Abstract Large organizations and civilizations commonly become trapped in a progressive lock-in effect: power, interests, and cognitive frameworks concentrate among incumbent elites, producing adaptive decline and the systematic exclusion of genuine innovation. Existing remedies typically oscillate between violent revolutions—whose costs are staggering and whose outcomes often revert to new forms of rigidity—and superficial reforms that leave foundational structures untouched. This paper advances a novel theoretical framework—the Eclosion Model—drawing on the biological metaphor of complete metamorphosis. Synthesizing insights from Daoism, Confucianism, Mohism, Zen Buddhism, the Vedic tradition, classical Marxist theory, Rawls's justice as fairness, and organizational sociology, the model diagnoses the cultural-genetic drivers of organizational rigidity. Through comparative historical analysis of successful and failed cases—the Zen monastic system, Diocletian's abdication, the English Glorious Revolution, Haier's RenDanHeYi model, and the Soviet collapse—this paper identifies necessary conditions and institutional design principles for peaceful organizational eclosion. It further confronts the motivational paradox endogenous to institutional design, proposing a multidimensional framework of meaning reconstruction, inner awakening, rational prudence, and media activation. The paper offers managers, policy designers, and institutional entrepreneurs a conceptual vocabulary for non-violent organizational renewal, rather than a prescriptive blueprint. AI Use Statement: The author used DeepL for translation assistance during the preparation of this manuscript, converting the initial Chinese draft into English. All substantive intellectual content—including the theoretical framework, conceptual synthesis, historical case analyses, and critical argumentation—was independently developed by the author. Grammar checking and language polishing were completed by the author. The author assumes full responsibility for the accuracy and originality of the content.
Fenglei Kang (Mon,) studied this question.