*Written by Ji Weidong
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Just imagine: there is a handsome young man who is brilliant and strong-blooded, who completed his studies ahead of schedule with excellent grades during his study abroad and attracted the attention of all parties, and returned to the capital in a hurry in order to serve the motherland and make great achievements, but he was classified as a "rightist" just because he confessed his views to the organization in response to the call for rectification, and suffered three disasters in a row within a year -- losing his bright future, losing his newlywed wife, and then losing a walking leg in a train accident of punitive manual labor. What a cruel trick of fate!！
The hero of this tragedy is Mr. Jiang Ping.
In the 22 years since then, how did Mr. Jiang survive the hardships? What was the strength that sustained him in the face of adversity and his spiritual upliftment? Everyone knows that in the sentence "I can look at everything more with a normal heart" that he lightly spit out from then on, there is actually an extremely strong meaning of "unusual". Struggling in the era when the Yellow Bell was destroyed and the tiles were ringing, it took courage and perseverance for the noble people to even "live one more day". During the long twenty-two years of spiritual exile, what was it that could sustain the psychological balance or optimism of the fallen people?
Did Mr. Jiang finally accept the proposition of the French Revolution theorist Saint-Justed that "too much is no cure"? It doesn't seem to be. Or is he simply silently enduring the pressures and inertia of reality with all the masses, as the psychologist George Grode said: "We are not living, but being lived"? It doesn't seem right either. Is it the opposite, then, that in the midst of doubts about external authority and inner denial, a new self-identity is finally established, which can make people distinguished and transcendent? In addition, what other factors can catalyze that rare expansiveness and rare understanding?
I wanted to ask him directly, but I was afraid that I would tear open the wounds of history and make him feel that heart-wrenching pain again.
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In an interview with the editorial board of the Global Law Review in 2002, Mr. Jiang said, "In the past 70 years or so, the most unforgettable moment for me was the moment when I was classified as a rightist. This big truth provides us with enough space for imagination.
But the reason why Jiang Ping is Jiang Ping is because even in extreme adversity, the flame of hope in his heart has never been extinguished. In the midst of his daily blank eyes and cold faces, although he was deprived of the right to delve into academics, he still insisted on keeping the various legal works brought back from the Soviet Union for 10 years and 3,600 days. Even after the beginning of the "Cultural Revolution," which banned and burned books, although he reluctantly sold all his classics to the scrapyards, he still picked out a Russian version of the "Civil and Commercial Law of the Bourgeois State" and treasured it, which he kept for another 12 years, 4,321 days. Behind such persistent behavior there must be a more persistent idea -- the belief that the rule of law will eventually prevail over the rule of man, the belief that an all-powerful state cannot replace civil society, and the belief that the torrent of free trade will inevitably break through the embankment of closing the country. Obviously, Mr. Jiang Ping is a person with a clear sense of purpose.
However, we know that love is beyond an end. True love is an end in itself, and is not subordinate to any other end. Therefore, perhaps the absurd violence of being forced to divorce by an organization is far more severe than the blow to a young talent than the serious setback of his career and the serious physical injury. There is no need to elaborate on this, just look at the fact that Mr. Jiang has been widowed and unmarried for 15 years in the prime of his life. It was not until 1972, when he was sent to work in rural Anhui, that he was finally fortunate enough to rebuild his family and have children. During the teaching period of Yanqing Middle School, because the husband and wife lived separately, Mr. Jiang brought up his son by himself. Perhaps only the poems left by Su Shi in "Washing Children" are the most suitable for his state of mind at that time - "Everyone raises a son and wants to be smart, but I have been mistaken by being smart all my life; I hope that the child will be foolish and reckless, and there will be no disaster and no trouble to the minister." Even the open-minded and arrogant Mr. Dongpo has made such a heartbreaking complaint, you can imagine how many people have been rectified and mistaken in Chinese officialdom throughout the ages!
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But Mr. Jiang still seems to be luckier than Mr. Dongpo, and in the end he was not "mistaken by being clever for a lifetime". So in his speech at the 70th birthday feast, he said something like this: "God is finally 'fair'. After 1957, it gave me 22 years of adversity and another 22 years of good times."
Since the reopening of the Beijing University of Political Science and Law (the predecessor of China University of Political Science and Law) in 1978 and the reinstatement of faculty members, Mr. Jiang finally had the opportunity to fulfill his lifelong ambition in his career. His professional courses have been widely welcomed by students, and his research results have also won rave reviews. After presiding over the teaching of the whole school, he created a new generation of atmosphere, so that many outstanding talents came to the fore. In terms of private law, he co-drafted the general principles of civil law with Mr. Tong Rou, Mr. Wang Jiafu, Mr. Wei Zhenying, etc., and participated in the formulation of many civil and commercial norms; In terms of public law, he cooperated with Mr. Luo Haocai and Mr. Ying Songnian to draft the Administrative Litigation Law; Once established, such an institutional arrangement, which links society and the State closely together with the guarantee of individual rights, will lay a solid foundation for the re-codification of the modern legal system. In the spring of 1988, Mr. Jiang was elected as a deputy to the Seventh National People's Congress, then elected as a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, vice chairman of the Law Committee, and then appointed as the president of China University of Political Science and Law.
However, after 1989, the situation at home and abroad changed, and Mr. Jiang Ping also hung up his crown and returned to the campus. In this regard, he still treats it with a normal heart, no complaints and no regrets, but he has two more mantras, saying "shame and courage", and "only bowing to the truth". There is no cynical emotional reaction in it, just a reflection of the character of a career lawyer and public intellectual.
From this, I can't help but think of a quote from the German sociologist Zimmer, who has the temperament of a philosopher: "The highest level of art is uncompromising but adaptable to reality." And the most unfortunate personal quality is that despite constant compromises, it always fails to adapt to reality". Compared with those people who are constantly vacillating but full of complaints, it seems that Mr. Jiang has reached the kind of realm that Zimmer admires, who is uncompromising on matters of principle and can adapt to social reality with a tolerant and liberal attitude.
Because he is uncompromising on major issues of right and wrong, he has a clear conscience and speaks calmly. Because it can adapt to small and different subsections, it is more comfortable to be gregarious and act with fate. It is no wonder that in the 1990s, when he was "moved to the left", Mr. Jiang Ping's prestige was higher, his career became busier and busier, and his popularity in all aspects was also increasing. Suddenly I realized, is the main answer to the question I want to ask is here? Perhaps in 1957, Mr. Jiang paid such an extremely high price as losing everything that he obtained, and it was the realization of the highest state of life mentioned above?
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Mr. Jiang Ping is indeed humble and open-minded. In the preface to the commemoration of his 70th birthday, he summed up his experience and only made the following paragraph: "I am a legal educator, and I use the school as a stage to strive to cultivate a generation of legal workers, lawyers, and jurists with a modern concept of the rule of law, and a democratic, free and open mind. I am a legal activist, and I have taken society as a stage and contributed to the establishment of a modern country under the rule of law in many fields such as legislation, justice, government departments, and enterprises." Although we will not accept such a modest self-evaluation in its entirety, and although we must highly praise Mr. Jiang's contributions to legal research, there is no doubt that we can agree with one thing, that is, he did devote his main efforts to legal education in the good times of the next 22 years, and he made remarkable achievements, and his great influence is bound to gradually manifest itself in the future operation of the system.
Obviously, Mr. Jiang's understanding of legal education is by no means satisfied with the training of small skills in conceptual calculations based on utilitarianism, let alone allowing vocational schools to degenerate to the point of simply creating "golden jobs" for future lawyers who are still waiting to be fed in the cradle. In his speech at the Beijing Lawyers Association, he specifically pointed out that "a good lawyer should have two 'senses': one is a sense of mission and the other is a sense of justice"; In addition, it is necessary to "look at the two 'qualities'" and the lawyer should "have a little more philosopher's quality... Enlighten people with wisdom, not legal peddlers, rely on reselling legal knowledge, and rely on a little bit of legal skills to make money", in addition, lawyers should also have a little more scholarly temperament, "that is, to be a scholar-type lawyer." ...... It is necessary to have rigorous legal knowledge and work style, instead of half-understanding, opening up words, talking exaggeratedly, and pretending to understand. ...... We must have a spirit of continuous learning and Xi."
The above two senses and two qualitative values are set up for the purpose of cultivating the mindset of a true professional lawyer, which is in line with the purpose of modern university law school education. What is very intriguing is that Mr. Jiang did not emphasize the majesty and greatness of the quality of a lawyer, but only repeatedly pointed out that "shame follows courage." He mentioned this requirement in his speech to lawyers, and he also mentioned it to students at China University of Political Science and Law when he summed up his 40-year teaching career. Generally speaking, such an admonition is, of course, directed at judicial corruption and the current situation of the world, and in the long run, it seems that it is a bit of an interest in finding educational resources from the traditional Chinese legal consciousness of "shame and character". But I pondered it again and again, and I felt that Mr. Jiang's talk about shame has a deeper meaning, because he has grasped the most critical issue of promoting the rule of law in China, and he is also very good at pinpointing the political evils of reality.
Do you remember? Before the Opium War, there was a thinker named Gong Zizhen, who had already pointed out that in order to maintain his authority, the emperor "did not try to hate the people of the world, and gave orders as soon as possible; to the shame of others, to exalt their bodies", so that "ten thousand husbands are soft", only "know the carriage and horses, clothing, and words to give victory". It can be seen from this that "shame and courage" is not only a matter of personal moral cultivation. In the face of the shameful, the power of both soft and hard will fail. In this sense, the 22 years of adversity have indeed given Mr. Jiang the opportunity to ponder and review, so that he can finally find the foci of the 2,200-year-old Chinese traditional bureaucracy.
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Of course, even if Mr. Jiang discovers that the key to China's rule of law lies in the "courage to be ashamed and courageous" of professional lawyers, whether such a code of conduct can be universalized and turned around depends on objective conditions. If the spread of institutional or structural corruption reaches an unmanageable level, the atmosphere of officialdom will become dirty, as Wei Yuan of the late Qing Dynasty criticized: the civil and military generals of the Manchu Dynasty "do not know what the national economy and people's livelihood are except for wealth and wealth; Except for the private party, I don't know what talent is", so let alone "brave" or "not brave", even if you want to be "shameful", I am afraid it will be even more difficult.
This involves the evaluation of institutions and order itself. Stability and order are indeed very important for economic investment and daily life, otherwise it is impossible to create an atmosphere of peace and contentment. However, there are also good and bad orders. The famous quote of the seventeenth-century British political thinker James Harrington, "A good order makes a bad man good, and a bad order makes a good man bad"—profoundly reveals the danger of a degenerate system and order that may lead to ignorance of the existence of shame. At this point, we can understand why Mr. Jiang prefers to position himself as a legal and social activist. If no one courageously stands up as a public intellectual to criticize society and prompt the government to reflect, if no one takes on the drudgery of being a spokesman for the conscience of society, then even good order will become bad, and even good people will become bad. Looking around, are there fewer such instances?
Mr. Jiang said, "When I studied Xi in the Soviet Union, it was true that the legal system [there] was relatively perfect, but no one wanted to call the Soviet Union under Stalin a 'country ruled by law.'" Those who study law need to immerse themselves in the interpretation of legal provisions and the exploration of academic theories, but without the basic goals of democracy, freedom, and human rights, the law will be pale and powerless, and can even become a tool for oppressing the people and suppressing dissenting opinions." That's a lot of insight into it! It is precisely because he has seen through the crux of the problem that Mr. Jiang has frequently spoken on major issues related to the future of the country, such as constitutional amendments and political reforms, without the slightest hesitation or calculation of "whether to be or not to be" public intellectuals.
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In fact, with regard to public intellectuals, there is not only a question of "whether it is appropriate or not", but also a question of "whether it is worthy or not". Public intellectuals need not only talent, but also backbone; Not only must there be flying literary brilliance, but also should have excellent insight; Without professional knowledge and skills, it is impossible to talk about it without thought and responsibility. This is not a mission that anyone can take on if they want to. It can be said that in China's legal circles, Mr. Jiang Ping is truly well-deserved. The reason is simple, in his own words, that he "has nothing left to be superstitious" and that he "bows only to the truth".
Regarding the truth, Mr. Jiang has a wonderful discussion. He said: "Truth has no class character, and it cannot be said that the proletariat necessarily grasps the truth. The subordinates can obey the superiors, but it does not mean that the truth is necessarily in the hands of the superiors, and the fact that the minority obeys the majority does not mean that the truth is necessarily on the side of the majority. The truth cannot be blindly followed, and only through the process of comparison, analysis, thinking, and discernment can we get closer to the truth, and one voice or one kind of thinking cannot get the truth." In the final analysis, it is a sentence, "do not bow to the powerful", because the powerful do not necessarily represent the truth, nor can they monopolize the truth, let alone claim to have mastered the absolute truth. In specific judicial practice, such a position has been very concise and concise since the pre-Qin period -- "the law is not precious". Therefore, "bowing only to the truth" can be understood as the inherent character of legal people.
Mr. Jiang Ping at the 2014 Caixin Summit Rule of Law Forum
This is not to say that all legal people must be like Mr. Jiang to "point out the country, exalt words, and dung the marquis of ten thousand households". Moreover, a certain degree of political conservatism among legal people is not only inevitable but even necessary, because the main social function of the positive law system is not so much an engine of positive driving as a brake to stop the speeding of society. This function is reflected in the way of personal behavior and attitude towards the world, which presents the artistic conception of "extremely wise and modest" that traditional Chinese philosophy emphasises, which requires lawyers to be tenacious and introverted, modest and steady.
However, despite this, we should also be soberly aware that for any society, the conscience or moral responsibility of lawyers, judges, and scholars is the bottom line of the legitimacy of the current system, and the last line of defense for fairness and justice. At a time when institutional corruption was already unstoppable, it became a demand for professional lawyers and public intellectuals to work together to turn the tide, as was the case in the United States in the late eighteenth century and in Germany in the mid-nineteenth century. Perhaps China today also needs a political reform led by lawyers, in the form of the New Constitutional Movement.
From this point of view, Mr. Jiang Ping's recent series of proposals on the issue of constitutional governance deserve our attention.
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As mentioned earlier, Mr. Jiang Ping once said in his 70th self-report that he had 22 years of good times since 1979. However, a closer examination will reveal that there are still twists and turns. Strictly speaking, it can also be divided into two stages: In the first 10 years and 3,600 days until 1988, he took the Russian version of the "Civil and Commercial Law of the Bourgeois State" as a starting point, and made great progress in academic research, teaching and educating people, and enforcing legislation in schools, and made outstanding contributions to the formation of the rule of law and order. In the 12 years after 1989, 4,321 years, although he had a much larger collection of professional classics than he had sold to scrapyards, and had presided over or participated in the compilation of several important legal series, his influence on the decision-making process was limited by various overt and covert restrictions.
Now, this period of dormancy, waiting, and preparation seems to have finally come to an end. Soon after the celebration and farewell to the pulpit, Mr. Jiang began to turn his main attention to the New Constitutional Movement. In other words, from about 2002, his life has followed the so-called "22 years of good times", and then entered another stage. So, will it be adversity or good times from now on? Where will the scales of history tilt? Is God fair to Jiang Ping, who is coming to constitutional rule? Let's wait and see. I hope that Mr. Jiang will have another 22 years to make great contributions to the democratic reform of politics, so as to completely realize his ideal of truth, goodness and beauty.
I would like to say my best wishes to Mr. Jiang Ping before putting down my pen. But for some reason, there is a poem that comes out repeatedly, banishing all other words from the pen. It is Li Shangyin's famous sentence: "The silkworm dies in spring, and the wax torch turns to ashes and tears begin to dry" -- just like the true portrayal of Mr. Jiang's life of sacrificing himself and contributing to society, and just like his earnest teaching to our unsuccessful juniors. Of course, it could also be a meaningful metaphor for the evolution of China's political system.
I hope that a butterfly that once had a leisurely trip in Zhuangzi's dream will break out of the cocoon from the place where the spring silkworms are still, and fly and dance in the sunlit land of China!
(First draft on August 7, 2003, revised on August 5, 2004)