Kings conciliated people by righteousness and the five Lords Protector rectified the feudal lords 1 by law; that is, in all these cases, none took for himself the benefits of the empire. They ruled for the sake of the empire, and thus, when those who held positions 2 had corresponding merit, the empire enjoyed their administration and no one could harm it.

But, nowadays, princes and ministers of a disorderly world each, on a small scale, appropriates the profits of his own state, and each exercises the burden of his own office, for his private benefit. This is why the states are in a perilous position. For the relation between public and private interests is what determines existence or ruin.

However, if models and measures 3 are abolished and private appraisal is favoured, then 4 bad ministers will let their standards be influenced by money,5 in order to obtain emoluments, and officials of the various ranks will, in a stealthy and hidden manner, make extortions from the people. The saying runs : "Many wood-worms and the wood snaps, a

1 It would be better to begin a new part of the sentence with

but in that case we must suppose an omission, making the phrase parallel

with the preceding two clauses.

; here standing for the title, the position which one holds.

姓名:

3 i.e. laws and regulations.

4 ; Wang's text reads, which is unauthorized.

5 Lit."sell the standards ", i.e. being willing, for money, to give office on other grounds than those of merit. These are the

"deviating

or improper standards", mentioned in par. 2, p. 176; par. 3, pp. 186, 188. Cf. also par. 3, p. 187, where the expression has been simply rendered by "sell power".

large fissure and the wall collapses." 1 So, if ministers of state vie with one another in selfishness and do not heed the people, then inferiors are estranged from superiors. When this happens, there is a fissure in the state. If the officials of 11b the various ranks make extortions from the people, stealthily and in a hidden manner, they are for the people like woodworms. Therefore, is it exceptional in the world that, where there are fissures and wood-worms, ruin does not follow. That is why intelligent kings placed reliance on the law and removed self-interest, so that the state should have no fissures and no wood-worms.2

1 Cf. Han Fei-tzũ, ch. 5, par. 15, p. 7 : tê Đô H, I, 牆之壞也,必通隙 "The snapping of wood is due to wood

worms having eaten through; the collapse of a wall is due to fissures having split through."

2 Cf. the title of the 49th par. (ch. 19) of Han Fei-tzů: "The five wood-worms ".

la

CHAPTER IV

PARAGRAPH 15

THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF IMMIGRATION

In a territory of a hundred square li, a tenth should be occupied by mountains and hills, a tenth by glades and morasses, a tenth by valleys, dales, and running water, a tenth by cities, towns, and highways, a tenth by barren fields, and four-tenths by fertile fields.1 In this way 50,000 workmen can be fed; those mountains and hills, glades and morasses, valleys and dales are able to provide the required material, and the cities, towns, and highways are sufficient to accommodate the people concerned. This was the proportion according to which the early kings regulated the land and divided the people. Now the territory of Ch'in comprises five times a thousand square li,2 but the soil fit for growing corn cannot occupy more than two-fifths. The area of the fields does not come up to a million mu, and the produce and treasures of its glades and morasses, of its valleys and dales, and of its famous mountains and big rivers are also incompletely utilized. This means that the population is illproportioned to the territory. The neighbours of Ch'in are the three Chin states,3 and of these Han and Wei are fond of employing soldiers. Their territory is narrow, but their

1 One-tenth is lacking; Wang suggests that the barren fields should have two-tenths. Cf. par. 6, p. 215.

2 1,000 li is the standard of a big country.

3 The three states, Han, Wei, and Chao, into which the state of Chin had been divided in 376 B.C.

population is numerous; their dwellings are built higgledy- 1b piggledy, and they live close together; their grain production is small and merchants charge interest.1

The people, on the one hand, do not have their names registered,2 and, on the other hand, have no fields or houses, so that for subsistence they rely on evil occupations and pursuits of minor importance,3 with the result that those who are exempt from taxation because they live in steep and inaccessible places, in morasses and by streams, are more than a half of the population. Therefore, it would appear that a condition where the territory is not sufficient to support the population is still worse than that where, as in the case of Ch'in, the population is insufficient to fill the territory.

In reflecting upon the nature of the people, what they desire are fields and houses. Now, whereas, it is probable that these are what Chin does not have, it is beyond doubt that Ch'in has them in surplus. If, this being so, people do not, nevertheless, come west, it is because the soldiers of Ch'in are in sad plight and the people suffer hardships. I venture to think that the intelligence of Your Majesty's 5

1 Comm. suspect the text of being corrupt, but their emendations are unconvincing, and it would seem that it can be very well explained as I have done it. The idea of the last part of the phrase is that Han and Wei made a mistake in encouraging not agriculture but trade.

2 i.e. for soldiering.

3; i.e. trade.

人之復陰陽澤水者過半 is probably corrupt. 復

is explained as "to grant exemption from taxes" (see below). Wang suggests that

should be H. In this sense I have made a guess

in my translation: Chin was indeed a very mountainous country.

5 E, a title which the rulers of Ch'in adopted in 325 B.C., i.e. after the death of Shang Yang.

officials takes a mistaken view, that is, the reason why we remain weak and do not succeed in enticing the people of the three Chin states, is that we are sparing in granting titles and regard the exemption from taxes as a serious matter. They argue as follows: "The three Chin states are weak, because their people are concerned with pleasure and because exemptions and rank are treated lightly. Ch'in, on the other hand, is strong, because its people are concerned with hard work, and exemptions and the conferment of rank are treated seriously; should we now confer many titles and 2a grant exemptions from taxation for long periods, then we should be letting go of the principle by which Ch'in has become strong and should be doing exactly that which has made the Chin states weak." This is the argument that causes Your Majesty's officials to regard the conferring of titles as a serious matter, and to be sparing in the granting of exemptions from taxation.

I venture, however, to think that this is wrong. The object in causing the people hardship and in strengthening the army is to attack the enemy and to realize one's desires. The "Art of War " 1 says "If the enemy is weak, the army is strong." This expression means that one does not fail in attack, but the enemy fails in defence. Now for four generations the Chin states have gained no victory over Ch'in. Since the time of King Hsiang of Wei,2 the times that the three

1 Cf. par. 10, p. 244, for other quotations.

2 334-319 B.C., but the same person reigned from 370-335 as Duke Hui-ch'eng; cf. Chavannes, Mém. Hist., v, p. 159 and pp. 462, 463. Again, the events mentioned occurred long after the death of Shang Yang, and the "four generations" (on p. 270, three generations), which are