One World Family · Accessible Version¶
Wherever you go is home; whoever you meet is family.
1. Where the phrase comes from¶
Zhuge Liang, the famous strategist of ancient China, left a book of prophecy called Ma Qian Ke, in fourteen lessons. The thirteenth lesson has just sixteen Chinese characters:
No worthy person left in the wilds, all under heaven one family; without name, without virtue, bringing glory to China.
In 2006 a Chanyuan Celestial asked the Guide what these lessons meant. He answered that this lesson "refers to the Lifechanyuan Era." He also said that he saw the scenes of the future Lifechanyuan Era first, and only afterwards found that they "matched exactly" Zhuge Liang's prophecy.
In 2007 he wrote an essay reading Ma Qian Ke "for my own amusement," saying at the outset that it was "purely for fun" and that readers "must not take it seriously." Yet in many later essays he cites the same prophecy as the overall direction of human society. Both tones are in the Corpus; readers can weigh them for themselves.
From then on, "no worthy person left in the wilds, all under heaven one family" became the phrase the Guide used most often to describe the Lifechanyuan Era, usually followed by another: "nothing dropped on the road is taken, no door is locked at night."
2. One family means no "your family" and "my family"¶
The Guide unpacks "one family" like this:
Since all under heaven is one family, that means there are no nations, no marriage and family, no private property, and all resources are shared.
Think about it and it makes sense: in a real family, nobody marks off "my country," "my household" or "my money" inside the house.
In each person's heart, One World Family means stepping out of nation, party, religion and family in your consciousness, and seeing yourself as a citizen of Earth, a citizen of the universe.
The New Era Human 800 Concepts write it as the way people and society live together: "no worthy person left in the wilds, all under heaven one family," "nothing dropped on the road is taken, no door is locked at night"; sharing blessings and sharing hardships, coordinating globally and sharing resources.
3. First, no worthy person left in the wilds¶
"No worthy person left in the wilds" means that people of talent and virtue are not left forgotten in the backcountry. The Guide says the two halves go together: only when no worthy person is left in the wilds can all under heaven be one family.
How? Article 708 of the 800 Concepts is specific: the management of each locality should be entrusted to the most civilized and excellent people found among all humanity, not selected from the local people or from one's own ethnic group. In that article, localism and nationalism are called "marks of barbarism and ignorance."
The Guide also says that buried talent is the most precious of all the resources humanity lives by; to bury it is to waste it.
He even understands democracy this way: democracy is not emperors taking turns on the throne, not everyone becoming a singer, but "no worthy person left in the wilds, all under heaven one family" — the worthy and able leading, each doing their own part.
4. Which country are you from?¶
In 2023 the Guide was chatting with a farmer on a nearby farm. The farmer asked whether he was Korean; he said he was from China, and the farmer said he was from Germany. Afterwards the Guide felt his answer was not quite right: Chanyuan Celestials are citizens of the world, or citizens of Earth, and saying you belong to a particular country does not fit what a Chanyuan Celestial is.
Three articles of the 800 Concepts say exactly this:
- Every citizen on Earth should regard themselves as a citizen of Earth, not a citizen of any one nation.
- The Earth belongs to the citizens of Earth, and they have the right to migrate and move freely throughout the world.
- Every affair on Earth is the affair of all the citizens of Earth.
Some worry: if borders open, won't everyone crowd into the rich countries? The Guide answers with an image:
Where there is a drop, a waterfall forms. Once the drop is gone, the waterfall no longer exists.
Where food is plentiful, nobody rushes to buy it; the Chinese have not all moved to Shanghai, nor Americans all to New York. The more something is restricted, the more people want it; open it up and things soon settle down.
Back in 2006, among his list of "Thirty Things Xuefeng Can't Stand," was applying for passports and visas: all under heaven is one family, yet people draw lines on the ground to make their own prisons.
5. Wouldn't a world without nations be more chaotic?¶
The Guide's answer: quite the opposite.
He gives an example any Chinese reader grasps at once. In the Warring States period there were seven states on Chinese soil — Qi, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao, Wei and Qin. All of them perished; who today thinks that was a bad thing? At the very least you can travel all over China without a visa or immigration papers. If the whole world had no nations and people could move freely anywhere, what a benefit that would be for ordinary people.
He also draws a clear line: loving your hometown and your motherland is not wrong; loving the state is. The motherland is a bond of feeling; the state is a machine of violence.
In his view, nations divide one global village into so many prisons, and the claim that nations keep people safe is empty: "the disappearance of nations, one global family, shared resources — that is the people's safest guarantee."
So why is One World Family so slow in coming? Because, the Guide says, it takes "four great renunciations" — of nations, religions, political parties and families — and the hardest people to renounce them are those who benefit most. An ordinary citizen easily gives up the nation; a king or president will not. An ordinary party member easily gives up the party; its leaders will not. Ordinary people long for the great-harmony life of One World Family; the rich will never willingly give up private property.
One more point: when the Guide speaks of nations, parties, religions and families disappearing, he means all of them throughout the world — "not any particular nation."
6. The Second Home: living it first¶
However good the argument, someone has to show it can be done. The Guide puts it bluntly:
To think you can bring about the great-harmony world … of "no worthy person left in the wilds, all under heaven one family" by talk alone is daydreaming. Make a model and let us see it!
The Second Home is that model:
- Three-year rotation. Each person stays in one home for only three years, then moves to another — "this cycle achieves the purpose of One World Family." The Guide imagined someone living in a home in Africa this year, in Europe three years later, and in the Americas six years later.
- The same wherever you go. If one day there are 256 Second Homes on Earth, then apart from climate and terrain they will be no different from one another, and "you will experience the feeling of 'all under heaven one family.'"
- No "yours" and "mine." In the Second Home there is no more division by ethnicity, race, religion or party: "all brothers and sisters, all citizens of the world."
- Even surnames set aside. Chanyuan Celestials use Cao names, which free people from the traditional lineage of surnames and lay the groundwork for One World Family.
The Guide says that if you think it through rationally — no worries over food, clothing, housing, birth, age, sickness and death; a new place to live every three years; wherever you go is home — you will probably conclude it is "utopian, impossible even in ten thousand years." But the Chanyuan Celestials who have lived in the Second Home believe it without a doubt, because they have already lived that way.
7. Whose job is it?¶
Many assume the mission of the Chanyuan Celestials is to "bring about One World Family." The Guide says no:
To bring about "all dharmas returning to their source, all teachings returning to one, all under heaven one family," and to build 256 branches around the world — that is the Guide's business, not the Chanyuan Celestials' business. Chanyuan Celestials have only one business: how to become celestials. And the Guide's business is the business of the Dao.
In 2024 he went further: a world of great harmony cannot be achieved by people, but the Dao can achieve it; once the script of the universe is written, no one can stop it being performed, so everyone can simply enjoy the show.
Nor will it come by force. The Guide says the world of great harmony will not forcibly seize private property or launch campaigns; it will come "like gentle rain moistening the earth without a sound, like spring sunlight over the land," as people find more and more that this way of life is happier, until they accept it wholeheartedly.
8. What it will look like¶
Over the years the Guide has sketched the picture:
- Regardless of race, skin color or religious belief, rich or poor, everyone becomes one family.
- Clear skies without pollution, clean clear water babbling everywhere, fish gliding over the shallow bed, birds of every kind bringing good omens.
- If anyone meets hardship, help comes from all directions; there is nothing to worry about behind you.
He has also said that this Lifechanyuan Era of one global family and harmony among all things can last only a thousand years; after that it will give way to another era.
In 2025 he summed it up in one line:
"One World Family" is better than nations competing.