Guarding Against Those Within備內
人主之患在於信人。信人，則制於人。人臣之於其君，非有骨肉之親也，縛於勢而不得不事也。故爲人臣者，窺覘其君心也無須臾之休，而人主怠慠處其上，此世所以有劫君弑主也。爲人主而大信其子，則姦臣得乘於子以成其私，故李兌傅趙王而餓主父。爲人主而大信其妻，則姦臣得乘於妻以成其私，故優施傅麗姬殺申生而立奚齊。夫以妻之近與子之親而猶不可信，則其餘無可信者矣。
The ruler's trouble lies in trusting others. If he trusts others, he is controlled by others. A minister, toward his ruler, has no kinship of bone and flesh; he is bound by circumstance and cannot help but serve. Therefore one who is a minister spies on his ruler's heart and does not rest for a moment, while the ruler sits above him idle and haughty. This is why the world has rulers seized and rulers murdered. If a ruler greatly trusts his own son, treacherous ministers ride upon the son to accomplish their private ends. So Li Dui became tutor to the king of Zhao and starved Zhufu. If a ruler greatly trusts his own wife, treacherous ministers ride upon the wife to accomplish their private ends. So You Shi aided Li Ji, killed Shensheng, and set up Xiqi. Now if the nearness of a wife and the closeness of a son still cannot be trusted, then among the rest there is nothing that can be trusted.
且萬乘之主，千乘之君，后妃、夫人適子爲太子者，或有欲其君之蚤死者。何以知其然？夫妻者，非有骨肉之恩也，愛則親，不愛則䟽。語曰：「其母好者其子抱。」然則其爲之反也，其母惡者其子釋。丈夫年五十而好色未解也，婦人年三十而美色衰矣。以衰美之婦人事好色之丈夫，則身見䟽賤，而子疑不爲後，此后妃、夫人之所以冀其君之死者也。唯母爲后而子爲主，則令無不行，禁無不止，男女之樂不減於先君，而擅萬乘不疑，此鴆毒扼昧之所以用也。故《桃左春秋》曰：「人主之疾死者不能處半。」人主弗知，則亂多資。故曰：利君死者衆，則人主危。故王良愛馬，越王勾踐愛人，爲戰與駞。醫善吮人之傷，含人之血，非骨肉之親也，利所加也。故輿人成輿，則欲人之富貴；匠人成棺，則欲人之夭死也。非輿人仁而匠人賊也，人不貴，則輿不售；人不死，則棺不買。情非憎人也，利在人之死也。故后妃、夫人太子之黨成而欲君之死也，君不死，則勢不重。情非憎君也，利在君之死也。故人主不可以不加心於利己死者。故日月暈圍於外，其賊在内，備其所憎，禍在所愛。是故明王不舉不參之事，不食非常之食；遠聽而近視以審内外之失，省同異之言以知朋黨之分，偶叄伍之驗以責陳言之實，執後以應前，按法以治衆，衆端以參觀；士無幸賞，無踰行，殺必當，罪不赦，則姦邪無所容其私。
Further, among the queens and consorts and the sons by the principal wife who have been made crown prince to a ruler of ten thousand chariots or a lord of a thousand chariots, there are some who wish their ruler to die early. How do we know it is so? A wife has no bond of bone and flesh: loved, she is close; unloved, she grows distant. The old saying runs, "When the mother is favored, the son is held in the arms." Then its reverse is this: when the mother is hated, the son is put down. A man at fifty has not loosened his love of beauty, but a woman at thirty has a beauty already faded. When a woman of faded beauty serves a man who loves beauty, she sees herself pushed away and made lowly, and she doubts whether her son will be the heir. This is why queens and consorts hope for their ruler's death. Only when the mother becomes queen dowager and the son becomes ruler is there no order that is not carried out and no prohibition that does not stop; then the pleasures of men and women are no less than under the former ruler, and she takes the ten thousand chariots for herself and is not questioned. This is why poison and strangling are used. So the Taozuo chunqiu says, "Of rulers, those who die of illness are not so many as half." If the ruler does not know this, disorder has much to draw upon. Hence the saying: when many find profit in the ruler's death, the ruler is in danger. Wang Liang loved his horses and King Goujian of Yue loved his people, and it was for battle and for running. A physician sucks another man's wound well and holds another man's blood in his mouth, not because there is kinship of bone and flesh, but because profit is added to him. So the cartwright, when he has made a cart, wishes men to be rich and noble; the carpenter, when he has made a coffin, wishes men to die young. It is not that the cartwright is kind and the carpenter is a robber. If men do not grow noble, carts are not sold; if men do not die, coffins are not bought. It is not in his feeling to hate men; his profit lies in men's dying. So when the faction of the queen, the consorts, and the crown prince is formed, they wish the ruler to die, because while the ruler does not die their power is not heavy. It is not in their feeling to hate the ruler; their profit lies in the ruler's death. Therefore a ruler cannot help but set his mind on those who profit by his death. So when a halo rings the sun or the moon on the outside, the robber is within; guard against the one you hate, and the disaster is in the one you love. For this reason the enlightened king does not take up an affair he has not checked by comparison, and does not eat food that is not his usual food. He listens far and looks near, to examine the failings within and without; he weighs words that agree and words that differ, to know the divisions of the cliques; he matches proofs by threes and fives, to hold reported words to their substance; he grasps the later to answer the earlier, and follows the law to govern the multitude, and views many strands side by side. When officers have no reward by luck and no conduct that oversteps, when killing is always fitting and crimes are not pardoned, then treachery and depravity have nowhere to hold their private ends.
徭役多則民苦，民苦則權勢起，權勢起則復除重，復除重則貴人富。苦民以富貴人，起勢以藉人臣，非天下長利也。故曰：徭役少則民安，民安則下無重權，下無重權則權勢滅，權勢滅則德在上矣。今夫水之勝火亦明矣，然而釜鬵間之，水煎沸竭盡其上，而火得熾盛焚其下，水失其所以勝者矣。今夫治之禁姦又明於此，然守法之臣爲釜鬵之行，則法獨明於胷中，而已失其所以禁姦者矣。上古之傳言，《春秋》所記，犯法爲逆以成大姦者，未嘗不從尊貴之臣也。然而法令之所以備，刑罰之所以誅，常於卑賤，是以其民絶望，無所告愬。大臣比周，蔽上爲一，陰相善而陽相惡，以示無私，相爲耳目，以候主隙，人主掩蔽，無道得聞，有主名而無實，臣專法而行之，周天子是也。偏借其權勢，則上下易位矣，此言人臣之不可借權勢也。
When forced labor is heavy, the people suffer; when the people suffer, power and influence arise; when power and influence arise, exemptions grow heavy; when exemptions grow heavy, the noble grow rich. To make the people suffer in order to enrich the noble, and to raise up influence in order to supply the ministers, is not a long profit for all under heaven. Hence the saying: when forced labor is light, the people are at peace; when the people are at peace, there is no heavy power below; when there is no heavy power below, power and influence vanish; when power and influence vanish, virtue lies with the ruler above. Now that water overcomes fire is plain enough, yet when a cauldron stands between them, the water boils away and is spent on top while the fire burns fierce beneath, and the water has lost what made it the victor. Now that government forbids treachery is plainer still than this, yet when the ministers who keep the law act the part of the cauldron, the law is bright only inside their breasts, and it has already lost what made it forbid treachery. In the words handed down from high antiquity and in what the Chunqiu records, those who broke the law and turned rebel and worked out great treachery have never failed to come from among the honored and noble ministers. Yet what the statutes guard against and what the punishments cut down always fall on the low and the mean, and for this the people cut off hope and have nowhere to bring their plea. The great ministers band together and screen the ruler above and become as one; in secret they are friends and in the open they feign hatred, to show that they have no private ends; they become ears and eyes for one another, watching for a gap in the ruler. The ruler is covered and screened and has no way to hear; he has the name of ruler and not the substance, and the ministers take the law for their own and carry it out. The Son of Heaven of Zhou was such a one. Lend out his power and influence to one side, and high and low change places. This says that power and influence must not be lent to a minister.