1. Rule of Law at the National Level#
The ancient Greek philosopher Plato proposed the idea of a "philosopher king," advocating for a system where a wise sage rules the entire country. In contrast to Plato's "rule by man," Aristotle advocated for the superiority of the rule of law over rule by one person. Although Han Feizi, the representative of Legalism, had a different view on the rule of law compared to Aristotle, he still believed that going against the law would lead to chaos, with only one period of order in a thousand generations. Moreover, the "Bamboo Annals" denied the abdication of Yao and Shun, with Yi Yin winning back power from Tai Jia. Although "rule by man" still exists today, the rule of law is always the trend.
The reason civilization needs the rule of law is because people pursue stability and order. In modern Western societies, whether it is a constitutional monarchy with the king under the parliament or a separation of powers, the aim is to check and balance power and be subject to rules such as public opinion. Even in a feudal monarchy, governing the country must follow the rules of reality; otherwise, one can only stand alone, leaning against a tree. However, compared to rule by man, the rule of law is more rule-oriented and theoretically respects the development of civilization.
2. "Rule of Law" at the Individual Level#
Different countries have different levels of civilization, resulting in varying degrees of stability and rationality in their rules, leading to significant differences in the speed of political regime changes and the quality of people's lives. However, people often easily discuss the constitutional system of a country while neglecting their own constitutional system. Therefore, exploring the rule of law at the micro level may increase individuals' understanding of themselves and analyze the relationship and rules of interaction between the two.
When a country violates the rule of law, it is only a period of disaster; when an individual violates the "rule of law," it may be a lifelong tragedy. The "rule of law" at the individual level is not closely related to specific laws but rather analyzed based on the theory of national constitutionalism.
Taking the British constitutional system as an example, as a constitutional monarchy, the United Kingdom's parliament has legal sovereignty. Politically, the people are the source of national sovereignty, and in terms of specific exercise of power, the majority party in the House of Commons, as the ruling party, holds the highest power in the country. The leader of the majority party naturally becomes the holder of power in the UK. However, we know that the Prime Minister is accountable to the parliament, restricted by the governing party that elected him as the party leader, and subject to relatively independent judicial constraints, not to mention other forms of public supervision. Therefore, a leader of a rule of law country, even as a CEO, must operate within the framework of the rule of law.
According to a Reuters report on April 17th of this year, British Prime Minister Sunak is under investigation by the UK Parliament's Standards Commissioner for his wife's shareholding in a childcare company suspected of benefiting from new policies. Sunak is being investigated by Parliament simply because he did not disclose his interests. Under the sound constraints of the rule of law, Sunak's failure to disclose may have been unintentional, but the parliamentary investigation leaves Sunak with no choice but to follow the rule of law that puts Parliament first. Sunak can implement various administrative measures to make Britain stronger, promote legislative reforms, but the premise is that he must abide by this set of rules of the rule of law.
Individuals and countries are very similar in this regard. People have the power to control themselves, actively influence the outside world. However, from an individual's perspective, we are sometimes overly confident in our control over ourselves. We believe that we have the power to control ourselves because we have a mechanism of intention. The mechanism of intention generates various thoughts and concepts, which in turn influence our actions. The mechanism of intention in individuals is similar to the relationship between the Prime Minister and Parliament, Parliament and the people, and the people and the country. People can have various thoughts, just as there are various government orders in a country. Government orders cannot be issued arbitrarily, and people's thoughts cannot be executed at will. In short, individuals, like countries, must also abide by various rules and principles.
3. Discovering the "Rule of Law" in Oneself#
Master or King? I used to think that I was definitely my own master, but after experiencing setbacks time and time again, I realized that I don't always listen to myself. In reality, I can only be considered my own king at most. Compared to the constitutionalism under the modern rule of law, the power of a king is quite significant, but governing a country is not child's play. Even Emperor Qin Shi Huang had to govern according to Shang Yang's Fivefold Method of Governing the People. Therefore, as long as we can understand the relative independence between our own intentions and ourselves, we can fundamentally solve certain extreme problems.
Relative Independence#
What does "relative independence" between an individual's intentions and oneself mean? "Independence" means that there is a difference between an individual's thoughts and oneself, and the components of the mechanism of intention and the mechanism of execution are independent of each other. "Relative" means that this boundary is not very clear for individuals. Our intentions and thoughts are all part of ourselves, whether it is the greed, anger, ignorance, slowness, doubt in our bodies, or the limitations of our hardware, the boundaries are not very clear. From the perspective of responsibility, there is no need or possibility to distinguish between "the fault of the mechanism of intention" and "the fault of the mechanism of execution."
Unveiling the Veil of Humanity#
The legal person system was first adopted in the German Civil Code in 1900, giving birth to a legally fictional "person" in the civil law system. Legal persons can independently bear responsibilities and exist apart from natural persons. But why can legal persons be regarded as persons? It is because the mechanism of intention, execution, and supervision of legal persons are independent.
With the appearance of the abuse of the independent status of legal persons by shareholders, the unveiling of the corporate veil became popular in English and American law, and the system of disregarding corporate personality also became a manifestation of protecting the true independent status of legal persons.
Unlike the development of the legal person system, natural persons seem to have never realized the veil on themselves. I have always believed that people are very objective. From the influence of life and death to the dilemma of creation, and unveiling the veil of humanity, these vague ideas fill my objective understanding of the world and the relative independence of subjectivity and objectivity.
The so-called unveiling of the veil of humanity, since it can be unveiled, is something very objective, such as where certain ideas come from and the reasons behind their formation. Of course, today we don't need to unveil too many veils. It's like there are molecules, atoms, protons, and even quarks under particles. Today, we are only discussing "chemical changes" from the molecular level.
In ancient times, those who wanted to bring enlightenment to the world would first govern their country; those who wanted to govern their country would first put their family in order; those who wanted to put their family in order would first cultivate themselves; those who wanted to cultivate themselves would first rectify their hearts; those who wanted to rectify their hearts would first be sincere in their intentions; those who wanted to be sincere in their intentions would first acquire knowledge; acquiring knowledge starts with investigating things.
The passage in the "Book of Rites - Great Learning" has a good sense of hierarchy. From oneself, family, country, to the world, it is a progressive order. From investigating things, acquiring knowledge, being sincere in intentions, rectifying the heart, to cultivating oneself, we can also use this to explore how ancient people unveiled the veil of humanity. In other words, studying external things, gaining knowledge, having sincere thoughts, and having a righteous mind, cultivating one's character. Therefore, the most fundamental aspect beneath the veil of humanity is studying external things and gaining knowledge. This is the most fundamental and rapid change, as it directly observes the rapidly changing objective world. Secondly, it is the pure consciousness stage, the thoughts we have in our daily lives. Finally, from an individual's consciousness to the stage of integrating consciousness and the body, it is about character. First and foremost, the most fundamental change is the study of the world, the acquisition of knowledge. This is the most rapid change because it directly observes the rapidly changing objective world. Secondly, it is the pure consciousness stage, the thoughts we have in our daily lives. Finally, from an individual's consciousness, it rises to the stage of integrating consciousness and the body, character.
Assuming this analysis is correct, according to the principle of the relative independence between an individual's intentions and oneself mentioned earlier, the easiest thing to change is the thoughts that are directly influenced by the outside world. Thoughts are different from a person's character and habits; they cannot be changed overnight. These thoughts directly influence how we behave and interact with others. For example, if you used to be easily angered and disliked by many people, and you analyze the reasons and come to the conclusion that you want to change your easily angered temperament, there is still a long process of change in between. Similarly, if you have low emotional intelligence but realize the importance of emotional intelligence, your emotional intelligence cannot be improved overnight. The focus is not on emphasizing the need for a long time but rather on demonstrating the complexity and difficulty of this process, which requires us to find methods within it.
4. Becoming a Wise and Effective King#
In fact, the first section serves as an introduction, the second section as a problem, the third section as a principle, and the fourth section naturally discusses the methods. This is a common routine of presenting a problem, analyzing the problem, and solving the problem. However, after the third section, the problem has already been solved, and the remaining part is just a simple introduction of my own methods. As the king of my own life, I am not very comfortable, and this country is still in need of development, but we can learn from each other.
A few days ago, I came across a book called "Easism," which is very similar to my idea of how to be the king of oneself. In fact, we can completely draw on the things in the national constitutional system, achieving the same goal through different means.
Simply put, be a "people-oriented" good king. Sometimes when we want to accomplish a task, we often seek help and use connections, but we never think about seeking help from ourselves. When we do things for our superiors, we always hope that they will be in a comfortable state to listen to our suggestions, but we never make ourselves comfortable. This is a mistake, thinking that we are our own masters, but in reality, we are not. Even if you want to be the king of yourself, you must present yourself as a servant.
We command the various unnamed agencies within ourselves, which is equivalent to governing the people as a king. If you want the people to pay taxes, you must ensure that they live and work in peace and contentment, and then they will be loyal to the king. For example, we often want to read more books but never have time to do so, which creates anxiety about not studying. In reality, your hands and eyes are in doubt, thinking that without books, how can I read! As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. If you want to read books, carry them with you and place them in a prominent position on your phone. Your people, like you, do not want to take the initiative to work overtime to read books or do extra work. What you need to do is consciously incorporate work into your body. It is best to have an automated workflow to reduce the cost of reading... For example, reading and listening to books. Active reading is good, but unfortunately, your people are too lazy, so you can only passively listen, gradually and step by step. After all, reform is a difficult path in any country.
In short, you can also draw on some administrative principles, such as the principle of trust. Don't issue one command today and another command tomorrow; changing orders frequently is not conducive to the stability of the regime and the obedience of the people. At the same time, rewards and punishments should be moderate, and your body should be both commanding and persuading. Don't just focus on improving efficiency and performance; also provide more benefits and treatment for your people, such as more rest, and so on.
Finally, I hope that everyone can be a good king and make their country thrive!