Human folly as seen through the eyes of pre-Qin philosophers (speech transcript)

Yusheng (2009)

First, I want to clarify the title of my speech to avoid misunderstanding. What I want to say is: Humanity has become intelligent, and looking back at human history, discovering past folly, and strengthening our understanding of that folly will make us even wiser. Ancient China followed a more intelligent path than the West, and studying ancient thought will also make us wiser.

Lecture 1: Lao Tzu’s Prediction of Human Foolishness

Lao Tzu once said something that accurately predicted the future folly of humankind. This saying, and its modern Chinese translation, is:

“Those who possess foresight are the flower of the Way, but also the beginning of folly.” (Chapter 38)

In the pre-knowledge period, various philosophical schools flourished like spring flowers and wild grasses, and humanity’s boundless folly had just begun.

I know there are different translations of Lao Tzu’s quote, but the translation of the three characters “愚之始” (the beginning of foolishness) is the same. My main focus here is on the three characters “愚之始”. Therefore, I will use my own translation here.

First of all, the pre-knowledge period refers to the period before true knowledge. Here, human history is viewed as a process of knowledge. True knowledge means the time when human beings’ understanding of their own world first reaches a philosophical level. The human world includes the natural world, human society, and the human inner world.

What is philosophy? Textbooks offer many definitions, but the one I learned in school was: Philosophy is the study of the general laws governing natural sciences, social sciences, and human thought. We say that for the first time, humanity’s understanding of its own world—including nature, human society, and the inner world of humanity—reached a philosophical level. Here, philosophy is relative to ordinary knowledge. Our understanding of our own world is sometimes right, sometimes wrong, often including some seemingly plausible but ultimately flawed ideas. For example, someone might believe that human nature is inherently evil and deceitful, therefore requiring constant vigilance. This understanding might be effective in guiding their life, which is why they hold this view. However, examining the reliability of this understanding within a broader context reveals its significant bias.

Therefore, philosophy here refers to humanity’s comprehensive, systematic, and profound understanding of its own world. This understanding can withstand the test of history. For example, during the May Fourth Movement and the Cultural Revolution, we criticized Confucius’s teachings, saying that his words were wrong. Now, we find that Confucius’s words still make a lot of sense. This shows that Confucius’s words represent that humanity’s understanding of its own world at that time had reached a philosophical level and cannot be easily overturned because his teachings represent a comprehensive, systematic, and profound understanding.

Humanity first achieved a philosophical understanding of its own world during the so-called Axial Age, which is why Lao Tzu’s concept of the pre-consciousness period refers to this era. The Axial Age, a concept proposed by the German philosopher and psychiatrist Karl Jaspers, is now widely accepted in academia. It refers to the period within the first millennium BC during which China, India, Greece, Persia, and Jewish civilizations underwent rapid and simultaneous changes, producing great thinkers within their respective cultural traditions. This period enabled humanity’s understanding of its own world to reach a philosophical level for the first time, establishing the framework for human thought for the next two millennia. In China, the Axial Age corresponds to the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods.

From the perspective of the Taoist school, humanity’s comprehensive, systematic, and profound understanding of its own world was undoubtedly achieved through the establishment and refinement of Taoist doctrines represented by Laozi and Zhuangzi, specifically during the mid-to-late Warring States period. However, humanity’s true understanding of its own world can exist in multiple forms, allowing for the coexistence of different schools of thought and philosophical systems.

Now, let’s revisit the above translation. During the five-hundred-year period of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, Chinese intellectual circles were unprecedentedly active, witnessing a flourishing of diverse schools of thought, as described by the phrase: “Various philosophical schools proliferated like spring flowers and wild grasses.” This was the first time humanity had achieved such a leap forward in thought and culture after seven or eight thousand years of agricultural production and two or three thousand years of civilization. However, in Lao Tzu’s view, all of this was merely the beginning of human folly, the so-called “beginning of folly.” If the five hundred years of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, after thousands of years of brewing, represent the beginning of human folly, then the folly to come will surely be boundless. Therefore, I added the adjective “boundless” to my translation; this is not my original idea, but rather the inherent meaning of Lao Tzu’s words.

How long will human folly, starting at five hundred years, continue? If it lasts a thousand years, it probably doesn’t fit Lao Tzu’s original tone. If it did, the initial five hundred years, extended by another five hundred, would be too long from the start. Therefore, the human folly Lao Tzu speaks of must be longer than a thousand years. This can be illustrated by the words of a modern scientist, who is known for his pragmatism, neither exaggerating nor minimizing his statements.

The most famous scientist of modern times is undoubtedly Albert Einstein. Einstein commented on human folly in this way:

“There are two things in the world that are infinite: the universe and human folly. But I’m not sure about the infinity of the universe.”

Therefore, there was only one thing Einstein was absolutely certain about that was infinity: human stupidity. Infinity is also boundless. According to Lao Tzu, the Chinese have been stupid for 2,700 years, but Einstein was referring to the human world, not China. How long has humanity been stupid? Five thousand years, that is, five thousand years of civilization.

To say that humanity has been foolish for five thousand years, we must first clarify the definition of foolishness. What does foolishness mean? I think everyone knows what foolishness is: expending tremendous effort and energy without achieving the desired results. What did humanity expect five thousand years ago? That’s hard to say. If we compare the living conditions of humanity five thousand years ago to those of the next five thousand years, and the level of human effort was also higher then, it means that after five thousand years of striving and working hard, the living conditions not only didn’t improve but actually worsened. This is sufficient to demonstrate that humanity has suffered from a five-thousand-year-old foolishness. And this is indeed the case, exactly as Lao Tzu predicted.

To illustrate that human history, as Lao Tzu described, is a history of folly, we must first review human history.

Humans today, anthropologically known as Homo sapiens, appeared in Africa approximately 200,000 years ago. Around 60,000 to 70,000 years ago, they migrated out of Africa and spread throughout the world; by then, humans had already developed language. Their appearance in Australia 50,000 years ago indicates they were already capable of building rudimentary sea-crossing tools.

Everyone knows that wolf children are not human in any sense. Occasionally, when wolves or other wild animals capture human infants, they don’t eat them but raise them as their own, creating the phenomenon known as wolf children. Wolf children cannot speak, and after a certain age, they remain mute for life. They don’t walk on two legs but crawl on all fours. They eat raw meat and attack weaker animals. In short, their behavior is that of wolves, not humans. Therefore, humans are products of social culture, not entirely determined by genetics.

Many anthropologists believe that humans, thinking and reasoning in the same way as modern humans, appeared around 40,000 years ago. Specifically, humans developed a sense of self-awareness around 40,000 years ago, meaning they knew how to think, “What have I done in the past? What do I want to do in the future?” and could discuss these thoughts in language, forming a social cultural tradition. The concept of the soul arose because this sense of self-awareness could not comprehend its own death. In other words, this sense of self-awareness as a cultural tradition first appeared around 40,000 years ago; as an individual phenomenon, it may have appeared much earlier. The emergence of this sense of self-awareness was accompanied by the widespread use of various tools and numerous rock paintings, such as those found in prehistoric France and Spain. Before this, humans, like animals, did not understand the difference between life and death, believing sleep and death to be the same thing. Therefore, humans from 40,000 to 50,000 years ago are incomparable to modern humans; only humans from 40,000 years ago can be compared to us.

The notion of a 5,000-year history of civilization begins with the emergence of the state, a conclusion drawn from the Western term “civilization,” which derives from the word “citizen.” However, the word “civilization” itself doesn’t inherently imply the existence of a state; human civilization existed before the emergence of states. Therefore, strictly speaking, modern human civilization began with the invention of agriculture and animal husbandry, which appeared approximately 10,000 years ago.

Between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago, humans lived by hunting and gathering, that is, hunting and gathering wild fruits for food. Imagine, humans at that time had the intelligence and thinking methods of modern humans. They managed to maintain a simple lifestyle of hunting and gathering for tens of thousands of years. Needless to say, they were extremely proficient in their way of life.

As a result, the standard of living for humans at that time was higher than that of modern humans. They frequently hunted large animals such as deer, cattle, horses, sheep, and pigs; they even preyed on elephants. At that time, the average height of men was 1.77 meters, taller than modern humans. Their abundant nutrition did not come from hard work or environmental pollution, but from ecological balance, which manifested in all aspects of their lives, including themselves. For example, they knew how to control reproduction, and their population remained almost constant. Their methods of family planning may have differed from modern methods.

They follow a high-protein diet, which helps control fertility. Women need a certain amount of fat reserves to become pregnant; these reserves are for nurturing the fetus and for breastfeeding. A high-protein diet, along with the nomadic lifestyle of ancient times, is detrimental to women’s ability to conceive. Of course, prolonging breastfeeding also has a similar effect. Modern high-carbohydrate diets easily lead to fat accumulation and weight gain. Older people have sexual function but no fertility; they know how to utilize this physiological phenomenon. Furthermore, homosexuals are also infertile; a type of chimpanzee in Africa knows the uses of homosexuality. Of course, their women also know how to use certain plants for abortion.

Compared to the stresses of modern life, their lives were leisurely and joyful; both their spiritual and material lives were superior to those of modern people. We cannot go back 40,000 years to investigate their subjective feelings or ask them if they felt happy. However, we can infer from two perspectives that they lived happier lives than modern people.

First, they had a far greater grasp on their own destiny and lives than modern people, due to the stability and simplicity of their lives. Their way of life remained unchanged for 30,000 years; they faced neither resource depletion nor environmental pollution. In contrast, modern Western society can be described in sixteen characters: earth-shattering, rapidly changing, riddled with problems, and urgently needed. The two generations had no common language because they lived completely different lives. Life in my country fifty years ago is entirely different from life today, not to mention the long robes and mandarin jackets of the Qing Dynasty and the practice of bowing and kowtowing. The variables in modern life mainly come from society, variables that are neither within the control of individuals nor often within society’s capacity to manage. The ability to control one’s life is directly related to one’s sense of happiness; a person passively driven by external forces and pressured by life can hardly be happy.

Secondly, we can use the example of ethnic minorities who still live a hunter-gatherer lifestyle today, whose lives should be similar to those of humans 10,000 years ago. The Khun people of South Africa, who live a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, have been the subject of detailed research by anthropologists. The Khun obtain a variety of foods from their surroundings, resulting in a rich and balanced diet. They have over 100 kinds of plants available for consumption, but only 14 are considered staple foods, with the rest reserved. Seventy percent of their food comes from plants, and thirty percent from meat. Women provide 55 percent, and men provide 45 percent, with the men’s portion including meat. Adult Khun people spend 24 days a week gathering food; needless to say, they roam freely, foraging and eating as they go, without the seriousness and tension of modern work. They consume 2355 calories per day, and medical examinations have confirmed their excellent health. Ten percent of their population is over sixty years old, while in agricultural countries like Brazil and India at the same time, only five percent of the population is over sixty. The Khun population has remained relatively stable, neither increasing nor decreasing, while India, struggling with family planning, has seen its population rise sharply despite its best efforts. They spend most of their leisure time socializing, especially women, who visit each other across different ethnic groups and chat for extended periods. Modern psychological research suggests that this kind of equal, friendly, and relaxed social activity is a major source of happiness for modern people.

This leisurely and materially abundant early human life came to an end with the invention of agriculture. Anthropologists have offered various explanations for why humans invented agriculture, but none are particularly convincing. Human laziness and unwillingness to walk are among the reasons that led to the emergence of agriculture. Humanity’s decision to develop agriculture, a decision with far-reaching consequences, stemming from laziness, deserves a punishment that will last for millennia.

We should first point out that agriculture did not show its drawbacks in its early stages because people mainly relied on hunting and gathering for survival, and agricultural income was only a supplement. At this time, human health saw a temporary, slight improvement. The drawbacks of agriculture only became apparent when people became primarily dependent on it. Apart from a decrease in the incidence of arthritis due to less walking, other diseases increased significantly, human health declined markedly, and life expectancy shortened. The following factors contributed to these changes:

1) Changing to a diet consisting mainly of several grains only provides energy and results in severe nutritional deficiencies;

2) Reduced outdoor activities are detrimental to health;

3) Human gatherings lead to a significant increase in infectious diseases;

4) The agricultural population generally raised poultry and livestock, and the close contact between humans and animals led to many serious diseases that were transmitted from animals to humans. These included almost all the major childhood infectious diseases before the advent of modern medicine: smallpox, measles, and tuberculosis came from cattle; influenza came from pigs and crows; whooping cough came from pigs and dogs, and so on.

Studies of prehistoric human health primarily rely on archaeological excavations of human skeletons. With the advent of agriculture, human height generally decreased due to malnutrition hindering normal physical development. Childhood malnutrition was widespread, evident in skeletal remains. Iron-deficiency anemia was highly prevalent in adults. Before the development of modern medicine, humans could only endure the suffering caused by diseases such as smallpox, measles, tuberculosis, and influenza, without understanding their origins.

Agriculture brought these drawbacks, but people at that time still lived in the egalitarian and reciprocal society they were familiar with; no one exploited or oppressed them. Their leisurely lifestyle remained unchanged. All of this came to an end with the emergence of human states. After the emergence of states, most people became slaves, toiling day and night like ants under the supervision of bayonets and whips. The drawbacks of agriculture gradually appeared without people’s awareness, while the drawbacks of the state arose in a short period of time with people’s full awareness. Both are drawbacks, but the latter brought greater mental anguish to humanity.

After the emergence of the state, a leisure class appeared to oversee the work. Anthropologists believe that modern labor and work—characterized by longer working hours than leisure time and monotonous routines—only arose after the state. Logically, such long working hours should have replaced the satisfaction of basic human physiological needs, such as food and shelter. However, this is not the case. Archaeological research in the Middle East confirms that the emergence of civilized states was accompanied by a shortening of lifespan.

A key difference brought about by the emergence of the state is that in prehistoric egalitarian societies, humans only performed labor directly related to their lives, while the state had the power to force its subjects to toil day and night for things unrelated to their livelihoods. The suffering brought to humanity by civilization can be explained by the so-called environmental-social constraint theory. This theory posits that the emergence of human civilization requires limiting factors, namely, blocking all possible escape routes. This makes it easier to understand why, in such a vast world, ancient civilizations only emerged in a very few places, and why ancient Greece, the Nile River region of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Mexico, and Peru were all geographically long and narrow. Egypt, for example, was protected by deserts on both sides, making it difficult for those fleeing to survive.

While the emergence of a nation also brought hunger and slaughter, the more prominent issue was the psychological anguish it inflicted on its people. Medicine still has no effective treatment for advanced cancer, and worse, some cancers are extremely painful, such as liver cancer, often causing patients to break out in a cold sweat. The doctor said, “Give me some morphine or opium!” Upon hearing this, the patient laboriously held out his hand, shaking several fingers to indicate no. The patient thought, “Morphine and opium are not good medicine; they should only be used as a last resort. If I get better in the future, wouldn’t it be troublesome if I became addicted to morphine and opium?”

Marx said that religion is the opium that poisons the people. But no civilized society can endure the pain without using this opium, just like that cancer patient, demonstrating the severity of human spiritual suffering. There is no doubt that the religion Marx described arose after class differentiation; prehistoric egalitarian societies did not have such religions.

Excluding the modern era, while modern human life has seen significant improvements, for most of humanity’s five-thousand-year history, the vast majority of people toiled day and night like ants, barely scraping by on the edge of subsistence. This wasn’t enough; constant major wars led to drastic population declines, sometimes wiping out half the population. Marvin Harris, a renowned American anthropologist, stated that before agriculture, the average height of human men was 177 cm, dropping to 165 cm after its invention. In 1960, the average height of American men was 175 cm. In terms of material nutrition and leisure, only a very small minority of modern Westerners can compare to those before the invention of agriculture.

In conclusion, just as Lao Tzu pointed out, humanity has made a foolish mistake, exchanging extremely arduous labor for a life that has been greatly diminished both spiritually and materially.