From Han Fei's book Han Fei Woods in the Warring States Period.

Original text:

Song people have cultivators. There was a plant in the field. When the rabbit touched the plant, its neck broke and it died. Stand by and watch because you released this plant, hoping to get the rabbit back. Rabbits can't be recovered, but as a small fruit of a song. Today, the people who want to go to the former dynasty are all guarding their factories and so on.

Translation:

There was a farmer in Song State, and there was a stump in his field. One day, a rabbit running fast ran into a stump, broke its neck and died. So the farmer put down his farm tools and stood by the stump day and night, hoping to get another rabbit. However, the hare could not get it again, and he himself was laughed at by the Song people. Now I want to use the past policy of governing the country to govern today's people, and I am as wrong as waiting for him!

Extended data

Everything is Wrong is the representative work of Legalists, with a total of 20 volumes. The book consists of fifty-five independent essays, most of which are from Han Fei. Except for a few articles, the title of each article shows the main idea of the article.

The core of his theory is the combination of law, technique and potential based on absolute monarchy, and he upholds the evolutionary view of history, advocates extreme utilitarianism, thinks that people focus on interests, supplemented by benevolent education, and emphasizes the rule of law and employing people, which has had a great impact on the establishment of China's feudal social system after Qin and Han Dynasties.

This book is unique among the pre-Qin philosophers, with sharp thoughts, sharp words, strict logic and good use of fables. After sorting out its fables, it was compiled into various fables such as Inside and Outside Stories, Forest Stories, Yu Lao and Shi Guo.

Wu Zhu, a representative of Han Fei, was selected as a middle school Chinese textbook. Wu Zhu's central idea and its position in Han Feizi refer to five kinds of pests that endanger the country, that is, five kinds of people that Han Fei can't tolerate, namely, "his scholar", "his speaker" and "his swordsman". In fact, these five kinds of people have no direct interest relationship with Han Fei. The reason why Han Fei advocates cracking down on these five kinds of people is entirely from the standpoint of the monarch and from the perspective of national security.

Han Fei was born in a Korean aristocrat. When Han Fei was young, he was a student of Xun Kuang, a famous thinker, together with Li Si (later prime minister of Qin State). He was born with a stutter and was not good at talking, but he was good at writing books. His classmate Reese himself said: My talent is not as good as Han Fei's. Korea, the hometown of Han Fei, became one of the vassal states in the Warring States Period in 403 BC after the "three points of Jin" of Korea, Zhao and Wei, and the struggle between the old and new forces in China never stopped.

In 355 years before Wu Gong, Han Zhaohou took Shen Buhai as the phase and reformed the original Jin Law. So Korea used to be rich and strong. However, Shen Buhai's political reform only emphasized the strategy of how the monarch controlled his subordinates, and did not put forward strong reform laws and regulations to implement the "New Korea Law". Therefore, the social reform was not thorough, and the old forces regained power, gradually weakening South Korea. By the time Han Fei arrived, South Korea had become the weakest country among the seven vassals at that time.

Seeing that his hometown of South Korea was weakening, Han Fei wrote to Wang Han 'an many times, demanding political reform and the policy of enriching the people. However, Han Fei's political views were not adopted by Wang Han. Han Fei hated that the monarch did not care about the rule of law, could not make the country rich and strong, and could not make good use of talents. But with some extravagant and slutty people.

So Han Fei retired to write a book. He made a careful analysis and research on the history of political reform in the pre-Qin period, and on the basis of summing up the experiences and lessons of previous reforms, he wrote more than 100,000-word works, such as Indignation, Staff, Internal and External Existence, and Talking about Forests and Difficulties. He believes that Qin Guoqiang is because "those who serve the law are strong"; South Korea is weak because "the followers of the law are weak". In particular, the successful experience of Shang Yang's political reform in Qin State was deeply studied, and the conclusion that "Qin is rich and strong because of Shang Yang" was drawn.

Han Fei believes that to consolidate the dominant position of feudal monarchs, centralized system must be implemented. He said: "things are in the four directions and should be in the central government. The saints must persist, and the Quartet must work. " It is pointed out that centralization is the necessary condition for establishing a unified feudal country at that time.

Han Fei attached great importance to rewarding farming, and he put forward the slogan of "enriching the country with agriculture and rejecting the enemy and relying on soldiers" in the article Wu Zhu. Han Fei hated the people who endangered the agricultural war at the end of the Warring States period and compared them to moths that endangered the country. He called Confucian scholars who were not engaged in farming, eloquent military strategists, ranger assassins, people who were afraid of military service, and businessmen who made profits by speculation as "five evils", which were five social pests.

Han Fei also denied the idealistic view that history was created by "God" from the viewpoint of historical evolution. In Han Fei's view, the development and progress of human society is not the arrangement of heaven, nor the contribution of emperors, but the result of long-term production practice of working people. Han Fei believes that with the development of social and economic life, everything should change accordingly.

If in the era, there were still people who used wood as their nest and drilled wood to make fire, they would be laughed at by Gun and Yu at that time. In the Yin and Zhou Dynasties, drought became the main contradiction, and the drainage of rivers was the first priority, which would certainly be laughed at by Tang and Wu. If someone praises the politics of Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang and Wu, and persists in carrying it out to this day, it will certainly be laughed at by people today.

Therefore, saints do not follow the ancient laws or stick to the rules, but formulate corresponding measures according to the social situation at that time. If we use the method of ancient kings to rule contemporary people, it will be as stupid and ridiculous as those who "wait for the rabbit".

At that time, Han Fei's works spread to Qin. The king of Qin saw his books, such as Lonely Anger and Five Cheats, and said admiringly, "If I can meet this man and talk to him, I will die without complaining!" Li Si said, "These books were written by Han Fei, the son of Han." Qin Wang therefore rushed to South Korea. At first, Wang Han didn't need Han Fei's advice, but now things are urgent, so he sent Han Fei to Qin, and the king of Qin was very happy.

Who knows that his classmate Reese was jealous of him and worried that Han Fei's being reused by the King of Qin would affect his position, so he killed Han Fei with Yao Jia and said, "Han Fei is a noble child of South Korea. Now the king is going to annex the vassal States, and Han Fei will still work for them in Korea and will not contribute to our state of Qin. This is human nature. If the king uses him now, he will leave himself a future trouble. It is better to set a charge for him and kill him. "

The king of Qin listened to Reese's words and sent Han Fei on suspicion of being a "North Korean spy" and for the crime of official administration. Reese took the opportunity to send poison to Han Fei and let him commit suicide. Han Fei wanted to make a statement to the king of Qin, but he never saw him. Later, the king of Qin regretted it and sent someone to pardon him, but it was too late. Han Fei was assassinated.

Although Han Fei didn't have time to carry out his own ideas in person, his thought of rule of law was adopted by Qin Shihuang, which became the guiding ideology for Qin Shihuang to unify China and establish a centralized feudal country.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Hanfeizi Wuzhu