Grand Parade Highlights the Illusion of Imperial Politics

帝國政治的儀式幻像

Archer Hong Qian

2025年9月4日 · 波士頓CitizenM Hotle1212

參加盛大閱兵的觀禮者中，有一類特殊的座上賓：老革命後代。按照慣例，凡上將以上職級的家族，每家可以派出一位代表，入住北京飯店，享受官方周到的接待。9月2日，他們集體進駐；9月3日紀念活動結束後，“老大弟弟”又在北京飯店貴賓樓召集午餐，並親自與大家合影留念。

    表面上，這只是儀式性安排；實質上，卻是一次微妙的權力操作。“地震”預報後的權力核心，再次通過“雨露均沾”的榮耀分配，安撫並籠絡“自己人”。在帝國政治的邏輯里，每一次閱兵，既是展示武力的舞台，也是編織特權共同體的契機。而一尊，貌似又贏了一把。

帝國政治的本質特徵

帝國政治的事，就是那麼幾個至多幾百個家族共同體（自己人）的事兒！

    帝國政治的企圖，不在乎民生、民主、民享自由，“自己人”之外的生活、生態、生命更不在其任何政治動機關注之列，只在乎特權的穩固與擴張，其背後邏輯大致有這樣四項基本原則：

1. 經濟上的公有 —— 表面上“全民所有”實際“全民所無”，實行“全官尋租化，全民佃戶化”；

2. 政治上的私有 —— 權力高度集中，以“黨管幹部”之名，實行“官階大一統”；

3. 文化上的公私混淆 —— 宣傳替天行道的“天下為公”，實則是結黨營私大開方便之門；

4. 組織上的對立統一 —— 派系平衡輪流坐莊的黑箱操作，拱立黑社會老大支配、操控一切。

這正是“帝國政治”構造特權共同體的內核：用“公”的名義，行“私”的實利，誘發成王敗寇贏者通吃，特別是循環取而代之，陷入對內“殘酷權鬥，無情打擊”對外“欺善怕惡，伺機擴張”，以致國無寧日，世無安全。

所謂“帝國”，只是一種“家國”，一種“准國家”，與正常的現代主權在民的“民族（主權）國家”毫無關係！

洛克與黃宗羲的先見

17世紀，英格蘭的洛克與明清之際的黃宗羲，雖天各一方，卻異口同聲發出警世之。

黃宗羲陷阱（Huang Zongxi Trap）：所謂“替天行道”（acting on behalf of Heaven），常淪為“以天下奉一君”。

洛克難題（Lockean Dilemma）：權力不可私有（power cannot be privatized），財產不可公有（property cannot be collectivized）——兩端一失衡，必致專斷與掠奪。

兩位思想家指出同一個悖論：反對財產私有、宣揚天下為公，最後往往導向權力私有化與結黨營私。帝國政治的特權共同體，就是“通往奴役之路”！

特權共同體是軸心時代（無論東西）以來人以主體（Subject）自居視異己者、他者為客體（Object）加以支配、操縱思想在社會機體內長出的一種制度性惡性腫瘤。

《新階級》：一面照妖鏡

前南斯拉夫副總統、共產主義者聯盟的領導人米洛凡·吉拉斯，在1957年出版《新階級：對共產主義制度的分析》。他以親歷者身份揭示：在所謂“無產階級專政”下，出現的不是無階級社會，而是新的統治階級——黨國特權階層。

吉拉斯的結論如同一面鏡子。無論中外古今，無論帝國何種意識形態性謊言，一旦置於這面鏡子前，特權共同體的真實面目必然暴露無遺。閱兵式的華麗，無法遮掩與民族國家無關的利益集團的裸像。

所謂“帝國”，只是一種“家國”，一種“准國家”，與正常的現代主權在民的“民族（主權）國家”毫無關係！

出路何在？

現在的問題，不在於帝國政治如何更好地“分配特權”，而在於如何讓這種權利分配遊戲本身不再可能。

出路只有一條：We the People發揮出自己生命自組織連接行動力，感動中國各利益共同體，感動自由世界，超越小圈子，彰顯大格局，用基於生命自組織連接適應平衡的交互主體共生（Intersubjective Symbiosism）作為檢驗真理和價值的圭臬：

守護生命（Life），善用理性工具（AI），在信任（Trust）的滋養與呵護中，讓“你中有我，我中有他，他中有你”——本自具足、各顯異彩又非獨存的生命，你、我、他交互生成，交互成全——從而讓主權在民的共和國名副其實，讓珍愛生命、家庭第一、社區優先、政府服務“小即是美的共生國”遍布全球！

唯有如此，才能“讓如何統治世界的帝國政治企圖成為事實上的不可能”（康德《論永久和平》）。

結論

盛大閱兵作為帝國政治的象徵，折射出特權共同體的運作邏輯。

世界和平，全球共生，需要實力，但不需要盛大閱兵的帝國幻像，繼續沉迷其中，必將陷自己於無法自拔的深淵，拖累國家和國民！

The Grand Military Parade Highlights the Illusion of Imperial Politics

Archer Hong Qian
September 4, 2025 · CitizenM Hotel, Boston 1212

A Ceremony of Power

Among the honored guests at the grand military parade were a special group: the descendants of old revolutionaries. According to custom, families of generals and above could each send one representative, who would be accommodated at the Beijing Hotel with thoughtful official reception. On September 2, they collectively checked in; after the commemorative events on September 3, the “Elder Younger Brother” hosted a luncheon at the hotel’s VIP building and personally took photos with them.

On the surface, this was merely a ceremonial arrangement; in essence, it was a subtle act of power management. After the “earthquake forecast,” the power center once again distributed honors under the principle of “rain and dew for all,” appeasing and rallying the “insiders.” Within the logic of imperial politics, every parade is both a stage to display military might and an opportunity to weave together the privileged community. And once again, he gained the upper hand.

The Essence of Imperial Politics

Imperial politics is essentially the affair of, at most, a few dozen or a few hundred family clans—the “insiders”!

Its ambitions care nothing for livelihood, democracy, or freedom of the people. The lives, ecologies, and beings outside the circle of “insiders” fall beyond its motives and concerns. What matters is only the consolidation and expansion of privilege. Behind this lies four basic principles:

1. Economic Collectivism in Name — What is called “ownership by all” in reality becomes “ownership by none.” In practice: “universal rent-seeking by officials, universal tenant-farming by the people.”

2. Political Privatization — Power is highly centralized, under the name of “the Party controls the cadres,” implementing a unification of official hierarchies.

3. Cultural Confusion of Public and Private — Propaganda proclaims “the world belongs to all” in the name of Heaven’s mandate, but in fact opens the floodgates for factional self-interest.

4. Organizational Contradiction — Black-box operations of factional balancing and rotation, erecting a mafia-style boss to dominate and manipulate everything.

Thus the privileged community of imperial politics is formed: acting in the name of the “public,” but pursuing private gain. This induces a cycle of “winner takes all” where victors devour the vanquished, leading to ruthless infighting domestically and opportunistic bullying and expansion abroad. The result: no peace for the nation, no security for the world.

Locke and Huang Zongxi’s Foresight

In the 17th century, John Locke in England and Huang Zongxi at the end of the Ming dynasty in China, though worlds apart, both issued warnings.

• Huang Zongxi Trap: The slogan of “acting on behalf of Heaven” often degenerates into “all under Heaven serves one ruler.”

• Lockean Dilemma: Power cannot be privatized; property cannot be collectivized. Once either end loses balance, the result is despotism and plunder.

Both thinkers pointed to the same paradox: opposing private property and extolling the common good often leads, in practice, to the privatization of power and factional corruption. The privileged community of imperial politics is nothing less than a “road to serfdom.”

This privileged community is a malignant institutional tumor that grew out of Axial Age thought—whether East or West—where humans posited themselves as Subjects and regarded others as mere Objects to dominate and manipulate.

The New Class: A Mirror of Truth

In 1957, Milovan Đilas—former vice president of Yugoslavia and a leader of its Communist Party—published The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System. From his personal experience, he revealed that under so-called “proletarian dictatorship” there emerged not a classless society, but a new ruling class: the party-state elite.

Đilas’s conclusion was like a mirror. No matter the time or place, regardless of what ideological lies an empire proclaims, once held before this mirror the true face of the privileged community is exposed. The splendor of military parades cannot conceal the naked reality of interest groups unconnected to the nation.

An “empire” is merely a kind of “family-state,” a “quasi-state,” bearing no resemblance to a genuine modern sovereign nation where sovereignty belongs to the people!

The Way Out

The question today is not how imperial politics can better “distribute privilege,” but how to make such a game of distribution impossible altogether.

There is only one path: We the People must unleash our self-organizing vitality, moving and inspiring China’s interest groups and the free world, transcending small circles, embracing broader horizons, and adopting Intersubjective Symbiosism—based on life’s self-organizing adaptive balance—as the touchstone of truth and value.

Guard life, use rational tools (AI) wisely, and let trust nurture the interwoven generation of beings: “You are in me, I am in him, he is in you.” Life is inherently complete—diverse yet non-isolated—emerging and fulfilling each other. Only then can a republic truly embody “sovereignty of the people,” and small-is-beautiful symbiotic nations—cherishing life, putting family first, community foremost, and government in service—flourish worldwide.

Only thus can “the imperial ambition to rule the world become factually impossible” (Kant, On Perpetual Peace).

Conclusion

The grand military parade, as a symbol of imperial politics, reflects the logic of the privileged community.

World peace and global symbiosis require strength, but not the imperial illusions of grand parades. To remain enthralled by them is to trap oneself in an abyss and drag the nation and its people down with it.

Appendix: On Wisdom in the Context of Holographic Symbiosis

Wisdom has no higher or lower dimension. True wisdom that solves problems is the adaptive capacity of the trinity—rational, human, and divine—interacting as one.

To face matters with intersubjective symbiotic adaptation is the greatest blessing. Humanity is now transitioning—from wisdom of love to love of wisdom, from natural justice to covenantal justice, from the Axial Age to the Symbiosis Age.

附錄：

在全息共生的語境下看智慧

智慧，無所謂高維低維，真正解決問題的智慧，是具體可感（理性人性神性）三位一體或一體三位的交互適應能力。

凡遇事，能說到做到交互主體共生（Intersubjective Symbiosism）適應，是最大的福報。

人類正在經由智慧之愛，到愛之智慧，由自然公義，到約定公義，由軸心時代，向共生時代的歷史躍遷！

走過“自然世”（Naturaropoene）的地球生靈，正遭遇着工商文明高昂成本的超主權、超地緣、超文明的“人類世”（Anthropocene）新問題。為了避免“第六次大滅絕”的命運降臨，國際社會亟需直面當代問題的哲學對話，以全新的思維方式和價值取向邁進“地球世”（Earthropoene）。

人類際遇的一切問題，都是交互適應上出了問題，如果當下交互適應能力不逮，單純乞求於“科學語境”+“東方神秘主義”的所謂高維智慧，只是一種以修辭替代邏輯、以立場遮蔽真相的巫師般的方便法門，是故作高深的巧詐話術！

比如“一維是二維的投影、二維是三維的投影、三維是四維的投影”（二維的投影怎麼會是一維，三維的投影怎麼成了二維？），除了修辭意義，邏輯完全不通，還有所謂“高維引領低維，意識能量駕馭物質能量”，不僅是無稽之談，而且為機會主義的坑蒙拐騙預留了空間。凡是鼓吹高維智慧者，不是半通不通的思想偏蔽，就是故弄玄虛醉翁之意不在酒。

方便巧詐似是而非的話術，可以譁眾取寵，但無法操作，於事無補，且助長惰性鼓勵偷懶，甚至視自由思想為天敵，一味求同存異，必“道不同不相與謀”的霸道，視“百家爭鳴”為雜音，阻礙人類具體情況具體分析解決問題，在政治上大開以非為是指鹿為馬之門……從而剝奪人們生命自組織力與外連接動態平衡力——交互主體適應能力！

以時空意間交互影響觀之， 生命之源，共生一體。

全息共生的生命主體（無論是寄主、宿主）的交互覺醒和覺悟，從來都是生命的第一需要，每一個細胞、器官、活體都是全息共生。正所謂“愛是盡善盡美的聯結”（Love is a perfect connection）。

軸心時代（無論東西）以來，人以主體（Subject）自居，視異己者、他者為客體（Object）加以支配、操縱的帝國思想，在社會機體內長出的一種制度性惡性腫瘤。所以，我們必經超越東西南北中左右，在出江湖廟堂農工商，相信人本自具足又非獨存，人人都有交互主體適應能力！今後，判斷是非的標準是：人類行為共生就是“大是”，非共生就是“大非”。

“高維智慧”的話術，為掌握話語權者張目，在社會生活的各個領域建立其排他性、排異性的共同體，是其目的，而在方式方法上，也必然傾向於“頂層設計”而缺乏“低層驅動”，結果必然是一堆爛尾，推倒重來！結合中國的情況，不難發現，自上（高）而下（低）的改革，有改良與改惡之分，缺乏交互主體共生思想的改革，註定是“結構性失衡”的改革，改惡的成分，大於改良的成分。

這是因為，作為上層權力中樞的改革主體，不僅是改革政策的制定者，而且幾乎是隨心所欲的“權重選擇性執行”者，這其中有權力任性的問題，更有改革資源占有者自私自利的問題。

從秦帝國排他性改革的成功（刑徒經濟滅六國）與失敗（指鹿為馬二世亡），經王莽、楊廣、朱由檢，到晚清十年改革的成功（拿來主義廢舊制）與失敗（皇族內閣代憲政），以及四十五年改革的經驗（黨政事權分稅制，開放統制半市場）與教訓（權力資本沆瀣債，防挖祖墳坐江山），莫不由主體思想作祟、結構失衡歪斜、座主門生選秀、社會潰散無力所致！

所以，中國接下來的問題是，變改惡為改良，跳出“塔西陀-托克維爾-過秦效秦-打天下坐江山陷阱”，闕立交互主體共生思想，生命至上，重建社會，生成公民自組織力、政府自組織力、社會自組織力三大自組織力相互作用共襄生長的局面，創建一個人人自美其美、美人之美、美美與共、全息共生的世界！

於是，無論當作人類遭受何種際遇，讓我們在共生哲學語境下，針對性地交相應用好富有愛之智慧（Amorsophia）的五大金科玉律：

Do to others as you would have them do to you.

金律：待人如己，推己及人。

Do unto others, do not impose on others.

銀律：己所不欲，勿施於人。

To give joy to others as one desires for oneself.

銅律：己之所欲，樂施於人。

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

鐵律：以眼還眼，以牙還牙。

Live and let live; don’t be evil and let evil be.

通律：自己活，也要別人活，不要自己邪惡，也讓別人邪惡。

務必時刻謹記在心，五大金科玉律意識，無分高維低維，甭管西方東方，直面當下問題解決之就好。

孞烎2024年1月28日於溫哥華

Appendix (continued): Viewing Wisdom in the Context of Holographic Symbiosis

Wisdom has no such thing as higher or lower dimensions. True wisdom that addresses real problems is the adaptive capacity of rationality, humanity, and divinity—a trinity-in-one, or one-in-three.

Whenever one can act and speak in accordance with Intersubjective Symbiosism, that is the greatest blessing. Humanity is journeying from the wisdom of love toward the love of wisdom, from natural justice toward covenantal justice, from the Axial Age toward the Symbiosis Age.

Having passed through the “Naturaropoene” (the Age of Nature), Earth’s living beings now face new problems in the “Anthropocene”—supranational, suprageopolitical, and supracivilizational costs of industrial civilization. To avoid the fate of a “sixth mass extinction,” the international community urgently needs philosophical dialogue on contemporary problems, advancing into the “Earthropoene” (the Age of the Earth) with a new way of thinking and new value orientations.

All human problems arise from failures in interactive adaptation. If, when faced with real issues, our adaptive ability falls short, and we simply beg for so-called higher-dimensional wisdom from a mix of “scientific discourse” and “Eastern mysticism,” this amounts to replacing logic with rhetoric and truth with standpoint—a magician’s trick, clever wordplay, nothing more.

Take for example the claim: “one dimension is the projection of two dimensions, two dimensions the projection of three, three the projection of four.” (How can two-dimensional projection become one-dimensional, or three-dimensional projection become two?) Aside from rhetoric, it makes no logical sense. Likewise, sayings such as “higher dimensions guide lower dimensions” or “conscious energy commands material energy” are not only nonsense but also create loopholes for opportunism and fraud.

Those who preach “higher-dimensional wisdom” are either partially blind in thought or deliberately mystifying with ulterior motives. Such rhetoric may titillate the crowd, but it cannot be applied, solves nothing, encourages laziness, and even casts free thought as an enemy. Obsessing over “unity” while treating diversity as noise inevitably leads to tyranny: “if our paths differ, we cannot plan together.” It turns “a hundred schools of thought” into cacophony, obstructing practical problem-solving, and politically opens the door to calling a deer a horse. Ultimately, this strips people of their self-organizing vitality and external balancing capacity—the very essence of adaptive intersubjectivity.

From the perspective of spatio-temporal inter-influence, life is the source, and symbiosis is one. Every cell, organ, and organism is holographic symbiosis. As the saying goes, “Love is a perfect connection.”

Since the Axial Age, the imperial mindset of humans taking themselves as Subjects while treating others as mere Objects to dominate has grown like a malignant tumor within social structures. Therefore, we must transcend East and West, North and South, court and marketplace, believing instead that human beings are inherently complete yet not isolated—that each person possesses intersubjective adaptive capacity. From now on, the criterion for right and wrong should be: behavior that is symbiotic is a “great right”; behavior that is not is a “great wrong.”

The rhetoric of “higher-dimensional wisdom” is ultimately about monopolizing discourse, erecting exclusionary communities across social life. Its methods incline toward “top-down design” and lack “bottom-up driving force.” The inevitable result: unfinished projects, repeated collapse and rebuilding. In China, this is easy to see: reforms imposed from above often divide into “improvements” and “deteriorations.” Those lacking symbiotic thought almost always end in structural imbalance, with deterioration outweighing improvement.

Why? Because the central powerholders are both designers of reform policy and, in practice, arbiters of its selective enforcement—often acting willfully and selfishly. History is replete with examples: the Qin empire’s reform “success” (a penal economy to conquer six states) and “failure” (the deer-for-horse tyranny of Qin II); Wang Mang, Yang Guang, Chongzhen; the late Qing’s ten years of reform with both successful abolition of outdated systems and failed “royal cabinets” replacing constitutionalism; and the mixed legacy of 45 years of reforms—splitting party, government, and fiscal powers while opening markets, yet also collapsing into collusion of power and capital, and debt burdens. In every case, subject-centric thinking produced structural imbalance, factional favoritism, and social collapse.

Thus, the task for China ahead is to transform deterioration into improvement, to leap out of the “Tacitus Trap–Tocqueville Trap–Qin Cycle–Conquer-and-Rule Trap,” and to establish intersubjective symbiosism: life first, society rebuilt, with citizen self-organization, government self-organization, and societal self-organization growing together. This will create a world where “everyone cherishes their own beauty, appreciates others’ beauty, and shares beauty together”—a holographic symbiosis.

The Five Golden Rules of Amorsophia

In the philosophical context of symbiosis, let us apply five guiding maxims rich in the love of wisdom (Amorsophia):

1. The Golden Rule: Do to others as you would have them do to you.
   — Treat others as yourself; extend yourself to others.

2. The Silver Rule: Do unto others, do not impose on others.
   — What you do not desire, do not impose on others.

3. The Bronze Rule: To give joy to others as one desires for oneself.
   — What you wish for yourself, gladly share with others.

4. The Iron Rule: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

5. The Universal Rule: Live and let live; don’t be evil and let evil be.

Keep these five rules always in mind. They are not about higher or lower dimensions, nor about East versus West. They simply face problems as they are and provide guidance for real solutions.

Xinyan
January 28, 2024, Vancouver