Song Dynasty: Yuan Dynasty, you didn't expect this, did you? I'm still alive.

When Mas arrived in America, he was not discouraged.

The Records of the Grand Historian states: "All the world's hustle and bustle is for profit; all the world's commotion is for profit."

But there are always some people in the world who don't care about these things, and Ma Si is one of them.

He cares more about whether his theory is correct.

In fact, Marx's Das Kapital did not have much impact on the Song Dynasty, far less than Jane Eyre did back then.

Because the Song Dynasty was in its golden age at this time, although the internal combustion engine had already appeared, it was still far from entering the civilian market, and the people's needs were only food, drink and clothing.

These were things that the people of Song could easily satisfy at that time.

Once most of a person's needs are met, they will never think about whether they are being oppressed or exploited.

Especially the people of the Central Plains.

The 60 million people of Central China now feel only gratitude.

So why did the scholar-officials in the Song Dynasty choose to exile Ma Si?

Because these scholar-officials were too clever, clever enough to fully understand the theories presented in Marx's book.

Because these scholars found that Ma Si was right, or rather, they could not find any rebuttal at the moment.

Ma Si served as the Inspector General of South America, responsible for inspecting and impeaching local officials who violated discipline.

The position of Provincial Surveillance Commissioner is generally a temporary one, since it is impossible for someone to travel around all the time.

But Ma Si might be an exception.

Of course, Ma Si didn't think the position was bad either; after all, one should read ten thousand books and travel ten thousand miles.

Ma Si spent two years traveling around South America and even took a trip to North America.

His assessment of the Americas can be summed up in four words: "a chaotic mess."

The situation here was more complicated than he had imagined.

There are primitive tribes living in a matriarchal society here. If Ma Si hadn't had guards, she would have been captured and made a husband by the tribe long ago.

This is a chiefdom formed by the union of several tribes.

There is a country called Mai, which adheres to traditional Confucianism and practices a feudal system. Loyalty and righteousness are prevalent in the country. Nobles and their retainers will kill each other over the word "loyalty" or "righteousness," either killing their enemies or themselves.

There were plantation owners who were obsessed with bowing to the Song Dynasty's dragon flag every day, and even made pregnant women in their own homes bow to it every day, claiming it was to cultivate them from a young age.

There were also Song Dynasty people who believed in Neo-Confucianism who opened impart in Manta.

Shen Juanzhou's Neo-Confucianism had once greatly inspired Ma Si, and its ideas of equality and benevolence had deeply influenced him. However, he did not expect Shen Juanzhou to be able to take things so thoroughly in Manta. As the saying goes, things reach their extremes and then reverse; the sudden release after being suppressed for so long was truly beyond imagination.

Even the open-minded Ma Si found it hard to accept.

Furthermore, there is a group of farmers in North America who are engaging in anarchism.

It can only be said that the officials and ministers of the Eastern Song Dynasty were responsible for this situation, since any eccentric or dangerous figures who threatened the rule were exiled to the Americas.

It was expected that it would turn out this way.

To reiterate, Ma Si was not frustrated by this situation; on the contrary, he was very happy.

He wanted to vehemently refute these chaotic ideas and then unify American thought.

The premise for refuting these ideas is to understand why these ideas exist in the first place, and why they are ultimately replaced by one's own ideas.

Therefore, Ma Si embarked on another journey through the Americas, this time with even greater detail than before.

Finally, five years later, another book was born.

The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State.

The core viewpoints can be summarized in the following four points:

Two types of production determine social systems: the production of material goods (clothing, food, housing, and transportation) and the production of human beings themselves (the propagation of the species) jointly constrain society. In early societies, the influence of kinship was even greater.

Family structures evolve with economic foundations: the family has not always existed. From group marriage and pair-bonding to monogamy (one husband with multiple concubines), the fundamental driving force behind this evolution was the emergence of private ownership. Monogamy, in essence, aims to ensure that property is inherited by one's biological children, and therefore tends to restrict women.

Private ownership is the root of class society: the division of labor (especially the three major divisions of labor) brings about surplus products and exchange, giving rise to private ownership. This directly leads to the division of society into opposing classes such as slave owners and slaves, exploiters and the exploited.

The state is a product of irreconcilable class contradictions: when primitive clan systems could no longer resolve increasingly intense class conflicts, the state emerged as "a force that appears to be above society." Its essence is a violent tool for maintaining private property and the interests of the ruling class, rather than a permanent representative of the "public interest."

The ultimate conclusion of these four viewpoints is that the family, private property, and the state are all products of history; they are not eternal and will eventually disappear with the demise of classes.

In short, Marx wrote this book to tell people how the three most significant things in modern world civilization came about: the family, private property (such as money and land), and the state.

First, how does a family come about?

In ancient times, humans were similar to animals; men and women would freely pair up, and children only recognized their mothers, not their fathers. Later, people gradually discovered that children born to close relatives were more prone to illness, so they began to prohibit incestuous relationships between siblings and between fathers and daughters. Still later, with the development of productivity, men accumulated large amounts of wealth, such as cattle, sheep, and tools. It would be a loss to pass these assets on to "other people's children," so they demanded that women sleep only with them, thus giving rise to monogamous families. Therefore, the essence of this type of family was to ensure that wealth would be passed on to one's own son.

Mas discovered that the Iroquois of North America had a peculiar system of kinship terms—for example, they called all their father's brothers "father" and all their mother's sisters "mother." This suggests that they may have previously lived a life of "a group of brothers sharing a group of wives." This is known as group marriage.

Second, where did private ownership come from?

In primitive societies, people hunted and gathered, but resources were scarce and had to be shared equally to survive, so everything belonged to the tribe. Later, humans learned to raise livestock, cultivate land, and refine metals—cattle and sheep could reproduce on their own, and iron plows could clear more wasteland. At this point, an individual could produce more than enough to feed themselves (called "surplus products"). Some people then began to seize more cattle, better land, and even used captured prisoners of war to work for them (the earliest slaves). From then on, "collective property" gradually transformed into "personal property."

Third, how did the state come about?

Before the advent of private ownership, everyone in a tribe was equal. Disputes were resolved through general assemblies, with the tribal chief mediating through his authority. There were no armies, constables, or prisons. However, private ownership created a system of rich and poor: the rich wanted to protect their property, while the poor wanted to reclaim it. This conflict intensified, and neither side could convince the other; the old rules alone were no longer sufficient. Thus, the wealthy spearheaded the formation of a "violent machine standing above society"—a machine with an army, laws, and prisons, ostensibly claiming to "maintain peace for all," but in reality primarily protecting the interests of the rich. This entity is called the state.

Clearly, while the scholar-officials of the Eastern Song Dynasty talked about serving the country and its people and were full of benevolence and morality, the government they formed was actually just protecting the interests of the wealthy.

Or perhaps they are simply wealthy people.

Ma Si further cited the example of the Iroquois people of North America, who originally did not have a nation. They had clan councils where everyone could speak, and the execution of prisoners of war was decided collectively. There was no monarch, no prisons. It was only when the Song people entered the Americas, bringing advanced productivity and creating a gap between rich and poor, that they were forced to learn to establish governments.

Of course, this government lasted for two years before being overthrown by Song Dynasty farm owners.

Marx concluded that one day, when all means of production become public (without distinction between the rich and the poor), classes will disappear, the state will naturally become useless, and the family will become a truly equal relationship based on love.

These things that you now consider "self-evident" are actually just passing through history.

Marx came to a surprising conclusion: society, in its final stages, would revert to a state of group marriage similar to that of primitive tribes.

All I can say is that impart is correct.