Employing Men用人
聞古之善用人者，必循天順人而明賞罰。循天，則用力寡而功立；順人，則刑罰省而令行；明賞罰，則伯夷、盜跖不亂。如此，則白黑分矣。治國之臣，效功於國以履位，見能於官以受職，盡力於權衡以任事。人臣皆宜其能，勝其官，輕其任，而莫懷餘力於心，莫負兼官之責於君。故内無伏怨之亂，外無馬服之患。明君使事不相干，故莫訟；使士不兼官，故技長；使人不同功，故莫爭。爭訟止，技長立，則彊弱不觳力，冰炭不合形，天下莫得相傷，治之至也。
I have heard that those of old who were good at using men always followed heaven, went along with men, and made rewards and punishments clear. Follow heaven, and little strength is spent yet merit is established. Go along with men, and punishments are few yet orders are carried out. Make rewards and punishments clear, and Bo Yi and Dao Zhi do not bring disorder. When it is like this, white and black are divided. The ministers who govern the state offer merit to the state and so tread their places, show ability in office and so receive their charges, and exhaust their strength on the balance and so take up affairs. The ministers all fit their ability, are equal to their office, and hold their charge light. None harbors strength to spare in his heart, none bears before his lord the burden of holding two offices at once. Therefore within there is no disorder of hidden resentment, and without there is no calamity of Mafu. The enlightened lord keeps affairs from crossing one another, and so there are no lawsuits. He keeps officers from holding two offices, and so their skills grow. He keeps men from sharing one merit, and so there is no strife. When strife and lawsuits cease and skills grow and stand, then strong and weak do not match strength, ice and charcoal do not join their shapes, and none in all under heaven can harm another. This is the utmost of government.
釋法術而心治，堯不能正一國；去規矩而妄意度，奚仲不能成一輪；廢尺寸而差短長，王爾不能半中。使中主守法術，拙匠守規矩尺寸，則萬不失矣。君人者能去賢巧之所不能，守中拙之所萬不失，則人力盡而功名立。
Set aside law and method and govern by the heart, and even Yao could not set one state right. Cast away compass and square and measure by wild guessing, and even Xi Zhong could not finish one wheel. Abolish the foot and the inch and reckon short and long by the eye, and even Wang Er could not hit the mark half the time. Let a middling ruler keep to law and method, and a clumsy craftsman keep to compass and square and foot and inch, and out of ten thousand times not one is lost. When he who rules over men can cast away what the worthy and the skillful cannot do, and keep to what the middling and the clumsy do not lose once in ten thousand times, then the strength of men is used to the full and merit and name are established.
明主立可爲之賞，設可避之罰。故賢者勸賞而不見子胥之禍，不肖者少罪而不見傴剖背，盲者處平而不遇深谿，愚者守靜而不䧟險危。如此，則上下之恩結矣。古之人曰：「其心難知，喜怒難中也。」故以表示目，以鼓語耳，以法教心。君人者釋三易之數而行一難知之心，如此，則怒積於上而怨積於下。以積怒而御積怨，則兩危矣。明主之表易見，故約立；其教易知，故言用；其法易爲，故令行。三者立而上無私心，則下得循法而治，望表而動，隨繩而斵，因攢而縫。如此，則上無私威之毒，而下無愚拙之誅。故上居明而少怒，下盡忠而少罪。
The enlightened ruler sets up rewards that can be won and lays down punishments that can be avoided. So the worthy man strives for reward and does not meet the calamity of Wu Zixu; the unworthy man has few crimes and does not see the hunchback's back cut open; the blind man keeps to level ground and does not meet a deep ravine; the foolish man keeps still and does not fall into danger. When it is like this, the kindness between high and low is bound fast. A man of old said, "His heart is hard to know, and his joy and anger are hard to hit." Therefore the signpost is used to show the eye, the drum to speak to the ear, the law to teach the heart. When he who rules over men sets aside these three easy devices and acts on the one heart that is hard to know, then anger piles up above and resentment piles up below. To drive piled resentment with piled anger is danger on both sides. The enlightened ruler's signpost is easy to see, and so agreements hold. His teaching is easy to know, and so his words are used. His law is easy to keep, and so his orders are carried out. When these three stand and there is no private heart above, then those below can follow the law and be governed, watch the signpost and move, follow the marking line and hew, and sew along the holes that are bored. When it is like this, above there is no poison of private might, and below there is no cutting down of the stupid and the clumsy. Therefore the one above dwells in clarity and is seldom angry, and those below exhaust their loyalty and are seldom guilty.
Interlinear notes 1
The base text has 盲; it is rendered in present-day words. — translator
聞之曰：「舉事無患者，堯不得也。」而世未嘗無事也。君人者不輕爵祿，不易富貴，不可與救危國。故明主厲廉恥，招仁義。昔者介子推無爵祿而義隨文公，不忍口腹而仁割其肌，故人主結其德，書圖著其名。人主樂乎使人以公盡力，而苦乎以私奪威；人臣安乎以能受職，而苦乎以一負二。故明主除人臣之所苦，而立人主之所樂。上下之利，莫長於此。不察私門之内，輕慮重事，厚誅薄罪，久怨細過，長侮偷快，數以德追禍，是斷手而續以玉也，故世有易身之患。
It is heard said, "To take up affairs and have no trouble — even Yao did not attain it." Yet the world has never been without affairs. He who rules over men, if he does not hold rank and stipend light and does not treat wealth and honor as easy things, is not one with whom a state in danger can be saved. Therefore the enlightened ruler whets the sense of honor and shame and calls out benevolence and rightness. Long ago Jie Zitui had neither rank nor stipend, yet out of rightness he followed Duke Wen; he could not bear the hunger of his lord, and out of benevolence he cut his own flesh. So the lord bound that virtue to himself, and writings and pictures set down his name. A lord delights in making men use their strength to the full for what is public, and is pained when private dealings steal his might away. A minister is at ease when he receives a charge according to his ability, and is pained when one man must bear two. Therefore the enlightened ruler removes what pains the minister and sets up what delights the lord. For the profit of high and low there is nothing longer than this. Not to look into what goes on inside the private houses; to weigh heavy affairs lightly; to punish thin crimes thickly; to hold a grudge long over small faults; to insult men long for a moment's ease; again and again to chase away disaster with favors — this is cutting off a hand and joining on jade in its place. Therefore the world has the trouble of a man whose own body is exchanged.
人主立難爲而罪不及，則私怨生；人臣失所長而奉難給，則伏怨結。勞苦不撫循，憂悲不哀憐；喜則譽小人，賢不肖俱賞；怒則毁君子，使伯夷與盜跖俱辱，故臣有叛主。
When the lord sets up what is hard to do and the blame does not reach the doer, private resentment is born. When the minister loses what he is good at and must furnish what is hard to supply, hidden resentment is bound fast. Toil and hardship go unsoothed, grief and sorrow unpitied. When the lord is pleased he praises small men, and worthy and unworthy are rewarded together; when he is angry he reviles gentlemen, and Bo Yi and Dao Zhi are disgraced together. Therefore there are ministers who turn against their lord.
使燕王内憎其民而外愛魯人，則燕不用而魯不附。民見憎，不能盡力而務功；魯見說，而不能離死命而親他主。如此，則人臣爲隙穴，而人主獨立。以隙穴之臣而事獨立之主，此之謂危殆。
Let the king of Yan hate his own people within and love the men of Lu without, and then Yan will not be used and Lu will not attach itself. The people, seeing themselves hated, cannot use their strength to the full and work for merit. The men of Lu, though they are pleased, cannot leave the lord they must die for and draw close to another. When it is like this, the ministers become chinks and holes and the lord stands alone. To serve a lord who stands alone with ministers who are chinks and holes — this is called peril.
釋儀的而妄發，雖中小不巧；釋法制而妄怒，雖殺戮而姦人不恐。罪生甲，禍歸乙，伏怨乃結。故至治之國，有賞罰而無喜怒，故聖人極；有刑法而死無螫毒，故姦人服。發矢中的，賞罰當符，故堯復生，羿復立。如此，則上無殷、夏之患，下無比干之禍，君高枕而臣樂業，道蔽天地，德極萬世矣。
Set aside the target and shoot at random, and even a hit is too small a thing to be called skill. Set aside law and statute and grow angry at random, and though men are put to death the wicked are not afraid. When the crime arises with the first man and the disaster falls on the second, hidden resentment is bound fast. Therefore in a state of the utmost government there are rewards and punishments but no joy and anger, and so the sage has gone as far as he can go. There are penal laws, yet in death there is no stinging poison, and so the wicked submit. The arrow is loosed and hits the target, reward and punishment match like the halves of a tally. So Yao has come to life again and Yi stands again. When it is like this, above there is no calamity of Yin and Xia, below there is no disaster of Bi Gan. The lord lies with his pillow high and the ministers delight in their work, the way covers heaven and earth, and virtue reaches the end of ten thousand ages.
夫人主不塞隙穴而勞力於赭堊，暴雨疾風必壞。不去眉睫之禍而慕賁、育之死，不謹蕭牆之患而固金城於遠境，不用近賢之謀而外結萬乘之交於千里，飄風一旦起，則賁、育不及救，而外交不及至，禍莫大於此。當今之世，爲人主忠計者，必無使燕王說魯人，無使近世慕賢於古，無思越人以救中國溺者。如此，則上下親、内功立、外名成。
Now if the lord does not stop up the chinks and holes but spends his strength on red earth and white plaster, driving rain and swift wind will surely bring it down. Not to put away the disaster at his eyebrows and lashes but to long for the deaths of Meng Ben and Xia Yu; not to be careful of the trouble inside his own wall but to make a wall of metal firm on a distant border; not to use the plans of the worthy men near at hand but to bind outside ties with states of ten thousand chariots a thousand li away — then when the whirlwind rises one morning, Meng Ben and Xia Yu do not come in time to save him and the outside ties do not arrive, and no disaster is greater than this. In the world of today, he who plans loyally for his lord must never let him be like the king of Yan taking pleasure in the men of Lu, must never let the present age long for the worthy men of antiquity, and must never think of men of Yue to save one drowning in the Central States. When it is like this, high and low are close, merit is established within, and a name is completed without.