定分

The duke asked Gongsun Yang: "If laws and orders are established for the present time, how can we ensure that by the next morning every official and commoner in the realm clearly knows and applies them, uniformly and without private distortion?"

Gongsun Yang said: In drafting laws and orders and appointing officials, select those sufficiently straightforward to understand the meaning of the laws and orders, and install them as the realm's legal authorities. Then memorialize this to the Son of Heaven. The Son of Heaven shall appoint each to be master of the laws and orders. All shall descend in rank, receive their commands, and be dispatched to their offices. For each populace assigned a master of laws and orders: if any dare to forget or neglect the content of the laws and orders they administer, they shall be convicted according to the specific law or order they forgot. When masters of laws and orders are transferred, relocated, or die, immediately have their replacements study and read the content of the laws and orders. Establish a training schedule so that within a set number of days they know the content of the laws and orders. Those who fail to meet the standard shall be convicted under the law.

Anyone who dares to alter or tamper with established laws and orders, adding or removing even a single character, shall be sentenced to death without pardon. When any official or commoner inquires of the master of laws and orders about the content of a particular law or order, the master must clearly explain the specific law or order inquired about. For each inquiry, a tally of one foot six inches shall be made, clearly recording the year, month, day, hour, and the name of the law or order inquired about, and this shall be reported to the official and the commoner. If the master of laws and orders fails to explain, he is convicted of the corresponding offense — specifically, whatever crime the inquiring official or commoner would be liable for under the law they asked about, the master of laws and orders shall be charged with that crime instead. The left half of the tally is given to the official who inquired about the law; the master of laws and orders carefully stores the right half in a wooden case, keeps it in a sealed chamber, and seals it with the chief legal officer's seal. Should any subsequent dispute arise, the tally serves as the basis for adjudication.

All laws and orders shall be duplicated. One copy shall be placed in the Son of Heaven's palace hall. A forbidden chamber shall be built for the laws and orders, fitted with lock and key, sealed under prohibition. One copy of the laws and orders shall be stored inside the forbidden chamber, sealed with the prohibition seal. Anyone who opens the forbidden chamber's seal without authorization, enters the forbidden chamber to view the prohibited laws and orders, or tampers with even a single character — the punishment in all cases is death without pardon. Once a year, the laws and orders are received and issued as prohibition orders.

The Son of Heaven shall appoint three legal officials: one in the palace hall, one under the Imperial Censor with clerks, and one under the Chancellor. Every feudal lord, commandery, and county shall each appoint one legal official with clerks — all modeled on the Qin legal official. Commanderies, counties, and feudal lords all receive the officially transmitted laws and orders and study their content. Any official or commoner who needs to know the laws and orders shall inquire of the legal official. Therefore no official or commoner under heaven is ignorant of the law.

When officials clearly know that the people know the laws and orders, officials dare not treat the people in violation of the law, and the people dare not break the law to challenge the legal official. If the people are treated by an official in a way that does not accord with the law, they inquire of the legal official. The legal official immediately informs them of the legal punishment, and the people then formally report the violation to the official's superiors, citing the legal official's words. Officials know this will happen, and therefore they dare not treat the people in violation of the law, and the people likewise dare not break the law. Under these conditions, no official or commoner under heaven, however worthy, eloquent, or clever, can utter a single word to bend the law; however wealthy, cannot use a single zhu of gold to corrupt it. Therefore the cunning, the deceptive, the worthy, and the able all rise to do good and devote themselves to self-governance and public service. The people being simple makes them easy to govern — and this is born from the law being clear, easy to understand, and invariably enforced.

Laws and orders are the people's lifeline, the foundation of governance, and the means of preparing the people. To seek governance while discarding law and orders is like seeking to avoid hunger while discarding food, seeking to avoid cold while discarding clothing, or wishing to go east while walking west — that it will not work is perfectly clear. When one rabbit runs, a hundred people chase it — not because the rabbit can be divided among a hundred, but because the ownership has not been fixed. When rabbits fill the market stalls, thieves dare not take them — because the ownership has been fixed. Therefore when standards are not fixed, even Yao, Shun, Yu, and Tang would all rush after them like ducks in a scramble. When standards are fixed, even the greedy and thievish will not take what is not theirs. Now when laws and orders are not clear and their terms are not fixed, the people of the world are able to debate them. In the debate, each person differs and nothing is settled.

When the ruler makes law above while the people below debate it, the law is unsettled and those below become the superiors. This is what is called standards not being fixed. When standards are not fixed, even Yao and Shun would bend and subvert them — how much more so ordinary people? This is the path by which villainy arises on a grand scale, the ruler is stripped of his authority, and the state is destroyed and its altars of soil and grain are demolished. Now when the sages of antiquity composed texts and transmitted them to later generations, they had to be received through a teacher in order to know the names and meanings — without receiving them through a teacher, if people debated them according to their own ideas, they could spend their whole lives without knowing the names or their meanings. Therefore the sage must establish officials and install clerks for the laws and orders, to serve as teachers for the world — this is the means of fixing the standards. When standards are fixed, the greatest deceivers become truly honest, the greatest thieves become conscientiously virtuous, and each person governs himself. When standards are fixed, structural conditions lead to order; when standards are not fixed, structural conditions lead to disorder. When structural conditions favor order, it cannot be disordered; when structural conditions favor disorder, it cannot be ordered. When structural conditions favor disorder and you try to impose order, it becomes even more disordered. When structural conditions favor order and you govern accordingly, there is order. Therefore the sage king governs order — he does not govern disorder.

Words of subtle and profound meaning are difficult even for the most knowledgeable to grasp. Those who are perfectly correct without needing laws, orders, and standards number perhaps one in a million. Therefore the sage governs the world by accounting for the million. What only the knowledgeable can know cannot be made into law, for not all the people are knowledgeable. What only the worthy can know cannot be made into law, for not all the people are worthy. Therefore when the sage makes law, he must make it clear and easy to understand, with terms that are correct, so that both the foolish and the wise can comprehend it. He establishes legal officials and installs masters of law as teachers for the world, so that the myriad people do not fall into danger and peril. Therefore the sage establishes his rule over the world without anyone being punished or executed — not because he does not punish or execute, but because the laws and orders are practiced, clear and easy to understand, with legal officials installed as teachers to guide their knowledge. The myriad people all know what to avoid and what to pursue — avoiding disaster and pursuing good fortune — and all govern themselves. Therefore the enlightened ruler builds upon existing order and brings it to its ultimate conclusion — and the world achieves great order.