Fundamental precondition of existence of living creatures

Life is the fundamental precondition of existence of all living creatures. “Since it is a living creature, its first important matter is, of course, the life. The reason for being a living creature just lies in the life. Otherwise, it will lose the meaning of the living creature.”(Lu Xun) Human, as a living creature, is no exception, no matter how special he is. A human can be called a human only when his life exists. In the existence of a human in the world, the absolutely principal question is how to maintain his (her) life.

The absolute essentiality of life means，with the life, there is everything; without the life, everything is lost. As the old saying goes: “Where there is life, there is hope.” So long as the life is existent, there is a hope to get anything life can produce. Any need can be met, any loss can be recovered, and even a failure may become a success! On the contrary，death is the greatest misfortune，for it not only destroys all hopes, but also makes anything already gained lose its meaning. With life lost, even if you have money, power, love, friendship or anything, all will be lost together with it.

Although the ancients realized long ago “Wealth and properties are external things besides the body”, yet, among the people today, there are still numerous people who “risk their life” for external things besides the body. When they have obtained the external things besides the body, such as money and power, they have completely lost their capital, their own life! A rich man has become a Chairman of the Board of Directors possessing assets of millions of dollars, from abject poverty, because of “desperate struggle” of more than one decade. But now he is lying on the sickbed, on the verge of leaving this world. When some young adorers came to visit him, he said: “I would rather be a pauper now. If I could exchange, I would use my family property of millions of dollars to exchange for life…”

In this world，some are cudgeling their brains for money, some are bucking bitterly for power, some are shedding tears and blood for position… Money, power, position and life, which is the most important? Once life perishes，anything attached to it, such as wealth, power, status, honor, love and so on，will disappear instantly like foams in water.

All fine things in human life have their meaning only when they are bound to life. Even the greatest statesman, greatest scientist, greatest thinker，for example Einstein: when we talk about him now, he is only a name, or symbol，and it is meaningless to that Einstein alive and kicking.

Human development must be an overall development. An overall development chiefly includes three aspects, namely, morality, intelligence and body; the “body” is the most fundamental. Mao Zedong hit the point by one sentence: “Without the body, there will be no morality and intelligence.” Non-existence of the body equals non-existence of the life, and all things will return to nothingness. However high a person is in morality and intelligence, once he has died, all his morality and intelligence will be lost completely with it. Thus, we can see the absolute essentiality of life.

Judging from the micro aspect, that is, as far as the individual is concerned, life is of absolute essentiality；Judging from the macro aspect, that is, as far as the society is concerned, life is of absolute essentiality, too. Marx put it in this way: “In any human history, the first precondition is undoubtedly the existence of living individuals.” The first precondition is naturally the most essential precondition，being of absolute essentiality. Any human history or any human society must take “the existence of living individuals” as the precondition absolutely. As a matter of fact，any individual is an existence with life; Once the life is lost, the individual will no longer exist. Hence，in the whole society or the whole world，the most fundamental and absolutely essential thing is only life，that is, everyone’s life. Speaking from the most basic point, what makes the human society go on endlessly and go up vigorously, is not power, nor wealth，nor productive force，but life，everyone’s life!

Life’s absolute essentiality is life’s first essential attribute.