What one worries about is not the small population but instability, not poverty but uneven distribution.
This is from a dialogue in The Analects of Confucius. Confucius said: What the head of a state should concern himself with is not the lack of wealth or people but the lack of even distribution of wealth or the lack of life stability. So long as wealth is evenly distributed among the people, nobody will complain about whether he is poor or rich; so long as there is solidarity, there will be no worry about the small population. This will bring about peace and contentment and protect against failure.
This belief is informed by the traditional Chinese pursuit of moderate prosperity and universal harmony. In Chinese philosophy, as a good society is created by all the people, it should be enjoyed by all the people.
At a study session on implementing the decisions of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, opened in January 2016 for provincial and ministerial officials, Xi Jinping cited this quotation and said: In nature, the philosophy of shared development represents the idea of people-centered development, and it reflects the demand to achieve shared prosperity in stages.
不患寡而患不均，不患貧而患不安
“不患寡而患不均，不患貧而患不安”，出自《論語(yǔ)》，大意是對(duì)一個(gè)國(guó)家來(lái)說(shuō)，不必去擔(dān)心土地、財(cái)富、人口不多，而應(yīng)該擔(dān)心社會(huì)貧富不均，人民生活不安寧。如果財(cái)富平均，就無(wú)所謂貧窮和富裕，而人民團(tuán)結(jié)一心，就不會(huì)覺(jué)得人口稀少，并且只有這樣才能讓國(guó)家和平安樂(lè)，不會(huì)有傾覆危險(xiǎn)。這一理念是由中國(guó)傳統(tǒng)文化中一直延續(xù)的奔小康、求大同的社會(huì)理想所決定的。中國(guó)人始終認(rèn)為，一個(gè)美好的社會(huì)狀態(tài)既然是由人民創(chuàng)造的，那么自然也應(yīng)該由人民來(lái)共享。
2016年1月，習(xí)近平在省部級(jí)主要領(lǐng)導(dǎo)干部學(xué)習(xí)貫徹中共十八屆五中全會(huì)精神專題研討班上的講話中引用“不患寡而患不均，不患貧而患不安”，指出共享理念實(shí)質(zhì)就是堅(jiān)持以人民為中心的發(fā)展思想，體現(xiàn)的是逐步實(shí)現(xiàn)共同富裕的要求。
