Salute to Those Who Do the Dirty Work
作者：陈西（《零八宪章》首批签署人） 2025年7月9日 贵州 中国
编辑：罗志飞. 责任编辑：鲁慧文
德国总理默茨最近在G7峰会上声称：“以色列袭击伊朗是在为整个西方做肮脏的工作”，并罕见地向干脏活的以军致以“最崇高敬意”。陈西有文《向知白守黑的公民致敬》，同样表述了这一意思。干脏活，被陈西称为“守黑”。
文明世界需要干脏活的公民。浅层次理解，人类的生活垃圾、消费后的排泄物需要环卫工人清理，环卫工人是与脏黑垃圾为伍的人。中层次理解，医者面对病人，实际面对的是病毒病菌，医者帮病人恢复身体健康就得研究人体的病毒，与病人病毒为伍，医者也是在干脏活；同样，司法人员，尤其人权律师面对罪犯，得站在罪人一边，为其权利辩护是干脏活。因为人权律师干脏活，守黑，中国有许多人权律师就受到打压。如：为国母辩护的张思之律师，以及郭国汀、高智晟、李建强、唐荆陵、张鉴康、兰志学、张星水、张凯、李庄、李柏光、李和平，谢阳等等律师。
深层次理解，党治国先生，思想家，1954年以陕西省榜首考入清华大学的老右派，党治国先生对中国政权定义：“中国和欧洲国家的起源不同。在中国，国家政权起源于一种权力的篡夺和盗窃，因而它是一种赃物，它一来到世间便充满了阴谋和霸道，借用马克思一句话:‘它每个毛孔都充满血和肮脏的东西’”。陈西认同党治国先生这种观点，因这种观点与基督徒“原罪”观点相同。所以，陈西自供，他是带着镣铐与这个赃物——利维坦（巨兽）共舞的一名驯兽师，一名干脏活、与黑暗为伍的公民。
党治国先生是陈西的一面之师，于西安相识。2006年10月20日，七省市民主党人聚集西安，在为胡耀邦的秘书林牧老先生送别悼念活动中，先生送给陈西一本他的代表作《埋没的思想》。书中直言：“千百年来的改朝换代革命只是为了争夺这个赃物，没有新意，没有改革；只是把这个赃物换个姓而已，而每次改朝换代这个赃物都要流天下千万民众的血；最终，也还是另一批篡夺者、分赃集团而已”。
默茨定义伊朗为“死亡与破坏的来源”，伊朗是个主权国家，联合国宪章中有，关于主权国家不得被武力威胁的基本原则；然而，伊朗这个由神棍统制的极端主义国家，对内，行压迫伊朗人的专制行为，对外，叫嚣要灭掉以色列国，它先违反了联合国宪章；以色列迫于自卫，以武力来铲除来自伊朗的核威胁，似乎是干了一件脏活。党治国先生定义中国的政权是个赃物，身为基督徒的陈西时常在祈祷中忏悔自己的无知与污垢，我们生活在赃物中，没有别的选择，唯有信靠主耶稣的拯救。于是，就有知白守黑公民，带着镣铐与狼共舞的驯兽师。以求一点忏悔，一点改观，一点一点的驯化，从传统走向现代。
所谓“知白守黑”，这是一个负重，还是享受；是接受“污”名，还是接受“美”名的选择。守拙，背“十字架”、“进窄门”、“扒粪”，与病毒为伍是“自污守黑”；知巧，求功名、政绩，歌功颂德的事是“爱美守白”。谁不趋利避害呢，谁又愚蠢到“守拙守黑”呢？
“守拙守黑”者必遭人恨，讨人烦，是难有知己，知音，同道的。基督徒在世也遭人恨。作为基督徒的陈西，他受教：有病的人才需要医生，无病的人不需要医生；耶稣来是要从罪恶中拯救罪人，让病人得救；完美完善的世界不需要救恩。陈西得着耶稣的恩典后，就高高兴兴干脏活，守黑去了。记得曾有一位游走在重庆与贵阳之间的君子在网上发文，说陈西是贵州的“总线人”。确实如此，因陈西在与贵州民主人士搞“贵州公民人权研讨会”时奉行“阳光法”，提倡揭短、曝光、公开的维权活动，与公权力贴得紧，走得勤；因此坐监和受监管时间最长。
近日，又有一位君子，南京某大学前哲学教授，就讨厌陈西与肮脏的国和民为伍。陈西理解君子；高贵的君子们怎么会承认自己的不足呢？高贵的君子们怎么会去干“扒粪”、揭短、与黑暗，病毒为伍的脏活呢？因高贵的君子为高尚的政治两次坐牢，对这个国和民的肮脏体会得太深，他就说：他不爱这国和民，要爱你去爱；并说,在朋友圈要把陈西拉黑。
没有办法，君子可以洁身自好，基督徒则不能；革命者可以疾恶如仇，民主党人则不能；书生可以照本宣科，照搬苏俄或美丽国版本，公民则不能。基督徒得背起钉罪人的“十字架”负重而行；民主党人得尊重各方神圣，哪怕那个神圣是恶人，并还抹黑自己，他都得与赃物在一起，在干脏活中洗涤这世间的原罪。陈西或许是因爱，爱得深沉执著，不嫌国脏，不嫌民丑；他勇而不敢像君子般逍遥，更不敢像书呆子，动不动搬书本；他得作实干家，去实践现世的拯救之路。换句话说，有要面子的聪明人，有要里子愚蠢的守夜人；守夜人干脏活，把难题，黑暗和失败留给自己；聪明人做干净活，把成功，荣誉和政绩留给自己。陈西是愚蠢的守夜人，他学习“水善利万物而不争，(水)处众人之恶，养“知其荣，守其辱”之风骨。
Salute to Those Who Do the Dirty Work
By Chen Xi (Charter 08 First Signatory) July 9, 2025 — Guizhou, China
Editor: Luo Zhifei | Managing Editor: Huiwen Lu
At the recent G7 summit, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz declared: “Israel’s strike on Iran was doing the dirty work for the entire West.” In a rare move, he extended his “highest respect” to the Israeli military for undertaking such a burden. Years earlier, I wrote a piece titled In Praise of Citizens Who Know the Light but Keep to the Darkness, expressing a similar sentiment. What Merz calls “dirty work” is what I once described as “keeping to the black.”
The modern world cannot function without those willing to do its dirty work.
On a basic level, human waste and trash must be cleared away by sanitation workers. They labor daily amid filth, serving the public by keeping its refuse out of sight.
At a deeper level, doctors must confront disease and death head-on. To heal the sick, they must immerse themselves in pathogens and infection. Likewise, legal professionals—especially human rights lawyers—must defend even the guilty, standing beside them to protect due process and human dignity. That, too, is dirty work. And in China, many of those who engage in such work—lawyers like Zhang Sizhi (who defended “the mother of the nation”), Guo Guoting, Gao Zhisheng, Li Jianqiang, Tang Jingling, Zhang Jiankang, Lan Zhixue, Zhang Xingshui, Zhang Kai, Li Zhuang, Li Baiguang, Li Heping, Xie Yang, and others—have faced persecution.
On the most profound level, we must confront the moral stain embedded in the very structure of state power. Mr. Dang Zhiguo, a Christian thinker and former top-scoring entrant to Tsinghua University in 1954, once offered a searing critique: “Unlike European states, which grew from social contracts, the Chinese state was born out of seizure and theft. It is a stolen good. From its inception, it has been tainted by conspiracy and brute force. As Marx once said: ‘Every pore is filled with blood and filth.’” I share his view. To me, it echoes the Christian understanding of original sin.
That is why I see myself as a man dancing with the Leviathan while shackled—a beast-tamer in chains, a citizen who keeps company with darkness and bears the stain of the world’s filth.
I met Mr. Dang in Xi’an. On October 20, 2006, when members of the China Democracy Party from seven provinces gathered there to bid farewell to Lin Mu, former secretary to Hu Yaobang, Mr. Dang gave me a copy of his seminal work, Buried Ideas. In it, he wrote bluntly:
“For centuries, each so-called revolution was merely another grab for the same stolen prize. Nothing new. No real reform. Only a change in surname. And every dynastic change was bought with the blood of countless innocents. In the end, power simply passed to a new group of looters.”
Chancellor Merz described Iran as “a source of death and destruction.” Technically, Iran is a sovereign nation, and the UN Charter prohibits threats or use of force against such nations. But this theocratic regime, run by clerics, oppresses its own people and openly calls for the destruction of Israel. In violating the Charter first, it forfeits moral standing. In acting to eliminate the nuclear threat, Israel may indeed be doing the world’s dirty work.
Mr. Dang’s description of the Chinese regime as a “stolen good” resonates deeply with me as a Christian. I often pray in repentance—not only for my own sins, but for the filth in which we all live. We dwell inside the beast. We have no other choice but to cling to the salvation of Christ. Thus emerge those citizens who “know the light but keep to the dark”—taming monsters while wearing chains, dancing with wolves, hoping through such grim work to bring change, even just a little, step by step, from tradition into modernity.
To “know the light but keep to the dark”—is this a burden or a calling? Is it about accepting defilement or rejecting false glory? To “guard foolishness,” to “carry the cross,” to “enter through the narrow gate,” to shovel muck, to walk among viruses—this is to stain oneself in order to serve others. In contrast, to pursue cleverness, accolades, and political gains is to seek beauty and guard the white.
Who among us does not wish to avoid pain and seek benefit? Who is so foolish as to volunteer for the hard path, the path of dirt and shadows?
Those who take up the black are often hated, misunderstood, and left without allies. Christians are no exception. Christ himself said: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” He came not to praise the righteous, but to save the sinner. After I received his grace, I gladly went to do the dirty work—to keep to the dark.
There was once a gentleman who traveled between Chongqing and Guiyang. Online, he accused me of being “Guizhou’s top informant.” In a sense, that is not inaccurate. During our efforts to organize “Guizhou Civil Rights Seminars,” I insisted on transparency and public action. I advocated the “sunlight principle”—exposing injustice and confronting power directly. This meant constant scrutiny from the authorities. I have spent more time under arrest and surveillance than most.
More recently, a former philosophy professor from Nanjing University expressed his contempt for my closeness to the dirty realities of this nation and its people. I understand. High-minded intellectuals cannot bear to admit their own faults. How could such “noble gentlemen” stoop to shoveling muck, to exposing darkness, to working with filth?
This man, having twice gone to prison for his ideals, now claims to no longer love his country or its people. He says: “If you love them, that’s your choice.” He blocked me on social media.
And so be it. A gentleman can remain pure. A Christian cannot. A revolutionary can burn with righteous fury. A democrat must love even the enemy. A scholar can quote foreign doctrines by rote. A citizen must engage with the world as it is.
The Christian must shoulder the cross of the condemned. The democrat must respect all persons as sacred—even those who harm him. Even the “stolen good” must be met, confronted, and transformed. That is what it means to do the dirty work—to wash the world’s original sin, one deed at a time.
Perhaps I am simply one who loves too deeply. I do not shy away from the filth of this nation, or the ugliness of its people. I lack the courage to live aloof like a gentleman. I cannot bury myself in books like an academic. I must be a doer—a man who tries to redeem this broken world through concrete action.
To put it another way: there are clever men who preserve appearances, and there are foolish watchmen who preserve the substance. The watchman does the dirty work—he takes the risk, bears the blame, and endures the failure. The clever man does the clean work—he takes the success, the glory, the recognition.
I am a foolish watchman.
I strive to live by the example of water—nurturing all things without striving, dwelling in the lowly places that others despise. I seek to embody the spirit of “knowing honor, yet holding to humility.”
