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Six Secret Teachings, Civil Teaching — Raising Up the Worthy六韜 舉賢

Wujing Qishu (The Seven Military Classics) — the six besides the Sunzi 武經七書 · Ascribed to Jiang Taigong · ascribed to Huang Shigong · Wei Liao · Wu Qi · Sima Rangju · Li Jing · Warring States to Tang (4th century BC to 7th century AD) · 1 passages · 193 Chinese characters · reading time 0.8 min

Wujing Qishu (The Seven Military Classics) — the six besides the Sunzi Six Secret Teachings The six that remain when the Art of War of Sunzi is taken out of the seven military books the Song set as the texts for examining military officers. The Six Secret Teachings is sixty chapters of questions and answers in which King Wen and King Wu ask Taigong Wang, running from the governing of a state to chariots, cavalry, battle in the open and the crossing of water; the Three Strategies is three short books said to have been given to Zhang Liang by Huang Shigong; the Wei Liaozi is twenty-four chapters setting down in detail the military orders and the squads of five and ten around the time of Qin; the Wuzi is six chapters of Wu Qi's answers to Marquis Wu of Wei; the Methods of the Sima is five chapters handing down the military rites of before the Spring and Autumn period; and Questions and Replies with Li Weigong is three books in which Taizong of Tang and Li Jing go back and forth over the unorthodox and the orthodox, the empty and the full, the frontier peoples and the Han, and attack and defense. "Arms are an instrument of ill omen," "bring the enemy to you and do not be brought to him," and "a thousand chapters and ten thousand phrases do not go beyond that one phrase" all come from here. The remaining six streams of the military school, read after the Art of War, are gathered in one place.

1When the worthy are put forward and yet not used

文王問太公曰：「君務舉賢，而不能獲其功。世亂愈甚，以致危亡者，何也？」太公曰：「舉賢而不用，是有舉賢之名而無用賢之實也。」文王曰：「其失安在？」太公曰：「其失在君好用世俗之所譽而不得其賢也。」文王曰：「何如？」太公曰：「君以世俗之所譽者為賢，以世俗之所毀者為不肖。則多黨者進，少黨者退。若是則群邪比周而蔽賢，忠臣死於無罪，奸臣以虛譽取爵位。是以亂愈甚，則國不免於危也。」文王曰：「舉賢奈何？」太公曰：「將相分職，而各以官名舉人，按名督實，選才考能，令實當其能，名當其實，則得舉賢之道也。」

King Wen asked Taigong, "A ruler works hard at putting the worthy forward, and still he gains nothing by it. The disorder of the age grows worse, until it comes to danger and ruin. Why is this?" Taigong said, "He puts the worthy forward and does not use them. So he has the name of putting the worthy forward and not the substance of using them." King Wen said, "Where does the fault lie?" Taigong said, "The fault lies in the ruler's liking to use those whom the common world praises, and so not getting the truly worthy." King Wen said, "How is that?" Taigong said, "If the ruler holds those whom the common world praises to be worthy, and those whom the common world reviles to be unworthy, then the man with many in his faction advances and the man with few draws back. When it is so, the crowd of crooked men band together and screen off the worthy, loyal ministers die though they have done no wrong, and crooked ministers take rank by an empty name. That is why the disorder grows worse and the state cannot escape danger." King Wen said, "How then does one put the worthy forward?" Taigong said, "Let the generals and the chief ministers divide their charges, and let each put men forward by the name of the office. Follow the name and examine the substance, pick out talent and test ability, and make the substance fit the ability and the name fit the substance. Then you have the way of putting the worthy forward."

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