Six Secret Teachings, Civil Teaching — Fullness and Emptiness六韜 盈虛
1Calamity and blessing lie with the ruler, not with the seasons of Heaven
文王問太公曰：「天下熙熙，一盈一虛，一治一亂，所以然者，何也？其君賢、不肖不等乎？其天時變化自然乎？」太公曰：「君不肖，則國危而民亂；君賢聖，則國安而民治：禍福在君不在天時。」文王曰：「古之賢君可得聞乎？」太公曰：「昔者帝堯之王天下，上世所謂賢君也。」文王曰：「其治如何？」太公曰：「帝堯王天下之時，金銀珠玉不飾，錦繡文綺不衣，奇怪珍異不視，玩好之器不寶，淫佚之樂不聽，宮垣屋宇不堊，甍桷椽楹不斲，茅茨偏庭不剪。鹿裘禦寒，布衣掩形，糲粱之飯，藜藿之羹，不以役作之故害民耕績之時，削心約志，從事乎無為。吏忠正奉法者尊其位，廉潔愛人者厚其祿。民有孝慈者愛敬之，盡力農桑者慰勉之。旌別淑德，表其門閭，平心正節，以法度禁邪偽。所憎者，有功必賞；所愛者，有罪必罰。存養天下鰥寡孤獨，振贍禍亡之家。其自奉也甚薄，其賦役也甚寡，故萬民富樂而無饑寒之色。百姓戴其君如日月，親其君如父母。」文王曰：「大哉，賢德之君也。」
King Wen asked Taigong, "All under Heaven is a bustle. Now it fills and now it empties, now it is ordered and now it falls into disorder. Why should this be? Is it that rulers are not alike in worth and unworth? Or is it that the seasons of Heaven change of themselves?" Taigong said, "If the ruler is unworthy, the state is in danger and the people are in disorder. If the ruler is worthy and sagely, the state is at peace and the people are well ordered. Calamity and blessing lie with the ruler, not with the seasons of Heaven." King Wen said, "May I hear of the worthy rulers of old?" Taigong said, "Long ago the Emperor Yao was king over all under Heaven, and he is what the former ages called a worthy ruler." King Wen said, "What was his rule like?" Taigong said, "When the Emperor Yao was king over all under Heaven, he did not adorn himself with gold and silver, pearls and jade. He did not wear brocade and embroidery and figured silk. He did not look at strange and rare things. He did not treasure playthings. He did not listen to licentious music. He did not whitewash the palace walls and the houses. He did not dress the ridgepoles, the rafters and the pillars. He did not trim the thatch of his roof or the grass in his courtyard. A deerskin coat kept off the cold and hempen clothes covered his body, and he ate coarse grain and a soup of pigweed. He did not let labor service harm the seasons when the people plowed and spun. He pared down his heart and bound in his will, and gave himself to doing nothing. Officials who were loyal and upright and upheld the law, he raised in rank. Those who were honest and clean and loved the people, he made rich in pay. Among the people, those who were filial and kind he loved and honored, and those who spent their strength on farming and silkworms he comforted and urged on. He singled out good virtue and marked it at the gates of their lanes. He kept his heart level and his conduct upright, and by law and measure he stopped what was crooked and false. If a man he hated had merit, that man was surely rewarded. If a man he loved had a crime, that man was surely punished. He kept and nourished the widowers and widows, the orphaned and the alone of all under Heaven, and he relieved and supported the households that disaster had ruined. What he spent on himself was very thin and the taxes and labor he took were very few, and so the myriad people were rich and glad, and there was no look of hunger or cold upon them. The hundred families bore up their ruler as they bear the sun and the moon, and were close to him as to a father and a mother." King Wen said, "Great indeed — a ruler of worthy virtue."