Marriage Relationship#
Marriage is the Most Important Symbiotic Relationship#
Marriage may be the most important means of cooperation and symbiosis in this world. Whether it is Wang Zhaojun or Princess Wencheng, or the princesses of various dynasties, they all prove the significant meaning of this means.
Of course, there are many examples where marriage alliances have not been effective, but there are also many that have been successful. With national grievances and family hatred at play, marriage between two countries can ease conflicts, not to mention the importance of marriage for common people.
The marriage relationship is a close symbiotic relationship. This is also why many parents cry when they marry off their daughters. Because they understand that this symbiotic relationship is not an ordinary cooperation, but a wholehearted entrustment, including a gradual estrangement from their natal family. Of course, we will not consider remarriage and other special phenomena for now.
Marriage is a Close Material Relationship#
I hate to hear people say things like “all appearances are the same, but souls are unique.” Thinking of Zhu Bajie, Zixia, and Zhenzunbao, when they swapped bodies, even if your soul is charming, having Zhu Bajie's face could never inspire “love”; perhaps Zhu Bajie is cute, but definitely not that kind of cute.
Therefore, even if there is a soul, it cannot be separated from the appearance; even if it can be separated, the soul has no meaning to others. The soul must be converted through a person's energy into an objective world's equivalent. In other words, the soul is a naked material relationship.
Everything you create through the so-called “soul” belongs to the realm of intellectual property. Can the stories we think of compare to those of top writers? Can the depth of thought compare to that of Socrates? Can an individual's divinity compare to that of Jesus? Can the aesthetic of painting compare to Van Gogh? Can musical talent compare to that of Beethoven and others?
If there truly exists a so-called unique soul, then these human masters are probably one in a billion or even more. Wouldn't it be beautiful to directly communicate with their divinity?
Groups and Marriage Relationships#
Thus, marriage exists only in the objective world and should be deconstructed from an appearance-based perspective. Marriage is the most intense cooperative symbiotic relationship in life. It is the strongest force generating centripetal force within this group.
However, this force is like rowing against the current. In the village, interests are deeply entangled. There are too many cases of brothers turning against each other. Therefore, the elders often say that they have grown further apart. Thus, marriage allows two people without blood relations to coexist, while blood relations have already reached the peak of symbiotic relationships; when things reach their extremes, blood relations may no longer feel close.
The purpose of marriage is to establish a cooperative symbiotic relationship, and the most beneficial cooperation naturally occurs between two families without blood relations, which is why close relatives do not marry. But this has nothing to do with emotional love. Some powerful individuals, due to the relatively low constraints of marriage, have a lower threshold for “incest,” of course, this is from a moral perspective.
People without blood relations can feel like family, while those with blood relations can only drift further apart. This is the inherent contradiction of group survival, the greatest driving force.
In summary, marriage is a purely interest-based relationship, a symbiotic relationship. Its stability depends on whether a stable cooperative symbiotic relationship can be achieved. The means to this end is to have children, as the mother is valued by her offspring. However, in the face of significant inequality between families, having children is not particularly useful.
The Emergence of Large Groups#
Looking to the future, one will discover a harsh reality. Technologies such as surrogacy, gene editing, sperm and egg banks, and cloning have already shaken the foundation behind marriage—reproduction religion. For thousands of years, the natural law of male-female marriage has been a means of group cohesion, but this law is now being shaken by new technologies. Humanity stands at the threshold of the interstellar age, giving birth to a new group—the large group. The so-called large group is based on the vast energy available to humanity and how to use technology to reconstruct a new type of population structure suitable for larger groups.
This is different from the current decline in fertility; the large group is a trend in human development, while the decline in fertility is merely a social phenomenon of the present.
Just like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, after eating the forbidden fruit, they naturally faced issues of reproduction and population. It can be said that “Adam and Eve” are the ancestors of humanity during the gathering civilization period, while the “forbidden fruit” corresponds to the early agricultural civilization's wheat and rice cultivation techniques, and “expulsion from Eden” signifies the endless conflicts and massacres arising from resource issues after population growth.
When we embark on the path of reproduction, or say, the path of life, there is no turning back. Everyone is striving for survival, and population is the greatest manifestation of survival.
Therefore, the present is destined to be an extraordinary world, a critical juncture comparable to the transition from gathering civilization to agricultural civilization. This “fruit” is destined to be eaten, unless “Adam and Eve” choose to “end their lives” in the Garden of Eden. This “fruit” is something humanity must consume, depending on the price to be paid, unless, as Einstein said, the third world war brings us back to the “Garden of Eden.”
Ps: Reflections on marrying close relatives