When Unirule was created, we were not aware of the classical usage of “Unirule”, just using “Unirule” as a short version of “rules between Heaven and Earth”. It sounded suitable, and was consistent with our passion for institutional economics and concern with institutional change. Afterwards in The Book of Songs, we found the poem “Tian Sheng Zheng Min, You Wu You Ze”, which means “People are created by God, and naturally there would be  things and rules”. That is suitable for our understanding of institutions: in human society, institutions would be generated naturally, and they are the spontaneous order.

Later, in The Book of Changes we found the sentence “Qian Yuan Yong Jiu, Nai Jian Tian Ze”, in which we first found the classical usage of “Unirule” as a whole word. As Mr. Nan Huaijin explained, the sentence means that Heaven and Earth generated rules, never demandingreturn, which was precisely our definition of Unirule and very close to our ambition.

After reading more literature, we found that this sentence is a classical one, commented and discussed by ancient scholars of past ages. In Song Dynasty, Yu Yan said, “Unirule is natural law” and “the natural law has no mind”. Yang Jian said “Unirule means God’s activity, and human activity is not Unirule”. That is to say, there exist the ways of Heaven, which are beyond the wisdom of human beings. Only by trials and errors, can human beings understand Unirule and follow the way of Heaven.

Nevertheless, people should not give up exploring “Unirule”, not only because of curiosity of human beings, but also because in that kind of society where the ways of Heaven are followed by people as possible as they can, everyone will feel happier and the whole society will be more prosperous. To comply with the ways of Heaven is the origin of Chinese civilization. Exploring “Unirule” becomes their everlasting task, for only it is beyond the wisdom of human beings. So, Unirule Institute of Economics researches institutions and cultures, which is a modern continuation of this ancient and perpetual cause.

Furthermore, since Unirule is the rules beyond human beings’ wisdom, the reality of human society is always flawed, and the individuals within the political structure are facing limitations. To overcome this problem, we should first acknowledge the infinity of Unirule as well as the limitation of secular government and the specific political figures. Then we should explore an institutional structure to hamper the secular government and the specific political figures and amplify the virtue of each society member. This kind of approach is constitutionalism.

It is generally believed that constitutionalism originated in the West and plays an important role in Christian tradition. If not complying with the “Justice of God”, the secular government has no legitimacy. Similarly, the ways of Heaven and Unirule have given us spiritual resource of constitutionalism. The emperor was regarded as an official, who should be guided and constrained by the ways of Heaven. Therefore, there should be someone who has a deeper understanding of the ways of Heaven than other individuals and groups, which is called “the Heaven shows the signs, and sages transform them into rules.” Understanding the ways of Heaven through inspiration by nature, cultural traditions are formed. The group who bears the tradition, as Mr. Yu Yingshi said, is recognized as representative of the tradition of ways of Heaven since 4 century B.C. by the political groups gradually. [Page]

Accordingly, the name of Unirule also contains constitutionalism. After the Culture Revolution, the structure of integration of politics and God has collapsed. The government appeared to be more secular, and also the political figures return to be ordinary persons The ideal political structure should be a set of constitutionalist principles. To the whole society, it contains basic principles concluded from successes and failures of thousands of years, including principles of protecting human rights and property rights. In the political area, it is the constraint to the defects of the secular government and political figures, as well as the encouragement for people to promote social justice and prosperity. However, it is not easy to explore the set of constitutional principles, as it looks like to explore the ways of Heaven, for it is necessary to absorb and digest varied kinds of spiritual resources at all times and in all countries.

Of course, the culture elites are also ordinary people, so there should be ways of Heaven to explore the ways of Heaven. Those are rules of freedom of expression and civilized debate. It can’t be denied that heroes appeared in history, which precisely happened as a result of following the rules. Thus, Unirule Institute of Economics could not regard what we say is the ways of Heaven only because our name is Unirule, and should try our best to maintain the rules of freedom of expression and civilized debate, promoting the constitutional consensus with various cultural elites.

Based on this, Unirule will try its best to rebuild social moral value and let the social and political fields benefit from it. We hope that the secular government and political figures should acknowledge that they are also ordinary people, and accept the constitutional principles which are far beyond the interests of individuals and groups. What we would like is that as Xun Zi’s saying, improving politics when in the government, while improving morality when in countryside. We would like to tell society and government what we regard as constitutional principles through our papers, books, and reports; while to tell the public what kinds of moral value we persue through our essays and mcro-blogs.

Take a look at the past twenty years, what we have done and will do can be summed up in one word ”Unirule”.