Treacherous and Murderous Ministers奸劫弑臣

All treacherous ministers wish to follow the ruler's heart and so gain the standing of one who is close to him and favored. Therefore, when the ruler finds something good, the minister praises it along with him; when the ruler hates something, the minister tears it down along with him. The broad shape of people is this: those whose taking and discarding are the same approve of each other, and those whose taking and discarding differ condemn each other. Now what the minister praises is what the ruler approves, and this is called taking alike; what the minister tears down is what the ruler condemns, and this is called discarding alike. That men should agree in what they take and discard and yet go against each other has never been heard of. This is the road by which a minister gains trust and favor. When a treacherous minister rides the standing of trust and favor and by tearing down and praising advances and removes the host of ministers, and the ruler has no art and method for handling him and no cross-checking to examine him, the ruler is sure to trust today's words because of yesterday's agreement with himself. This is how a favored minister comes to deceive his ruler and accomplish his private ends. So the ruler is surely deceived above and the minister surely grows weighty below. Such a one is called a minister who takes the ruler for his own.

When a state has a minister who takes the ruler for his own, then those below cannot use up their wisdom and strength to lay out their loyalty, and the clerks of the hundred offices cannot uphold the law and bring their work to completion. How is this made clear? To go toward what is safe and profitable and to leave what is dangerous and harmful is the nature of people. Now the man who as a minister uses up his strength to achieve merit and exhausts his wisdom to lay out his loyalty is worn down in his own person, his household is poor, and father and son suffer the harm of it. The man who works treacherous profit to blind his ruler and spends goods and money to serve the honored and weighty ministers is exalted in his own person, his household is rich, and father and son receive the bounty of it. How, then, can a man leave the road that is safe and profitable and go toward the place that is dangerous and harmful? To govern a state as wrongly as this and still to want no treachery below and clerks who uphold the law — plainly this cannot be had. So the men at the ruler's side know that being upright and trustworthy cannot win them safety and profit, and they are sure to say: "For me to serve my superior with loyalty and good faith, piling up merit and toil to seek safety, is like being blind and wanting to know black from white. It is surely hopeless. And to be transformed by the Way, to practice right principle and not chase wealth and rank, and so to serve my superior and seek safety, is like being deaf and wanting to sort a clear note from a muddy one. It is more hopeless still. Since neither of these can win safety, how can I help but band together with others, blind the ruler above, and work treachery for myself to fit the minister of heavy power?" Such men will surely not look to their ruler's righteousness. The clerks of the hundred offices likewise know that being square and correct cannot win them safety, and they are sure to say: "For me to serve my superior with clean hands and seek safety is like wanting to make squares and circles with no compass and no square. It is surely hopeless. And to keep the law, join no faction, order my office and seek safety, is like scratching the top of my head with my foot. It is more hopeless still. Since neither of these can win safety, how can I help but set the law aside and act for myself to fit the minister of heavy power?" Such men will surely not look to their lord's law. So those who serve a minister of heavy power for private ends are many, and those who serve their ruler by law are few. Thus the ruler is alone above and the ministers form their faction below. This is how Tian Cheng came to kill Duke Jian.

When a man who has the art serves as a minister, he offers up words of measure and method, above making his ruler's law clear and below straitening treacherous ministers, and so he honors the ruler and settles the state. Therefore, when words of measure and method are offered up beforehand, reward and punishment are surely used afterward. Let the ruler be truly clear in the art of the sage and not careless with the words of the age, settling right and wrong by name and substance and examining speech by cross-checking. Then the intimate and familiar ministers at his side know that falsehood and deceit cannot win them safety, and they are sure to say: "If I do not leave off treacherous and private conduct and use up my strength and wisdom to serve my ruler, but instead band together with others and tear down and praise at random to seek safety, it is like carrying a thousand jun on my back, sinking into a fathomless pool, and asking to live. It is surely hopeless." The clerks of the hundred offices know too that working treacherous profit cannot win them safety, and they are sure to say: "If I do not uphold the law with clean and square hands, but with a greedy and filthy heart bend the law to take private profit, it is like climbing to the top of a high ridge, falling down a steep ravine, and asking to live. It is surely hopeless." When the road of safety and danger is as clear as this, how can the men at his side confuse the ruler with empty words, and how can the hundred offices dare to be greedy and fleece those below? So the minister lays out his loyalty and is not blinded, and those below keep to their duties and bear no grudge. This is how Guan Zhong governed Qi and how Lord Shang made Qin strong.

Seen from this, when the sage governs a state he has from the first a road that makes men unable not to love him, and he does not rely on men acting for him out of love. To rely on men acting for you out of love is dangerous; to rely on their being unable not to act is safe. Ruler and minister have no closeness of flesh and bone. If the straight and upright road can win profit, the minister uses up his strength to serve his ruler; if the straight and upright road cannot win safety, the minister works for himself and offends against his superior. The enlightened ruler knows this, and so he sets out the road of profit and harm and shows it to the world, and that is all. Thus, though the ruler does not teach the hundred offices with his mouth and does not hunt out treachery with his eyes, the state is already in order. A ruler is not clear-sighted because his eyes are like Li Lou's, and not keen of hearing because his ears are like Shi Kuang's. If the eye does not entrust itself to method and he waits on his eye to be clear-sighted, what he sees is little, and that is no art for staying unblinded. If the ear does not follow the force of things and he waits on his ear to be keen, what he hears is scant, and that is no road for staying undeceived. The enlightened ruler makes the world unable not to see for him and unable not to hear for him. So his body is deep within the palace, yet his brightness lights up all within the four seas, and the world can neither blind him nor deceive him. Why? The road of darkness and disorder has been abolished and the force of clear sight and keen hearing has risen. So the one who is good at trusting to the force of things has a settled state, and the one who does not know how to follow that force has a state in danger. In the old customs of Qin, ruler and ministers set the law aside and served their private ends, and so the state was disordered, its soldiers weak, and its ruler low. Lord Shang urged Duke Xiao of Qin to change the laws and alter the customs and make the common way clear, to reward those who reported treachery, to straiten the work of the branches and profit the work of the root. At that time the people of Qin were used to the old custom, where a man with a crime could still get off and a man without merit could still be honored and made known, and so they broke the new laws lightly. Then those who broke them were cut down heavily and without fail, and those who reported them were rewarded richly and surely, and so no treachery went undiscovered and many suffered punishment. The people were sick with resentment and their many complaints were heard day after day, but Duke Xiao did not listen and carried through the laws of Lord Shang. Afterward the people knew that a crime was surely cut down and that those who reported private treachery were many, and so the people did not offend and the punishments had nowhere to fall. Thus the state was in order and its soldiers strong, its land broad and its ruler honored. The reason it was so is that the penalty for hiding a crime was heavy and the reward for reporting treachery was rich. This too is the road to making the world see and hear for you without fail. The law and art of the highest government are already clear, and the learned men of the age do not know it.

Moreover, the foolish learning of the age knows nothing of the true state of order and disorder, yet it babbles away, reciting much from the books of high antiquity, and so disorders the government of the present day. Its wisdom and forethought are not enough even to keep it from falling into a pit, and still it wrongly condemns the man who has the art. He who listens to such words is in danger, and he who uses such plans falls into disorder. This too is the greatest of follies and the worst of troubles. Such men share with the man who has the art the name of one who talks and expounds, but in substance they are ten million miles apart; here the name is the same and the substance differs. To set a man of the age's foolish learning beside a man who has the art is like setting an anthill beside a great hill; they stand far apart. The sage examines the substance of right and wrong and looks into the true state of order and disorder. So in governing a state he makes the law correct and clear and sets out stern punishments, meaning thereby to rescue the living multitude from disorder and rid the world of calamity, to keep the strong from riding down the weak and the many from doing violence to the few, so that the old may live out their years and the young and orphaned may grow, the borders may go unraided, ruler and minister be close to each other, and father and son keep each other safe, with no dread of death or capture. This too is the richest of merits. The foolish do not know it and take it for violence instead. The foolish man truly wants order and hates what brings order; every one of them hates danger and delights in what brings danger. How do I know it? Stern punishments and heavy penalties are what the people hate, yet they are what brings a state to order; pitying the people and lightening punishments is what the people delight in, yet it is what brings a state into danger. When the sage makes law for a state, he is sure to go against the age and to follow the Way and its power. Those who understand it agree with righteousness and differ from custom; those who do not understand it differ from righteousness and agree with custom. When few in the world understand it, righteousness is called wrong.

To stand in a place that is not of the Way, to bear the slander of many mouths, to be drowned in the talk of the present age, and then to face a stern Son of Heaven and seek safety — is this not hard! This is why a man of wisdom goes to his death without ever being known in the world. Chunshen, the younger brother of King Zhuang of Chu, had a beloved concubine named Yu (余), and the son of his proper wife was named Jia (甲). Yu wished her lord to cast off his wife, so she wounded her own body and showed it to her lord and wept, saying: "To be my lord's concubine is great good fortune. Even so, to fit myself to the lady is no way to serve my lord, and to fit myself to my lord is no way to serve the lady. I am unworthy from the first, and my strength is not enough to fit two masters; as things stand I cannot fit them both. Rather than die in the lady's quarters, better that death be granted me before my lord. Once your handmaid has been granted death, if someone at your side should come into favor again, I beg my lord to look into it well and not become a laughingstock." Her lord then believed the concubine Yu's deceit and cast off his proper wife. Yu wished also to kill Jia and make her own son the heir, so she tore the lining of the robe next to her skin and showed it to her lord and wept, saying: "Jia cannot but know how long I have had my lord's favor, and now he would force his sport upon me. I struggled with him until my robe was torn. No unfilial act of this child is greater than this." Her lord was angry and killed Jia. So the wife was cast off by the concubine Yu's deceit, and the son died by it. Seen from this, even a father's love for his son can be harmed by slander. Ruler and minister keep company without the closeness of father and son, and the slandering words of the host of ministers are not one concubine's mouth alone. What wonder is it, then, that the worthy and the sagely are put to death! This is how Lord Shang was torn apart by chariots in Qin and Wu Qi was pulled limb from limb in Chu. Ministers as a rule do not wish to be cut down when they have a crime, and all wish to be honored and made known when they have no merit. But when the sage governs a state, reward is not added to the man without merit, and cutting down is surely carried out on the man with a crime. This being so, a man who holds art and method is by nature what the treacherous ministers at the ruler's side will harm, and none but an enlightened ruler can give him a hearing.

When the learned men of the age speak to a ruler, they do not say, "Ride the force of your authority and straiten your treacherous ministers." They all say, "Benevolence and righteousness, kindness and love, and nothing more." Rulers of the age admire the name of benevolence and righteousness and do not look into its substance, and so in the large case the state perishes and their own persons die, and in the small case their land is pared away and they themselves are brought low. How is this made clear? Giving to the poor and the hard-pressed is what the age calls benevolence and righteousness; pitying the people and not bringing oneself to cut down and punish is what the age calls kindness and love. Now if there is giving to the poor and hard-pressed, men without merit get rewards; and if a ruler cannot bring himself to cut down and punish, the violent and disorderly do not stop. When a state has men who are rewarded without merit, the people do not work abroad at facing the enemy and taking heads, nor press hard at home to plow and toil. They all want to spend goods and money to serve the wealthy and noble, to do private favors and set up a fine name, and so gain high office and a rich salary. So treacherous and self-seeking ministers grow ever more numerous and the violent and disorderly crowd grows ever stronger. What is such a state waiting for, if not ruin? Stern punishments are what the people fear; heavy penalties are what the people hate. So the sage sets out what they fear in order to forbid their wickedness, and lays down what they hate in order to block their treachery. Thus the state is settled and violence and disorder do not arise. By this I make clear that benevolence and righteousness, love and kindness are not enough to use, and that stern punishments and heavy penalties can govern a state. Without the authority of whip and crop and the fittings of bit and bridle, even Zaofu could not master a horse. Without the rule of compass and square and the guiding line of the inked cord, even Wang Er could not make a square or a circle. Without the force of authority and the law of reward and punishment, even Yao and Shun could not bring about order.

Now the rulers of the age all lightly set aside heavy penalties and stern cutting down and practice love and kindness, and still they want the merit of a hegemon or a king. That too is hopeless. So the man who does well as a ruler makes rewards clear and lays out profit to urge the people on, letting them be rewarded for merit and not granted gifts for benevolence and righteousness; and with stern punishments and heavy penalties he forbids them, letting them be cut down for crimes and not let off for love and kindness. Thus the man without merit does not hope, and the man with a crime does not count on luck. Entrust yourself to a rhinoceros-hide chariot and good horses, and you may brave the troubles of slope and rough ground on land. Ride the safety of a boat and hold the advantage of oars, and you may cut clean through the hardships of the great rivers. Grasp the method of law and art and carry out heavy penalties and stern cutting down, and you may reach the merit of a hegemon or a king. Law, art, reward and punishment in the governing of a state are like a rhinoceros-hide chariot and good horses on a land road, or a light boat and handy oars on a water road. Those who ride them attain their end in the end. Yi Yin got them, and Tang became king. Guan Zhong got them, and Qi became hegemon. Lord Shang got them, and Qin became strong. These three men were all clear in the art of the hegemon and the king and understood the method of order and strength, and they were not dragged along by the words of custom. Meeting the mind of an enlightened ruler of their day, they were entrusted at once, men in hempen clothes, and set in the place of chief minister; and holding that place and governing the state, they had the substance of honoring their ruler and broadening his land. Such a one is called a minister worth prizing. Tang got Yi Yin and from a hundred li of land was set up as Son of Heaven. Duke Huan got Guan Zhong and was set up as head of the five hegemons, gathering the lords nine times and setting the world right at one stroke. Duke Xiao got Lord Shang, and his land was broadened and his soldiers made strong.

So when there is a loyal minister, there is no trouble from enemy states without and no worry from disorderly ministers within; the ruler is long at peace in the world and his name hangs down to later ages. This is what is called a loyal minister. As for Yu Rang, who was minister to Zhi Bo: above, he could not persuade his ruler to make clear the principle of law, art, measure and method and so avoid the trouble of calamity and hardship; below, he could not lead and hold his multitude and settle his state. When Viscount Xiang killed Zhi Bo, Yu Rang branded his own skin and cut off his nose, ruining his face, to avenge Zhi Bo upon Viscount Xiang. In this he had the name of maiming and killing himself for his ruler, but in substance it profited Zhi Bo not so much as the tip of an autumn hair. This is what I rank low, and rulers of the age take it for loyalty and hold it high. In antiquity there were Bo Yi and Shu Qi. King Wu offered them the world and they would not take it, and the two men starved to death on the hill of Shouyang. Ministers like these do not fear heavy cutting down and do not count heavy reward a profit; they cannot be forbidden by punishment and cannot be employed by reward. These are called ministers of no profit. They are what I make little of and cast aside, and what rulers of the age make much of and seek out.

A proverb says, "The leper pities the king." This is an irreverent saying. Even so, from of old there is no empty proverb, and it must be looked into. It is said of rulers who were seized, killed, and destroyed. When a ruler has no law and art for handling his ministers, then even if he is advanced in years and fine in talent, the great ministers will still gain power, take affairs into their own hands, and seize the ruler's decisions, each pressing his own private ends. And since they fear that his fathers and elder brothers and the bold and able men may borrow the ruler's strength to forbid and cut them down, they kill the worthy and the elder and set up the young and weak, and cast out the rightful heir and set up one who has no claim. So the Chunqiu records it and says: "Prince Wei (圍) of Chu was going on a state visit to Zheng. Before he had passed the border he heard that the king was ill and turned back. He then went in to ask after the illness, strangled the king with the cord of his cap and killed him, and thereupon set himself up. In Qi, the wife of Cui Zhu was beautiful, and Duke Zhuang had illicit dealings with her and went often to the house of the Cui family. When the duke went there, Jia Ju, one of Cui Zhu's followers, led Cui Zhu's followers and attacked him. The duke went into a room and asked to divide the state with him, and Cui Zhu would not allow it; the duke asked to take his own life in the ancestral temple, and Cui Zhu again would not listen. The duke then fled and climbed the north wall. Jia Ju shot the duke and hit him in the thigh; the duke fell, and Cui Zhu's followers hacked him with halberds and killed him, and set up his younger brother, Duke Jing." Of what has been seen near at hand: when Li Dui held power in Zhao, he starved Zhufu for a hundred days until he died; when Zhuo Chi held power in Qi, he pulled out the sinews of King Min and hung him from a temple beam, and in a night he was dead. So a leper, though he has swellings and running sores, has not, measured against the Chunqiu above, come to being strangled by the neck and shot in the thigh; and measured against recent ages below, he has not come to starving to death and having his sinews pulled out. So a ruler who is seized, killed, and destroyed is sure to have worry and dread in his heart and pain and suffering in his body worse than the leper's. Seen from this, even "the leper pities the king" will do.