壹言

In all cases of establishing a state, institutions must be carefully examined, methods of governance must be treated with caution, state affairs must be handled with diligence, and the fundamentals of enterprise must be concentrated. When institutions suit the times, the state's customs can be transformed and the people will follow the system. When methods of governance are clear, officials will not be corrupt. When state affairs are unified, the people will apply themselves. When the fundamentals of enterprise are concentrated, the people will delight in agriculture and take pleasure in warfare. The sage's establishment of law and transformation of customs to make the people engage in agriculture morning and night cannot be achieved without change. The people follow the system and risk their lives because the ruler has established glorious titles and made reward and punishment clear — merit is achieved without using persuasive talk or private channels. The people delight in agriculture and take pleasure in warfare because they see the ruler honoring scholars of agriculture and warfare above, while disdaining the people of persuasion, technical crafts, and itinerant scholarship below. Therefore when the people are unified in purpose, their families will be wealthy and their persons will be honored in the state. When the ruler opens the public channel to benefit and blocks private channels, he thereby obtains the people's strength. Private labor is not honored in the state; private channels do not petition the ruler. Under such conditions, meritorious ministers are encouraged, the ruler's commands are executed, barren land is opened, dissolute people are stopped, and villainy has no sprouts. A state governed so as to concentrate the people's strength and unify their pursuits will be strong; one that can attend to fundamentals and prohibit non-essentials will be wealthy.

The sage's governance of the state involves both concentrating strength and deploying strength. When institutions are carefully examined, the people's strength is concentrated. If concentrated but not transformed into action, nothing proceeds; if proceeding but without producing wealth, disorder arises. Therefore in governing the state, strength is concentrated in order to enrich the state and strengthen the army; strength is deployed in order to engage the enemy and motivate the people. If there is opening without blocking, there are gains and losses; if there are gains without attacking, there is villainy. If there is blocking without opening, the people become stagnant; if stagnant and not employed, strength accumulates excessively; if strength accumulates excessively without attacking, there are parasitic elements. Therefore concentrate strength for unified purpose, and deploy strength to attack the enemy.

In governing the state, what matters is that the people be unified. When unified they are simple, when simple they farm, when farming they are easily made diligent, when diligent they become wealthy. The wealthy are redirected through ranks so they do not become dissolute; the dissolute are redirected through punishment and turned back to agriculture. A state that can concentrate strength but cannot deploy it will inevitably be disordered; one that can deploy strength but cannot concentrate it will inevitably perish. Therefore the enlightened ruler who knows how to balance these two will have a strong state; one who does not know how to balance them will have a diminished state.

When the people are not well governed, it is because the ruler's way is debased. When the law is not clear, it is because the ruler perpetuates disorder. Therefore the enlightened ruler neither debases his way nor perpetuates disorder. He holds authority and stands firm, lets the law hang down and governs, thereby detecting villainy from above while officials are all accountable. Reward and punishment are decisive, and instruments and resources are properly measured. Under such conditions, the state's institutions are clear and the people's strength is fully utilized; ranks above are honored and peers below are properly promoted. Now the rulers of the world all desire to govern the people, yet they aid them with disorder — not that they take pleasure in disorder, but they are comfortable with the old and do not look to the times. Above they model upon antiquity and find only blockages; below they maintain edicts without adapting to the times. They do not understand the transformations of worldly customs and do not examine the true conditions of governing the people. Therefore they resort to many rewards in order to bring about more punishment, and lighten punishment in order to dispense with reward. When the ruler institutes punishment yet the people do not submit, and rewards are exhausted while villainy increases — therefore in the people's experience of the ruler, punishment comes first and reward comes after. The sage's governance of the state does not model upon antiquity and does not merely maintain the present. He governs according to the age and crafts law according to custom. If the law is established without examining the people's conditions, it will not succeed. If governance is appropriate to the times and then implemented, it will not fail. Therefore the sage king's governance consists of being careful in action, examining affairs, and focusing the mind on unity — that is all.