作者：刘畅

摘要：从美国新移民的“躺平”现象谈起，延伸探讨中国青年长期面临的结构性失业、社会流动受阻与公平机会不足等问题，并提出以就业培训、公共投入及制度公平作为重建劳动信心的改革方向。

刚到美国时，不少新移民找不到工作，要么在民宿躺着，隔三差五去食物银行（Food Bank）领救济食品过日子。更有甚者，住进帐篷，天天领免费盒饭，最著名的就是那个丁胖子金牌讲师。他们并不觉得这是耻辱，美其名叫“躺平”，一躺就是一年多。在美国这种人权国家尚且有条件可以躺平，在中国怎么办？

在中国，这个现象并不是近期才有的，而是近二十年一直存在的。

看看著名的深圳“三和大神”和多年前出现的词儿“屌丝”，都是这个社会在不同时期奋斗不得、消极生活的群体。他们为什么奋斗不得呢？人生找不到方向、找不到可行性路径，反复尝试都以失败告终，反复失败则失去了信心，看到别人不成功自己也歇菜，或者债台高筑失去了奋斗的激情，也有个别人看轻物质故意选择消极的舒适圈，也有不少是，好的生意、好的工作被关系户把持住，上升路径狭窄，不愿做牛做马，干脆摆烂。

在刘经理看来，大多数情况是一个社会结构性经济危机，特定群体，工作不好找，工资达不到预期，投入产出不成比例，与其内卷，不如逃离，能勉强生存即可。三十六计，走为上计，躺平其实是一种经济危机下的生存主动选择。

看看传统的大经济危机，社会大生产几乎全部停滞，整个社会穷得只剩下人了，怎么办？1929年美国大萧条，罗斯福的挖坑理论，组织公共建设，发工资，重振消费力，才勉强熬过去，那段时期最著名的公共设施就是胡佛水坝。新中国成立后，一穷二白只剩下穷人的劳力可以剥削，也勉强靠大生产重振了经济，当然也饿死、累死了不少人，伟大领袖挥挥手，把功劳全占，谁会在乎“路有冻死骨”呢？

所以，目前的躺平现象交给了这个社会一个重要命题，如何解决这些过剩的劳动力高不成低不就的结构性失业现象？怎么让这部分躺平的人重新找到生活的信心、怎么重新劳动起来，怎么劳动得有尊严？

笔者的观点：

（1）“表面功夫”措施：

公共投入必须启动，削减那些重复开发、浪费的基础建设，用于劳动者福利。搞一个“国家劳动力再生产项目”～有期限的回炉孵化，比如一年、两年的学期，注重以下三点：

1）注重他们的技能再培训、身心康复和社会关怀，注重他们的兴趣、信心和成就感的孵化，引导他们树立高尚的就业观和信仰；

2）引导开发针对该培训、政策性的内需生产项目，让他们利用这段时期内积累生产经验和相对稳定的物质基础，为后面全面进入社会做准备；

3）持续为他们提供后续的就业咨询，也为录用他们的企业提供税收优惠或者其他政策优惠。

有很多人说：这不是做梦吗？国家哪舍得给劳动者这些呢？我说：他给不给，我们决定不了；但到底应不应该给，是人间正义、公平说了算，他不给就是违背了基本的人道主义。

（2）核心措施：

严惩贪官污吏，杜绝走后门，把上升路径归还给人民，把机会选择权交给老百姓，只要公平公正，哪有不奋斗的人呢？2010年代，马云的成功，不是激励了很多有志之士，不管学历高低，无论高矮胖瘦，纷纷涌入互联网业吗？因为那时的机会相对公平。

有很多人说：我可不想当马云，他吭哧吭哧地搞个阿里巴巴，背后实际控制人还不是那帮人吗？当个老板还不如当个村官，私底下存款估计过亿了。

好了，又回到8964的问题了，公平公平，光是市场经济公平，政治体制不公平，还是没有真正的公平，人人都想当官不劳而获，谁愿意去创业呢？不创业，哪有投资者愿意冒风险呢？即便有投资，有多少不是转移到海外了呢？转移到海外，长久投资又有多少呢？没有稳定的投资，哪有好工作可干呢？没有好工作，谁愿意去工作呢？

所以前段时间，国内的人大肆宣扬“躺平”是境外势力所为～今天我谈这个话题确实是在“境外”～但你能单单归咎于他人的挑唆和煽风点火吗？俗话说，苍蝇不叮无缝的蛋，自己把自己搞臭了，就把原因推给别人，这是那个组织惯用的手法，无耻至极。但愿那个组织能为了人民的福祉，为了民族的未来，能“牺牲”小我，还政于大我，给予人民公平、公正的工作机会，给予人民“有志者事竟成”的奋斗环境，“躺平”不需要他们来呵斥，人民自会监督、谴责与修正。

编辑：Gloria Wang 校对：孔祥庆 翻译：戈冰

Is “Lying Flat” Merely a Moral Issue?

By Liu Chang

Abstract: Starting from the phenomenon of “lying flat” among new immigrants in the United States, this article expands to discuss issues long faced by Chinese youth, such as structural unemployment, blocked social mobility, and lack of fair opportunities. It proposes vocational training, public investment, and institutional fairness as reform directions to rebuild confidence in labor.

When first arriving in the United States, many new immigrants cannot find work; they either lie around in short-term rentals, going to food banks every few days to get relief food to get by. What is more, some move into tents and receive free boxed meals every day—the most famous among them being “Ding Pangzi Gold Medal Lecturer.” They do not view this as a disgrace, euphemistically calling it “lying flat” (tang ping), staying flat for more than a year at a time. If even a human rights country like the United States has the conditions to allow lying flat, what can be done in China?

In China, this phenomenon is not something that emerged only recently, but has existed continuously over the past two decades.

Look at Shenzhen’s famous “Sanhe Gods” and the term “diaosi” (loser) that emerged years ago; both represent groups in this society across different periods who could not succeed despite striving and consequently lived passively. Why couldn’t they succeed through striving? They could not find direction in life or a viable path forward; repeated attempts ended in failure, and repeated failures stripped them of confidence. Seeing others fail, they threw in the towel as well; or, burdened by mountain-high debts, they lost their passion to strive. A few individuals belittled material possessions and deliberately chose a passive comfort zone, while many others found that good businesses and good jobs were monopolized by connected insiders, leaving upward mobility channels extremely narrow; unwilling to be worked like beasts of burden, they simply chose to “let it rot” (bai lan).

In Manager Liu’s view, most cases reflect a societal structural economic crisis: for specific groups, jobs are hard to find, wages fail to meet expectations, and input and output are completely out of proportion. Rather than engaging in hyper-competitive “involution” (neijuan), it is better to escape, as long as one can barely survive. As the saying goes, among the thirty-six stratagems, running away is the best; lying flat is actually an active choice for survival under an economic crisis.

Look at traditional major economic crises: large-scale social production came to an almost complete standstill, and the entire society was so poor that nothing remained except people. What was to be done? During the Great Depression in the United States in 1929, Roosevelt’s “digging holes” theory—organizing public construction, paying wages, and revitalizing consumer power—barely got society through; the most famous public infrastructure project from that era was the Hoover Dam. After the founding of New China, being “impoverished and blank,” with nothing left to exploit but the labor of poor people, the economy was also barely revitalized through massive collective production. Of course, many starved to death or died of exhaustion. The Great Leader waved his hand and claimed all the credit—for who would care about “frozen bodies along the roadside”?

Therefore, the current phenomenon of lying flat poses a critical proposition to this society: How to resolve the structural unemployment where this surplus labor force is neither qualified for high-end jobs nor willing to accept low-end ones? How to allow those who are lying flat to regain their confidence in life, return to work, and labor with dignity?

The Author’s Perspective:

(1) “Surface-Level” Measures:

Public investment must be initiated, cutting back on redundant and wasteful infrastructure development to redirect funds toward laborers’ welfare. Establish a “National Labor Force Reproduction Project”—a time-limited period for retraining and incubation, such as a one-year or two-year term, focusing on the following three points:

Focus on their skill retraining, physical and mental recovery, and social care, while nurturing their interests, confidence, and sense of achievement, guiding them to establish noble views on employment and faith;

Guide the development of policy-driven domestic demand production projects targeted at this training, allowing them to utilize this period to accumulate production experience and establish a relatively stable material foundation in preparation for fully entering society later on;

Continuously provide them with follow-up employment counseling, while offering tax incentives or other policy concessions to the enterprises that hire them.

Many people say: Isn’t this just dreaming? How could the state ever bring itself to give all this to the laborers? I say: Whether it gives it or not is beyond our control to decide; but whether it should give it or not is determined by human justice and fairness. If it refuses to give it, it is violating basic humanitarianism.

(2) Core Measures:

Severely punish corrupt officials, put an end to backdoor dealings, return the paths of upward mobility to the people, and hand the power of choice over opportunities back to the common people. As long as there is fairness and justice, who wouldn’t strive? In the 2010s, didn’t Jack Ma’s success inspire countless ambitious individuals—regardless of educational background, height, or weight—to flood into the internet industry? Because opportunities back then were relatively fair.

Many people say: I don’t want to be Jack Ma. He worked himself to the bone creating Alibaba, but weren’t the actual controllers behind the scenes still that very group of people? Being a business owner is worse than being a village official—under the table, their savings probably exceed a hundred million.

Well then, this brings us right back to the issue of June 4th (8964). Fairness, fairness—if there is only market economy fairness, but the political system remains unfair, there is still no genuine fairness. When everyone wants to become an official and gain without labor, who would be willing to start a business? Without entrepreneurship, which investor would be willing to take risks? Even if there is investment, how much of it hasn’t been transferred overseas? And among what is transferred overseas, how much is long-term investment? Without stable investment, how can there be good jobs? And without good jobs, who would be willing to work?

Therefore, a while ago, people in mainland China clamored that “lying flat” was the work of foreign forces—today, in discussing this topic, I am indeed “abroad”—but can you blame it solely on others’ instigation and fanning the flames? As the saying goes, flies do not sting seamless eggs; when you have made yourself stench-ridden, you push the blame onto others—this is the customary tactic of that organization, utterly shameless. May that organization, for the well-being of the people and the future of the nation, “sacrifice” its small self, return power to the public, grant the people fair and just job opportunities, and provide an environment for striving where “where there is a will, there is a way.” “Lying flat” does not require their scolding; the people themselves will supervise, condemn, and correct it.

Editor: Gloria Wang Proofreader: Kong Xiangqing Translator: Ge Bing

——第十八层地狱之上，还有一层，名曰“人间”

作者：鲁慧文  

黑夜没有月亮。

只有一座山。

那不是山。

那是一具具骸骨，

一层压着一层，

一代埋着一代。

风吹过时，

千万颗牙齿彼此碰撞，

发出窸窸窣窣的笑。

守门的恶鬼说：

这里没有坟墓。

因为整片土地，都是坟墓。

第一阵风吹来，

吹散的是三年饥荒。

白骨披着破布，

肚腹深陷，

眼窝里爬满乌鸦。

他们低着头，

捧着树皮，

捧着泥土，

捧着观音土，

最后，

捧起了自己的骨头。

他们没有哭。

死人不会哭。

第二阵风吹来，

吹来十年文革。

无数白骨没有头颅，

因为头，

早已低到尘埃里。

书本烧成灰，

灰落在人骨上；

名字刻成罪，

罪刻进棺木里。

父亲举起骨棒，

砸向儿子；

学生踩碎老师的肋骨；

朋友把朋友推进火堆。

恶鬼哈哈大笑：

这里最锋利的刀，

从来不是铁，

而是人。

第三阵风吹来，

吹来一场又一场运动。

“三反”、“五反”。

一具具骷髅排成长街，

他们脖子上挂着木牌，

脚下踩着自己的影子。

有人跳下高楼，

有人吊死梁间，

有人活着，

却把魂魄留在了昨天。

他们不知道，

下一个轮到谁。

因为这里，

昨天的刽子手，

明天也是尸体。

第四阵风吹来，

六月四日。

鲜血没有流进河，

却流进了历史最黑的井。

年轻的白骨，

仍保持着奔跑的姿势。

他们伸着手，

像是要抓住黎明。

可抓住的，

只有子弹。

直到今天，

他们仍站在那里，

每到深夜，

骨头便会慢慢站起，

继续向前。

只是，

再也没有脚步声。

第五阵风吹来，

风里全是婴儿的哭声。

没有名字。

没有墓碑。

没有出生。

只有一只只苍白的小手，

不断从泥土里伸出，

抓住经过的人。

他们问：

娘，我为什么不能来到这个世界？

没有人回答。

回答他们的，

只有铁门，

标语，

和手术室冰冷的灯。

于是，

越来越多。

越来越多。

越来越多。

白骨堆满山川，

头骨漂满江河，

肋骨长成树林，

脊椎化作长城。

每一块土地，

踩下去，

都会传来骨头断裂的声音。

咔。

咔。

咔。

那不是石头。

那是无数亡魂，

在地下翻身。

他们没有离开，

他们只是一直躺在那里。

等着后来的人，

从他们身上走过去，

忘记他们，

踩碎他们，

再把新的白骨，

堆到旧的白骨之上。

于是，

山越来越高，

夜越来越黑。

恶鬼站在白骨山巅，

望着人间，

缓缓摘下自己的鬼面。

面具下面，

竟是一张人的脸。

编辑：Geoffrey    校对：熊辩 翻译：沈美花

Heaps of White Bones

—Above the eighteenth layer of hell, there lies another layer, named “The Human Realm.”

Author :Lu Huiwen

The night has no moon.

Only a mountain.

That is not a mountain.

It is skeleton upon skeleton,

One layer pressing against another,

One generation buried over another.

When the wind blows through,

Tens of thousands of teeth collide,

Issuing rustling, whispering laughter.

The gatekeeping demon says:

There are no graves here.

Because the entire land is a grave.

The first gust of wind blows in,

Blowing away three years of famine.

White bones draped in tattered rags,

Stomachs deeply sunken,

Eye sockets crawling with crows.

They bow their heads,

Holding tree bark in their hands,

Holding dirt,

Holding Guanyin clay,

And finally,

Holding their own bones.

They did not cry.

The dead do not cry.

The second gust of wind blows in,

Blowing in ten years of the Cultural Revolution.

Countless white bones have no heads,

Because their heads

Were long ago pressed low into the dust.

Books burn into ash,

The ash falls upon human bones;

Names are inscribed into crimes,

Crimes are carved into coffins.

Fathers raise bone clubs,

Striking their own sons;

Students trample and shatter their teachers’ ribs;

Friends push friends into the fires.

The demon laughs out loud:

The sharpest blade here

Has never been iron,

It has always been human.

The third gust of wind blows in,

Blowing in political movement after movement.

The “Three-Anti” and “Five-Anti” campaigns.

Skeletons stand in long lines along the streets,

Wooden signs hanging around their necks,

Shadows beneath their feet.

Some leapt from high buildings,

Some hanged themselves from roof beams,

Some survived,

Yet left their souls trapped in yesterday.

They did not know

Who would be next.

Because here,

Yesterday’s executioner

Is tomorrow’s corpse.

The fourth gust of wind blows in,

The Fourth of June.

Fresh blood did not flow into the rivers,

It flowed into the darkest well of history.

Young white bones

Still maintain a running posture.

They reach out their hands,

As if trying to grasp the dawn.

Yet all they grasp

Are bullets.

To this day,

They still stand there.

Every midnight,

The bones slowly stand up,

Continuing to charge forward.

Only,

There are no longer any footsteps.

The fifth gust of wind blows in,

Filled entirely with the cries of babies.

No names.

No gravestones.

No births.

Only pale little hands,

Continuously reaching out from the dirt,

Grabbing at passersby.

They ask:

Mother, why couldn’t I come into this world?

No one answers.

The only answer to them

Is the iron gate,

The slogans,

And the cold lights of the operating room.

And so,

More and more.

More and more.

More and more.

White bones cover the mountains and rivers,

Skulls float across rivers and lakes,

Ribs grow into forests,

Spines turn into the Great Wall.

On every piece of land,

Stepping down

Will bring the sound of breaking bones.

Crack.

Crack.

Crack.

Those are not stones.

Those are countless lost souls,

Turning over beneath the earth.

They have not left,

They have simply been lying there all along.

Waiting for those who come after

To walk across their bodies,

To forget them,

To trample them to pieces,

And then stack new white bones

On top of the old ones.

And so,

The mountain grows higher and higher,

The night grows darker and darker.

The demon stands at the peak of the mountain of white bones,

Gazing down upon the human realm,

Slowly taking off his demon mask.

Underneath the mask,

Is unexpectedly a human face.

Editor: Geoffrey

Proofreader: Xiong Bian

Translator: Shen Meihua

作者：鲁慧文

传说地狱只有十八层。

可后来，阎王在幽冥尽头，又封了一层。

无火，无刀，无鬼卒。

它叫——第十九层。

奈何桥下无忘川，

黄泉尽处锁玄关。

阎罗拈笔停生死，

轻叹人间另有天。

他说，

十八层刑罚太重，

只罚恶鬼与凶魂。

第十九层，不用刑，

只让众生日日生。

那里没有油锅，

人人自己煎自己；

那里没有拔舌狱，

人人说真话便失去前程；

那里没有刀山，

脚下每一步都是陷阱；

那里没有火海，

空气却早已无形燃烧。

那里的土地，

河流流着看不见的毒，

田野长着看不见的药。

果实熟于催促，

蔬菜艳于药瓶。

鸡鸭猪牛，

生得比季节更快，

死得比寿命更早。

鱼儿饮尽污水，

牛羊食尽残渣。

最后，

它们一起走上餐桌。

于是，

人吃着自己害怕的东西，

却不知道下一口是什么。

那里的人，

穿着染尽颜色的衣裳，

呼吸散不开的气味。

玩具会说话，

却不知道里面藏着什么。

家具散发芬芳，

却让房间久久不能安眠。

每天醒来，

无人知道，

今天吸进去的是空气，

还是代价。

那里的车，

钢铁轻如纸，

数字重如命。

广告写着五星，

碰撞却问苍天。

有人相信证书，

有人相信运气。

唯独没人知道，

回家的路，

是不是最后一程。

那里，

洪水不是天意，

干旱也未必自然。

高楼可以一夜而起，

桥梁也可以一瞬而塌。

大地沉默，

人却学会了沉默。

因为，

解释比真相先到。

那里，

法律站在殿下，

权力坐在龙椅。

判官手执法典，

却要等待一枚眼神。

黑白不是颜色，

而是谁站得更高。

正义不是天平，

而是谁握着秤。

最奇怪的是，

这里没有鬼。

因为人人都活着。

他们排着队，

买药，

买房，

买教育，

买希望。

却总觉得，

自己越来越便宜。

夜深时，

有新人问阎王：

“第十九层，为何没有锁链？”

阎王摇头：

“当一个世界，

人人都相信锁链不存在时，

便再也不用锁了。”

又有人问：

“可他们为何不逃？”

阎王望向远方，

只见万家灯火，

照着一张张疲惫的脸。

他说：

“最深的地狱，

不是鬼把人关进去。

而是让人相信，

这里，

就是唯一的人间。”

编辑：Geoffrey 校对：熊辩 翻译：戈冰

“The Nineteenth Layer of Hell—China”

Author: Lu Huiwen

Legend has it that hell has only eighteen layers.

Yet later, at the end of the netherworld, King Yama sealed another layer.

No fire, no knives, no demon guards.

It is called—The Nineteenth Layer.

Beneath the Bridge of Helplessness flows no River of Forgetfulness,

Where the Yellow Springs end, a dark pass is locked.

Yama holds his brush and pauses over life and death,

Sighing softly that in the human realm, another heaven exists.

He said,

The punishments of the eighteen layers are too heavy,

Only punishing evil ghosts and fierce souls.

The nineteenth layer uses no torture,

It merely makes all living beings live day by day.

There are no cauldrons of boiling oil there,

Everyone fries themselves;

There is no Tongue-Ripping Hell there,

Yet anyone who speaks the truth loses their future;

There are no mountains of knives there,

Yet every step beneath one’s feet is a trap;

There are no seas of fire there,

Yet the air has long been burning invisibly.

In that land,

The rivers flow with invisible poison,

The fields grow invisible drugs.

Fruits ripen under compulsion,

Vegetables shine brighter than medicine bottles.

Chickens, ducks, pigs, and cattle

Are born faster than the seasons,

And die earlier than their lifespan.

Fish drink up all the polluted water,

Cattle and sheep consume all the scraps.

In the end,

They walk onto the dining table together.

Thus,

People eat what they fear,

Not knowing what the next bite will bring.

The people there

Wear clothes dyed in every color,

And breathe in odors that never dissipate.

Toys can speak,

Yet no one knows what is hidden inside.

Furniture gives off fragrance,

Yet keeps the room from finding rest for long.

Waking up every day,

No one knows

Whether what is inhaled today is air,

Or a cost.

The cars there,

Their steel is as light as paper,

Their data as heavy as life.

Advertisements write of five stars,

Yet collisions question Heaven.

Some believe in certificates,

Some believe in luck.

Only no one knows

Whether the road home

Is their final journey.

There,

Floods are not the will of Heaven,

Nor is drought necessarily natural.

High-rises can spring up overnight,

And bridges can collapse in an instant.

The earth remains silent,

Yet human beings have learned to stay silent.

Because

Explanations arrive before the truth.

There,

The law stands beneath the dais,

While power sits upon the dragon throne.

The judge holds the code of law in hand,

Yet must wait for a single glance.

Black and white are not colors,

But rather who stands higher.

Justice is not a scale,

But rather who holds the weights.

What is most strange

Is that there are no ghosts here.

Because everyone is alive.

They queue up,

To buy medicine,

To buy housing,

To buy education,

To buy hope.

Yet they always feel

That they themselves are becoming cheaper and cheaper.

In the dead of night,

A newcomer asks King Yama:

“In the nineteenth layer, why are there no chains?”

King Yama shakes his head:

“When in a world,

Everyone believes that chains do not exist,

Locks are no longer needed.”

Another person asks:

“But why do they not escape?”

King Yama looks into the distance,

Seeing only the lights of ten thousand homes,

Illuminating weary face after weary face.

He says:

“The deepest hell

Is not one where ghosts lock humans inside.

It is making people believe

That this place,

Is the only human realm.”

Editor: Geoffrey Proofreader: Xiong Bian Translator: Ge Bing

——写给第十九层的人间

作者：鲁慧文

传说，

神创造万物，

阎王创造十八层地狱。

后来，

连阎王都沉默了。

他说：

“还有一种地方，

不归我管。”

那里，

有人把它叫作故乡。

孩子出生，

不是降临人间，

而是走进一座巨大的磨盘。

第一口奶，

父母先学会害怕；

第二口饭，

先学会辨认真假。

餐桌上的颜色，

比春天鲜艳；

配料表上的名字，

比化学名词还长。

没有人知道，

下一口吃下的是营养，

还是运气。

上学第一天，

老师递来的，

不是问题，

而是答案。

不是思考，

而是标准。

不是寻找真相，

而是寻找满分。

孩子们学会了

背诵、默写、服从，

却渐渐忘了，

为什么要发问。

一本本课本，

越来越厚；

一个个脑袋，

越来越整齐。

所有人，

都被修剪成相同的形状戴着红领巾。

少年时代，

天真开始收费。

有人担心考试，

有人担心未来，

有人担心，

自己会不会突然从世界消失，

成为别人身体的一部分。

街角、屏幕、流言、传闻，

都像夜里的风，

吹得人不敢回头。

于是，

人人把平安，

当成一种幸运。

成年以后，

人生忽然加速。

有人叫它奋斗，

有人叫它生存。

太阳还没升起，

工位已经亮灯；

月亮升到窗外，

键盘还在发光。

九九六，

只是开始；

零零七，

只是传说中的终点。

工资，

像一杯浅水，

刚够润湿嘴唇；

房价，

像一座高山，

六个钱包，

才能搬动一块砖。

年轻人把未来，

签进三十年的合同。

从此，

房子拥有了主人，

主人却成了房子的租客。

后来，

终于病了。

医院的大门，

像另一场考试。

号码，

排得比希望还长；

账单，

比诊断更让人发抖。

有人卖掉积蓄，

有人借来明天，

只为了再换几天今天。

白衣不再是天使，

眼里只有你余生的积蓄。

年老的时候，

终于退休。

却发现，

牙齿比工资掉得快，

头发比尊严白得早。

年轻时，

拿健康换收入；

年老时，

拿收入换健康。

兜兜转转，

不过是一场交换。

于是，

大部分中国人，

临死之前，

感觉自己并没有活过。

有人问阎王：

“第十九层，

到底有什么刑罚？”

阎王摇头。

“没有刀山，

没有火海，

没有铁链。”

“这里只有一台巨大的独裁机器。”

“它让人从出生开始奔跑，

一路奔向衰老。”

“路边摆满了诱惑，

脚下埋满了陷阱；

有人卖焦虑，

有人卖希望；

有人出售答案，

有人出售未来。”

“人们一边害怕，

一边相信；

一边怀疑，

一边继续。”

“直到最后，

把一生都交给了独裁机器。”

阎王合上生死簿，

轻轻叹息：

“真正可怕的，

从来不是地狱。”

“而是有人活了一辈子，

从未觉得，

自己值得拥有一个

不用恐惧、

不用欺骗、

不用麻木、

也不用不停奔跑的人生。”

于是，

第十九层，

没有恶鬼。

只有无数普通人，

他们努力活着，

努力忍耐，

努力相信，

总有一天，

下一代，

不必再走同一条路。

编辑：Gloria 校对：熊辩 翻译：戈冰

A Chinese Life

—Written for the Nineteenth Layer of the Human Realm

Author: Lu Huiwen

Legend has it,

God created all things,

And King Yama created the eighteen levels of hell.

Later,

Even King Yama fell silent.

He said:

“There is another place,

Which is not under my jurisdiction.”

There,

Some people call it home.

When a child is born,

It is not arriving in the human realm,

But walking into a giant millstone.

With the first mouthful of milk,

Parents first learn to fear;

With the second mouthful of food,

They first learn to distinguish real from fake.

The colors on the dining table

Are more vivid than spring;

The names on the ingredient list

Are longer than chemical terms.

No one knows

Whether the next bite swallowed is nutrition,

Or luck.

On the first day of school,

What the teacher hands over

Is not a question,

But an answer.

Not thinking,

But a standard.

Not searching for the truth,

But searching for a full score.

The children have learned to

Recite, dictatingly transcribe, and obey,

Yet have gradually forgotten

Why one asks questions in the first place.

Textbook after textbook

Grows thicker and thicker;

Head after head

Grows neater and neater.

Everyone

Is pruned into the identical shape, wearing red scarves.

In youth,

Innocence begins to come at a cost.

Some worry about exams,

Some worry about the future,

Some worry

Whether they will suddenly disappear from the world,

Becoming a part of someone else’s body.

Street corners, screens, rumors, hearsay,

All are like wind in the night,

Blowing so fiercely that people dare not look back.

Thus,

Everyone treats peace and safety

As a stroke of luck.

After reaching adulthood,

Life suddenly accelerates.

Some call it striving,

Some call it survival.

Before the sun has even risen,

The lights at the workstation are already lit;

When the moon climbs outside the window,

The keyboard is still glowing.

996

Is merely the beginning;

007

Is merely the legendary finish line.

Wages,

Like a shallow glass of water,

Are just enough to wet the lips;

Housing prices,

Like a high mountain—

It takes six wallets

Just to move a single brick.

Young people sign their future

Into a thirty-year contract.

From then on,

The house has an owner,

Yet the owner becomes a tenant of the house.

Later,

One finally falls ill.

The hospital gates

Are like another exam.

The queue numbers

Are longer than hope itself;

The bill

Makes one tremble even more than the diagnosis.

Some sell off their lifetime savings,

Some borrow from tomorrow,

Just to trade for a few more days of today.

White coats are no longer angels;

In their eyes, there is only the savings of the rest of your life.

In old age,

One finally retires.

Only to discover that

Teeth fall faster than wages,

And hair turns white earlier than dignity.

When young,

Exchanging health for income;

When old,

Exchanging income for health.

Going round and round in circles,

It is nothing more than an exchange.

Thus,

Most Chinese people,

Before lying on their deathbed,

Feel that they have never truly lived.

Someone asked King Yama:

“The nineteenth layer—

What kind of punishment is actually there?”

King Yama shook his head.

“There are no mountains of knives,

No seas of fire,

No iron chains.”

“There is only a giant dictatorial machine here.”

“It makes people run from the moment they are born,

Running all the way toward old age.”

“The roadside is filled with temptations,

And the ground beneath is buried with traps;

Some sell anxiety,

Some sell hope;

Some sell answers,

Some sell futures.”

“People fear

While believing;

They doubt

While pushing forward.”

“Until in the end,

They hand their entire lives over to the dictatorial machine.”

King Yama closed the Register of Life and Death,

And sighed softly:

“What is truly terrifying

Has never been hell.”

“It is that someone lived an entire lifetime,

Without ever feeling

That they deserved to have a life

Free from fear,

Free from deception,

Free from numbness,

And free from the constant need to keep running.”

Thus,

In the nineteenth layer,

There are no evil demons.

There are only countless ordinary people;

They strive to live,

Strive to endure,

Strive to believe that,

One day,

The next generation

Will not have to walk this same path.

Editor: Gloria Proofreader: Xiong Bian Translator: Ge Bing

作者：祝正明

（一）主权的渊源

人生而自由，没有人天生就应该受到他人的束缚；人生而平等，没有人天生就低人一等，天生就应该受到别人的管制。每个人都是自己的主人，每个国家和地区的人民是该国家和地区的主人。人民是国家权力的渊源。民主政治的中心思想就是在国家的政治事务中，由人民当家作主，民众的意志决定一切。政府基于人民的同意而建立，依靠人民的智慧来管理，行为的目的只是为了维护人民的利益。

人类文明发展到今天，人类社会已不再是野蛮社会，政府的权力绝不能再是由少数人取自于暴力，强加在人民头上。如果政府官员以暴力手段将权力强加于民众，强制民众服务于政府官员，民众也同样有权以暴力手段推翻政府，另立新政府，让政府为自己服务。因为，以强权建立的政府，与其说是政府，不如说是一伙强盗。尽管他们可以号称自己代表人民，自己也是人民，给自己的集团戴上人民政权的假面具，但这种伪善的做法并不能掩盖他们的强盗品行。

国家的一切政治权力来自于人民，隶属于人民，服务于人民，因此，只要政府的行为偏离人民的意愿，人民就有权收回由政府代为行使的主权，修改政府，废除政府，建立新政府。

民主政治的基本思想认为：建立政府的目的仅在于更好地保障个人的自由和财产，政府实际上只是一个缔约组织，即一个根据约定组成的组织，因为民众有一些共同的需求，需要由一个全社会性质的强大组织来协调完成，所以才约定共同建立政府，政府只能依照民众的协约而建立，依照约定来运作，全体公民共同的、经过提炼而形成的意志就是约定的内容。

在民主社会，为了社会的稳定有序，人们互相约定共同遵守的规则，这就是社会的法律。这种法律是国民共同意志的精华，它的约束力建立在公民自己同意的基础之上，是社会大多数人的共同意志。在自由、民主、法制社会，人的行为仍然会受到约束，但这种约束是建立在人自己同意的基础之上，因此人仍然可以被认为是自由的，因为，遵守他人的约束是一种奴役，而遵守自我约束则是一种享受。

（二）人权的含意

人权，就是人作为自由人的权利，是人要过人的生活的神圣权利。一些人比其它人更强壮、更精明，并不等于这些人就可以以强权奴役他人，剥夺他人的人身自由权利。做人没有充分的人权，人的人格便不完整，人的尊严就受到扭曲。

侵犯人权就是侵犯人作为一个有生命的个体存在的权利，是对生命的践踏，它使得人不再是自己生命的主人。

社会之所以要实现民主，就是为了确保普通百姓的人身权利不受官僚贵族们的侵犯。将人权的内容具体文字化的基本用意就是在社会的民主程度还不够完善的状况下使百姓能有目的、有勇气地与强权专制统治作斗争，与随意侵犯人民利益的行为作斗争，约束统治者的霸权行为。因为我们的社会毕竟已不再是野蛮社会。

人权，是民主政治提倡的最主要概念，民主政治的基本作用就是保护人权：如果政府不能充分保障人权，政府就还不够民主；如果政府侵犯人权，政府就绝非是民主政府。

英国资产阶级大革命后于1689年通过的《人权法案》第一次明文规定了国王的某些行为属于非法，是英国大革命的重要成果，也是近代世界民主政治的起源。法国于1789年8月开始的大革命胜利后颁布的《人权和公民权宣言》，为法国民主政治的发展奠定了基础：随后，美国于1791年通过了宪法修正案《权利法案》。这些人权立法都是各国人民同专制独裁行为斗争的结果，是具有宪法性质的纲领性文件，它们明确规定了执政者都不得任意侵犯的公民的基本权利，基本内容包括：自由、财产、人身神圣不可侵犯，言论、信仰、著作出版自由权利不可侵犯，国家主权属于人民。

1948年12月10日，联合国大会通过了《世界人权宣言》，1966年12月16日联合国大会又通过《经济、社会、文化权利国际公约》，《公民权利和政治权利国际公约》，进一步详细阐明了人权的具体内容，使保护人权成为世界各国政府共同遵守的原则。人权在全世界范围内已得到广泛的认同和普遍的尊重。

对于人权问题，马克思主义者认为，人权是与财产私有制联系在一起的，它保证人身权利、财产不受侵犯，实际上是保护的资产阶级的权利不受侵犯，无产阶级已经一无所有，时刻处于受剥削，受压迫的地位，丧失了任何权利，只有以暴力剥夺富有者的财产，消灭私有制，才能消灭剥削和压迫。实现了财产的公有制，就能消除人的私心，消除人剥削人，人压迫人的现象，就不会再有对人权的侵犯现象，因此，社会主义社会无需提倡人权，保护人权是多此一举，人权是私有制社会的特殊产物。马克思说：“人权本身就是特权，而私有制就是垄断。。”恩格斯说：“真正的自由和真正的平等只有在共产主义制度下才能实现。”列宁认为：只有“把人类从各式各样的压迫和人剥削人的制度下解放出来，才能真正实现人人自由平等的社会。”

但是显然，公有制仅是一种经济制度，而并非是一种政治制度，公有制不能消除人的私心，公有制社会并不等于就是政治民主社会。而且，即便社会同时实现了政治民主，也并不等于就能完全消灭了对人权的侵犯现象，因为，民主政治同样不能消除人的私心。因此，人权并无制度、种族、国别之限，在全世界范围内，人权的标准都一样。

人权的内容主要有以下各项：

●人人生而平等，人人有追求幸福生活的权利。

●人人有思考的权利，有表达自己观念与意见的权利，有说话的权利。

●有根据自己的兴趣和利益自由组织、参加社团的权利。

●有和平集会、请愿、抗议、游行、示威的权利。

●有自由从事新闻出版发行工作的权利，有接受、传递任何信息、思想的自由，不论国界、也不论口头、书面、或其它形式。

●有自由信仰任何宗教与理论的权利。

●对政治有自决的权利，有直接或通过自由选举的代表参与公共事务的权利。

●有在一个国家内自由迁徙、选择住所的权利；有自由离开任何一个地方和国家的权利；有返回自己国家的权利。

●人人享有人身自由和安全，不受任意的逮捕或拘禁，除非按规定的法律程序；在未依法证实有罪之前，有权被推定无罪。

●有接受公正的、独立的、公开的司法审判的权利，如被认为有罪，有权要求与证人对质，有权上诉，有要求具有民意代表性的、普通公民组成的陪审团进行定罪的权利。

●对任何人不得加以酷刑或施以残忍的、不人道的或侮辱性的待遇或刑罚。

●个人财产有不受无理侵犯的权利。

● 个人生活、家庭、住宅、通信不受任意干涉，荣誉和名誉有不受无理攻击的权利。

●有权享有安全与卫生的工作条件。

●有权自由组织工会和罢工

●有权自由选择工作、辞退原先的工作。

●有权接受免费的初级教育，高等教育根据成绩向一切人平等开放。

不承认人权是专制统治者的共同特征。他们的统治之所以能够维护下去，实际上依赖的就是对人权的侵犯，以强权，采用不人道，甚至残酷的手段压制、镇压人民。同时，平民被他们灌输的愚民思想所愚弄，丧失了主权意识，不知何者称人权，不知到自己有哪些权利，不懂得自己能够运用这些权利，主动放弃了这些权利，成为驯服的、麻木不仁的绵羊，从而使统治者能够任意驱使、任意奴役、任意宰割。

公民是否拥有个人权利意识，是衡量一个社会的民众有无民主思想的标志，是一个社会能否实现民主，建立民主政治的先决条件。

民主政治的实质，就是依赖民众的意志进行治理。假如民众没有这种意识，放任国家的法律、政策由统治者任意制定，当他们侵犯自己的权益时，采取容忍默认的态度，那么，侵犯公民权益的行为就无法避免。民众的权益只能靠自己去争取与维护，决不能依赖于统治者是否仁慈，是否能主动为民众着想。

民主政治的目的就是使每个公民都能够自由平等地生活，能够根据自己的意志与能力自由地支配自己的生活，不受任何人无理粗暴的干涉。民主社会所指的平等，并不是经济上的平等，而是指机会上的平等，权利上的平等。任何人都能在平等的机会下参与竞争，不受出生时家庭条件的限制，不受社会地位与身份等级的限制，不受性别年龄种族的限制。能否取得成功，完全取决于个人的能力。

编辑：黄吉洲 校对：程筱筱 翻译：戈冰

Political Democracy—Chapter V: The Concept of Democratic Politics

Author: Zhu Zhengming

(1) The Origin of Sovereignty

Humans are born free; no one is born to be bound by others. Humans are born equal; no one is born inferior or born to be controlled by others. Every individual is their own master, and the people of every country and region are the masters of that country and region. The people are the source of state power. The core idea of democratic politics is that in the political affairs of a nation, the people act as the masters of their own destiny, and the will of the public determines everything. Government is established based on the consent of the people, relies on the wisdom of the people for governance, and acts solely to safeguard the interests of the people.

With human civilization having developed to where it is today, human society is no longer a primeval society; government power must never again be seized by a minority through force and imposed upon the people. If government officials impose power upon the public through violent means and force the public to serve government officials, the public likewise has the right to overthrow the government through violent means and set up a new government to serve themselves. This is because a government established by force is less a government than a gang of bandits. Although they may claim to represent the people, claim that they themselves are part of the people, and put a disguise of “people’s power” on their own clique, such hypocritical practices cannot conceal their bandit nature.

All political power of the state originates from the people, belongs to the people, and serves the people. Therefore, as long as the actions of the government deviate from the will of the people, the people have the right to reclaim the sovereignty delegated to the government, modify the government, abolish the government, and establish a new government.

The fundamental idea of democratic politics holds that the sole purpose of establishing a government is to better protect individual freedom and property. The government is essentially merely a compact-based organization—that is, an organization formed pursuant to an agreement. Because the public has certain common needs that require a powerful, all-society organization to coordinate and fulfill, they agree to jointly establish a government. A government can only be established in accordance with the compact of the public and operate according to that agreement; the collective and refined will of all citizens constitutes the content of this compact.

In a democratic society, for the sake of social stability and order, people mutually agree to abide by common rules; these are the laws of society. Such laws represent the essence of the citizens’ common will, and their binding force is established on the foundation of the citizens’ own consent, representing the common will of the majority of society. In a free, democratic, and rule-of-law society, human behavior is still subject to constraints, but because these constraints are established upon the foundation of self-consent, human beings can still be considered free. This is because obeying constraints imposed by others is slavery, whereas obeying self-imposed constraints is an enjoyment.

(2) The Meaning of Human Rights

Human rights are the rights of a person as a free individual; they are the sacred rights required for a human to live a fully human life. The fact that some people are stronger or shrewder than others does not mean they may use force to enslave others or deprive others of their personal liberty and rights. Without full human rights, a person’s personhood remains incomplete, and human dignity is distorted.

Infringing upon human rights is an infringement upon the right of a person to exist as a living individual; it is a trampling upon life that renders a person no longer the master of their own life.

The reason society needs to realize democracy is precisely to ensure that the personal rights of ordinary people are not infringed upon by bureaucratic elites. The primary intention behind codifying the content of human rights into explicit written text is to enable the common people—under circumstances where the level of democracy in society is not yet fully mature—to struggle purposefully and courageously against authoritarian and autocratic rule, struggle against acts that arbitrarily infringe upon the interests of the people, and restrain the hegemonic behavior of rulers. After all, our society is no longer a primeval society.

Human rights are the most primary concept advocated by democratic politics, and the fundamental function of democratic politics is to protect human rights: if a government cannot fully guarantee human rights, that government is not yet democratic enough; if a government infringes upon human rights, that government is absolutely not a democratic government.

The Bill of Rights, passed in 1689 following the British Bourgeois Revolution, stipulated for the first time in explicit terms that certain acts of the monarch were illegal; it was a major achievement of the British Revolution and also the origin of modern democratic politics worldwide. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, promulgated after the victory of the French Revolution commencing in August 1789, laid the foundation for the development of democratic politics in France; subsequently, the United States passed the constitutional amendments known as the Bill of Rights in 1791. These pieces of human rights legislation were all the fruits of various peoples’ struggles against autocratic and dictatorial practices, serving as programmatic documents of a constitutional nature. They explicitly stipulated fundamental citizen rights that no ruler may arbitrarily violate, with basic content encompassing: the inviolability of liberty, property, and person; the inviolable rights to freedom of speech, belief, and publication; and that national sovereignty belongs to the people.

On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and on December 16, 1966, the United Nations General Assembly further adopted the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which elaborated on the specific content of human rights in greater detail and turned the protection of human rights into a common principle to be observed by governments worldwide. Human rights have gained widespread consensus and universal respect globally.

Regarding the issue of human rights, Marxists contend that human rights are bound up with the system of private property; by guaranteeing that personal rights and property are free from infringement, it in fact protects bourgeois rights from infringement. The proletariat, possessing nothing and constantly in a position of being exploited and oppressed, has lost all rights; only by stripping the wealthy of their property through violence and abolishing private ownership can exploitation and oppression be eliminated. Once public ownership of property is achieved, human selfishness can be eliminated, along with the phenomena of human-on-human exploitation and oppression, and instances of human rights violations will no longer exist. Therefore, a socialist society has no need to advocate human rights, as protecting human rights is entirely superfluous; human rights are merely a special product of private-property societies. Marx stated: “Human rights themselves are privileges, and private ownership is a monopoly.” Engels stated: “True freedom and true equality can only be realized under the communist system.” Lenin maintained: Only by “liberating humanity from all forms of oppression and from the system of human-on-human exploitation can a society of freedom and equality for all truly be realized.”

However, it is obvious that public ownership is merely an economic system rather than a political system; public ownership cannot eliminate human selfishness, and a society of public ownership is not inherently equal to a politically democratic society. Moreover, even if a society simultaneously achieves political democracy, this does not mean that violations of human rights can be completely eradicated, because democratic politics likewise cannot eliminate human selfishness. Therefore, human rights are bounded by no system, race, or nationality; across the entire world, the standards of human rights remain identical.

The main contents of human rights primarily include the following items:

● All human beings are born equal and everyone has the right to pursue a happy life.

● Everyone has the right to think, the right to express their own concepts and opinions, and the right to speak.

● Everyone has the right to freely organize and join associations according to their own interests and benefits.

● Everyone has the right to peaceful assembly, petition, protest, march, and demonstration.

● Everyone has the right to freely engage in news, publishing, and distribution work, and the freedom to receive and impart any information and ideas, regardless of frontiers, and whether orally, in writing, or through any other medium.

● Everyone has the right to freely hold any religious beliefs and theoretical convictions.

● Everyone has the right to political self-determination, and the right to take part in public affairs directly or through freely chosen representatives.

● Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of a state; the right to freely leave any place or country; and the right to return to their own country.

● Everyone enjoys liberty and security of person, free from arbitrary arrest or detention except through established legal procedures; everyone has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law.

● Everyone has the right to a fair, independent, and public judicial trial; if deemed guilty, everyone has the right to confront witnesses, the right to appeal, and the right to demand that conviction be determined by a representative jury composed of ordinary citizens.

● No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.

● Every individual’s personal property has the right to be free from unreasonable infringement.

● Every individual’s personal life, family, home, and correspondence shall not be subjected to arbitrary interference, and their honor and reputation have the right to be free from unreasonable attack.

● Everyone has the right to enjoy safe and healthy working conditions.

● Everyone has the right to freely organize trade unions and to strike.

● Everyone has the right to freely choose employment and to resign from original employment.

● Everyone has the right to receive free primary education, and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

Non-recognition of human rights is a common trait among autocratic rulers. The reason their rule can be maintained relies, in fact, on the infringement of human rights—suppressing and repressing the people through might and the use of inhumane or even cruel methods. At the same time, the common people are duped by the obscurantist ideology drummed into them, losing their consciousness of sovereignty, knowing not what human rights are, knowing not what rights they possess, not knowing how to exercise these rights, and voluntarily forfeiting these rights to become docile, numb sheep, thereby allowing rulers to arbitrarily command, enslave, and slaughter them.

Whether citizens possess a consciousness of personal rights serves as the hallmark of whether the public in a society possesses democratic ideas; it is the prerequisite for whether a society can realize democracy and establish democratic politics.

The essence of democratic politics is to govern by relying on the will of the public. If the public lacks this consciousness, allowing the laws and policies of the nation to be arbitrarily formulated by rulers, and adopting an attitude of tolerance and tacit consent when their own rights and interests are infringed upon, then acts infringing upon citizens’ rights and interests will be impossible to avoid. The rights and interests of the public can only be fought for and defended by themselves, and can never rely on whether the rulers are benevolent or whether they can proactively consider the public’s well-being.

The purpose of democratic politics is to enable every citizen to live freely and equally, to freely order their own life according to their own will and capabilities, and to be free from unreasonable and brutal interference by anyone. The equality referred to in a democratic society is not economic equality, but rather equality of opportunity and equality of rights. Anyone can compete under equal opportunities, unconstrained by family background at birth, unconstrained by social status and hierarchical rank, and unconstrained by gender, age, or race. Whether one can achieve success depends entirely on individual ability.

Editor: Huang Jizhou Proofreader: Cheng Xiaoxiao Translator: Ge Bing