime legitimacy."

***

[^1]: The text says "Three Massacres of Jiaqing" (嘉庆三屠), but the historical event is "Three Massacres of Jiading" (嘉定三屠). I have corrected it to Jiading in the translation for accuracy, assuming it's a typo in the source.

[^2]: The text switches to "People's Party" (人民党) here ("This is the goal of our People's Party..."). Previously it was "Civilization Party" (文明党). This is likely a slip by the author (maybe referencing a party from another of their books). I will translate it as written but note the inconsistency if asked, or correct it to Civilization Party for consistency if I were editing. For now, I will keep "People's Party" as per the raw text but be aware of it. *Self-correction:* For the flow, I will assume it refers to the same entity, but "Civilization Party" was the name given earlier.