The original text of "A Journey to the Avenue"-A trip to the Avenue, the world is for the public, choose talents and (j incarnation) abilities, make friends, and mend fences. An old friend is not only a relative, but also an only child, so that he can have a sense of security in his old age, be strong and useful, be good to his young age, be compassionate (guān), be widowed, lonely, alone and disabled, be provided for by men, and be rewarded by women. If the goods are abandoned on the ground, there is no need to hide them on yourself; You don't have to do it for yourself. Therefore, it is called "Datong" to seek closure but not prosperity, and thieves do not do it, so leaving the house is not sealed.

There have been three utopian socialist thoughts in China's modern history, namely, utopian agricultural socialism in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom; Kang Youwei's utopian socialism of bourgeois reformists; Sun yat-sen's utopia of bourgeois revolution and people's livelihood. These three fantasies all reflect people's hatred of autocracy and their desire for a happy life in China. Although the schemes designed by Kang Youwei and Sun Yat-sen are different, the political ideas put forward by Kang Youwei in The Book of Great Harmony have nothing in common with Sun Yat-sen's idea of "the world is for the public".

Leading the Reform Movement of 1898, which shocked China and foreign countries, and writing the Book of Great Harmony is Kang Youwei's most important contribution to China's modern history and a treasure house of China's cultural thoughts, which is worth remembering by future generations.

Kang Youwei was born in 1858. His real name is Zuyi, Guangsha and Chang Su. He is from Nanhai, Guangdong. Influenced by his teacher, Zhu Ciqi, he attached importance to the study of "putting things into practice" when he was young. In his early years, he went to Hong Kong, Shanghai and other places, got in touch with some things of western capitalism, and studied some books introducing western learning. Therefore, he deeply felt that China could no longer be arrogant because of "China's de-nationalization", which made Kang Youwei's innovative thought sprout gradually, and regarded learning from foreign countries and improvement as the truth of saving the country and the people.

The book of great harmony, which runs through Chinese and western thoughts, was conceived earlier, but it was formally written later.

Kang claimed to have started "playing Datong" as early as 1884, and 1885 "set the system of Datong, which is called" the axiom of mankind ". 1in the autumn of 898, there were more than 20 manuscripts of Kang Youwei when he was in Japan. 1902 When he lived in India, he finally wrote a book. The book of Great Harmony, formerly known as Justice of Man, is one of Kang's main representative works. At that time, except for a few disciples such as Liang Qichao, few people had the opportunity to witness this masterpiece. It was not until 19 13 that its parts A and B were first published in unbearable magazine. 19 19 A and B were jointly published and printed into a single book by Shanghai Changxing Bookstore, entitled Datong Book. It was not until 1927, the eighth year after Kang Youwei's death, that his disciple Qian Dingan handed this book to Zhonghua Book Company for publication. 1956, Datong book reprinted by Ancient Books Publishing House.

Why did Kang Youwei write Datong Book? He himself said:

"I walk for the day, imagine all the bliss world, imagine all the extremely bitter world, enjoy the music, save the bitter, I am a thing in the world. I would rather give up this world, escape from this world and enjoy life alone! " (See Ancient Books Publishing House, version 1956, page 4) It can be seen that Kang's purpose is to save the people and the country.

After the failure of the Reform Movement of 1898, the lesson of blood made Kang Youwei see that the suffering of the nation was even deeper. He went into exile in Japan and traveled to Europe and America, looking for a good medicine to treat the country and people. Western capitalist evolutionism and utopian socialism have influenced him. However, Kang's idea of "Great Harmony" is still based on the Confucian view of fraternity that "thinking can save it". Based on the theory of Ram III in the Spring and Autumn Annals and Liu Yun's theory of "well-off" and "great harmony", he used the classic trading philosophy of modern Confucianism to express the three stages of human history, namely, from chaos to prosperity, and from prosperity to peace. At that time, people became extremely happy. And this paradise of great harmony, as Li Yuan in Book of Rites said: "The trip to the avenue is also public, the world is public, choose talents and talents, and talk about faith." Old friends are not only relatives, but also only children, so that the elderly have a home, strong and useful, young people have a support point, and loneliness and illness can support them. Men can have points, and women can return. If the goods are abandoned on the ground, there is no need to hide them on yourself; You don't have to do it for yourself. It is a truth to seek closure instead of prosperity, and thieves steal. Therefore, outsiders are not closed, which is for the sake of Datong. "The ideal society pursued by Kang in" The Book of Great Harmony "is such a world with both the characteristics of China's social ideal and the characteristics of western utopian socialism.

The Book of Great Harmony consists of 30 volumes, with about 200,000 words. It is divided into 65,438+00 parts, part A, the audience suffering from the world, part B, the ethnic group, part D, the ethnic group, and part E and part B, the ethnic group.

With the spirit of democracy and equality and certain socialist fantasy, Kang outlined a beautiful picture of the future society of mankind-the blueprint of the Great Harmony World, which has progressive significance and far-reaching influence. Liang Qichao summed up the contents of Datong Book in the Academic Introduction of Qing Dynasty as follows:

1. There is no country, but there is a general government in the world, which is divided into several regions.

2. The general government and the district government are elected by the people.

3. Without a family, men and women must live together for no more than one year, and the term must be changed.

4. Pregnant women enter the prenatal education center, and the born children enter the nursery.

Every year, children enter nursing homes and schools at all levels.

6. When they come of age, the government will assign them to engage in agricultural and industrial production.

7. Go to a nursing home if you are sick, and go to a nursing home when you are old.

8. Institutions and facilities such as prenatal education, baby care, foster care, recuperation and old-age care in each district are the highest, and those who enter the park enjoy the highest.

9. Adult men and women must serve in these hospitals for several years, if they serve in this life.

10. Set up public dormitories and public canteens, with equal wages, and everyone can enjoy them freely according to their work.

1 1. The laziness of the police is the most severe punishment.

12. There are new inventors academically who have made special achievements in five hospitals, including prenatal education, and will receive special awards.

13. cremated after death, and the crematorium is next to the fertilizer plant.

Although Datong Book has been published, there are different opinions on it in academic circles. But there are several points that should be paid attention to. For example:

First, he vehemently opposed "exclusive respect" and cursed the autocratic emperor for "making the people mean and masculine". Kang pointed out that in a peaceful world, everyone is equal, there are no servants and slaves, no monarch in power, no leader and no pope. We live in harmony and live an equal and prosperous life. Although there are differences, there is no disparity.

Second, attach importance to the development of production. Kang described a society with highly developed material civilization and spiritual civilization in Datong Book. It advocates the abolition of private ownership, the establishment of public ownership of property, and then all mechanization, automation, electrification, and highly developed productivity.

Third, pay special attention to education. In Kang's view, vigorously developing school education is a great driving force for the progress of the Great Harmony World. He said: "The Taiping world focuses on enlighteners and attaches great importance to schools. From kindergarten teaching to primary school, middle school and university, everyone studies from childhood, and everyone studies until the age of 20. Everyone is homeless and tired, and everyone has no bad habits. Books are well prepared, language and writing are consistent, daily physical strength is preserved, physical maintenance is consistent, and morality is consistent. The evolution of its scholars is more than ten million times. " (Datong edition)

Fourth, gender equality and marital autonomy. The so-called "expert circle" in the book of great harmony is to implement equality between men and women, autonomy in marriage, break the shackles of feudal patriarchal clan system and rigid religion, and realize bourgeois human rights, freedom, equality, independence and personality liberation.

Fifth, Kang advocated abandoning the country and moving towards the prosperous age of "going to national boundaries and merging the earth". He yearns for the world of Taohuayuan: "Datong has no country, so there is no military law, no monarch, no rebellion, no husband and wife, no lust, no prevention of adultery, ... no brothers, no prison, no power, no flattery, no selfless property."

Sixthly, Kang put "man" above "righteousness" in the book of Great Harmony, which fully affirmed the value of man. At the end of the feudal society in China, there was a so-called dispute between reason and desire in philosophy, the essence of which was the dispute between humanism and asceticism. In The Book of Great Harmony, Kang exposed the hypocrisy and cruelty of feudal morality, inherited and developed Confucius' thought of "universal love" and Buddhism's concept of "compassion", and raised the banner of simple humanitarianism. The Confucian idea of "benevolence" runs through all the contents of Datong Book. Kang combined "benevolence" with "human" and pointed out that "human beings are benevolent." "Scheeren must not be human." Kang's theory of benevolence was put forward from the perspective of Confucianism. In the book of Great Harmony, he put "man" above "righteousness" and fully affirmed the value of man, which is very valuable.

Although Kang Youwei put forward many original and incisive ideas in The Book of Great Harmony, which made him shine brilliantly in the history of modern thoughts in China, his unique ideas could only become utopian fantasies due to the social conditions at that time and the limitations of Kang's insistence on improvement in political practice. As Mao Zedong pointed out: "Kang Youwei wrote The Book of Great Harmony, and he did not and could not find the way of great harmony."