Honglin Enlightenment", Han Feizi - Eight Sayings, Chapter 38 Fearing Yourself

Honglin Enlightenment Han Feizi - Eight Sayings Chapter Thirty-Eight Fearing Yourself

The previous chapter of Honglin Wudao's "Han Feizi - Eight Sayings" Han Feizi used the most simple and true objective facts in the secular world to reveal the reasons for the hierarchization of human society. In fact, this chapter is difficult to write and difficult to break through, because the secular world is like this. Whether it is an Eastern civilized country or a Western civilized country; whether it is a feudal imperial era or a democratic republic era; whether it is a medieval dark Europe or a post-Renaissance Europe; whether it is a primitive era of tribes, or a modern developed country, the "hierarchy" of society is objectively existing.

However, with the development and progress of human society, the form of "hierarchy" has become more and more civilized, and the era of the legal system no longer allows "hierarchy" to become the cause and excuse of arbitrary exploitation and infringement, every individual can be protected by law, the right to life is not arbitrarily deprived, only nature and law have power.

From the history of the development of human society, we can easily understand that in the primitive era, in order to survive and live, people formed groups to resist the harm of the outside world, and gradually formed ethnic groups and tribes, and from then on there was a hierarchy between the patriarch and the clan, the leader and the member, and then the formation of the state, such a hierarchy is more diverse and multi-level, and even institutionalized and conscious. Even in modern civilized society, the concept of hierarchy is still deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, from the "organizational structure" of the company to the "administrative system" of a country.

Whether it is nature or human society, "hierarchy" exists objectively, perhaps this is the expression of order, or the basis of order, or the essence of management. All things in the world, how to recognize and manage, the way of the sages is that people are divided into groups, things are clustered, complex and simplified, and classified, so that management will be orderly and have rules to follow.

Returning to Han Feizi's theory of "things", from the perspective of human nature, we must eat, drink, wear and live, and we must have providers, and the monarch in the imperial era is the sole owner and distributor of social wealth and state resources, and the people must "do things" in order to live. This is also the basic reason why the monarch can control his subjects, and the human nature dictates that we cannot live independently of the group and society, so the monarch firmly holds the power of the "sole owner and the distributor", otherwise, the Lord will not be able to do it now, and the "matter" will end.

Regarding the theory of "facts", Han Feizi explained it from the perspective of power, saying that "the tiger and leopard will not use their claws and teeth to share the same power as the weasel, and the House of Ten Thousand Gold will not use its wealth but share the same capital as the prison gate." "Meaning: the tiger and leopard will be no different from the majesty of the little house mouse without its claws; the man who has all the wealth will be as poor as the janitor if he does not use his abundant assets." It means that it is obvious that once the power of the monarch to "reward and punish" is lost, he is like ordinary people, and how to let the subjects "do things".

All things must be different in the world, and the reason why we can exist is because we all have qualities that others do not have, such as the claws and teeth of the tiger and leopard in the text, and the wealth of the house of ten thousand gold. We must maintain these traits in order to survive without being eliminated. In the workplace, some people rely on mountains and water, some people rely on wisdom, some people rely on hard work, some people rely on sticking to their duties, in short, there are reasons for existence, and what we have to do is to maintain the reasons for existence, otherwise it will not exist. Don't envy or blame the reasons for the existence of others, just do your own job well, do your job well, where there are people is the jianghu, just like the "hierarchical" of human society is an objective existence, this is also an objective existence.

The claws of the tiger and leopard and the wealth of the house of ten thousand gold are the reasons for existing in the world, and the monarchy must also have its own characteristic reasons. Han Feizi believes that "the king of the land says that people cannot benefit, and the wicked cannot harm, and that people who want to fear themselves cannot be gained." This means: a sovereign who owns a land likes someone and cannot give him benefits, hates someone and cannot punish him; it is impossible to make others fear and respect himself. The monarch is the sole owner and distributor of social wealth and state resources, and he also has supreme power, and it is impossible to get the "fear" of others without exercising these powers, without rewards and punishments. The right not to do so is equivalent to no right.

[The tiger and leopard will not use their claws and teeth to share the power of the shrew (xī) rat, and the House of Ten Thousand Gold will not use its wealth but the same asset as the prison gate.] There is the king of the land, saying that no one can benefit, and the wicked cannot harm, and that people want to fear themselves and cannot gain it. 】

Power can only be valued by exercising it, just as a car is parked and cannot be opened, it is a pile of scrap iron. Power is the source of power to promote the development of things, things come to your link, you do not use the power to approve and review, you can not reach the next link, things can not develop. Or you use power indiscriminately, irresponsible audit pass, things can not develop the same, because the next link naturally can not pass, the result is more harmful. Han Feizi's saying that "others want to fear themselves" tells the true meaning of power, but this is only the result of power attaching to people, and it is definitely not the essence of power.