Marriage Relationships#
Marriage relationships are the most important form of symbiotic relationships#
Marriage may be the most important means of cooperation and coexistence in this world. Whether it is Wang Zhaojun or Princess Wencheng, or the princesses of various dynasties, they all prove the significant meaning of this means to us.
Of course, there are many examples where marriage alliances did not yield results, but there are also many successful examples. With national grievances and family hatred, if a marriage can ease the contradictions between two countries, then one can only imagine the importance of marriage for common people.
Marriage relationships are close symbiotic relationships. This is also why many parents cry when they marry off their daughters. Because they understand that this symbiotic relationship is not just ordinary cooperation, but a wholehearted entrustment, including a gradual estrangement from their natal family. Of course, we will not consider remarriage and other special phenomena for now.
Marriage relationships are a close material relationship#
I hate to hear people say things like “All appearances are the same, but souls are unique.” Thinking of Zhu Bajie, Zixia, and Zhenzunbao, when they exchanged bodies, even if your soul is captivating, having Zhu Bajie's face could never evoke "love." Perhaps Zhu Bajie is very lovable, but definitely not that kind of lovable.
Therefore, even if there is a soul, it cannot be separated from the appearance; even if it can be separated, the soul has no meaning to others. The soul must be converted through a person's energy into an objective world's equivalent. In other words, the soul is a naked material relationship.
Everything you create through the so-called "soul" belongs to the realm of intellectual property. Can the stories we think of compare to those of top writers? Can the depth of thought compare to Socrates? Can an individual's divinity compare to Jesus? Can the aesthetic of painting compare to Van Gogh? Can musical talent compare to that of Beethoven and others?
If there truly exists a so-called unique soul, then these human masters are probably one in a billion or even a hundred billion. Wouldn't it be beautiful to directly connect with their divinity?
Groups and Marriage Relationships#
Thus, marriage only exists in the objective world and should be deconstructed from an appearance-based perspective. Marriage is the most intense form of cooperative symbiotic relationship in life. It is the strongest force generating centripetal force within this group.
However, this force is like rowing upstream. In the village, interests are deeply entangled. There are too many cases of brothers turning against each other. Therefore, the elders often say that they have drifted further apart. Thus, marriage only allows two people without blood relations to coexist, while blood relations have already reached the peak of symbiotic relationships; when things reach their extremes, blood relations may no longer feel close.
The purpose of marriage is to establish cooperative symbiotic relationships, and the most beneficial cooperation naturally occurs between two families without blood relations, which is why close relatives do not marry. But this has nothing to do with emotional love. Some powerful people, due to the relatively low constraints of marriage, have a lower threshold for "incest," of course, this is an evaluation from a moral perspective.
People without blood relations can feel like family, while those with blood relations can only drift further apart. This is the inherent contradiction of group survival, the greatest driving force.
In summary, marriage is a purely interest-based relationship, a symbiotic relationship. Its stability depends on whether a stable cooperative symbiotic relationship can be achieved. The means to achieve this is to have children, as mothers gain status through their children. However, in the face of enormous inequality between families, having children is not particularly useful.
The Emergence of Large Groups#
Looking to the future, one will discover a harsh reality. Technologies such as surrogacy, gene editing, sperm and egg banks, and cloning have already shaken the foundation behind marriage—reproduction religion. For thousands of years, marriage has been a natural law for group cohesion, but this law is now being shaken by new technologies. Humanity stands on the threshold of the interstellar age, giving birth to a new group—large groups. The so-called large groups are based on the vast energy available to humanity, focusing on how to utilize technology to reconstruct a new type of population structure suitable for larger groups.
This is different from the current degradation of reproduction; large groups are a trend in human development, while degradation of reproduction is merely a social phenomenon of the moment.
Just like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, after eating the forbidden fruit, they naturally faced issues of reproduction and population. It can be said that "Adam and Eve" are the ancestors of humanity during the gathering civilization period, while the "forbidden fruit" corresponds to the early agricultural civilization's wheat and rice planting techniques, and "being expelled from the Garden of Eden" signifies the endless conflicts and massacres arising from resource issues after population growth.
When we embark on the path of reproduction, or rather, the path of life, there is no turning back. Everyone is striving for survival, and population is the greatest manifestation of survival.
Therefore, the present is destined to be an extraordinary world, a pivotal moment comparable to the transition from gathering civilization to agricultural civilization. This "fruit" is destined to be consumed, unless "Adam and Eve" choose to "end their lives" in the Garden of Eden. This "fruit" must be consumed by humanity, depending on the price paid, unless, as Einstein said, the third world war returns us to the "Garden of Eden."
Ps: Reflections on marrying close relatives