The Eight Canons八經

One. In all governing of the world, one must follow the feelings of men. The feelings of men have liking and hating, and so reward and punishment can be used. When reward and punishment can be used, prohibitions and orders can be set up, and the way of governing is complete. The ruler grasps the handles and takes his stand on positional power, and so his commands are carried out and what he forbids stops. The handles are the control over killing and letting live. Positional power is the means by which he overcomes the multitude. If he casts down and sets up without measure, his authority is defiled; if he shares reward and punishment with those below, his awe is divided. For this reason the enlightened ruler does not listen with love in his heart, and does not linger over a man's talk when he reckons. So if he hears words and does not compare them together, his authority is divided with the treacherous; if he does not use the wisdom and strength of others, the ruler is brought to a dead end by his ministers. So the enlightened ruler's working of control is like heaven, and his use of men is like a spirit. Being like heaven, he cannot be called wrong; being like a spirit, he is not hemmed in. His positional power is carried out and his teaching is stern, so that men may go against him but cannot disobey. Blame and praise go out in one way and are not argued over. So to reward the worthy and punish the violent is the highest raising up of good; to reward the violent and punish the worthy is the highest raising up of evil. This is called rewarding what agrees and punishing what differs. For reward there is nothing like thickness, to make the people find profit in it. For praise there is nothing like beauty, to make the people find glory in it. For execution there is nothing like weight, to make the people fear it. For blame there is nothing like ugliness, to make the people feel shame at it. After that he carries out his law in one way, stops any killing or forbidding within private houses, and does not let merit and crime be harmed. He makes reward and punishment surely known, and when they are known, the way is complete.

This is following the feelings.

Two. Strength is no match for the multitude, and wisdom cannot exhaust all things. Rather than use one man, it is better to use a whole state, for when wisdom and strength stand alone against the multitude, the many things win. When his own guess hits the mark, he alone has the toil; when it misses, he bears the fault. A ruler of the lowest sort uses up his own ability. A ruler of the middle sort uses up the strength of others. A ruler of the highest sort uses up the wisdom of others. For this reason, when a matter comes, he gathers wisdom, hears each man singly, and brings them together in the open. If he does not hear each one singly, what comes after goes against what came before; and when what comes after goes against what came before, the foolish and the wise are not told apart. If he does not bring them together in the open, men waver and nothing is decided; and when nothing is decided, the business stands still. If he takes one course himself, he has no entanglement of falling into a pit. So he has them speak in hints, and when the hinting is settled he presses them hard. For this reason, on the day words are laid out, there must be a written record. The man whose wisdom he has gathered is tested when the matter breaks out; the man whose ability he has gathered has his merit shown, and so success and failure are planned for. Success and failure have their signs, and reward and punishment follow them. When the matter succeeds, the ruler takes in the merit; when the plan fails, the minister bears the guilt. One who is ruler of men does not even match the tallies himself, and how much less would he use his own strength? He does not attend to affairs and wisdom himself, and how much less would he hang things up and weigh them? So in using men he does not take those who agree, for when they agree the ruler is angry. When he makes men use one another, the ruler is godlike; when the ruler is godlike, those below are used to the full. When those below are used to the full, ministers do not lean on the ruler above them, and the ruler's way is complete.

This is the ruler's way.

Three. He who knows that the interests of minister and ruler differ becomes king. He who takes them to be the same is seized. He who shares affairs with his ministers is killed. So the enlightened ruler looks closely into the division of public and private and into the ground of profit and harm, and then treachery has nothing to ride on. There are six places where disorder is born: the ruler's mother, the queen and consorts, the sons of the line, the younger and elder brothers, the great ministers, and the men of famous worth. If he gives charge to the clerks and holds the ministers to account, the ruler's mother is not unrestrained. If ceremony is bestowed in different degrees, the queen and consorts do not doubt. If positional power is not divided in two, the sons of concubines and the sons of the wife do not contend. If authority and its foothold are not lost, brothers do not encroach. If those below do not gather at one gate, the great ministers cannot screen him off. If prohibition and reward are surely carried out, the men of famous worth do not make disorder. A minister has two things to lean on, called the outside and the inside. The outside is fear, the inside is love. What he fears gets what it asks for, and what he loves has its words listened to. These are what the disorderly minister leans on. As for the outside states that place clerks of their own here, if he puts to death those who are close and intimate with them and binds up their heavy treasure, then there is nothing outside to lean on. If rank and salary follow merit, and those who make requests are all charged with a crime, then there is nothing inside to lean on. When there is nothing outside to lean on and nothing inside to lean on, the treacherous and the lawless are blocked. Offices advance by steps in order until they reach a great charge, and this is wisdom. The man whose place has been reached and whose charge is great is held by three joints: the hostage, the weight, and the fastening. Kin and wife and children are the hostage. Rank and salary, thick and certain, are the weight. Checking by threes and fives, holding to account and pressing hard, is the fastening. The worthy man stops at the hostage. The greedy glutton is changed by the weight. The treacherous and crooked man is brought to a dead end by the fastening. If he bears with them and does not control them, those below climb above. If he does not clear a thing away while it is small, it becomes a great execution. And when name and substance fit, he goes at it straight. If a man's living harms affairs and his death would harm the ruler's name, then it is done through what he drinks and eats; and if not that, he is handed over to his enemy. This is called clearing away the treachery in the shade. Screening is called deceiving, and deceiving is called turning about. If he sees merit and rewards it, and sees crime and punishes it, then deceiving stops. If right and wrong do not leak out and talk and remonstrance do not get through, then turning about is not used. When fathers and elder brothers and the worthy and good are scattered abroad, it is called a wandering calamity, and its trouble is that the neighboring enemy gains much means. When men who have been cut down or shamed are close and familiar with him, it is called a tame robber, and its trouble is that minds arise which break out in rage and suspect insult. To store up anger and hold a man's crime without bringing it out is called adding to disorder, and its trouble is that men who look for luck and act rashly rise up. When two great ministers are both heavy, holding up the balance so that it does not tip, it is called a rolled-up calamity, and its trouble is that their houses rise high and the hardship of seizing and killing breaks out. To be loose and easy and not make oneself godlike is called flicking away one's awe, and its trouble is that the disorder of robbers and poisoners rises up. These are the five troubles, and if the ruler of men does not know them, the business of seizing and killing comes. When the business of casting down and setting up is born within, there is order; when it is born outside, there is disorder. For this reason the enlightened ruler judges within by merit and gives means outside by profit, and so his own state is in order and the enemy is in disorder. Now the road of disorder is this. If he hates a minister, they raise the matter from outside, as if to daze him; if he loves a minister, they raise it from inside, as if giving him medicine.

This is the raising of disorder.

Four. This is the way of checking by threes and fives. He works the threes in order to plan for the many, and measures the fives in order to hold men to account for what they let slip. In working the threes he must split them apart; in measuring the fives he must press them hard. If he does not split them apart, they defile the one above; if he does not press them hard, they blend in with one another. The signs got by splitting them apart are enough to tell many from few, and before the pressing it does not reach their whole company. In the posture of watching and listening, the sign lies in men banding together. So he rewards the one who differs, puts to death the one who does not report, and charges with the same crime those who joined in. In words he brings together many threads, and he must measure them by the earth, plan them by the heavens, test them by things, and compare them by men. When these four signs match like tallies, then he can see. He compares words together to know what is true in them. He changes what he looks at to alter their gloss. He holds fast to what he has seen to catch what is out of the ordinary. He uses one man to work on those close and familiar. He makes his words weighty to put fear into envoys far away. He brings up past affairs to know everything of a man's earlier days. He draws near to know what is inside, and sets a man at a distance to know what is outside. He holds what is clear in hand and asks about what is dark. He sends men on deceiving commissions to cut off dirty leaking. He reverses his words to try out what he suspects. He turns his argument about to catch treachery in the shade. He sets up remonstrance to draw in what men do on their own. He raises men up and sets them down to watch how the treacherous move. He speaks plainly to draw men into avoiding faults. He lowers himself and falls in with them to see who is straight and who flatters. He spreads word abroad to get through to what he has not seen. He stirs up quarrels to scatter factions. He goes deep into one thing to startle the hearts of the many. He lets a difference leak out to change what they are planning. When things resemble one another, he brings his comparisons together. When he lays out a man's faults, he makes clear how firm his hold is. He knows a crime and lets the man escape the charge, and so stays his awe. He sends men in secret to go the rounds from time to time, and so looks into what is within. He changes men bit by bit, and so breaks apart those who are in league together. He binds those below so that they encroach on the one above them. The prime minister binds the court ministers, and the court ministers bind their officials. The army clerks bind their soldiers, and envoys sent out bind their attendants. The district heads bind their own clerks, and the palace attendants bind those at their right and left, and the queen and consorts bind the palace women. This is called the way of branching through. When words get through and affairs leak out, the tactics of rule do not work.

This is setting up the way.

Five. The enlightened ruler works at being close and secret. For this reason, if his joy shows, his favor is paid back; if his anger shows, his awe is divided. So the words of an enlightened king are walled in and do not get through; they are close and secret and are not seen. To get ten by one is the way of those below; to get one by ten is the way of the one above. The enlightened ruler works both ways, above and below, and so no treachery slips past him. Households in fives, wards, linked hamlets, and districts lie next to one another. He who reports a fault is rewarded, and he who lets a fault go by is put to death, and it is the same from the one above toward those below and from those below toward the one above. For this reason those above and below, the noble and the mean, fear one another through the law and teach one another through profit. In the nature of the people there is the substance of life and there is the name of life. For one who is ruler there is the name of being worthy and wise, and there is the substance of reward and punishment. Name and substance both arrive, and so good fortune and goodness are surely heard of.

This is comparing words together.

Six. If he hears without comparing, he has no way to hold those below to account. If words are not watched against their use, crooked talk fits itself to the one above. Words as a thing are believed because they are many. Of a thing that is not so, when ten men say it he doubts, when a hundred say it he thinks it may be so, and when a thousand say it, it can no longer be undone. The stammerer's words are doubted, and the fluent speaker's words are believed. When the treacherous feed on the one above, they take their means from the multitude, borrow belief from fluent speech, and dress up their own private ends with what resembles the truth. If the ruler of men cannot hold back his anger and wait for the comparisons to be brought together, that very posture gives means to those below. A ruler who has the way listens to words, watches their use, and assesses their merit. When merit is assessed, reward and punishment are born from it, and so useless fluency does not stay in the court. If the wisdom of the man charged with a task is not enough to manage his office, his office is taken back. When talk is big and boastful, he presses its threads to the end, and so the treachery is caught and he presses the man hard. What is without ground and does not fit is called false report, and for a false report he charges the minister with a crime. Words must have their answer, and talk must be held to account for its use, and so the words of factions do not reach the ears of the one above. In the way of listening, a minister argues loyally in order to report treachery, and argues broadly in order to bring the ruler in to one course; and if the ruler of men is not wise, treachery gains its means. The way of the enlightened ruler is this. When he himself is pleased, he searches out what was brought in to please him. When he himself is angry, he looks into what was worked up against the man. He judges after his own mood has changed, and so he gets the signs of blame and praise, of public and private. When a crowd remonstrates, they offer up wisdom and reasons and make the ruler take one course himself, so as to escape the blame, and therefore remonstrance by a crowd comes to ruin. When the ruler takes a course, he does not let a second word be set before him to make a thing look as though it will be so; he has their words matched up afterward, and so knows which talk was false and which was true. The way of the enlightened ruler is that a minister may not remonstrate two ways, but must answer for his one word, and may not act as he pleases, but must have his words fit the comparisons. So treachery has no road by which to come forward.

This is the method of listening.

Seven. Offices become heavy where there is no law, and the law dies out where the one above is in the dark. When the one above is in the dark and has no measure, the officials act as they please; and because the officials act as they please, what they take in is heavier than ever before; and when what they take in is heavier than ever before, their levies are many; and because their levies are many, they grow rich. The riches and the weight of officials are where the merit of disorder is born. The way of the enlightened ruler is to choose men by the charge they can bear, to judge worth by their office, and to reward by merit. When a word is measured and the ruler is pleased, all alike are surely helped; when it does not fit and the ruler is angry, all alike are surely harmed. Then men do not favor their fathers and elder brothers in private, but put forward even their own enemies. His positional power is enough to carry out the law, and what men receive is enough to meet their business, so private dealing has nowhere to be born, and the people, though they toil and suffer, make light of office. He lets no man charged with a task be heavy, so that the favor he has lies in his rank. He lets no man in office have private gain, so that the profit he has lies in his salary. Therefore the people honor rank and hold salary heavy. Rank and salary are the means of reward, and when the people hold the means of reward heavy, the state is in order. Punishments grow many and names go wrong when reward and praise do not fit, for then the people doubt, and the people hold a name as heavy as they hold a reward. If the man who is rewarded is also blamed, the reward is not enough to urge men on; if the man who is punished is also praised, the punishment is not enough to forbid. The way of the enlightened ruler is that reward must come out of the public profit and a name must lie in working for the one above. Reward and praise run in the same track, and blaming and putting to death go together. Then the people have no glory apart from reward. He who takes a heavy punishment surely has an ill name, and so the people fear it. Punishment is the means of forbidding, and when the people fear the means of forbidding, the state is in order.

This is the kind of the handle.

Eight. When the doing of righteousness is put on show, the ruler's awe is divided; when kindness and benevolence are listened to, the law and its rules are broken down. The people fear the one above through his control; but if the one above, holding positional power, lowers himself to those below, then those below grow unrestrained, butt against him harshly, and take glory in the custom of making light of their lord, and the ruler's awe is divided. The people find it hard to offend against the one above because of the law; but if the one above shakes the law with kindness and benevolence, then those below make a show of love and giving and work at a government of bribes brought in, and for this reason laws and orders fall to pieces. They honor private conduct and so make the ruler's awe into two, and they carry on the taking of bribes and so cast doubt on the law. If he listens to them, government falls into disorder; if he does not listen, they slander the ruler. So the lord grows light in his place and the law is thrown into disorder in the offices. This is called a state without a constant rule. The way of the enlightened ruler is that a minister may not make his glory by doing righteousness, and may not make his merit out of his household's gain, and that merit and name are born only out of the law of the offices. For what lies outside the law, though a man does what is hard to do, he is not made famous by it, and so the people have no way to make a private name. He sets up laws and measures to make the people even. He makes reward and punishment trustworthy to draw out all the people's ability. He makes blame and praise clear to urge men on and to hold them back. Names and titles, reward and punishment, and laws and orders are the three corners. So when a great minister has conduct, it honors the lord, and when the hundred families have merit, it profits the one above. This is called a state that has the way.

This is the ruler's awe.