(September 27, 1920)


There is currently a certain doubt in the minds of some people about something
they should not “doubt.” They say: “The problem of self-rule for Hunan is too big and
involves too many complicated details. People like me who know nothing about politics
and the law are really afraid to open our mouths. But in my heart I have always felt
that this issue is very important. It is just that, not having studied politics and the law,
I am always somewhat afraid to open my mouth.”

This view still regards politics as
something that belongs to a special class, and it regards politics as a special vocation
only for those who have crammed their minds with the study of politics and the law,
and who cloak themselves in long gowns. This is altogether erroneous. In the Spring
and Autumn period, when Zichan ruled the state of Zheng, the people of the state
of Zheng often gathered in the village schools to discuss government and politics. 176
Had all these people of the state of Zheng studied politics and the law? The laborers
of Italy, Britain, France, and the United States keep saying that they will “take over
and replace the existing government.” Have these laborers all studied politics and the
law? In Russia, all politics is controlled by the Russian workers and peasants. Have
the Russian workers and peasants all studied politics and the law? Following the Great
War, both politics and the law have changed greatly. The politics and laws of the past
are no longer of the slightest use. From now on, politics and the law will not be found
in the minds of those gentlemen who wear long gowns, but in the minds of the workers
and peasants, who can do whatever they want to do politically and write the laws any
way they like. Only those who have an occupation will be allowed to discuss politics
and the law and to deal with politics and the law. Those who have no occupation
will simply have no say in politics and legal matters. So those people who do have
occupations must definitely discuss and deal with politics and the law. If you do not
discuss politics and the law, politics and the law will come daily to discuss you; if you
do not deal with politics and the law, they will come daily to deal with you. Is self-rule
for Hunan an issue that we can evade under the pretext of having no knowledge of
politics and the law? Self-rule for Hunan is just a very simple and ordinary matter that
is
not at all abstruse or mysterious. There is no reason at all why it should be based
on a certain body of law codes or a certain doctrine. It simply means cutting loose
from all the creeping vines by which the central government and other provinces have
intervened in and controlled Hunan in the past, and returning control of all matters
within the territory of Hunan to the Hunan people themselves. That’s all there is to
it. What’s so abstruse or mysterious about this? I read an article by a Mr. Cao in
one of the newspapers, the gist of which was: “Although Xiong Xiling has political
176 Gongsun Qiao (581–521 B.C.), zi Zichan, served as prime minister of his native state of Zheng.
When he had ruled for three years, it was said that “doors were not locked at night and lost articles
were not picked up on the highway.” Confucius described him as a benevolent man, and the people of
Zheng wept at his death.