In this regard, Han Fei first took archery as an example to explain: "Fu Xin sharpened the arrow and shot it with a crossbow. Although he made an unexpected shot, his end was not without Mid-Autumn Festival." However, there is no way to recover from it, which is not only good at shooting, but also impermanent. Set five inches, lead ten steps away, not Yi, pang meng can not be complete, there are also chang yi; It is difficult to have a degree, but it is easy to have no degree. If there is chang yi, then Yi and pang meng are clever with five inches; If you are unpredictable, you will be stupid for your hair and the Mid-Autumn Festival. " The translation of this passage means that with the newly sharpened sharp arrow, the crossbow is full of arrows, and even if the archer fires at random with his eyes closed, there is no arrow that does not miss small things; But even in this case, if the archer makes a mistake and fails to hit the original place again, we can't conclude that he is not good at archery. The reason is very simple, because you didn't set a fixed arrow target as the target in advance! If you set a goal in advance, even if it is an arrow target with a diameter of five inches, the range is only ten paces, and then let the archer shoot; That is to say, only by establishing the goal and allowing the shooter to have a definite aim, can the real skill and level of being an shooter be tested! The standard of measurement is established, and the target of archery is clear. Who is an ordinary archer and who is an archer like Hou Yi and Feng Meng? If you try it out, it will be clear at once. Therefore, "it is difficult to have a degree, but it is easy to have a degree". With a fixed arrow target as the target, people will regard Hou Yi and Feng Meng's technique of shooting a five-inch diameter target as sharpshooters; But if you don't set a fixed arrow target as the target, even if the shooters can hit the end of autumn, people will think it's fooling around.
Then Han Fei used it as a metaphor for the debater's words: "So if you respond to it excessively, the debater will say a lot;" Hold on to it, though those who know it are still afraid of losing it, and dare not talk nonsense. Today, people say that they should not judge by the degree, but argue by the degree, and praise their deeds without entering the customs. This person's master is so long-term bullying, and the speaker is so long-term. " In fact, the central purpose of Han Fei's article is to lead the topic to the key point of courtiers' advice to the monarch. He said that if there is no definite standard to measure it, then the debaters' advice to the monarch will become both verbose and unintelligible; However, if the goal of determining the theme is set in advance, that is, the standard of measurement is established, then even wise debaters will be afraid of saying something wrong when they speak to the monarch again. In addition, in the aspect of monarch, when listening to the courtiers' advice, the current monarch generally does not have a certain measure to judge in advance, but just likes to listen to the beautiful words in the courtiers' advice; That is to say, the monarch does not use actual efficacy as the measure of his courtiers' speech, but only appreciates their flashy words when they make speech. This is also the reason why the monarch has been deceived for a long time, and those debaters who are good at lobbying have been favored and even enjoyed high officials for a long time.