From the Chinese Character “人” to see the Chinese Despotic Values and Slave Culture

从中文字“人”看中国的专制价值与奴役制文化 From Character “人”to See Inhumanity

By Kai Chen 4/24/2004 陈凯

Those of us from China with some conscience all admit that there is an undeniable and un-dismissible fact of life we have painfully experienced in China: The Chinese simply don’t treat human beings as human beings.

有一点良知的中国人都会承认那个不容否认的事实：中国人不把人当作人。

Human beings are treated as animals, as tools, as a cog on a big machine, as a burden on the government, with the “one child policy”, they are even treated as pollution that needs to be controlled and eliminated. Culturally and philosophically, we also have to admit a fact we have all sensed and experienced, though may be unable to put into words – somehow human beings in Chinese sense are only flesh and blood, are only fleeting images without any meaning. Each individual, much like each Chinese written character, has no meaning by himself, unless he is combined with others to form a group to have some meaning. Those of you who deny that Chinese character-based, syllabic language has anything to do with how the Chinese treat human beings, should at least have the decency to admit this is indeed a fact of life in China.

人在中国被当作任人杀戳的牲畜，被当作任人利用的工具，被当作在一步机器中任人放置的部件。人在中国被当作政府的负担。尤其是在一胎制之后，中国人更被作为一种污染被政府控制以至灭绝。 在文化与哲学上我们也应该承认，虽然有时我们还不能用语言表达，在中国“人”只被看作血肉之躯，只被看作是毫无意义的，瞬息即逝的影像。 每一个在中国的个人都像是每一个中国字一样，自身并不立义。他一定要与其他人合为群体才似乎给自身附意义。那些不知为何拒绝承认中国的单音节象形文字与中国人不把人当人有关的人，应该有起码的良知承认最少这是一个事实。

“Serve the People” and “Serve the State” has become the only meaning in a Chinese life – from the Chinese athletes, to Chinese intellectuals, to Chinese common people, to Chinese officials; from the old Cultural Revolution day when human being were praised when they sacrificed themselves to save a sheep that belonged to the collective, to today’s Olympics in which Chinese athletes endured pain and hardship to earn glory for their motherland; everything is revolved around human beings being used to serve something that human beings created themselves, namely the State, the culture, the language.

为人民服务，为国家服务早已成为中国人生的唯一意义。 中国的运动员，中国的知识分子，中国的官员， 中国的普通人都逃不脱这个模式。从文革时人为救集体财产而死而伤，到今天中国奥运运动员为祖国争光，一切人的行为都是围绕着人用人去为人所创造的东西服务，为语言，为文化，为国家尽忠服务，而不是相反。

This pathology and perversion of humans toward the environment they have created themselves has never been adequately addressed, discussed, debated or raised as the fundamental issue of human condition. Strange indeed, isn’t it?

这个病态的人为其所创造的环境献身服务的怪诞邪像直到今天仍没有被提到人的知觉中来， 仍没有被作为人的基本状态的重大扭曲而被提出，而被辩论，而被讨论与阐述。 这难道不是一个怪现象吗？

Why do the Chinese treat human beings that way for thousands of years? Why are the Chinese unable to see human beings not only as physical being and pictorial image, but mental and spiritual beings with inalienable freedom and rights? Why are the Chinese unable to comprehend the abstract concepts about humans that are distinctly different from those of animals or simply a rock? Why do the Chinese always rather focus on the superficial appearance such as “face” and “skin” and impressions upon others than focus on each individual himself as the ultimate beginning and end to himself? Why are the Chinese unable to comprehend that each individual’s dignity, freedom, happiness, interests are not means to an end, but the ultimate end in itself? Why do the Chinese somehow always appear to be some soulless empty shells, some walking dead ready to prey upon the soulful, until everyone is like a zombie?

为什么几千年来中国人不把人当作人？ 为什么中国人只把人当作血肉之躯的表像，而从没把人看作有思又灵的自由的天赋人权的实体？为什么中国人从没有领悟独特的与畜与物不同的人的抽象概念？为什么中国人只注重表像如“脸”，“皮”，“他人印象”，而从不注重作为一个完整宇宙，作为一个自始自终的个人的尊严，幸福，独立与自由呢？ 为什么中国人从不领悟将人作为达到目的的手段是不道德的定义呢？为什么中国人永远是一群毫无灵魂的躯壳，一群行尸走肉的吸血鬼？ 为什么他们存在的唯一目的就是吃掉那些灵魂尚存的人，直到所有的人都变成魔鬼呢？

Let’s start from the Chinese written character “人”: (human)

让我们从那个简单的中文字“人”开始吧：

“人” , due to the nature of the Chinese written language, is the only word in Chinese to depict human in a pictorial image, unlike in English (human, human being, person, man, individual, humanoid), there is no other expression to depict human. This pictorial image of man （人）tells us much about how the Chinese see humans – an insignificant simplistic image of a physical being that is composed of two legs in walking fashion. The image of human has no head, no arms, and no torso. Yet it is the only expression in the Chinese language to visualize and to comprehend the concept “human”. “众”is the Chinese character for “masses” and it is simply composed of three “人”. Thus the physical appearance, not the essence and substance of human via a pictorial language, has become the central focus of the Chinese in their understanding of “human”.

“人”，由于中文字本身的形象性质，是中文中唯一描述人的中文字。这与崇尚人的价值的英文形成鲜明对照。在英文中描述与阐述人的名词有很多。如：human, human being, humanoid, man, individual 等等。这个“人”的中文字样 — 行走中的两条腿，无头无身无手，一个无所作为的行走肉体， 就是中国人从古至今对人的理解与定义：一个毫无抽象意义的物理存像。 它只占有物理空间。这个“人”是中国人唯一依赖的代表人的形象的信号输入。 “众”是由三个物理形象的“人”组成。 由此可见，通过形象文字输入的物理表像，而不是通过抽象文字输入的抽象的实质意义去认知，成为中国人对人理解（表解）的焦点中心。

The implication of this superficial understanding has profound and enormous negative connotations and consequences on the Chinese psyche and their dehumanizing treatment of human beings. Humans have thus, in Chinese mind-set, become some meaningless image of flesh and blood, nothing more, and nothing less. Mao had once threatened to sacrifice half of the Chinese population to achieve world dominance. Today’s “one child” policy has the same implication that humans are only burdens for the government and the Party-state on their way to some world glory. It is no surprise since in Chinese understanding of humans; they are nothing more than two-legged animals of flesh and blood with no feelings, no significance, no original thoughts and ideas, no spiritual yearnings. They are all here, as the Chinese National Anthem extols, to be “used as flesh and blood to build a New Great Wall”.

由于中文的形象输入而形成的中国人对“人”的非人理解对中国人的心理模式形成有着深远的重大的负面恶性影响。它直接导致了中国人的非人心态和由其而引起的虚无与虐待心理情结。 在中国人的心态情结中，人不过是毫无意义的血肉形体。毛泽东曾威胁要用牺牲一半中国人口的方式，通过战争称霸世界。今天的中国“一胎制”也将人作为党政中国的负担。解决人口负担已成为“中华民族振兴”的必要途径。如果你懂得中国人如何理解“人”对待“人”的话，中国人对“人”的暴政是不足为奇的。对他们来说，“人”不过是两条腿的物理形象，没有感情，没有思想理念，没有尊严，没有精神渴望，没有任何意义。 他们的唯一意义与作用就是，就如中国的国歌所高声唱赞的 – “用他们的血肉筑一座新的长城 “。


Cannibalism has always been a part of Chinese history, from old days of venting hatred and utilizing human body parts as traditional medicine, to recent survival from famine and nowadays organized human organ harvest. Human degradation and dehumanization has accompanied the Chinese all through China’s history. The infamous Chinese cruelty toward animals is only the extension of how the Chinese treat themselves.

吃人一直是中国历史的一部分。 从古至今，从泄恨到用人体制药，到饥荒食人，到今天的掠用贩卖人体器官，人的非人化与人的道德沦丧一直伴随着中国的历史。臭名远扬的中国人对动物的残忍只是中国人对人的残忍的一个延伸。

In this human degradation and dehumanization, only one thing remains as the value of all human interests in China – the State. State is God to all the Chinese and such a culture of “State Worship” has subsequently become the focus of Chinese individual identity. Since the two-legged “人” by itself has no meaning, the focus of meaning is on the invisible, omnipresent and omnipotent “State”. All the Chinese morals are focused on loyalty to emperors and the State. All the Chinese songs are sung in praise of the meaning of the Chinese State. All the value instilled into a Chinese is that without the State – the Big Family, one is nothing. All the Chinese proverbs and old sayings propagate the idea that “if the big river has water, the small creeks will be full and if the big river is dry the small creeks will be dry too”. No one has ever questioned this very fundamental Chinese value, for is one does, he will be ostracized to being “none-Chinese”. The essence of despotism is thus protected, educated throughout the population and propagated generation after generation. Authoritarianism and totalitarianism have always thrived on this fertile soil composed by countless decomposing flesh and blood of “人”.

在这个非人化与人的沦丧的过程中，只有一个伪价值成为全中国人的存在焦点 –- “国”。 对中国人来言，“国”就是“上帝”。 一个“崇国”的文化就此形成并成为所有中国人的个体认同。 既然一个两腿存物并没有任何意义，中国人对意义的追求就集中在那看不见摸不着的，但又无所不在，无所不能的“国”。 全部中国人的传统道德都集中在“忠于皇上与国家”。 几乎所有中国的歌都是歌颂皇帝与国家的。所有中国人的价值就是如果没有国，个人就毫无意义。所有中国的寓言与古话都在宣扬“大河有水小河满，大河无水小河干”。 从没有人怀疑过这种逻辑并向此发问。如果有人敢怀疑与发问，他就是汉奸，叛徒，败类，民族大敌。 专制的实质就是这样的被保护着，宣扬着，传播到一代又一代的中国人头脑中。 唯权主义和集权主义就这样在这块被无数血肉之尸滋养的“人”的非人沃土上昌盛兴旺的。

Living in China is no longer with a life; existence gives way to nothingness; passing time and prolong physical existence supersedes the distinct human yearning for meaning and spiritual fulfillment; functions of body cavities replaces function of human brains and souls; education becomes a method to create more and more “State Serving” slaves with no originality and creativity; face, border, money and power defines the word “Chinese”.

在中国存活的人们并没有真正的生命；存在被虚无窒息了；混日子与寻求长生不老淹没了人对生命意义的追求和对精神满足的渴望；人身洞穴的生理活动压倒了人类头脑的功能；教育成为了制造一代又一代“精忠报国”的政府奴隶的手段；这些皇权的奴隶们既没有独立精神，更没有创造能力；“脸“，“皮”，“钱”与“权力”早已成为“中国人“的定义。

It has all started with emergence of ‘人” and lack of humanity, human beings and individuals in China. It has all started with the formation of Chinese pictorial characters with its dehumanization features. And do we really hope to build a human and humane society in the future with “人”??

人性，个人与真实的人已从有了象形的中文字“人“的那一天在中国逐渐淡漠与消失。 自从有了中国的象形单音节文字以后，中国的非人化便在加速。 我们难道还在期待用这种促进非人化的象形文字去建设一个真正的人的未来吗？