How should one evaluate the first-prize-winning essay from the 2016 government agencies essay competition, titled \"Getting rid of the donkey after it has done its work\"?
Thread Content
How should one evaluate the first-prize-winning essay from the 2016 government agencies essay competition, titled \"Getting rid of the donkey after it has done its work\"? (Repost) The day it died, I rushed to the scene. Look at it lying by the mill, emaciated, with matted fur and wide eyes. The death appearance was extremely tragic; only one leg continued to thrust forward with force. I know that even when it died, it still tried its best to grind. Because last night it said that the festival was approaching, and it needed to make one final effort to grind up the remaining 400 pounds of beans, complete the task, and then go home to rest properly. I just didn’t expect to die from the grinding machine after all. When I first met it, it was a model among donkeys, a talented young one with an unlimited future ahead. I have seen it grind flour; its movements are steady and even, the flour produced is white and fine with no impurities at all. It also works diligently and without complaint, earning praise from its master every year. I heard that at first, grinding flour wasn’t that stressful either – one would go to the mill on time every day and then return home after finishing the work. But then things suddenly changed. The owner decided to reform the system for grinding flour with donkeys; those who ground the flour were responsible for it, and many oversight agencies were established. As a result, the original 50 donkeys that were used for work were forcibly divided into different categories. There are donkey propagandists who are responsible for shouting production slogans and promoting the outstanding deeds of the donkeys. There are overseer donkeys, responsible for supervising the other donkeys at work. Research on donkeys is focused on advancing milling methods. There’s also the Planning Donkey, responsible for formulating work plans and tasks. Of course, there are also donkeys of a higher rank, responsible for managing other donkeys. The only ones left at the end are these “line donkeys”. After the reforms are completed, upon counting them, it turns out that less than 40% of them are actually the donkeys doing the grinding work. From then on, the donkeys clearly became tired; what used to require 50 donkeys to grind could now be done with 20 donkeys. After stricter management was implemented, the number of donkey species continued to increase, while the number of common donkeys declined sharply. Many donkeys no longer pull the mill; they’ve taken up other tasks. Some donkeys write production plans, some conduct research and investigations, while others even participate in cultural and artistic activities. As a result, the more types of donkeys there are, the fewer donkeys available for work, and the problem of too much work and not enough donkeys becomes increasingly prominent. Donkeys are divided into so many categories, and each category has specific tasks to carry out. The work of grinding flour also requires constant innovation to support promotional efforts. It turns out that simply grinding steadily in circles around the mill is no longer sufficient; it doesn’t meet the trends of the times. So first, they learned from Malaysia*, drawing on the advanced experience of horse-drawn carriages, and used them to grind grain at full speed; later, they realized that there was too big a difference between donkeys and horses, so they abandoned this approach. I also tried imitating the way oxen plow by pulling a mill in a straight line; however, I found it technically impossible and failed. Many donkeys, with no other choice, have to pull the mill in various ways. Some pull the mill while jumping, some while crawling, some while kneeling, and some while rolling – after a whole day of this, their legs are on the point of breaking. After all this hassle, many donkeys were full of complaints and lacked enthusiasm. To motivate the donkey to grind grain, the master came up with a method for calculating the workload. The number of times the donkey is used to grind grain per day, as well as the quantity and quality of the flour produced, are all managed through standardized metrics; at the end of the year, those who produce the most flour receive rewards. Those who earn more rewards can get points and then be promoted to “management donkeys”; they no longer have to pull the millstone. I reminded it at that time not to trust its master any longer, as he had once tricked you by showing a carrot in front of the donkey. But it wouldn’t listen and kept working hard; it was number one for three consecutive years. When it wore big red flowers on itself, it felt as though it was about to make it. But later, the master promoted another donkey, and the reason was that that donkey could sing – it was a rare talent that brought honor to the master. Since then, its confidence has been dealt a devastating blow, and it gradually became disheartened. I saw that it was demoralized and had no desire to grind flour, so I also advised it to leave and find a job that was easier and more promising. Many donkeys can lead carts and carry passengers, and they can still live a good life. But it insists that after grinding flour for so many years, it no longer knows anything. Being older, it’s not easy to pull a cart with passengers; I can no longer learn how to do it. I don’t have enough strength to pull the cart by myself, and carrying passengers could hurt them. It’s not ideal right now, but at least things are stable; I’ll just go along like this. Even if you’re just minding your own business, there’s still so much work to do. I see it still going up to grind the flour every day, and coming back down in a circular motion. While grinding, it appeared listless, with unsteady steps; the flour produced was uneven in texture—some coarse, some fine—and some even contained dirt. Its vitality and vigor were completely gone compared to before. One day, the donkey eventually fell at the millstone, just as its master had said, “A good donkey dies at the millstone.” When the master came, I watched from the side and cried for a long time, yet not a single tear fell. It’s just that it’s said to have been an excellent donkey, having devoted its entire life to the task of grinding grain, and it called on other living donkeys to learn from it*. After the onlookers who had come to mourn dispersed, I saw the owner go into the kitchen and instruct the cook to kill the donkey, cook its meat, and turn its skin into donkey-hide gelatin to strengthen his wife’s health.
The outcome is that those who are honest and hardworking suffer misfortune their whole lives.
After seeing this, it’s clear that it’s the crowd that causes the problems.
Turning it into donkey-hide gelatin to nourish the body is truly a act of ultimate dedication
It’s a very realistic and sad story; I hope it can serve as an inspiration to me, reminding me that I shouldn’t just keep my head down working hard, but also need to look ahead.
“The “crisis resolution” regarding donkey labor resources – a continuation of the article “Killing the donkey after it has done its work”. The original article is ingeniously conceived and rich in meaning; upon reading it and comparing it to reality, one feels that there’s more to be said. Thus, taking advantage of my free time this weekend, I’ve written this follow-up piece. Well, after that donkey praised by its master as “excellent” died at work, the reality that \"a good donkey doesn’t get a good reward\" gradually began to affect that donkey’s mindset as well. More and more front-line employees try various methods to gain favor with their supervisors: they either desperately seek out various connections, or privately learn from foxes the arts of using seduction to manipulate others, or learn from peacocks how to move their tails and lift their buttocks in a certain way. They also resort to various so-called \"innovations\" that are essentially just superficial changes, and use various media channels to promote their own image, all in an effort to get promoted and move away from their front-line positions as soon as possible. As a result, there are even fewer workers on the front line, and the workload becomes increasingly heavy. Those who remain either age prematurely or die from overwork, or they gradually become tired of their work and lose motivation, leading to a sharp decline in the quality and quantity of flour produced. Management and other non-frontline staff became aware of the \"human resource crisis\" and began to submit frequent reports to their superiors, citing an overwhelming workload and insufficient staffing, and requesting additional funding to hire more staff. At first, the owner reluctantly increased funding, but later, feeling that there was a imbalance between income and expenses, he began to doubt the management’s competence. Seeing that their master was suspicious, the donkeys became less bold in asking for funds and resources, but the crisis regarding the \"donkey labor force\" did not disappear, which left them somewhat depressed. But one thing happened that quickly reversed the “donkey power resource” crisis. It turns out that once many donkeys left their frontline jobs to join the privileged class, their natural instincts were unleashed, and they began to seek pleasure everywhere. Some donkeys, in an effort to get promoted, tried to please the higher-ranking horses; as a result, improper relationships between donkeys and horses occurred from time to time. As a result, a large number of ‘mules’ that are neither horse nor donkey were created. As soon as a mule is born, neither the horse nor the donkey will acknowledge it as one of their kind; they refuse to pay any attention to it and abandon it at birth, leaving it to fend for itself. Although the father ignores and the mother neglects it, the mule has strong vitality and resistance to diseases, giving it an extraordinary ability to survive. Once, several donkeys assigned to the front-line work fell ill. Unable to find donkeys willing to do the work, management brought in some mules as temporary workers for those tasks. To their surprise, the mules ate less but worked more; they had strong constitutions, robust limbs and hooves, good endurance, were easy to call and control, and did not complain or show signs of fatigue even when working long hours. The management was as excited about this discovery as if they had found a new continent. They conducted further research and discovered that due to poverty, mules dare not reproduce; thus, they can essentially avoid taking maternity leave, nor do they need to worry about the burden of raising offspring ； Moreover, the usable lifespan of mules is expected to be 20–30 years, making their utility value extremely high. The management team in charge of the \"donkey labor resources\" immediately assembled writers to prepare a report spanning millions of words, in which it detailed how introducing a large number of temporary and contract donkeys could increase productivity quickly and efficiently ； It is eloquently proven that temporary mules and contract mules, which can be called upon at any time and dismissed just as easily, not only help to reduce the official staffing levels and save the owner’s expenses and funds, but also enable the elimination of older, weaker mules as well as those who complain excessively and refuse to obey instructions. They also allow mules who are eager to serve their owners but are trapped in frontline positions to be freed up, either for promotion to supervisory or management roles, or to focus on providing entertainment for their owners through music and other performances. There is one advantage that management hasn’t written down in the report, but which everyone is aware of: in case anything goes wrong at work, the donkey can be made to take the blame. The master, seeing that the report contained solid facts and arguments, as well as innovative and bold ideas, nodded in approval. Thus, gradually, there were few left of the regular workers in various departments; instead, cheap laborers hired on a contractual basis filled these departments to carry out the frontline work. The workers who remained became \"privileged employees with fixed positions\" – they no longer did the grinding themselves, but rather supervised, evaluated, and directed the contract workers to do it. As a result of this ‘donkey reform’, there was also a significant, little-known change: the donkey communities scattered throughout the grassroots areas have now quietly transformed into mule communities.
It’s a true replica of real life: all kinds of donkeys, all kinds of lives. They struggle in mediocrity and ultimately perish in that struggle. Life is short; don’t let the struggle cause you to miss out on its beauty. Give yourself a window through which sunlight can illuminate your life.
1) Results are not achieved in a day; there are many details in the process. 2) The owner must sacrifice the donkey by killing it, to prevent it from going berserk and killing itself. 3) Donkeys too need to learn to* improve; as their physical strength declines, their mental abilities must keep up, thereby increasing the cost of killing them. 4) Getting rid of those who are no longer useful is a natural law; free competition is perfectly acceptable... 5) This also follows a simple logic of value exchange. You are the only one, as the leader. You are rare; be a wise donkey. You are worthless; figure out the outcome yourself. 6) This text reflects a typical underlying logic. 7) Only the master slaughtering the donkey is mentioned; there is no emphasis on the fact that the master is often killed by other bosses. It is said that to catch a thief, one must first catch its leader, but it has never been said that to catch a thief, one must first catch the donkey. Understanding the cost of risk enables one to put themselves in others’ shoes. Emperor Chongzhen had his cake not distributed properly, and he spent his last days accompanied only by an old servant. 8) If the bosses take cold showers, can frogs in warm water just stop thinking?
There are some things that can’t be said outright; they have to be expressed through metaphors. But everyone understands what’s meant, and it’s fine~ A big award should be given