If life is compared to a game, Confucius's view is that you should not be too bottomless, and you should abide by the rules of the game; Lao Tzu believes that it is comfortable to stay away from the game of deception.
Han Feizi, on the other hand, is a master of the game, plunging headlong into it, and he has an extremely deep understanding of the dark side of Chinese, and he knows that human nature is selfish.
On one side, Han Feizi is extremely egoistic, and on the other hand, he is a strong patriot.
The book "Han Feizi" is a book that is a trick to the heart, pointing directly to the human heart, and it is chilling to read, although you don't want to, but you must admit that what he said may be the real world.
The following is a brief talk about Han Feizi and his people, and his life can be summarized in a few simple sentences.
There are few records of Han Feizi, only that he was a nobleman of Korea during the Warring States period, and he spoke to the king of Han in his youth, but he was not reused, so he had to write his own books.
Han Feizi stutters and is not good at talking, but he is very good at writing books, a stomach full of "bad water", he knows too much about power struggles and the art of power scheming.
After Han Feizi finished writing the book, one day the King of Qin saw Han Feizi's book and was so amazed that he actually said something like this:
"Alas! If I can meet this person and associate with him, I will not regret it even if I die. ”
The King of Qin was a huge fan of Han Feizi, and in order to get Han Feizi, he actually sent troops to attack Korea, and the King of Han was very afraid, so he sent Han Feizi to the Qin Kingdom.
The King of Qin saw Han Feizi, but did not trust him yet.
At this time, Li Si was An old classmate of Han Feizi, and both of them studied under Xun Zi, and when he was a student, Li Si thought that he was inferior to Han Fei.
Li Si is like the villain in the novel, the student age is not as good as the protagonist, not valued by the master, slowly blackened, after leaving the master, he will put the protagonist to death.
In the novel, this kind of plot ends with the villain failing, and the villain will shout in despair before dying: You forced me.
But in reality, the villain wins.
Li Si successfully persuaded the King of Qin to order the killer, and then Li Si quickly executed, poisoning Han Feizi to death.
Han Feizi asked to see the King of Qin, but Li Si did not allow it, and it is said that the King of Qin later regretted it, but it was too late.
But the work "Han Feizi" has survived forever.
Like Mozi, Zhuangzi, and even the Analects, some volumes are missing, but han feizi is very well preserved, without any defects, and the number of extant volumes, articles, and ancient books is the same.
What does this mean?
It shows that this is a popular book from ancient times to the present.
Confucianism is people's fantasy, and Dharma is the reality.
Let's talk about the content of the book.
One
It's important to talk about the difficulty of convincing others.
What's the difficulty?
Before you see the conclusion, you can stop reading and think for yourself what the difficulties are?
The following is Han Feizi's answer.
Han Feizi said that the difficulty lies not in intelligence, nor in eloquence, let alone courage.
The difficulties are:
How to understand the psychology of the other party in order to adapt to him with appropriate words.
In a word.
Han Feizi listed three kinds of people:
The first kind of person pursues fame, and in the face of this kind of person, if you take a generous profit to persuade him, you will be considered to be lowly disciplined and alienated.
The second kind of good interests, if you use benevolence and morality to persuade him, you will appear to be scheming and divorced from reality. (Confucius often did this.) ）
There is a third kind of person, this kind of person is the most, on the surface good reputation, in fact good interests.
What should such a person do?
If you talk to him about benevolence and morality, he will ostensibly adopt your opinion, but in fact alienate you.
If you know what's at stake in him, he ostensibly alienates you, but will actually adopt your claims.
These are all things that are difficult to detect on the surface.
Seeing this, you may feel that although what is said above is correct, it is very superficial, and what the Fa said is just some superficial things, so it is wrong to think so.
The top is just an appetizer, and the latter is more complicated.
People are complex, "Han Feizi" lists several different levels of problems, if you are an ancient official, try to survive the first few levels.
Here's a start from easy to hard:
1. Should the monarch make a mistake and point it out according to the etiquette of benevolence and righteousness? Is it possible to force the monarch to do what he does not want to do, or to make him stop doing what he does not want to do?
A: No, or you're in danger.
2. If a monarch succeeds in a scheme and wants to monopolize his exploits, can you show that you know such a plan in your conversation with the monarch?
A: No, or you're in danger.
3. The monarch is kind to you, should you work harder to win favor and know everything?
Answer: No, otherwise if your plan succeeds, the monarch will forget; if the plan fails, you will be in danger.
4. The monarch does this on the surface, but in fact wants to do it in his heart. How do you get into it?
A: If you touch the secret in the heart of the monarch in the conversation, you are in danger.
5. The monarch plans a big event, and you also understand the heart of the monarch, so you go to the speech, and it just caters to the king's wishes, does this look very beautiful?
A: In fact, there is still danger lurking, if a wise person speculates about this matter from the outside and says it, the monarch must think that you leaked the secret, then you are in danger.
The above five questions are several dangerous possibilities listed by Han Feizi.
Similarly, there are several contraindications to note:
Don't talk to the monarch about other ministers (who will be seen as divisive), don't talk about people the monarch loves (will be seen as finding a patron), don't talk about people the monarch hates (will be seen as spying on the monarch's heart), and can't talk about the close attendants around the monarch (will be seen as showing off their value).
So what to do?
In short, the faults of the monarch should be whitewashed, the (despicable) things that the monarch wants to do should be encouraged to do quickly, and the monarch has unrealistic ideas, and it is wise to explain the shortcomings and disadvantages and praise the monarch for not doing it.
The monarch wants to praise himself, you have to turn the corner prompt, and pretend not to know.
Harmful things, to imply that he is not good for the monarch.
In short, to follow the monarch, do not offend the scales.
Han Feizi did this as an image metaphor:
As an animal, a dragon could ride it and play with it when tamed; but it had a reverse scale about a foot long under its throat, and if someone touched this reverse scale, the dragon would kill him. Monarchs also have reverse scales, and if the speaker can not touch the monarch's reverse scales, the matter of entering the speech is almost the same.
What is the ultimate goal?
In the long run, the monarch's grace has been deep, the speaker will not be suspected of the in-depth planning, and no matter how much reason he argues, he will not be punished, at this time he can clearly analyze the interests to achieve the monarch's deeds, directly indicate right and wrong to correct the words and deeds of the monarch, and can treat each other in this way, which is a successful speech.
Here we must fairly evaluate the above-mentioned Han Feizi's scheming skills, if you do the above, you must be a traitor?
not necessarily.
In fact, in history, loyal subjects and traitors talk and do things on the surface, from words and deeds generally can not see the loyalty and adultery, the fundamental difference between loyalty and adultery is the problem of degree.
The above method is just a tool, a knife, everyone can use, but to kill, or to do good, the most fundamental is still to see the user himself.
Two
Han Feizi is pessimistic about the human heart, saying: "People with upright behavior will also succumb to their own desires."
Han Feizi believed that the interests of monarchs and courtiers were different, so there were no courtiers who were absolutely loyal to the monarch.
He thinks people are selfish.
Here are a few short stories that reflect human nature, all from Han Feizi, some of which make people feel scared and chilled to read.
1. In Korea, when a chef brings rice, he finds raw liver in the gravy.
Instead of scolding the chef, the Korean monarch summoned the chef's assistant and scolded him, saying, "Why did you put raw liver in my gravy?" ”
The assistant chef kowtowed to admit that he had committed a capital offense, saying, "I want to drive away the man in charge of the king's meal in private." ”
Han Feizi has insight into human nature and says that a wise monarch considers problems and first examines who can benefit from it.
2. A couple in the Kingdom of Guardians was praying, and the wife prayed, "Let me be free from disasters and trouble, and I will receive a hundred pieces of cloth." ”
Her husband said, "Why so little? ”
The wife replied, "If you exceed this number, you will use it to buy concubines." ”
3. There was a doctor in the State of Qi who accompanied the King of Qi with wine, and came out drunk and unconscious, leaning on the porch door.
The gatekeeper, who had been punished for having one foot cut off, knelt down and begged, "Don't you mean to give me a little wine to eat?" The doctor scolded, "Roll! How dare a tortured man ask his honorable lord for a drink! ”
The gatekeeper hurriedly retreated.
When the doctor left, the gatekeeper splashed water under the gutter of the porch, like a wet diaper.
The next day, when King Qi came out, he saw it and angrily rebuked, "Who pees here?" ”
The tortured gatekeeper knelt down and replied, "I didn't see it." That said, yesterday the Doctor yi shot here and stood here. ”
The King of Qi thus punished Yi Jie and killed him.
(The story is a bit scary...) ）
4. There was a common man at the east gate of the capital of the Song Dynasty who was very thin because of excessive sorrow during mourning.
The monarch of the Song Dynasty thought that he loved his relatives very much, so he promoted him to be an official.
The following year, more than a dozen people died of excessive mourning during mourning.
5. In the past, Zheng Wugong wanted to go on a crusade against the State of Hu and deliberately married his daughter to the monarch of the State of Hu to please him.
Later, Zheng Wugong asked the Qunchen: "I want to send troops to fight, which country can fight?" ”
Doctor Guan Qisi replied, "You can fight Hu Guo." ”
In a fit of rage, Duke Wu killed him and said, "The Kingdom of Hu is a country of brotherhood, but you say that it is reasonable to attack it?" ”
When the monarch of the State of Hu heard about this incident, he thought that Zheng Guo was close to him, so he no longer guarded against Zheng Guo.
As a result, Zheng Guo secretly attacked the State of Hu and captured it.
6. There was a rich man in the Song kingdom, and the rain washed down the walls of his house, and his son said, "If you don't repair it, thieves will surely come and steal." The old man in the neighborhood said the same thing. At night, a large amount of belongings was stolen. The rich man thinks his son is smart, but he becomes suspicious of the old man in the neighborhood.
7. Wu Zixu, a Chu man, fled, and the border guards captured him. Wu Zixu said: "The reason why the monarch hunted me down was because I had meizhu. Now I don't have meizhu - I will tell the king of Chu: you stole the meizhu and swallowed it into your stomach! The border guards immediately released Wu Zixu.
8. In the Song Dynasty, a rich merchant named Jianzhizi, in order to compete with others for a piece of puyu worth a hundred gold, pretended to break the jade by mistake, and paid the buyer a hundred gold, and the merchant later repaired the broken marks and sold the gold of qianyi.
9. Liang Che had just been appointed as the county magistrate of Yixian County, and his sister wanted to visit him.
After dusk, the city gates were closed, so she climbed over the walls before entering the city.
Liang Che cut off her foot according to law.
Zhao Chenghou, believing that Liang Che was not benevolent enough, took back his official seal and removed him from his post
Some of the above small stories are very sinister and vicious, and some sentences expose human nature, in fact, I am deeply impressed by the story of the wife praying for a hundred pieces of cloth.
Han Feizi believes that the feelings between husband and wife are actually not so deep, there is no flesh and blood between husband and wife, love is close, and if you don't love, you are estranged.
Adult men have no decreased sexual desire at the age of fifty, and women decline in their thirties, women will be alienated and looked down upon, and women's sons are also suspicious of their heir status, so women hope that the monarch will die sooner.
This is a very terrible theory, it is very thorough, it may also be the truth, although true love is very rare, but it exists after all, so although Han Feizi sees it thoroughly, it may sometimes be extreme.
But Han Feizi is talking about how the world works in most cases.
Here's a summary
Three
I think Han Feizi is a bit like Qian Zhongshu, his heart is like a mirror, he can see everything thoroughly, but he does not do things without a bottom line.
Han Feizi said: If you reward a monarch with a weak reputation and deceive people, the courtiers will not use it for him; if you reward a monarch with a rich reputation and trustworthiness, the courtiers will easily compete for his life.
Han Feizi was very contemptuous of the remarks of Mozi, Confucius and others, believing that they were in vain, good to hear but not practical. He also opposed confucianism from talking about the three ancient kings at every turn, believing that these were only games and could not be used to govern the country.
Han Feizi said pointedly:
When children play games together, they eat dust as food, mud as broth, and wood as large pieces of meat.
But they must go home to eat in the evening, because the dusty rice and mud soup can be played, but they can't really eat it.
Praise the things that the ancients praised, beautiful but not true, praise the benevolence and morality of the previous kings, can not let the development of the country on the right path, these things can only be used for games, can not be used to govern the country.
Han Feizi repeatedly persuaded the monarch, but was not reused, and when he went to the Qin kingdom to persuade the king of Qin not to destroy Han, did he not know that this was dangerous?
Knowing that the danger is still to be done, it can be seen that he still has a heart to serve the country.
A man who was proficient in the art of power and scheming, but disregarded the danger, and was eventually murdered, Sima Qian lamented Han Feizi:
I only lament that Han Fei wrote "Speaking Difficult" but could not get rid of the scourge of lobbying.
Han Fei invoked the law, which was realistic and clear, but it developed to the extreme that it was harsh in use and lacked kindness. Their ideas are all derived from morality, but Lao Tzu's thought is the most profound.
Here we have to mention Lao Tzu, Lao Tzu knows that politics is dangerous, so he does not play politics, which is great wisdom.
Han Feizi was well aware of the political dangers, but he still danced on the tip of the knife and was inevitably killed.
That harmful Li Si, of course, did not have a good end, and later with his son, he was destroyed by the three tribes.
When he was dying, Li Si said to his son with tears: I would like to lead the yellow dog with you to hunt outside the village, but unfortunately there will be no more such days.
The politics of cannibalism in ancient times was a meat grinder, so why bother?
No matter how capable a person is, it is possible that he will not end well.
"Han Feizi" is about the dark side of Chinese, and this dark side may be the real History of China.