| | A ruler respects and honors his ministers because he knows how to entrust them with responsibilities, place trust in them, and thereby ensure good governance for himself. Therefore, he listens attentively and sees clearly; his person grows ever higher while his gaze turns downward. Affairs become increasingly distant while his attention becomes more immediate. His achievements are extremely difficult to attain, yet his personal efforts remain minimal; his accomplishments are numerous, but the labor required is slight. If one is filled with suspicion and insists on taking everything upon oneself. Then his ministers will not think about how to serve the state, but rather how to gain favor with the ruler. They devise deep schemes while neglecting practical matters, seeking only to please him. If the sovereign is shallow in judgment, he will not fall into their snares; if the sovereign is perceptive and discerning, he will advance them by following their lead to win their loyalty. What is lacking here are those who remain loyal to the state but find it difficult to demonstrate such loyalty clearly before the ruler. What is cultivated, however, may not necessarily be loyalty to the state, but rather what is convenient and expedient in the current circumstances. By valuing what they value, one can share in their values; by despising what they despise, one can distinguish oneself from the lowly. Yet those whom they value are not necessarily virtuous, and those whom they despise are not necessarily foolish. Families harbor strategies of mere routine, and people engage in actions that easily please the heart and are readily apparent. Great beauty lies deep and is hard to discern; long-term benefits cannot be clearly perceived at a glance. Therefore, matters of profound and enduring benefit are neglected in the world, while easy-to-see actions that please others block the way. Wrongdoers do not realize their mistakes; those who struggle do not recognize their exhaustion. This is how the wisdom of all under heaven becomes concentrated in one person, and thus a single individual governs alone over the entire world. His achievements are great, yet his wisdom is limited—how could this not lead to obscurity? To have a single-minded ruler presiding over an indeterminate number of flatterers, and yet hope that he will not be misled in his accomplishments—such a case has never existed. If one is indeed deceived, then people achieve their ambitions. When people achieve their own ambitions, the ruler's will is lost. If the ruler toils while his ministers enjoy ease, and the positions of superiors and inferiors are reversed, then it becomes one ruler serving as a minister and ten thousand ministers acting as rulers. To have one minister serve ten thousand rulers—such a situation is rarely without consequence. There are those who, under the name of not using people (the character "不" may be an addition), ultimately end up being used by others. Therefore, a wise ruler is cautious; he does not value knowing what others can do for himself, but rather values understanding how to use people. Because he knows how to employ people, no one fails to serve him. In the past, Shun merely maintained his own dignity and sat facing south as a ruler. The world did not dwell on the number of officials such as Gao Yao, Hou Ji, or Yi Xie; instead, it valued the singular achievement of the sage Shun in governing alone. Therefore it is said: Those who accomplish things need not claim credit for their achievements, and those who reap the benefits of a cause need not personally labor for it. This must be what was meant by Shun.
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