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Wei Liaozi — The Root of Office尉繚子 原官

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) · 6 passages · 255 Chinese characters · reading time 1.0 min

Wujing Qishu (The Seven Military Classics) — the six besides the Sunzi Weiliaozi 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.

1Office is the master of affairs and the root of good order

官者，事之所主，為治之本也。制者，職分四民，治之分也。貴爵富祿必稱，尊卑之體也。

Office is what affairs are mastered by, and it is the root of good order. Regulation divides the duties of the four classes of the people, and this is the division of good order. That noble rank and rich salary always match the man is the proper body of high and low.

2Love the good, punish the bad, and even out the well-field lands

好善罰惡，正比法，會計民之具也。均井地，節賦斂，取予之度也。程工人，備器用，匠工之功也。分地塞要，殄怪禁淫之事也。

To love the good and punish the bad, and to set the law of comparison straight, is the means of reckoning up the people. To even out the well-field lands and to keep the levies in measure is the rule of taking and giving. To measure out the craftsmen and to make ready the vessels and the tools is the work of the artisans. To divide the land and block the strong points is the business of doing away with strange things and forbidding license.

3The measure of a subject and the hold of a ruler

守法稽斷，臣下之節也。明法稽驗，主上之操也。明主守，等輕重，臣主之權也。明賞賚，嚴誅責，止姦之術也。審開塞，守一道，為政之要也。

To keep the law, and to weigh and decide by it, is the measure of a subject. To make the law clear, and to weigh and prove it, is the hold of a ruler. To make clear what the ruler keeps and to grade the light and the heavy is the power of subject and ruler. To make rewards clear and punishments strict is the art of stopping treachery. To examine opening and blocking and to keep to one way is the heart of government.

4What is below reaching up and what is above getting through is the keenest hearing

下達上通，至聰之聽也。知國有無之數，用其仂也。知彼弱者，強之體也。知彼動者，靜之決也。

That what is below reaches up and what is above gets through is the hearing of the keenest ear. To know the count of what the state has and has not is to use what it has to spare. To know the weakness of the other side is the body of strength. To know the movement of the other side is the decision of stillness.

5Dividing offices into civil and military is the king's two arts

官分文武，惟王之二術也。俎豆同制，天子之會也。遊說間諜無自入，正議之術也。

That offices are divided into civil and military is the king's two arts. That the sacrificial vessels follow one regulation is the assembly of the Son of Heaven. That wandering persuaders and spies cannot get in of themselves is the art of upright deliberation.

6What is this but the height of kingship?

諸侯有謹天子之禮，君臣繼世，承王之命也。更造易常，違王明德，故禮得以伐之。官無事治，上無慶賞，民無獄訟，國無商賈，何王之至？明舉上達，在王垂聽也。

The lords keep the rites due to the Son of Heaven with care, and ruler and subject follow one another through the generations in receiving the king's commands. When one remakes the regulations and alters what is constant, going against the king's bright virtue, then by the rites he may be attacked. Officials have no affairs to settle, those above have no rewards to give, the people have no lawsuits, and the state has no traders. What is this but the height of kingship? That worthy men are plainly raised up and reach those above lies in the king's lending his ear.

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