韓非子
Han Fei · c. 3rd century BCE
Rule by law, incentive, and power rather than virtue.
The cold, brilliant playbook that armed the Qin to unify China under its first emperor.
Han Fei did not believe rulers could rely on virtue, theirs or anyone else's. He argued for clear laws, applied equally, with rewards and punishments as the two handles of power.
A prince of the state of Han and a student of Xunzi, Han Fei stammered and wrote instead of speaking. The king of Qin admired his work; Han Fei died in a Qin prison in 233 BCE, betrayed by his former classmate Li Si, who then used his ideas to help build the Qin empire.
Clear, public, impartial rules.
Techniques for managing officials and checking performance.
The authority of the office, which matters more than the person in it.
Each passage is cited and credited. Classical lines open character by character: the reading, the sense, and what is hiding inside a single character. Paraphrases are marked where the best translations are still under copyright.
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No state is forever strong or forever weak. When those who uphold the law are strong, the state is strong; when those who uphold the law are weak, the state is weak.
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The enlightened ruler guides and controls his ministers by two handles alone: punishment and reward. Let go of either and the ministers will take it up and turn it against him.
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A farmer of Song saw a hare run into a tree stump, break its neck, and die. He put down his plough and waited by the stump for another hare. None came, and he became the laughing stock of Song. To govern today by the methods of the ancient kings is to wait by the stump.
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The law does not bend for the noble, just as the plumb line does not bend for the crooked.
A modern translation
Every org chart, incentive scheme, and rulebook is a little Legalist. Han Fei asks the uncomfortable question: what happens when people are not good?
Map it onto your own decision