[Reprint] How can a harmonious society let the identity system run amok?

It can be asserted that although there was no caste system in strict sense in China since ancient times, a similar status hierarchy began in the Yuan Dynasty, and it became more and more serious later.

As far as the Yuan Dynasty is concerned, the identity division of the Yuan Dynasty was brought about by racial contradictions. The Mongols established the Yuan Dynasty and began to implement the policy of racial discrimination. Since Genghis Khan, people in the world have been forcibly divided into four categories: Mongolians, Semu people (Xixia, Tubo and Dali nationalities), Han people (adherents of Jin and Liao Dynasties) and Nanren people (conquered nationalities in the Southern Song Dynasty). Every emperor engages in racial discrimination, and the monarchs of other subordinate countries must unconditionally obey his will. A typical example is the imperial examination in Yuan Dynasty, which is divided into two lists: Mongolians and Semu people take the right list, while Han people and southerners take the left list, with different degrees of difficulty. In this way, under the interweaving effect of racial contradictions and corrupt politics, the rule of the Yuan Dynasty lasted less than a hundred years, and it was gone forever. After the Ming Dynasty replaced the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang established a screening system for musicians, beggars and degenerates through population registration, which generally targeted at two types of people: one was the Mongols who stayed behind and surrendered in the Yuan Dynasty, and the other was the ordinary criminals. The Ming government clearly stipulated that these people can only serve ordinary citizens and officials and have no social status. They can't be officials, grain directors or department heads, let alone officials. In Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, until the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, many families continued the life traditions and habits of musicians. Men make a living by selling their skills and strength, while women provide services for local families or dignitaries. In the Qing dynasty, racial discrimination was still very serious. It practices apartheid, lives in Manchu-Han area, and intermarriage is forbidden. Except for the children of Manchu Eight Banners, the social status of other ethnic groups is relatively low. Manchu people have the privilege, no matter how they come from, they can be both civil and military, and even if they commit crimes, they can get preferential treatment of demotion and commutation. Han people, even in high positions in the imperial court, should kneel before Manchu ministers. At the meeting, the Manchu people were proudly seated, and the Han ministers could only kneel beside them, and their status was even worse than that of Manchu slaves. More than a hundred years after the founding of the Qing Dynasty, the ruling class began to centralize power. Since Yongzheng, the system of "inferior citizens" such as musicians and untouchables has been abolished, which is called "universal equality" good governance. At the same time, the Mongolian and Manchu are sinicized, and the "five-ethnic harmony" of Manchu, Han, Mongolian, Hui and Tibetan is advocated. This policy has solved the disputes between different ethnic groups, all foreign enemies have become China people, and their contradictions have become internal contradictions. As a result, the territory of the Qing Dynasty expanded rapidly, from a minority country ruled by different nationalities to a multi-ethnic and multicultural country. Since the Yuan Dynasty in China, the ethnic and social contradictions brought about by the hierarchical system have been alleviated.

"East is red, the sun rises". After the founding of New China, it is reasonable to say that the identity system will undergo earth-shaking changes, but the fact is not optimistic.

1958, People's Republic of China (PRC) established a new household registration system-"urban-rural dual identity system". This policy was originally considered from the aspects of resource allocation and maintaining social order. With the increasing number of political movements, in addition to the dual identity of cities and rural areas, there has also been a division of political identity, and there have been different groups such as land, wealth, opposition, evil, right deviation, class enemies, poor peasants, middle peasants, cadres and workers. Their different political treatment is widely used in registration, archives and various social activities in the process of production, life and study. Under the planned system, the different status of cities and rural areas determines the different life and political treatment of workers, peasants, capitalists and intellectuals. In the early days of the Cultural Revolution, workers and cadres in cities were rationed, while farmers were paid according to their work. The landlord's son can't even go to junior high school. In the atmosphere of strict opposition between the enemy and ourselves, political identity and household registration identity play an important role in determining fate. From the late Cultural Revolution to the present, according to different policies and social status, the division of cadres and masses, state-owned and private, government units and non-government units has been derived, and various systems have been established for individuals or units of different nature, such as personnel system, labor employment system, household registration management system and so on. This makes citizens' basic human rights, civil rights and national treatment based on the unequal identity system such as the dual household registration system in urban and rural areas, which directly affects citizens' basic rights such as education, migration, employment, residence and life. Now, although the "temporary residence permit" for urban non-registered population has been cancelled, a "residence permit" of the same nature has appeared; Similarly, if a car kills a person, urban residents will have to pay 400 thousand yuan, while farmers will pay less than 200 thousand yuan. This price is obviously estimated according to different social treatment, welfare and social status. Under the influence of identity system and social treatment, citizens are divided into different classes, seemingly "under a blue sky" on an equal footing, but actually each has its own interests, and the same interests and pursuits have not been formed within a country. In a non-civil society, "identity" is not the product of natural economy, nor the collection of industries, occupations and living conditions, but the result of the comprehensive effects of national policies, consanguinity, geography and administration. In all kinds of social systems, laws and policies, the fundamental role of the identity system is only to control and restrain, artificially creating inequality in national treatment and affecting people's real life such as entrepreneurship, residence, education, social welfare and immigration. The existing household registration system in China does not match the level of economic development, does not match the market economy, and has negative constraints on national politics and human rights, and is increasingly constraining the national economy. China is undoubtedly an identity society, and the division of identity is not only influenced by economic and cultural status, but also has a strong political color. It is worth mentioning that at present, only three countries in the world, China, North Korea and Benin, implement strict household registration system, while other countries and regions in the world generally implement freedom of residence and migration.

After the reform and opening-up, three changes have quietly taken place in the status level of China people: first,

Workers who make a living by manual labor have lost their noble status in the face of the power of capital, and the social status of capital owners has risen sharply. "Boss" has become a new social identity to master economic and political resources. Not only do workers have to rely on their bosses for food, but officials also have to look at their bosses' eyes because of the pressure of political achievements. The reversed history seems to have been reversed again. Secondly, because the country is in the transition from a planned economy to a market economy, state organs of political power are not only social managers, but also participants and parties in the market economy. With their powerful social resources, state officials have quietly climbed to the high end of the social class. The sense of aristocratic identity of officials has been awakened again. On the one hand, some officials use their power to seek personal gain for themselves. On the other hand, under the subconscious control of valuing officials and belittling the people, they treat people of non-privileged classes simply and rudely, trampling on the Constitution and laws that give people basic rights. Thirdly, due to the rapid increase of urban population and the influx of rural surplus labor force into cities, the urban social security system is overloaded and the employment pressure of urban residents is increasing. The state and city governments have adopted various policies and measures to exclude migrant workers. For example, in the name of promoting the employment of local residents, many cities have formulated local laws and regulations, announced the industries and jobs that urban residents prefer, and reserved only those jobs with high risks, low income and low technical content for rural residents. The identity of urban residents and rural residents has changed from a low level of compatibility to exclusion.

Because of these identity systems, there is a joke: It is said that there are four classes in China today. One is the leadership, probably equivalent to the Mongols in the Yuan Dynasty. Belongs to the top of society and is managed by the organization department; Second, the cadre class, equivalent to the semu people in the Yuan Dynasty, belongs to social managers and is under the control of the Personnel Bureau; Third, citizens (including workers), equivalent to the Han people in the Yuan Dynasty, belong to the main body of the city and are under the control of the labor bureau; Finally, farmers (including migrant workers), equivalent to southerners in the Yuan Dynasty, belong to the bottom of society and are managed by the public security bureau and urban management. From this joke, we can easily see the heaviness of China's history and the difficulty of its progress.

Most importantly, for a modern civilized country, the most important thing is to maintain the equality of national identity, treatment and rights, create a civilized and harmonious development environment and establish a system to promote economic and social development. Only when there are differences in occupation, birthplace and cultural background, there is no distinction between political parties, regions, races, public and private enterprises, state-owned enterprises and private enterprises, and citizens only need to have equal national treatment and enjoy the sunshine and dew of the country under the constraints of the Constitution, can they have the same cognition and responsibility for this country. No matter what kind of identity discrimination, it objectively causes inequality and disharmony among all social strata, and in fact plays a role in splitting the country. Therefore, it is imperative to abolish the identity system, various artificial definitions of identity and eliminate all discriminatory policies linked to identity.