44-1：The Aftermath of the Lawsuit

The lawsuit between Shenzhen Lusheng Audio Company and Beijing Gelüshi Audio Company ended with Lusheng's defeat. What began as a high-profile case, hyped by Lusheng's brand and media frenzy, turned Gelüshi into an overnight sensation. Praised as a company aiding poverty alleviation, a friend to audiophiles, and offering the best quality at the lowest price, Gelüshi reaped immense publicity without spending a dime on advertising. Meanwhile, Lusheng faced a dire future, teetering on the brink of either bankruptcy or submission.

The case sparked a heated debate across newspapers, TV, and online platforms about the standards and paths to salvation, further fueled by the enigmatic death of Lin Yufeng, which incited public outcry against Ding Yuanying.

Excerpt from "Is it a Failure of Law or Culture?":

The law is the baseline of social morality, addressing only the most basic, surface-level issues. It cannot solve the fundamental problems of culture, which can only be resolved through cultural awakening. A nation's cultural identity dictates its civilization, honor, and fate. When a nation emphasizes morality the most, it is often when its morality is most degraded.

Excerpt from "Building a Cultural Platform for the Strong":

Law addresses the symptoms, while culture addresses the root causes. The law is powerless against the cultural soil that breeds legal issues and against actions that infiltrate this soil to cause greater harm and plunder. It is the last line of defense for social order, the weakest yet most formidable. Its sanctity stems from the collapse of moral civilization. Addressing the needs of the weak and encouraging the strong to build higher moral platforms requires a corresponding social culture.

Excerpt from "Who is Moving the Moral Baseline?":

Consider a government policy allowing people to become wealthy. If this policy is seen as a gift from the government, then all taxpayers who profit from it should be grateful. If the policy is the government's duty, taxpayers need not be grateful but satisfied. How should taxpayers' honor and value be recognized when helping the vulnerable with their money? Who should the vulnerable thank? Should the gratitude be on the taxpayers' account? Should taxpayers feel grateful or honored? Can taxpayers pursue higher life values after securing their own survival?

Excerpt from "Thoughts on Robbing the Rich to Help the Poor":

Building a moral platform for the strong is a complex social project. A platform too low squeezes the weak's survival space, while one too high presents two problems: few can reach it, making it impractical, and excessive help hinders social progress. The more blood the weak receive, the weaker their own blood-producing function becomes, edging them closer to death. An ideal moral platform balances the survival of the fittest with equality. Mainstream culture supports survival of the fittest, leaving no room for backward ideas. But if we don't care for the weak, does morality have value? Hierarchy is objective. If we don't dare admit its existence, how can we establish a higher moral culture? Without individual cultural value changes, how can there be qualitative changes in national cultural value?

Excerpt from "The Path to Salvation for the Weak":

Planned economy's flaw lies in providing a breeding ground for weak culture, resolved mainly through political ideals. Market economy's flaw lies in creating wealth disparities and social conflicts, resolved through social interest adjustment mechanisms. In a planned economy, politics is the highest value, with power as the only path to wealth and status. In a market economy, economics is the highest value, with multiple paths to wealth and status. Achieving social equality requires paying for inertia; achieving social vitality requires paying for hierarchy. This is determined by human nature, the objective law, and the natural need for moral value indicators of the strong to maintain social stability.

Excerpt from "The Best Bandit, the Worst Hero":

Someone killed an innocent person, destroying the only national brand that could compete with foreign goods. This isn't aiding the poor; it's robbing the rich to help the poor. He used "aiding the poor" as a banner, dyed red with the labor, sweat, tears, and even blood of many people.

Excerpt from "After the Wet Nurse is Gone...":

Without a certain mastermind, could Wangmiao Village have today's achievements? Yet, with such a mastermind, can Wangmiao Village truly be saved? Its essence remains laboring in inhumane conditions. This small-scale agricultural production, based on farmhouses and cheap labor, has inherent defects, lacking high-end technology and product development. Sacrificing farmers' basic survival rights for competitive advantage drags many suitable industries into a dead end, akin to banditry and opening granaries, plunging into low-level vicious competition of small-scale farming.

Excerpt from "The Path to Poverty Alleviation: Who is the Savior?":

The people have no "lord," not because they truly have none, but because they lack a "lord" who understands objective laws, relying instead on the moral "lord" of the strong, i.e., "You must be my master," awaiting paternal government rescue. Robbing the rich can help the poor, but it is essentially aiding, not salvation. Christianity relies on God, Buddhism on Buddha's grace. What does traditional culture offer farmers? Who will be their master? Where is the farmers' path to salvation?

Excerpt from "If the 'Gelüshi Model' Spreads"...

Excerpt from "The Path to Salvation for the Weak"...

Excerpt from "What is the Standard for Salvation?"...

Excerpt from "In the Name of Poverty Alleviation"...

Excerpt from "Ruffianism? Virtue? Taoism?"...

Excerpt from "The Logic of the Strong and the Bandits"...

In this special time and event backdrop, Ding Yuanying knew that various social commentaries would flood in, and he would face widespread denunciation. As for others' opinions, right or wrong, he no longer cared because Rui Xiaodan was gone. Everything had lost its meaning to him.

Everyone knew that China's cultural attributes, accumulated over thousands of years, couldn't be awakened by a single discussion. The path to salvation is an enduring topic, and this event's discussions on law, morality, and cultural attributes were just a continuation. People would discuss it today and continue in the future due to other events.

However, the name Ding Yuanying was undoubtedly infamous.