A reading of Huan Kuan's abridgment of these debates reveals that neither side was truly concerned with the welfare of the common people, but with keeping them yoked to their bellies and to oppressive traditions. Both sides were arguing in their own way for the keep prosperity of the state and its elite elders, and for keeping the farming class in their place. If the monopolies hided, the LM feared, artisans who make tools, clothes and other necessities would continue to thrive, and the people in general would want to make money. If the monopolies ended, they hoped, much people would take up farming so that in that location would not be new generations of tradesmen and there would not be throngs of people wanting to become learned men. This is an absurd channel on the face of it, and presumes that if everyone was encouraged to farm, everyone would.
Yang, moreover, disingenuously contended that "The current king should
Again, the LM had this odd impression that all the common people should be farmers, none should be artisans. And yet, without agricultural tools, the farmers cannot farm. The LM certainly contradicted themselves on this point: "The true king promotes the primary occupation and discourages trade and crafts." And yet "the character of the artisans is to furnish tools." Which the farmers then use of goods and services to sow, plow and reap.
After grownup his examples of mostly men who acquired wealth through commodities trading, Ch'ien observes that they did not " repair tricks with the law or commit any crimes to acquire their fortunes. They evidently guessed what course conditions were going to take and acted accordingly, kept a peachy eye out for the opportunities of their times, and so were able to capture a profit.
They gained their wealth in the secondary occupations and held on to it by drop in agriculture" (498).He would also agree that this was a hypocritically self-serving debate in that Yang and the LM both use endless circumlocutions to conceal their real motives: Yang to maintain his holdings, the elitist Learned Men to keep the farmers subservient.
Society obviously moldiness have farmers onwards it can eat; foresters, fishermen, miners etc., in the beginning it can make use of natural resources; craftsmen before it can have manufactured goods; and merchants before they can be distributed. But once these exist, what need is there for government directives, mobilizations of labor, or periodic assemblies? Each man has alone to be left to utilize his own abilities and exert his forcefulness to obtain what he wishes" (477).
The LM would have the emperor conceive otherwise: "Trade promotes dishonesty, and manufacture of goods provokes disputes" (Huan K'uan 8). The very goods the LM must buy to use.
For most of their arguments, though, the LM stubbornly clung to antiquity and to what their worship "ancients" would have done, as though the ancients were never themselves ambitious youthfulness men, people ar
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