Follow us on Facebook to receive important updates Follow us on Twitter to receive important updates Follow us on sina.com's microblogging site to receive important updates Follow us on Douban to receive important updates
Chinese Text Project
Simplified Chinese version
Back Forward
Legalism -> Shang Jun Shu -> Opening and Debarring -> 7

Of old, people lived densely together and all dwelt in disorder, so they desired that there should be a ruler.
天下However, why the empire was glad to have a ruler was because he would create order.
Now, having rulers but no law,
the evil is the same as if there were no rulers,
and having laws that are not equal to the disorders
is the same as if there were no law.
天下The empire does not feel tranquil without a prince, but it takes pleasure in being stronger than the law, and thus the whole world is perturbed.
天下Indeed, there is no greater benefit for the people in the empire than order,
and there is no firmer order to be obtained than by establishing a prince;
for establishing a prince,
广 there is no more embracing method than making law supreme;
for making law supreme,
there is no more urgent task than banishing villainy,
and for banishing villainy,
there is no deeper basis than severe punishments.
Therefore those, who attain supremacy, restrain by rewards
and encourage by punishments,
seek offences and not virtue,
and rely on punishments in order to abolish punishments.


Enjoy this site? Please help.Site design and content copyright 2006-2024. When quoting or citing information from this site, please link to the corresponding page or to https://ctext.org/ens. Please note that the use of automatic download software on this site is strictly prohibited, and that users of such software are automatically banned without warning to save bandwidth. 沪ICP备09015720号-3Comments? Suggestions? Please raise them here.