Having Standards有度
國無常强，無常弱。奉法者强，則國强；奉法者弱，則國弱。荊莊王并國二十六，開地三千里；莊王之氓社稷也，而荊以亡。齊桓公并國三十，啓地三千里；桓公之氓社稷也，而齊以亡。燕襄王以河爲境，以薊爲國，襲涿、方城，殘齊，平中山，有燕者重，無燕者輕；襄王之氓社稷也，而燕以亡。魏安釐王攻燕救趙，取地河東；攻盡陶、魏之地；加兵於齊，私平陸之都；攻韓拔管，勝於淇下；睢陽之事，荊軍老而走；蔡、召陵之事，荊軍破；兵四布於天下，威行於冠帶之國；安釐王死而魏以亡。故有荊莊、齊桓，則荊、齊可以霸；有燕襄、魏安釐，則燕、魏可以强。今皆亡國者，其羣臣官吏皆務所以亂而不務所以治也。其國亂弱矣，又皆釋國法而私其外，則是負薪而救火也，亂弱甚矣！
A state has no constant strength and no constant weakness. When those who uphold the law are strong, the state is strong. When those who uphold the law are weak, the state is weak. King Zhuang of Chu annexed twenty-six states and opened three thousand li of land; but when King Zhuang left the altars of soil and grain and died, Chu perished with him. Duke Huan of Qi annexed thirty states and opened three thousand li of land; but when Duke Huan left the altars of soil and grain and died, Qi perished with him. King Xiang of Yan made the He River his border and Ji his capital. He fell upon Zhuo and Fangcheng, broke Qi, and settled Zhongshan. The side that had Yan was weighty, and the side without Yan was light; but when King Xiang left the altars of soil and grain and died, Yan perished with him. King Anxi of Wei attacked Yan and rescued Zhao, and took land in Hedong. He attacked and took all the land of Tao and of Wei. He sent troops against Qi and made the city of Pinglu his own. He attacked Han and pulled out Guan, and won the field below the Qi River. In the affair at Suiyang the army of Chu wore out and fled; in the affair at Cai and Shaoling the army of Chu was broken. His troops were spread over the world, and his awe ran through the states of cap and sash; but when King Anxi died, Wei perished with him. So with a King Zhuang of Chu or a Duke Huan of Qi, Chu and Qi could be hegemons; with a King Xiang of Yan or a King Anxi of Wei, Yan and Wei could be strong. That they have all now become ruined states is because their assembled ministers and officials all worked at what brings disorder and did not work at what brings order. Their states were in disorder and weak, and still they all let go the laws of the state and made outside things their own. This is to carry firewood while going to put out a fire, and the disorder and the weakness grow worse.
Interlinear notes 1
The base text has 魏; some read it as 衞, Wey. — translator
故當今之時，能去私曲就公法者，民安而國治；能去私行行公法者，則兵强而敵弱。故審得失有法度之制者，加以羣臣之上，則主不可欺以詐僞；審得失有權衡之稱者，以聽遠事，則主不可欺以天下之輕重。今若以譽進能，則臣離上而下比周；若以黨舉官，則民務交而不求用於法。故官之失能者其國亂。以譽爲賞，以毁爲罰也，則好賞惡罰之人，釋公行，行私術，比周以相爲也。忘主外交，以進其與，則其下所以爲上者薄矣。交衆、與多，外内朋黨，雖有大過，其蔽多矣。故忠臣危死於非罪，姦邪之臣安利於無功。忠臣之所以危死而不以其罪，則良臣伏矣；姦邪之臣安利不以功，則姦臣進矣：此亡之本也。若是，則羣臣廢法而行私重，輕公法矣。數至能人之門，不壹至主之廷；百慮私家之便，不壹圖主之國。屬數雖多，非所以尊君也；百官雖具，非所以任國也。然則主有人主之名，而實託於羣臣之家也。故臣曰：「亡國之廷無人焉。廷無人者，非朝廷之衰也。家務相益，不務厚國；大臣務相尊，而不務尊君；小臣奉祿養交，不以官爲事。此其所以然者，由主之不上斷於法，而信下爲之也。故明主使法擇人，不自舉也；使法量功，不自度也。能者不可弊，敗者不可飾，譽者不能進，非者弗能退，則君臣之間明辯而易治，故主讎法則可也。
So in the present age, when men can put away private crookedness and go to the public law, the people are at peace and the state is ordered. When they can put away private conduct and practice the public law, the army is strong and the enemy weak. So when there is the control of law and measure, which examines gain and loss, and it is laid over the assembled ministers, the ruler cannot be deceived by fraud. When there is the weighing of the balance, which examines gain and loss, and with it he hears of distant affairs, the ruler cannot be deceived about what is light and heavy in the world. Now if the able are advanced by praise, ministers leave the one above and band together below. If offices are filled by faction, the people work at making connections and do not seek to be used by the law. So when office loses ability, that state is in disorder. When praise is made the reward and slander the punishment, then men who love reward and hate punishment let go public conduct, practice private arts, and band together to act for one another. They forget the ruler and make ties abroad to advance their own party, and what those below do for the one above grows thin. Their ties are many and their party large, and they form cliques within and without. Though they have great faults, those who cover for them are many. So the loyal minister is endangered and dies for what is no crime, while the treacherous minister is safe and profits without merit. When loyal ministers are endangered and die, and not for their crimes, good ministers go into hiding. When treacherous ministers are safe and profit, and not by merit, treacherous ministers come forward. This is the root of ruin. This being so, the assembled ministers set aside the law, work at their private weight, and make light of the public law. They come many times to the gate of the able man and not once to the ruler's court. They plan a hundred times for the ease of private houses and not once for the ruler's state. Their attached followers may be many, but they are not what honors the ruler. The hundred offices may be complete, but they are not what carries the state. Then the ruler has the name of ruler, while the reality lodges in the houses of the assembled ministers. So your servant says, "In the court of a ruined state there are no men." To say there are no men in the court is not to say the court has dwindled. The houses work at profiting one another and not at enriching the state. The great ministers work at honoring one another and not at honoring the ruler. The lesser ministers take their salaries to feed their ties and do not make office their business. The reason it is so is that the ruler does not decide above by the law, but trusts those below to do it. So the enlightened ruler makes the law choose men and does not raise them himself. He makes the law measure merit and does not gauge it himself. Then the able cannot be hidden and the failed cannot be adorned; those who praise cannot advance a man and those who blame cannot drive him out. Between ruler and minister all is plainly sorted and easy to govern. So it is enough that the ruler match himself against the law.
賢者之爲人臣，北面委質，無有二心。朝廷不敢辭賤，軍旅不敢辭難；順上之爲，從主之法，虚心以待令，而無是非也。故有口不以私言，有目不以私視，而上盡制之。爲人臣者，譬之若手，上以脩頭，下以脩足；清暖寒熱，不得不救；鏌鋣傅體，不敢弗搏。無私賢哲之臣，無私事能之士。故民不越鄉而交，無百里之慼。貴賤不相踰，愚智提衡而立，治之至也。今夫輕爵祿，易去亡，以擇其主，臣不謂廉。詐說逆法，倍主强諫，臣不謂忠。行惠施利，收下爲名，臣不謂仁。離俗隱居，而以詐非上，臣不謂義。外使諸侯，内耗其國，伺其危嶮之陂，以恐其主曰：「交非我不親，怨非我不解。」而主乃信之，以國聽之，卑主之名以顯其身，毁國之厚以利其家，臣不謂智。此數物者，險世之說也，而先王之法所簡也。先王之法曰：「臣毋或作威，毋或作利，從王之指；無或作惡，從王之路。」古者世治之民，奉公法，廢私術，專意一行，具以待任。
When a worthy man becomes another's minister, he faces north, offers his pledge, and keeps no second heart. At court he does not dare decline what is lowly; with the army he does not dare decline what is hard. He follows what the one above does and follows the ruler's law. He empties his heart and waits for orders, and has no right and wrong of his own. So he has a mouth but does not speak privately, has eyes but does not look privately, and the one above controls him wholly. One who is another's minister is like a hand. Above it tends the head, below it tends the feet. Cool or warm, cold or hot, it cannot but come to the rescue; and when the Moye blade touches the body, it does not dare not to grapple with it. There is no keeping worthy and wise ministers for oneself, and no keeping able officers for one's own service. So the people do not cross their village to make ties, and there is no trouble from a hundred li away. High and low do not overstep one another; the foolish and the wise hold up the balance beam and stand level. This is the height of good government. Now to make light of rank and salary, to leave and flee easily, and so to pick one's ruler — your servant does not call this integrity. To go against the law with deceitful talk, to turn one's back on the ruler and press remonstrance by force — your servant does not call this loyalty. To hand out kindness and bestow profit, gathering those below to make a name — your servant does not call this benevolence. To leave the common world and live hidden, and by deceit to call the one above wrong — your servant does not call this righteousness. To go abroad as envoy to the feudal lords while wearing down his own state within, to watch for the slope where it stands in danger, and so to frighten his ruler, saying, "Without me these ties will not be close, and without me this ill will will not be undone" — and then the ruler trusts him and gives him the state to hear; he lowers the ruler's name to make his own person shine, and breaks down the state's abundance to profit his own house — your servant does not call this wisdom. These several things are the talk of a dangerous age, and what the law of the former kings set aside. The law of the former kings says, "Let no minister make awe of his own; let none make profit of his own; follow the king's pointing. Let none make hatred of his own; follow the king's road." In antiquity the people of a well-ordered age upheld the public law and did away with private arts. They made their intent single and their conduct one, and held themselves ready to be given charge.
夫爲人主而身察百官，則日不足，力不給。且上用目，則下飾觀；上用耳，則下飾聲；上用慮，則下繁辭。先王以三者爲不足，故舍己能而因法數，審賞罰。先王之所守要，故法省而不侵。獨制四海之内，聰智不得用其詐，險躁不得關其佞，姦邪無所依。遠在千里外，不敢易其辭；勢在郎中，不敢蔽善飾非；朝廷羣下，直湊單微，不敢相踰越。故治不足而日有餘，上之任勢使然也。
If a man is ruler and examines the hundred offices in person, the days are not enough and his strength does not stretch so far. Moreover, if the one above uses his eyes, those below dress up what is seen. If the one above uses his ears, those below dress up what is heard. If the one above uses his thought, those below make their words many. The former kings held these three to be not enough. So they let go their own ability, relied on law and method, and examined reward and punishment. What the former kings held to was the essential, and so their law was spare and was not encroached upon. Alone he controlled all within the four seas. The keen and the clever could not use their deceits; the dangerous and the hasty could not push in their flattery; treachery had nothing to lean on. A man far off, a thousand li away, did not dare alter his words. A man in place as a palace attendant did not dare hide the good and adorn the wrong. The many below at court came straight in, single and small, and did not dare overstep one another. So the governing did not fill the day and days were left over. It was the ruler's reliance on his position that made it so.
夫人臣之侵其主也，如地形焉，即漸以往，使人主失端，東西易面而不自知。故先王立司南以端朝夕。故明主使其羣臣不遊意於法之外，不爲惠於法之内，動無非法。峻法，所以禁過外私也；嚴刑，所以遂令懲下也。威不貳錯，制不共門。威、制共，則衆邪彰矣；法不信，則君行危矣；刑不斷，則邪不勝矣。故曰：巧匠目意中繩，然必先以規矩爲度；上智捷舉中事，必以先王之法爲比。故繩直而枉木斵，凖夷而高科削，權衡縣而重益輕，斗石設而多益少。故以法治國，舉措而已矣。法不阿貴，繩不撓曲。法之所加，智者弗能辭，勇者弗敢爭。刑過不避大臣，賞善不遺匹夫。故矯上之失，詰下之邪，治亂決繆，絀羨齊非，一民之軌，莫如法。厲官威民，退淫殆，止詐僞，莫如刑。刑重，則不敢以貴易賤；法審，則上尊而不侵。上尊而不侵，則主强而守要，故先王貴之而傳之。人主釋法用私，則上下不別矣。
A minister encroaches on his ruler as the lay of the land does. It goes on little by little, until the ruler loses his bearing, and east and west have changed faces without his knowing it. So the former kings set up the south-pointer to fix east and west. So the enlightened ruler does not let his assembled ministers wander in thought outside the law, or do kindnesses inside the law. In their every move there is nothing that is not law. Steep law is how faults are forbidden and private interest is put outside. Stern punishment is how orders are carried through and those below are chastened. Awe is not set in two places, and control does not share a gate. When awe and control are shared, every kind of evil comes into the open. When the law is not trusted, the ruler's conduct is in danger. When punishment does not cut, evil is not overcome. So it is said: a skilled craftsman hits the inked line by eye, yet he must first take compass and square as his measure. A man of the highest wisdom hits the matter at a stroke, yet he must take the law of the former kings as his standard. So when the line is straight, crooked wood is cut away. When the level is even, the high places are pared down. When the balance hangs, the heavy is added to the light. When peck and picul are set out, the many is added to the few. So to govern a state by law is only to raise up and set down. The law does not fawn on the noble, and the inked line does not bend for what is crooked. Where the law is laid on, the wise cannot decline it and the brave do not dare contend with it. In punishing faults it does not spare the great ministers; in rewarding the good it does not leave out the common man. So for straightening the faults above, calling to account the evil below, ordering disorder and cutting through tangles, trimming what is excess and leveling what is wrong, and making the track of the people one — nothing is like the law. For sharpening the officials and holding the people in awe, driving back excess and sloth, and stopping fraud and falsehood — nothing is like punishment. When punishment is heavy, none dares use rank to escape what falls on the lowly. When the law is examined, the one above is honored and not encroached upon. When the one above is honored and not encroached upon, the ruler is strong and holds what is essential; and so the former kings prized this and handed it down. If a ruler lets go the law and uses private favor, then above and below are no longer distinct.