Emperor Ming's grandson

Chapter 57 Teacher Jiang talks about involution

Provincial university, teachers' apartment.

"Sit down and drink water."

Zhu Xiongying came to visit Teacher Jiang's apartment again. He had already read half of the "History of the British Industrial Revolution" last time, but since he was not born to study liberal arts, he had a headache after reading it.

However, he has been reading a lot of information recently, and he has become more interested in Ming history.

Zhu Xiongying always has a question, that is, he still doesn't quite understand why the "involution system" was formed.

After hearing this question, Teacher Jiang was not troubled. He poured himself a cup of tea and asked, "Do you know where the word involution comes from?"

Zhu Xiongying shook his head.

"The English word for involution is involution. When the German philosopher Kant translated it, there was no corresponding word. Kant invented one himself. Later, Professor Huang Zongzhi introduced the word involution to China. Professor Huang is a person I like very much. Scholars who have studied social history and economic history since the Ming and Qing Dynasties. To be honest, compared with these experts, my Ming history attainments are very average. I can give you an elective course, but I can't be considered elegant."

Jiang Xinghuo went to the bookshelf in the bedroom and took out four books, "Code, Customs, and Judicial Practice: A Comparison between the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China", "Law, Society, and Culture in the Qing Dynasty: Expression and Practice of Civil Law" and "Yangtze River Delta" "Small Peasant Families and Rural Development" and "Small Peasant Economy and Social Changes in North China", and then handed the last of them to Zhu Xiongying.

"This book was published in 1985. This is how the word involution first appeared in China. The involution in this book refers to Professor Huang's discovery of the problem of more people and less land based on his investigation of the rural economy in North China. The phenomenon of 'over-densified growth' is caused by the law of marginal effects on the land. Because the direct ratio between the output per mu and the input population is not high enough, the more people working on the land, the average per person will be The poorer.”

"Of course, for our generation, there are enough ways out and we no longer need to earn a living by foraging in the fields. Why not do it? But although this term only appeared in modern times, it may be an accurate description. The period includes many ancient dynasties, such as the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, and this is true even in the past.”

"To put it bluntly, the reason why involution occurred is a problem with the design of the ancient social system. The three-layer pyramid structure of emperors, scholar-bureaucrats, and farmers was based on cultivated land, so these ancient people could not have too many ways out, or even For example, Zhu Yuanzhang, the great emperor of the Ming Dynasty, borrowed the household system that appeared in the Yuan Dynasty and directly stipulated everyone's occupation. He divided the country's household registration into four types, that is, civilian households, military households, craftsmen households, and stove households. Of course, after Zhang Juzheng's reform, he implemented a whip law and completed the monetization of taxes. These rigid household systems were completely disintegrated, because after that, no matter what household you were, you only needed to pay enough to the Yamen The silver equivalent to the corvee and taxation of grain, even if the tax payment is completed, other courts basically don't care."

Zhu Xiongying nodded and asked thoughtfully: "Teacher Jiang, if the natural and man-made disasters caused by the Great Ming Dynasty during the Little Ice Age were not destroyed, that is, there were rogue bandits inside and back money outside, we would continue to Can we get rid of involution by continuing Zhang Juzheng’s reforms?”

"We can't get rid of it. Of course Zhang Juzheng is great, but in essence it is a major repair and overhaul, and it did not lead the Ming Dynasty onto a new path."

Jiang Xinghuo took a sip of tea and gave him a direct conclusion: "In ancient feudal dynasties, many wise rulers were aware that the contradiction between man and land would lead to the demise of the dynasty. But the problem is that almost all rulers had no regard for man and land. There is no clear understanding of the phenomenon of involution caused by contradictions, and although they do not understand the nature of involution at the social level, they will instinctively resist changing the involution."

Jiang Xinghuo smiled and said, "Look up what happened to the 'Universe 1973' experiment conducted by the famous American ecologist Dr. John Calhoun that was announced in 25."

Zhu Xiongying opened the mobile browser and checked.

This was a very famous experiment in the last century, but although the original purpose of the experiment was to study ecology, it actually reflected sociological issues.

At the beginning, John Calhoun divided the experimental space named "Universe 25" into 16 sector-shaped areas, each area containing 256 nests, each nest can accommodate 15 rats, and the entire space can accommodate 3840 rats. , and the water resources provided can meet the needs of 6144 mice, and there is as much food as they need.

The earliest "Universe 25" only had 4 male rats and 4 female rats. After the first few days of fighting, these rats initially determined their respective status in the rat group. Later, because there was no threat and sufficient food and water, these rats Rats began to multiply wildly, and the number of the entire rat colony began to grow exponentially.

On the 100th day of the experiment, the number of rats reached 2200. Although "Universe 25" was not yet saturated, in fact because the strongest rats occupied the most comfortable positions, the remaining rats could only squeeze in. In the corner, the newborn mouse became a marginal member of "Universe No. 25" and began to lie down and sleep every day. The reason why it did not reproduce was because the stronger male mice born earlier in the mouse group occupied more It is difficult for female rats to compete for newborn baby rats, and the reproductive instinct of these strong male rats is significantly reduced. So, on the 315th day, the number of rats began to decline sharply, the reproduction rate of rats decreased, and the survival rate of young rats also dropped significantly; on the 560th day, the number of rats almost dropped to zero, with only a few solitary rats left. of mice.

Zhu Xiongying was a little puzzled: "These rats clearly have enough water and food, so why do they still get involved?"

Jiang Xinghuo knocked on the table and said: "Because at the social level, the essence of involution has never been the struggle for food, water, spouses, and wealth. These are just appearances. Looking at the social level, the true essence of involution is the struggle for dominance. .”

“There are two main incentives for trying to get out of the predicament of involution. One is the endogenous power caused by the environmental crisis, which often appears in island countries, such as Britain after the price revolution and Japan after the Black Ship Incident; the other is Groups or individuals with dominant power have a desire to explore the external environment, and then lead the entire group to try to get out of involution, such as Peter the Great in Tsarist Russia. Of course, this situation is rare, because groups or individuals with dominant power basically We will not take the initiative to change all this, and there is a high probability that the change will not succeed."

"That's why there is the term dynastic periodic law. If you are interested, you can learn more about it. It is available online, so I won't explain it to you in detail."

Zhu Xiongying nodded. At this time, he actually did not realize the profound impact this conversation would have on his future.

"Oh, by the way, Teacher Jiang, there is one more thing I want to ask you."

"You said."

Zhu Xiongying took out the photo of the "1995 Jiangnan Provincial Theoretical Physics Conference" that he had sealed in plastic from his bag and handed it to Jiang Xinghuo and asked: "Teacher Jiang, are there any teachers from our school on this?"

"Photo from 1995? The teachers at that time must have retired."

Jiang Xinghuo sat on the sofa, holding the photo with the fingers of his right hand and pondering for a moment while his eyes searched the photo.

Suddenly, he pointed to a person on the right in the middle of the second row and said.

"Hey, this looks a lot like Lao Zhao. He is the dean of the School of Physics who you met last time here. He was the one who played chess with me."

"Really?" Zhu Xiongying was a little surprised. He didn't expect to ask casually without high expectations, but he actually had a clue. However, the person in the photo had thick hair, which was very different from the Mediterranean Dean Zhao. Besides, In addition, Zhu Xiongying and Dean Zhao only met once, so they didn't recognize them at all.

Jiang Xinghuo looked at it carefully for a moment and said with certainty: "The eyebrows, eyes and face shape are exactly the same."

"Teacher Jiang, do you have Dean Zhao's phone number?"

Jiang Xinghuo thought for a while and said: "It's not convenient to give you my mobile phone number. Let me give you his office phone number. Then I will tell him about it via WeChat. When I can get through to him during working hours, go to the office to find him." , in Room 708 of the main building.”

"Okay, thank you, Teacher Jiang!"

(End of this chapter)