| External and Internal Affairs:...: |
Of the external affairs of the people, there is nothing more difficult than warfare, so an easy law cannot bring them to it. What is called an easy law? It is when rewards are few and authority weak, and when depraved doctrines are not obstructed. What are called depraved doctrines? They are when sophistry and knowledge are valued, when itinerant politicians receive office, and when scholarship and private reputations are in evidence. When these three are not barred, then people will not fight and affairs fail. For when rewards are few, then there is no advantage in obedience; when authority is weak, then there is no harm in transgression. Therefore depraved doctrines are started in order to mislead the people, and to make them fight while the law is easy, is like setting a cat to bait a rat. Is that not impossible? Therefore, he who desires to make his people fight, sees to it that the law is severe; consequently rewards will be numerous, authority will be strict, depraved doctrines will be obstructed, those engaged in sophistry and knowledge will not be honoured, itinerant politicians will not be employed in office, scholarship and private reputations will not be in evidence. If rewards are numerous and authority strict, then people, seeing that in war rewards are many, will forget the danger of death, and seeing their degradation when there is no war, will find life hard. When rewards make them forget the danger of death and strict authority causes them to find life hard, and moreover, depraved doctrines are barred, in this manner meeting the enemy would be like shooting, with a crossbow of a hundred piculs' capacity, a floating leaf. How would it be possible for it not to perish? |
