What is circle culture?

Different from western civilization, which advocates personality development, China is used to forming circles and forming interesting circle culture due to the influence of natural environment and traditional culture.

China people live in a circle, just like an onion structure, which is a circle connected by human feelings, family ties and nostalgia, and it is difficult for ordinary people to get rid of it. The circle structure also coincides with the orderly social pattern in China. There are points inside the circle, points outside the circle, and points such as center, sub-center and edge in the circle. For society, the circle is the center; For the circle itself, the circle has its own center. Everyone has different rights and obligations because of different positions, and their physical and mental freedom is also very different. People in the center naturally have many rights and great responsibilities to consolidate and develop the circle. They often have the power to say whatever they want, and sometimes they can do whatever they want without corresponding constraints. But from the center to the periphery, power and rights are getting less and less, and obedience and freedom are gradually increasing.

The whole society depends on each other and competes with each other in circles, but it does not recognize individuals. Even if there are occasional lonely heroes struggling, the result often ends in tragedy. Sometimes they can't even find competitors, but just fight windmills like the ridiculous Don Quixote. So individuals are very dependent on the circle.

However, due to the defects of the circle itself, there is also some instability under the appearance of "impregnability", which is largely because China people are particularly capable of fighting.

The Evolution of China's "Circle Culture"

As far as geographical environment is concerned, the traditional territory of China is a big circle, with clear internal and external boundaries. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which is difficult to cross in the west, is itself a natural barrier, while the vast grassland in the north is a desert with little rain. It has always had a small population, and there is no powerful country to keep peeping. What's more, the Wan Li Great Wall, which was artificially built, was painted in a heroic spirit. The sea and sky are the same in the east and south, making it difficult for foreign enemies to invade. Therefore, such an environment that is easy to breed "egoism" is naturally a natural and broad circle.

In this almost closed "self-centered" environment, nature has created a good external environment for the birth of the circle.

Since the Qin dynasty, except for a short special period, the centralized political system has formed an imperial power circle, and the emperor is the center of this big circle. Under this imperial power system, "under the world, is it the land of kings?" Everything is decided by the emperor and Lao Tzu. And all kinds of power and interests are centered on it, spreading outward in waves, less and less. Once this circle decays and collapses, a new circle of imperial power will be re-formed and established, and everything will be re-constructed. In fact, all previous dynasties were the breaking and establishment of the imperial power circle.

China has a history of farming for thousands of years. People's lives are basically self-sufficient, and families are both production units and living units. However, due to the changeable weather, the annual harvest is different, so the water conservancy construction and the development and maintenance of some public farming facilities naturally need multiple families to unite, so the family circle maintained by natural blood naturally undertakes this important task. As a result, a specific family circle was initially formed, and all aspects of people's lives were basically included. In this circle, people are fixed and the relationship between people is fixed. No strangers. Up to now, some elderly people in remote mountainous areas have not walked out of their villages 5 kilometers away. For a long time, circle consciousness was naturally copied and extended to the political and economic system.

In addition, besides blood relatives, circles can be established in other ways. Whether you become a member of the circle or not, your position in the circle often depends not on a person's moral character and ability, but on the relationship between this person and the core figures. Therefore, the trust of China people has a strong humanistic color. The trust relationship between people can be improved through the operation of human feelings, that is, building trust with "strangers" through the existing network of relationships or the way of treating guests and giving gifts.

After liberation, following the example of the Soviet Union, the unit system prevailed and still has great influence. According to different standards, everyone is divided into different units, and the unit is responsible for birth, illness and death. Everyone has also become a unit person, and each unit is not only an independent circle, but also a small circle in the whole industry system, which constitutes a special social structure.

Two sides of a circle member

The members of the circle are very dependent on the circle, and food, clothing, housing and transportation, personal career development and so on are all maintained here. Therefore, members need to be cautious about their superiors, and "tigers are not allowed to touch" for fear that their superiors will have the slightest resentment. Because, in a member who lives under the nose of the leader, there are naturally more possibilities and opportunities to expose his shortcomings. At this time, the criteria for judging leaders are not easily limited to work performance, and even the habits of members and ways of doing things unrelated to work may become the criteria for leadership assessment. Therefore, under this pervasive monitoring and comprehensive assessment system, subordinates are naturally cautious everywhere.

In addition, due to the crisscross of the relationship between the members of the circle, they are inseparable. At the same time, because it is not easy to quit the circle, it also cultivates or forces members to adopt a long-term way of doing things. Because you speak ill of one member today, you may have something in another person's hand tomorrow. Therefore, from the perspective of avoiding risks, everyone should try to maintain a harmonious atmosphere, so as not to offend others, so as not to break the retreat in the future.

So this natural dependence on the circle determines the docile side of the members. In fact, in order to ensure the harmony of the circle and not pose a threat to the center, the most important requirement for the members of the circle is to be obedient and obedient. People often say life maxims such as "Shoot the first bird with a gun", "The rafters that stand out first rot" and "A big tree attracts the wind, and people are afraid of famous pigs and strong ones", which leads China people to attach importance to fate, ignore manpower, have no innovation and are afraid of change. In China's political structure, reformers are the most pathetic and the worst. Therefore, ordinary officials believe in not seeking success, but seeking nothing.

The superiors are not used to controlling their subordinates through systems and processes, but rely on feelings and interests to maintain them. So many leaders spend all day trying to appease their subordinates and strike a balance. Therefore, the rulers of China, such as Qianlong, used the help of encouraging courtiers or subordinates to fight with each other to mediate by themselves. This is China's very traditional court politics, or Machiavellian. When the leader's ability can't control his subordinates, they will easily disobey orders, even take their place, or simply set up another hill. In China enterprises, it is a common phenomenon that the main cadres take a large number of loyal subordinates to start businesses after they are full-fledged. In foreign countries, we rarely see this situation, because the development of many companies depends not on one or two capabilities, but on systems and culture. The bigger the company, the more so.

This is the duality of membership.

Change your face outside the circle

In the circle, everyone is cautious, because they are one of their own, or people who are closely related to themselves. Outside the circle, it is an outsider, not one of our own. There is no need to be "gentle, respectful and frugal" and there is no need to pretend. In other words, it is better to lose money for acquaintances, and there is a balance of interests; If you are an outsider, you don't need to make such a long-term plan, so you don't need to pay attention to rules.

Because everyone has developed the habit of relying on insiders first, because they are willing to help, but they don't trust outsiders. If a person wants to deal with people outside the circle, even if it is aboveboard and even if there are normal administrative procedures, according to the rules of fame, official business will not be smooth sailing. And if you make friends first and enter each other's circle first, it will be much smoother to start a relationship. Therefore, the atmosphere of entrusting people to find relationships is prevalent and has never weakened. Because, once you enter the circle, you are naturally one of your own, and you naturally have a sense of trust in doing things. This speed of building trust can be very fast.

However, due to the impact of market economy and the expansion of personal desire, this trust-building model has undergone some changes. Entering a circle, relying solely on friendship and affection is somewhat unreliable, so gifts, bribes and other wanton black powder debut, and the risk of this collapse of "trust" is naturally quite a lot. In order to avoid risks, many corrupt elements try their best to control their own small circle, or carefully construct this circle, only moving in the small circle and accepting only what the members of the small circle ask. Everyone has shares. We are all in the same boat, which reduces the risk and still takes the "blue chip" route. The quantity is small, but it is small and refined, and one can top ten.

This indifference to the outside world makes people pay little attention to others or external interests, which leads to the lack of social morality and the difficulty in establishing social norms. For example, spitting everywhere, "individuals sweep the snow in front of their own houses, which cares about frost on others' tiles", and only care about their own acres and three points. As a result, personal interests are ultimately not guaranteed. Mr. Liang Shuming once recalled that when Eight-Nation Alliance was eight years old, American soldiers went into his house to search. Finally, we quarreled when we left: the gate is too dirty, so we should clean it every day! Makes people laugh and cry.

The way out of circle transformation

Under the circle culture, the leadership authority is too heavy. On the one hand, it has cultivated the perseverance and hard struggle spirit of China people (especially the people at the bottom). On the other hand, it actually condones the oppression and humiliation of the upper class to the lower class, which leads to the continuous amplification of authority, further strengthening of absolutism, and the phenomenon of "centralized" is serious.

Accompanied by leadership authority, it is the strangulation and extinction of members' personality and creativity. Everyone in the circle emphasizes equality, unity and easy management, which seems to form a unified force. Because they are used to relying on circles and others, they are not weaned psychologically, and each individual loses the independence of the group, leading to the loss of individual personality and will. In the long run, individual needs and interests are suppressed, and members are habitually dependent on the collective and leadership.

Circle culture also caused the lack of system. Circle society is a human society, and human relations permeate the law and even override it. Lin Yutang once said, "China people put human feelings above truth". In the relationship between emotion, reason and law, it is unreasonable to reason with emotion first and then use it when necessary.

Trust in the circle society is an irrational relationship with strong human nature. This has also caused people to lose trust in people in non-relational networks and spread to the whole society, resulting in a crisis of trust. In addition, influenced by the traditional Machiavelli culture, even in the "pro" circle, people also calculate and guard against each other for their interests, which also leads to the loss of mutual trust. The people have no sense of security, the emperor's old son has no sense of security, and the officials under the emperor's old son have no sense of security. No matter whether you have money or power, everyone feels insecure.

Today, when the personal development trend is gradually rising, it is easy to have a disaster by relying solely on one person's leadership. The more the society develops, the weaker the leadership authority is. Only by adopting more rational and scientific governance and management methods can the society and the country develop in an orderly manner. Therefore, we need to transform this circle. Specifically, it is to integrate the excellent cultures of the world and create new advanced cultures through integration. Promote the small circle to the big circle, transform the circle culture into the community culture, and create a social space with the same * * *.

First of all, we should advocate the cultivation of sound personality. What China circle culture lacks most is the healthy development of personality. It is precisely because there is no personality, blind authority prevails, and it cannot be effectively and reasonably restricted, which leads to the circle moving in a dangerous direction consciously or unconsciously; It is precisely because there is no rational development of personality that everyone is conformity and creation. Therefore, we should learn from the experience of full personality development in the West and advocate the moderate development of individuals, so as to create a healthy China culture and serve the social development. Specifically, we can start with education, then exercise and strengthen it in various decision-making procedures, and gradually form a healthy atmosphere for cultivating the full development of personality.

Secondly, it is necessary to establish an institutionalized guarantee. Manage by system, not by power and "education", but by making up your mind to master the art and skills of management. In concrete practice, everything is "things" and "people" wrong. While retaining the flexibility of human governance, we should dilute its color and gradually replace it with processes and systems.

We should also pay attention to preserving the positive factors of harmony in our traditional culture. Due to the excessive pursuit of personality development and desire satisfaction, western civilization has adopted an attitude of intervention and demand for nature, which has caused many problems today. Similarly, in China, the one-sided pursuit of development speed has also caused many imbalances. Faced with the increase of natural disasters, human beings began to reflect. Sustainable development and peaceful coexistence with nature have gradually become the world's knowledge. For example, the signing of the Kyoto Protocol is the embodiment of this understanding. In the traditional culture of China, there has always been the idea of harmonious development between man and nature. Therefore, maintaining this kind of thinking is extremely important for our future.