Lao She’s "Teahouse" is revered as a great work of realism precisely because it is so realistic. For example, in the famous scene between Chang Siye and Er Dezi, Chang Siye says: "Show some authority, go fight with the foreigners!" Er Dezi replies: "I can't even deal with foreigners, how can I deal with you?"
Lu Xun wrote in "A Madman's Diary": "I opened history and checked, but this history has no dates; on every crooked page, the words 'benevolence, righteousness, morality' are written. I couldn't sleep at all, so I carefully looked through the night, and only then did I see the words from the cracks: the whole book is written with two words 'cannibalism'! In 'Teahouse', this logic of 'cannibalism' is constantly played out in the lower strata of society—not the strong devouring the weak, but the weak gnawing at each other. Moreover, the more incompetent a person is, the more they like to bully the weak. As Lu Xun said: the people at the bottom will harm each other; they are sheep, but also ferocious beasts; when they encounter a fiercer beast, they show their sheep-like nature, and when they meet a weaker sheep, they reveal their beastly side. This is the evil of human nature and the mutual harm at the bottom.
Why is this the case?#
First is the economic predicament. In "Teahouse", the resources available to the lower class are very limited. For example, the teahouse owner Wang Lifafa often says: "Reform, reform, the more you reform, the colder it gets, ice cold!" Wang Lifafa is shrewd and hardworking, yet he cannot escape the increasingly heavy pressure of life, let alone other ordinary people. When survival resources are extremely scarce, the evil of human nature is triggered, and mutual harm among the lower class becomes a necessary choice for survival. What is legal or illegal, what is moral or immoral, makes no difference in their eyes. In "Teahouse", the human trafficker Liu Mazi not only shows no compassion for the father and daughter of Kang Shunzi, but instead takes advantage of the situation; he tricks and buys 15-year-old Kang Shunzi, asking for 200 taels from the buyer, but only gives 10 taels to Kang Shunzi's father.
Secondly, there is psychological alienation. In a pyramid-shaped social model, the dignity of the lower class is easily trampled upon. The difficulty of survival and the loss of dignity lead to fear and numbness dominating the collective psychology of the lower class; they cannot vent their dissatisfaction on those in higher classes, so they can only vent it on those even lower than themselves, thus falling into a vicious cycle of mutual harm. When a person from the lower class gains even a little power, they will bully those even lower than themselves even more. Because they clearly know that as fellow lower-class individuals, they are powerless, thus they act even more unscrupulously. Moreover, they are particularly servile; in front of the strong, they bow and scrape, wagging their tails in submission; in front of the weak, they show their fangs and reveal their ferocity. This tendency to flatter the powerful and bully the weak is a typical manifestation of the evil of the lower class and the mediocrity of evil. For example, in "Teahouse", Er Dezi, when seeing foreigners and officials, either gets scared and keeps his distance or bows respectfully. But when he encounters a resting coachman or a begging beggar, he shows a fierce demeanor.
Finally, there is social oppression. In the society depicted in "Teahouse", power dominates everything; the lower class must rely on various power structures to gain a narrow space for survival, and they must actively or passively become tools for oppressing their peers. Therefore, mutual harm among the lower class is not because they enjoy harming each other, but because mutual harm is the only way to survive. For example, the Legalist design of resources being controlled by a single outlet means that all resources are in the hands of the powerful; to survive, one must defeat all competitors. Just like Chang Siye's cry: "I love our country, but who loves me?" This is akin to a pack of dogs, where the owner monopolizes all the bones and occasionally throws one into the pack; only the most ferocious, cunning, and lucky dog can become the owner of that bone. If they do not harm each other, they cannot snatch that bone that allows them to survive.
What is even more tragic is that many in the lower class not only accept the logic of oppression but also actively maintain the oppressive system. For example, in "Teahouse", Song Er Ye, although kind-hearted, only cares about his own birdcage. This tacit approval of oppression and avoidance of reality is, in fact, a disguised maintenance of the oppressive system, which also indirectly fosters mutual harm among the lower class. In such a model of mutual harm, the populace becomes completely atomized, forever unable to form a collective force, and can only indulge in mutual harm after losing their ability to think, firmly believing in an inverted world.
In this mutual harm among the lower class, the beneficiaries are obvious. Hu Shi said: "The greatest evil of human nature is to hate others for having and to laugh at others for having not, to despise you for being poor and to fear you for being rich." When people first meet, they first assess each other's status and worth, then choose whether to kneel before the other or make the other kneel before them. The greatest evil of human nature is to make things as difficult as possible for others within one's own limited power.
In fact, being born into the lower class is not terrifying; what is terrifying is this weak mentality of mutual harm. They will gradually exhaust their strength in repeated struggles, ultimately unable to escape the quagmire of the lower class. Because they have become accustomed to being slaves, in their eyes, it is either to make others their slaves or to be someone else's slave, never considering the possibility of being a normal person.