When the Japanese talk about China, first they call us a grand old empire, second they call us a large old empire. This description probably came from the West. What a pity! Is our China really a large old empire? I say, no!  In my heart, China is young.

        If we are to talk about whether a country is old or young, let me first talk about the hearts of our people:

The elderly often reminisce about the past while the young often ponder the future.The elderly wallow in nostalgia. The young develop a sense of hope. Conservatism grows out of pining for the past while progress grows out of hope for the future. Due to conservatism, the status quo stays decrepit; due to youthful anticipation, every day, we change and grow. Because one remembers the past, all matters are dealt with based on experience and case studies. Because one contemplates the future where all possibilities are open, one dares to try new things. The elderly tend to worry while the youth tend to seize the day. Because they worry, the elderly are often dismayed. Because they strive for happiness, the youth possess infinite vitality. Because of their dismay, the elderly cower. Because of their vitality, the young defy. Because they cower, the elderly bend in shallow pretense. Because they defy, the young dare to adventure. Because of their adherence to an endless rut, the elderly are sure to lead society to its death. Because they dare to be brave, the young may create a new world. The elderly are fed up with tasks, while the young take on more tasks by their own will. Because of their pessimism, the elderly believe that all actions are meaningless. Because of their initiative, the young believe there is no task not worth challenging. Thus, the elderly face the dusk while the young face the rising dawn; as the elderly represent an old thin cow, the young embody the spirit of a sprightly tiger.   The elderly are the monks to the young’s heros. The elderly are dictionaries while the young are dramas. The elderly are like opium smoke while the young are the brandy liquor. The elderly are like fallen meteorites of the distant cosmos while the young are like the vibrant coral reefs of the vast ocean. The elderly are the sandy pyramids of Egypt, the last willows of autumn, while the young are the great Siberian railroad, the grass before spring. The elderly are the stagnating pool of the Dead Sea. The young are the endless torrent of the Yangtze River. This is a general summary of the differences in temperament between the old and the young. I believe countries, like men, exhibit this dichotomy.

I must say, how wretched it is to be called grand and old! To be old is like Bai Juyi’s poem, when the pipa player mourns the passing days at the mouth of the Xunyang river, as the moon circles the boats and the maple rustles, when the blankets are chilled like steel in a hazy half dream, she chases the spring and autumn moons of her days in Luoyang. It is the frigid, empty palaces of the “Long Resentment Poem” where the white-haired concubines sit in threes and fives in the dim tassel lamplight reminiscing the glory days past, when the hall resounded with song. Exiled, the fallen Qin royal descendant toils the land with his wife and child outside the east gate of the city and contemplates the festive prosperity of the inner palace. This is what happens: After all, we have watched as Napoleon was exiled Elba and Urabi to Sri Lanka. They talked to the handful of guards or curious visitors about their heyday of valor riding with their short-sword in hand across the plains, throwing all of Europe into an chaos, bathed in blood fighting in the ports and cities, each roar causing nations to tremble! Although initially they would retell the stories with zeal, slowly both Napoleon and Urabi sighed as they looked at their reflections. What a pity it is to fall to the ravages of time, with only a wrinkled face, a toothless maw, and the stray tuft of white hair! For people like this, there are no thoughts other than grief; there is no room for anything but depression; there is no spiritual sustenance save for the capability to waste away, soundless save for a series of endless sighs, with nothing to do other than sitting there, waiting to die.

If even beauties and heroes share this type of bitter fate, then what about the average man? Going through life, his friends and relatives are already in their graves. He is dependent upon others for housing and food. He rushes through life, day-to-day without pondering the future. He lives this year passively without thinking about next year. There is nothing under the heavens that is more discouraging than to be called grand and old! Do you really think this sort of wretched person would have the ability to move heaven and earth, the potential to part the clouds of heaven, or an astounding will to be heard across mountains and seas?

How devastating! Is our nation really a grand old empire? In hindsight, looking back to ancient times, what marvelous governance Yaoshun and the dynasties of Xia, Shang, and Zhou had! What heroes can match the glory of the Qin emperor or Emperor Han Wudi? What magnificent literature can rival the grandeur of the heights of Han and Tang dynasty? What undertaking can match the military movements of Emperors Kangxi and Qianlong? Thanks to our historians and literary scholars, every young person in our nation knows about these beatific visions of our glory days, glory days lost to our decaying age!

Yesterday, five cities were excised from the kingdom. Tomorrow, we stand to lose another ten! Poverty and hunger run so rampant that there is not a single rat or sparrow in sight, with no peace in the darkness of night. All of our nation’s land and wealth have become a sumptuous steak, greased for foreign consumption— 400 million of our brethren have been registered into their accounts as nothing more than slaves. Is this not like the Bai Juyi’s pipa player, marrying into frigid ruin in her old age? How devastating! Please do not talk about the past, the frail countenance wrought by the passing days is unbearable to look at! Like an official awaiting execution, a lone figure helpless in danger, a life in peril with no signs of salvation, our country has become a country waiting for death, our citizens have become citizens awaiting death. We have passed the point of no return, so it would hardly be strange if our fate is to be toyed with by others in complete servitude!

I must say, is China really a grand old empire? That is one of the most pressing issues of our world today. If it is a grand old empire, then China is a nation of the past, a primitive country from the beginnings of Earth, doomed to annihilation. The fate of such a nation would probably be short, with its end in clear sight. If it is not a grand old empire, then China is a nation of the future, the likes of which the Earth has never seen, with a steady potential for endless growth. How should we judge whether China is old or young? First, it is imperative to understand the significance of the word “state”. What does it mean to be a modern state? That is to have land, to have a people that live upon this land managing it, to create and enforce the rule of law, to have sovereignty by their own hand. All men must obey the law. If these criteria are fulfilled, then this truly is a modern state.   Modern states have only appeared on Earth in the last century. A country fitting all the criteria would be considered a seasoned adult. A country that is struggling to meet these standards, still is a budding youth. So using this standard, the nations of Europe are mature whereas China is in a state of adolescence.

Analyzing ancient China, though it was called a “state,” it never fulfilled the criteria of the term. It has been a familial nation, a tribal nation, a feudal nation, and a kingdom. Although there were many forms, all in all, China was always lacking in some way the structure and order of a true “state.”  Like when an infant grows from a fetus to a child, although all the organs and structures are formed early on, they do not function until much later. Therefore, the times before the Xia dynasty was our natal period, the Zhou was our infancy, and from Confucius until now was our childhood. It is only through continual development that we are only now stepping beyond the gates of childhood. The slow development of China is due to the thieving knaves of the populace from each generation stemming his growth. The symptoms of a sickly child look like an old person whose health is failing.  Some people even predict that China itself will die from old age, which I believe is a a complete misdiagnosis of the so-called “disease.” This critique isn’t for blaming the failure of others. In fact, we should consider this constructive criticism.

Furthermore, throughout the history of China, was there ever a “state?” There have only been dynasties! Royalty have lived based on tribal allegiances. In the thousands of years since the beginning of time, our country has been nameless. The so-called Tang, Yu, Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Song, Qi, Liang, Chen, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing are only names of dynasties. A “dynasty” is the private property of a single family whereas a state is the public property of its citizens. Though both dynasties and states embody old and young, they exhibit completely different properties. Since the court itself may not be representative of the whole country, it’s logical to assume that the age of the court does not represent the age of the country. Kings Wen, Wu, Cheng, and Kang represented the youthful period of the Zhou dynasty. Kings You, Li, Heng and Nan represent the aging and decline of the Zhou dynasty. Emperors Liu Bang, Wen, Jing, and Wu represent the youthful period of the Han dynasty. But by the time of Emperors Yuan, Ping, Heng, and Ling, the Han had become decrepit. After the Han dynasty, there has been no era without this “cycle” of aging. As such, it may be natural for a dynasty to age, yet that is unacceptable for a country! A court will age and die, just like how a person must age and die. That has nothing to do with my concept of our nation! Our China is something unknown to the world and it has only just started to evolve. The world is limitless, our future infinite. How beautiful my young China is!

Mazzini was the leader of the Italian revolutionaries. Due a political loss, he was tried and exiled. In his exile, he created the society knowns as “Young Italy”, rallying all the passionate nationalists of Italy. After a long battle, Italy was finally unified into a strong European nation. Italy was Europe’s first grand old empire. After the demise of the Roman empire, the land of that empire belonged to the Pope while its political authority rested with the Austrians. This was a nation facing certain death in its old age. But if an individual like Mazzini was enough to reinvigorate a decrepit nation into a young Italy, what about our China, which is still in its early years? With over 400 different provinces and 400 million citizens, wouldn’t there be an individual that could be our “Mazzini?”

Among Gong Zizhen’s writings, there was a poem called “The Able Man’s Youthful Journey.” I used to love this piece and sought to understand its meaning. If our citizens say our nation is a grand old empire, it will become a grand old empire. But If our citizens believe our nation is a youthful country, it is a youthful country. There is an idiom in the West: “There are old men who are young at heart, and children who are wise beyond their years.” Thus, the age of a nation, as an abstract concept, fluctuates depending on the the ethos of its citizens. I have seen the potential of Mazzini to transform his country into a young nation, as I’ve seen the potential of our officials to cast China as a large and old empire. How terrifying! Why is our nation, cultured, refined and unparalleled in beauty, our young China, regarded as a grand old empire by the Europeans and the Japanese? This is because our nation is controlled by senile court officials. Without reciting poetry for decades, without passing exams and running errands for decades, without kowtowing for years on end, it is impossible to become a high-ranking official. In court, above a certain rank, amongst 100 officials, there are 96 to 97 who are seriously impaired. If they’re not blind then they’re deaf, if their hands don’t tremble then their feet have gout. If they are “none of the above,” then they may be half incapacitated into paralysis. Eating, walking, seeing, talking are beyond their own capabilities without the assistance of three or four aides in their daily lives. Trusting the grave burden of governing a nation to them is no different than entrusting the nation to a bunch of puppets! From their youth, these men have never known where Asia and Europe are or even to which dynasty Liu Bang and Li Shiming belong. These puppets are derided as foolish and corrupt. But it is only after they are whittled and casted —after their brains dry out and their arteries become clogged, when their breathing is weak and they walk alongside ghosts in their dusty age—that our 20,000 kilometers of mountains and rivers, our 400 million people are entrusted into their hands. How pitiful! This grand old empire truly is large and old! These officials gather their decades worth of texts, errands, kowtowing, greetings, thousands upon thousands of efforts to earn their uniforms and titles. Afterwards, they dedicate their life’s work to preserving their titles. Like a beggar who picked up a bar of gold, even if there is thunder crashing down above his head, his hands still hold tightly over his purse. He cares for nothing else. He doesn’t want to know or hear about anything else. If you were to tell him that the country is collapsing, that it is being torn asunder, he would neither listen nor care. “Even if the country does actually disintegrate, I’m already seventy or eighty years old.  As long as the foreigners do not invade and the bandits do not rise up within a year or two, I will almost have lived a lifetime! If it can’t be helped, we can carve out two or three provinces to bribe the foreigners. What’s wrong with selling a few million people as slaves in exchange for my own life? It’s hardly difficult.” How tragic! All the old imperial officials govern under such principles! The west wind ages people within a single night, wilting countenances and making hair turn white. To let those living ghosts be our doctors, men wielding talismans praying for our demise as their prayers, is truly devastating! If we use such methods to govern a country, of course it will age and die! I fear the country would even die in infancy long before reaching old age!

I declare! The ones who caused China’s state of listlessness and corrupt decrepitness are the aged ailing sinners who govern it. It is the responsibility of China’s younger generation to create a new China for the future. There is nothing to be done about the aged ailing sinners, they are not far from death anyway. It’s our young who will face the world. This is like the way renters behave. The officials are like renters who are moving away tomorrow, while we have only arrived in this house today. People who are prepared to leave wouldn’t care for the windows or clean the corridors and courtyards. That is common practice and nothing to be surprised about! But our young people still have an infinite future ahead of them and must plan accordingly. If China becomes the livestock and slaves to foreign forces, then the ones to be cooked, slaughtered and whipped will be the younger generation! If China ever dominates the world, ruling supreme on Earth, the honor and pride of that vision would only be deserved by our young. It is something entirely separate from the weak officials who already have one foot in the grave. It’s understandable that the old officials don’t want to deal with the pressing issues of our future; but it’s unacceptable for young people to be complacent about China’s future. If all of our youth actually become zealous adults; then our China will become a nation of the future with endless potential. If all of our nation’s youth also become senile and entrenched with ancient customs, then China will be a country of the old with its demise in sight. That is why the sole responsibility for our present depends on the younger generation.

If our youth are wise, our nation becomes wise. If our youth are wealthy, our nation becomes wealthy. If our youth are independent, our nation is independent. If our youth are free, our nation is free. If our youth progresses forward, then our nation progresses forward. If our youth triumph over the Europeans, then our nation triumphs over Europe. If our youth are unparalleled on the planet, then our nation will be unparalleled on the planet. As the red dawn rises, the path is filled with light. As the Yellow River rises from the ground, it roars throughout the land, a hidden dragon arising from the abyss with its claws and scales dancing in the air. A baby tiger howls from the canyons striking fear in all beasts. A hawk stirs all the birds to flight in a whirlwind of dust. An exotic blossom outshines all flowers with only a bud. A sharpened blade shines anew. With the skies overhead and the earth underfoot, we should view our long history vertically through time and our vast dominions horizontally through space. Our future is as boundless as the oceans, and our future days extend to the infinite. The beauty of our nation will coexist with heaven and earth in eternal youth! The strength our youth will lead our motherland through ten thousand years of borderless longevity.