Original: Qu Qiang excerpt

Warring States: Shang Yang

Destroy the strong with the strong, and control the strong with the weak; Eliminate the strong from the weak and strengthen yourself. When the country is good, there are many traitors. The country is rich and poor, and the rich are strong; If a country is poor, it will be rich; if it is poor, it will be poor; if it is poor, it will be weak. It is strong for soldiers to do what the enemy dare not do; Just do what the enemy is ashamed of. The main value is changeable, but the national value is less changeable. There are many things in the country, cutting; Mainly less, stronger. A thousand times the country, everything exists. The soldiers are stronger, the soldiers are disarmed, and the country is conquered.

Agriculture, commerce and officials are the usual officials of the country. Three officials give birth to lice, and six officials give birth to lice: "age" and "food"; Say "beauty" and "good"; Say "ambition" and "action". Sixth, it is simple and must be cut. There are three people in the garden of three officials and one in the garden of six officials. The rule of law is powerful; Political rule, cut. Those who are often ruled by officials move their officials. Governing the big, the country is small; Small rules, big rules.

A powerful, heavy cut; Weak, heavy strong. The husband attacked the strong and died, and the weak attacked the strong king. If the country is strong and does not fight, the poison will be lost internally, and the music will be cut; When the country went to war, the poison was lost to the enemy. If the country has no rites and music, it will be strong. If the merit is glorious, it will be broken. Less farmers and more businesses, poor aristocrats, poor businesses, poor agriculture and poor officials will all be cut.

State-owned courtesy, interest, poetry, calligraphy, kindness, cultivation, filial piety, brother, sincerity,

There is an argument. There are ten people in the state, and if there is no war in the world, they will be beheaded; If there are no ten countries, if there is war in the world, it will be prosperous to the king.

If the country treats traitors with good people, it will cut them in chaos; If the country treats its people well through rape, it will be strong. Those who use "poetry", "calligraphy", courtesy, joy, filial piety, brotherhood, kindness and cultivation will be defeated by the enemy; Otherwise, you will be poor.

Without the rule of eight people, the enemy dare not come; Although it is, it will come; If you cut the army, you must take it; Take it and you can have it; If you don't attack, you will be rich. Strong country, difficult to attack; If the country is kind, it will be easily attacked. When the country is difficult to attack, one should be ten; If the country is easy to attack, ten will die.

Destroy those who don't obey the law by strengthening the people, and the country will be weakened; If people are made to obey by punishment and those who do not obey laws and regulations are eliminated by other measures, the country will be strong. If the country practices good governance, there will be more treacherous bad guys. The country is rich and strong, but it is governed by the methods of poor countries. Such a country will become richer and richer, and the richer country will become stronger.

The governance of poor countries into rich countries means that the number of poor people will increase and the poor countries will be weakened. The army is strong if it can do what the enemy dare not do; It is beneficial to do what the enemy thinks shameful and unwilling to do in national affairs such as using troops (Confucianism is ashamed to wage war). The monarch is resourceful and fickle, and the country is stable in the legal system.

There are many government affairs in the country, which will weaken; The monarch's government affairs are streamlined and not miscellaneous, and the country will be strong. A country with 1000 personnel carriers will be weakened only if it meets the requirement of retaining 1000 personnel carriers. In the matter of marching, the soldiers work hard and the country will be strong; During the war, the ranks of the army were in disorder, and the country would be weak if the soldiers did not work hard.

Farmers, businessmen and officials are people who have fixed jobs in rural areas. These three kinds of people produce six kinds of lice; The first is "old" lice, and farmers are lazy, which makes the old harvest bad; The second is to "eat" lice, and farmers do not work and eat rice for free; Third, "beauty" lice, businessmen sell gorgeous things; The fourth is "good" lice, that is, businessmen buy and sell imported goods; The fifth is the "ambition" lice, which refers to the corruption and bribery of officials; The sixth is "line lice", and officials are not active.

These six kinds of lice have roots, and the country will cut them. The roots of agriculture, commerce and politics lie in three kinds of people, and the roots of six kinds of lice lie in one person. A country is strong if it can govern the country according to law. Governing the country by decree alone will weaken the country. If you have been an official for a long time and he can manage political affairs well, you will promote him. There are many ways to govern the country, and the country will be weak.

The smaller the scale of governance, the stronger the country. If the people don't obey the law, the country will become weaker and weaker. If the people abide by the law and discipline, the country will become stronger and stronger. If we adopt the policy of strengthening the people to punish the people who don't obey the law, we will perish. Wang Ye can be achieved by punishing people who don't obey the law by adopting policies that weaken the people.

When the country is strong, when it doesn't go to war, poison is instilled at home, and ritual lice are produced. If the country is at war, the poison will be lost outside, and there will be no etiquette and music at home. Only in this way can the country be strong. Only by appointing people who have contributed can the country be strong. When lice occur, the country is weakened. There are fewer farmers and more businessmen, so officials are poor, businessmen are poor and farmers are poor. All three kinds of people are poor, and the country will be weakened.

There are ten things in a country: ceremony, music, poetry, books, charity, self-cultivation, respect for parents, respect for brothers, integrity and wisdom. If the monarch does not let the people go to war, the country will surely weaken or even perish. If the country does not have these ten things, even if the monarch lets the people go to war, the country will certainly prosper and even rule the world.

If the country is ruled by so-called kind people, the country will definitely be chaotic until it is weakened; If the country is ruled by people who advocate reform, it will certainly be well governed until the country is strong. The state adopts Confucianism such as etiquette, music, poetry, calligraphy, charity and self-cultivation to govern. When the enemy comes, the country will be weakened.

If the enemy does not invade, the country will be poor. If these eight Confucian thoughts are not adopted to govern the country, the enemy will not dare to invade, and even if they invade, they will be repelled. If you send troops to crusade against other countries, you will certainly seize the land, and if you seize the land, you will certainly occupy it; If you don't attack other countries, you will be rich. This country likes strength and will be cautious when attacking.

Countries like empty talk, and when it comes to attacking, they will be frivolous. Countries attack other countries with cautious attitude, and get twice the result with half the effort; When a country attacks other countries with reckless attitude, it can lose a hundred times of benefits by making great efforts.

Extended data:

At the beginning of the article "Go Strong", it says: "Go strong and go weak, go strong and go strong and bring weak". This is precisely "the peak is easy to break, and the bright one is easy to pollute", which can only achieve temporary results, but it will also cause incalculable consequences. We can't understand "the weak and the strong" with the eyes of modern people, otherwise it will easily fall into the trap and cause misinterpretation.

Weak people do not refer to weak citizens, not to the sick man of East Asia who was lying on the couch smoking all day in the late Qing Dynasty, but to law-abiding people, which is described as "good people" in modern language. In fact, some friends don't need to look at the word "weak people" to say that the merchants in Qin Dynasty used harsh laws to restrain the people and weaken them.

As a vassal state in the Warring States period, how could it possibly need a weak nation in the face of the international environment of the law of the jungle and the martial atmosphere of the society at that time? Isn't this suicidal? If so, how can it be called the "tiger wolf" of Shandong six countries after the political reform? In the final analysis, there are more citizens who need reform than those who unite with farmers, which comes down to one thing: obeying the law.

Therefore, people who obey state orders and abide by laws are called "people". On the other hand, powerful people are hooligans, vagrants, and people who seek law. These people idle around all day, disturbing public opinion and order in the country and violently resisting the law. Then it was natural to punish others in the country at that time. The fundamental difference between Confucianism and Legalism is to govern the country according to people or according to law (even in the eyes of future generations, Legalism is to safeguard the authority of the monarch).

Therefore, if Shang Yang wants Qin Xiaogong to rule all people as "law-abiding" weak people, he must ban Confucian poetry and books, prohibit the spread of Confucianism in China, unify public opinion and rectify the order. "Governing the country by strength", if the country is governed by mobs, it will fall into an infinite cycle, the loopholes in the east will be blocked and the openings in the west will be torn open.

"Turning weakness into strength" means following the example of law-abiding citizens and giving those thugs a sap to turn over a new leaf. If-as always, they should be imprisoned according to law. In the final analysis, it is a word: in Qin, if you obey the law and dare to farm, then your life will be brilliant just around the corner; If you want to take advantage of the law, it's the life of the prisoner, no matter what!

Shang Yang knew very well that he could conquer the world at once, but he could not rule the world at once. Whether you are living in West Shu or living in the world, if violence is easy to violence, the country will be extremely fragile, and the DPRK will die; The only way to govern the country is to rule the country by the weak, manage the people according to law, and run the state machine according to the established order of the country.