徠民

In a territory of a hundred square li: hills and uplands occupy one-tenth, marshes and wetlands one-tenth, valleys and waterways one-tenth, cities, towns, and roads one-tenth, poor fields two-tenths, and good fields four-tenths. With this proportion, fifty thousand working men can be fed. The hills, uplands, marshes, wetlands, and valleys can supply their materials, and the cities, towns, and roads are sufficient to house the people. This was the former kings' standard for dividing territory and distributing people.

Now Qin's territory covers five thousand square li, yet its fertile land does not account for two thousand. Its cultivated acreage does not reach one million, and the materials, goods, and treasures of its marshes, valleys, famous mountains, and great rivers are not fully utilized. Its people do not match its territory. Qin's neighbors are the Three Jin states; the states it wishes to campaign against are Han and Wei. Those states have narrow territory but numerous people — their households are packed three deep, dwelling side by side. Their surplus commoners and merchant classes, registered neither above nor possessing fields and homes below, survive by engaging in treacherous pursuits and non-essential activities. Those living in the shady, damp, and marshy regions exceed half the population.

Thus their territory is insufficient to support their people, just as Qin's people are insufficient to fill its territory. Considering the people's desires, what they want is fields and homes — that the Jin states lack these is certain, and that Qin has a surplus is beyond doubt. Yet the people do not migrate westward because Qin's officials are intimidating and the people suffer hardships.

Now let the king issue an enlightened beneficence: for scholars from the feudal states who come to pledge allegiance, grant them exemption for three generations and freedom from military service. Within Qin's four borders, for hilly slopes and lowlands, impose no levies for ten years. By this standard, it will be sufficient to create a labor force of one million. Previously your minister said: 'Considering the people's desires, what they want is fields and homes — that the Jin states lack these is certain, and that Qin has a surplus is beyond doubt. Yet the people do not migrate westward because Qin's officials are intimidating and the people suffer hardships.' Now give them advantageous fields and homes and grant them exemption for three generations — this is to give them what they desire without requiring them to do what they dread. If so, then the people east of the mountains will all migrate westward without exception.

Qin's dilemma has been this: when it raises armies to campaign, the state is impoverished; when it stays home and farms, the enemy gets a respite. This is what the king has been unable to achieve simultaneously — therefore after three generations of military victories, the world still does not submit. Now let the original Qin people engage the enemy while the new immigrants attend to the agricultural fundamentals. Even if the army is camped abroad for a hundred nights, not a moment of productive time will be lost within the borders — this is the method of achieving both wealth and strength simultaneously. When your minister speaks of the army, I do not mean mobilizing every last man. Assess what the territory can supply in soldiers, chariots, and cavalry, and command the original Qin men to fight while the new immigrants supply fodder and provisions. When there is a state under heaven that does not submit, the king can thereby besiege its farmlands in spring, consume its food supplies in summer, harvest its crops in autumn, and display his treasures in winter — using great military force to shake its foundations, and using generous civil measures to pacify its heirs. If the king practices this, within ten years the feudal lords will have no people different from your own — so why should the king begrudge ranks and exemptions?

There was a man of Qi named Dongguo Chang who had many desires and wished for ten thousand in gold. His followers asked him for assistance, but he refused, saying: 'I intend to use it to seek an enfeoffment.' His followers grew angry and departed for Song. This was said of him: 'He loved what he did not have, and therefore it would have been better to first give from what he did have.'

Now the Jin states have the people, and Qin grudges its exemptions — this is loving what is not yet yours to the point of losing what you have. How is this different from Dongguo Chang loving what he did not have and losing his followers? Moreover, in antiquity there were Yao and Shun, praised in their own time; in the middle age there were Tang and Wu, who held the throne and the people submitted. These three pairs of kings are praised for ten thousand generations and considered sage kings — yet even their Way could not be taken and used by later ages. Now by granting exemptions for three generations, the people of the Three Jin can be entirely absorbed. Is this not the king being worthy, establishing a policy for the present, and making later ages serve the king's purposes? Yet it is not that the sage speaks of one thing and hears another — rather, it is difficult to heed the sage.