Mr. He和氏
楚人和氏得玉璞楚山中，奉而獻之厲王。厲王使玉人相之。玉人曰：「石也。」王以和爲誑，而刖其左足。及厲王薨，武王即位。和又奉其璞而獻之武王。武王使玉人相之。又曰：「石也。」王又以和爲誑，而刖其右足。武王薨，文王即位。和乃抱其璞而哭於楚山之下，三日三夜，淚盡而繼之以血。王聞之，使人問其故，曰：「天下之刖者多矣，子奚哭之悲也？」和曰：「吾非悲刖也，悲夫寶玉而題之以石，貞士而名之以誑，此吾所以悲也。」王乃使玉人理其璞而得寶焉，遂命曰「和氏之璧」。
Master He, a man of Chu, found a rough stone of jade in the hills of Chu, and he bore it up and offered it to King Li. King Li had a jade worker look at it, and the jade worker said, "It is a stone." The king held that Master He had cheated him, and cut off his left foot. King Li died and King Wu ascended the throne. Master He again bore up his rough stone and offered it to King Wu. King Wu had a jade worker look at it, and again he said, "It is a stone." The king again held that Master He had cheated him, and cut off his right foot. King Wu died and King Wen ascended the throne. Master He then took his rough stone in his arms and wept below the hills of Chu for three days and three nights, until his tears were spent and blood came after them. The king heard of it and sent someone to ask the reason. "There are many in the world who have had their feet cut off. Why do you weep so bitterly?" Master He said, "I do not grieve for my feet. I grieve that a precious jade is named a stone and an upright officer is called a cheat. This is why I grieve." The king then had a jade worker work the rough stone, and a treasure was got from it. At last it was named the jade disc of Master He.
夫珠玉，人主之所急也。和雖獻璞而未美，未爲主之害也，然猶兩足斬而寶乃論，論寶若此其難也。今人主之於法術也，未必和璧之急也，而禁羣臣士民之私邪。然則有道者之不僇也，特帝王之璞未獻耳。主用術，則大臣不得擅斷，近習不敢賣重；官行法，則浮萌趍於耕農，而游士危於戰陳；則法術者乃羣臣士民之所禍也。人主非能倍大臣之議，越民萌之誹，獨周乎道言也，則法術之士雖至死亡，道必不論矣。
Pearls and jade are what a ruler holds urgent. Though Master He offered a rough stone that was not yet fair to look at, it did his ruler no harm, and still it was only after both his feet were cut off that it was judged a treasure. So hard is it to have a treasure judged. Now a ruler does not hold law and method as urgent as the jade disc of Master He, and yet he would forbid the private wickedness of his ministers and his people. If so, the man who holds the way is not put to death only because he has not yet offered the emperor's and the king's rough stone. When the ruler uses method, the great ministers cannot decide as they please and the familiar intimates dare not sell their weight. When the officers carry out the law, drifting commoners hurry back to the plough and wandering officers are put in danger on the field of battle. So law and method are a calamity to the ministers and the people. If the ruler cannot turn his back on the great ministers' arguments, get past the people's slander, and go the whole round of the words of the way alone, then though the officer of law and method should go to his death, his way will surely not be judged.
昔者吳起教楚悼王以楚國之俗曰：「大臣太重，封君太衆。若此，則上偪主而下虐民，此貧國弱兵之道也。不如使封君之子孫三世而收爵祿，絶減百吏之祿秩，損不急之枝官，以奉選練之士。」悼王行之期年而薨矣，吳起枝解於楚。商君教秦孝公以連什伍，設告坐之過，燔詩書而明法令，塞私門之請而遂公家之勞，禁游宦之民而顯耕戰之士。孝公行之，主以尊安，國以富强，八年而薨，商君車裂於秦。楚不用吳起而削亂，秦行商君法而富强。二子之言也已當矣，然而枝解吳起而車裂商君者，何也？大臣苦法而細民惡治也。當今之世，大臣貪重，細民安亂，甚於秦、楚之俗，而人主無悼王、孝公之聽，則法術之士，安能蒙二子之危也而明己之法術哉？此世所以亂無霸王也。
Long ago Wu Qi taught King Dao of Chu about the customs of Chu, saying, "The great ministers are too heavy and the enfeoffed lords are too many. When it is like this, above they press hard upon the ruler and below they deal harshly with the people. This is the road to a poor state and a weak army. It would be better to take back the rank and stipend of an enfeoffed lord's descendants at the third generation, to cut and lessen the stipends and grades of the hundred clerks, and to pare away the branch offices that are not urgent, so as to keep up soldiers chosen and drilled." King Dao carried this out, and within a year he died, and Wu Qi was torn limb from limb in Chu. Lord Shang taught Duke Xiao of Qin to bind the households into tens and fives, to set up the law of informing and of shared guilt, to burn the Odes and the Documents and make the laws and orders clear, to block the pleading of private houses and bring to pass the labors of the public house, to forbid the people who wandered in search of office and to bring forward the officers who ploughed and fought. Duke Xiao carried it out, and the ruler became honored and at peace and the state rich and strong; in the eighth year he died, and Lord Shang was torn apart by chariots in Qin. Chu did not use Wu Qi and was pared away into disorder; Qin carried out Lord Shang's law and grew rich and strong. The words of these two men were fitting enough, so why were Wu Qi torn limb from limb and Lord Shang torn apart by chariots? Because the great ministers find the law a hardship and the little people hate being governed. In the world of today, the great ministers' greed for weight and the little people's ease in disorder are worse than the customs of Qin and Chu, and rulers have no ear to listen as King Dao and Duke Xiao did. How then can the officer of law and method brave the danger these two men met and make his own law and method clear? This is why the world is in disorder and has no hegemon king.