The Wei River is very great in size. A wealthy man from Zheng drowned in it, and someone retrieved his body. The wealthy man’s family sought to buy it, but the one who found the body was asking a great deal of money. The family reported this to Deng Xi, who said, “Do not worry about it. He certainly can sell it to no one else.” The man who found the corpse was anxious about this and reported to Deng Xi, who told him, “Do not worry about it. They certainly will be unable to buy the corpse from someone else.”
The situation of persons who vilify loyal officials resembles this case. Loyal officials are vilified if they fail to win the people, and they are vilified if they win the people. Is it not grievous that rulers lack proper standards and thus have no way of realizing this?

According to the conflict of interest rule, a lawyer cannot advise or represent two parties with opposing interests. However, this is not the issue here.
Deng Xi is counsel for both parties and gives them the same advice, which could benefit both. He misled neither of them.
Unfortunately, the advice does not amount to much. It could lead to an indefinite deadlock.

It can be seen as a kind of joke.

Chunyu Kun, a native of Qi, offered a persuasion that the king of Wei should join the Vertical Alliance in opposition to Qin. Because the king of Wei considered his argument subtle, he gave him ten chariots for a mission to Chu. As Chunyu Kun was taking his leave, he offered a persuasion that the king of Wei should join the Horizontal Axis with Qin, so the king of Wei canceled his mission. He failed not only in getting the ruler to join the Vertical Alliance, but also in having him join the Horizontal Axis. He would have been better off with fewer abilities and no eloquence at all.
On the Zhou tripods there is pictured the ancient artisan Chui chewing on his own fingers. By this means did the ancient kings illustrate the uselessness of excessive skill.
Id., 18/4.6

In Zheng it was the custom for people to hang criticisms of the laws from the walls. When Prince Chan ordered that no more be hung, Deng Xi added his own construction of the meaning of the laws. When Prince Chan ordered that no such constructions be added, Deng Xi found yet other devious ways of twisting the meaning of the laws. To whatever orders the Prince issued, Deng Xi had a ready response. His actions obliterated the distinction between what was permissible and what was not.
When these cannot be properly distinguished and one makes use of rewards and punishments, the more extreme the punishments become, the graver the anarchy that results. This is precisely what those governing a state should forbid.
Annals of Lü Buwei, 18/4.2

Deng Xi knows how to interpret the law in such a way as to render it null and void. Does this mean the legislator who drafted the law was careless?
That would probably be an anachronistic conclusion. A more stimulating one would be to realize that Deng Xi « discovered interpretation », an epochal moment not only in the construction of law but also in linguistics and philosophy.

While it is probably unrealistic to expect laws to be unambiguous, we must at least anticipate and manage future probable interpretations. In other words, we should make the work of contemporary Deng Xis more complex. See « The Letter and Spirit of the Law. »
What the Hegemon dictates may be self-evident to the Hegemon but not to everyone else. Deng Xi was executed for his insolence.

The following text is extracted from « Paragraph 1”, that is, chapter one of The Book of Lord Shang, translated by J.J.-L. Duyvendak.
Duyvendak notes that this section is « A piece of pure literature. It has no connection with the rest of the book and merely serves as an introduction.” (p. 81).

“Lord Shang », or « Lord Shang Yang » is the honorific title given to Yang Kung-sun

Lord Shang, c. 390 – c. 338 bc, The Book of Lord Shang

Duke Hsiao discussed his policy. The three Great Officers, Kung-sun Yang, Kan Lung and Tu Chih, were in attendance on the Prince. Their thoughts dwelt on the vissicitudes of the world affairs; they discussed the principles of rectifying the law, and they sought for the way of directing the people. The prince said:

— Not to forget, at his succession, the tutelary spirits of the soil and of grain, is the way of a Prince; to shape the law and to see to it that an intelligent ruler reigns, are the tasks of a minister. I intend, now, to alter the law, so as to obtain orderly government and to refor the rites, so as to teach the people; but I am afraid that the empire will criticize me.

Kung-sun Yang said:

— I have heard it said that he who hesitates in action, does not accomplish anything, and that he who hesitates in affairs, gains no merit. Let Your Highness settle your thoughts quickly about altering the laws and perhaps not heed the criticism of the empire.
Moreover, he who conducts himself as an outstanding man is, as a matter of course disapproved of by the world. […]

Duke Hsiao expressed his approval, but Kan Lung said:

— Not so. I have heard it said: « A sage teaches without changing the people, and a wise man obtains good governement without altering the laws. »  […]

Kung Sun Yang replied:

— What you, sir, hold is the point of view of the man-in-the-street. Indeed, ordinary people abide by old practices, and students are immersed in the study of what is reported from antiquity. These two kinds of men are all right for filling offices and for maintaining the law, but they are not the kind who can take part in a discussion which goes beyond the law […]

Tu Chih said:

— Unless the advantage be a hundredfold, one should not reform the law; unless the benefit be tenfold, one should not alter an instrument. I have heard it said that taking antiquity as an example one makes no mistakes, and in following established rites, one commits no offence. Let your highness aim at that.

Kung Sun Yang said:

— Former generations did not follow the same doctrines, so what antiquity should one imitate? The emperors and kings dod not copy one another, so what rites should one follow? […]

Duke Hsiao said:

— Excellent! […]

(*) The Book of Lord Chang, Shāng jūn shū. Translated by J. J.-L. Duyvendak (1889-1954). London, Arthur Probsthain, 1928. Reprint by Chinese Materials Center, San Francisco 1974.

Transcription

Pinyin transcription is the official modern transcription of standard Chinese using the letters of the Latin alphabet (CK). Introduced in China in 1958.

Other transcription systems:
— Wade – Giles system, most used in the English-speaking world before the introduction of the pinyin system.
— EFEO system, from the École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO), designed by Séraphin Couvreur in 1902 used in French, before the introduction of the pinyin system. 
— Latin transcription

Other transcription systems can be found in the texts; quotations respect the author’s choice.

Dates and Periods

Date during the Common Era or Christian Era, CE: 512 = 512 CE
Date before the Common Era, BCE: 512 BCE

Periods start and end dates:
—— 512 BCE – 480 BCE 
—— 512 BCE – 215CE
—— 512 CE – 623 CE = 512 – 623

Hypothetical dates are noted « c. » or a « ca.« , abbreviations of the Latin word « circa » « around, approximately »:
c. 512BCE – c.215BCE.
c. 513 BCE
c. 513CE = c. 513ce

Period from 600 bce to 200 bce

The scale of time (600bce-200bce)  is highlighted in yellow
Highlighted in pink: the period of the Warring States
Highlighted in black: Qín Shihuang(di), Emperor of unified China
Highlighted in blue: Beginning of the Han dynasty

This tentative work is dedicated to Professor Shier Ju of the Institute of Logic and Cognition at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, who invited me to deliver a seminar at the institute in 2019.
During the seminar, I noticed that Chinese researchers had no difficulty commenting and using Western models and concepts to analyse translated Chinese data.
This inspired me to follow their example, hence the provisional observations I propose herein.

PARALLEL CASES

Han Fei Tzi, Section 17, “Precautions within the palace.”

Whether one is ruler of a state of ten thousand chariots or of one thousand only, it is quite likely tha this consort, his concubines, or the son he has designated as heir to his throne will wish for his early death.

How do I know this is so? A wife is not bound to her husband by any ties of blood,If she loves her, she remains close to him; if not, she becomes estranged. The saying goes: « If the mother is favored, the son will be embraced. » But if this is then the opposite must be,  must run like this: « If the mother is despised, the son will be cast away.« A man at fifty has not yet lost interest in sex, and yet at thirty a women’s beauty has already faded. If a woman whose beauty has already faded waits upon a man still occupied by thoughts of sex, then she will be spurned and disfavored, and her son will stand little chance of suceeding to the throne. This is why consorts and concubines long for the early death of the ruler.

Han Fei Tzi, Section 17, “Precautions within the palace”, in Basic Wrirings. Translated by Burton Watson. New York & London, Columbia University Press, 1964

So-called Western argumentative practices have been present in written texts since the dawn of Greek and Latin civilizations.
The first theorizations of these practices correspond to the birth and development of Greek rhetoric and logic.

Translations from Latin and Greek
The teaching of Latin and Greek is an integral part of Western culture. The Latin and Greek texts have been extensively translated and continue to influence Western thought through a long tradition of commentary and translation reworking.
Within this tradition, certain translations are considered landmarks, such as the Latin translations of Aristotle by William of Moerbeke,

These versions are so faithful to Aristotle’s text that they are authorities on the corrections of the Greek manuscripts, and they enabled Thomas Aquinas to become a supreme interpreter of Aristotle without knowing Greek.
Allan Bloom, « Preface » to his translation of Plato’s Republic, 1968, p. xi.

This collection is about TRANSLATED Chinese classical texts
Without systematically aspiring to such heights, the interested reader can easily obtain reliable translations of many classical Chinese texts.  The price to pay is that this illiterate reader cannot study « argument in Chinese (classical texts) », « such and such an argument in the Analects of Confucius« , but only « such and such an argument in such and such a translation in the Analects of Confucius« .

In the case of major works, several translations of the same text are available, which makes it possible to to identify their differences and similarities, if necessary. In this case, one should consider that the different translations of the same passage express different readings of the same way of reasoning.

Sometimes, the translation(s) of the passages remain unclear or incompatible. In this case, comments can be left for a better future and for better readers. After all, this is also the case for texts in the analyst’s own language and culture.

From the Annals of Lü Buwei

18/4.4 — When Prince Chan governed Zheng, Deng Xi strove to disrupt things. He made a pact with those involved in litigation by which those who intended to pursue major legal cases should submit an upper garment, and those who wished to pursue minor legal cases should submit a short coat and lower garment. Those who submitted these garments and involved themselves in litigation were too numerous to count.

Thus, wrong was taken to be right, and right was taken to be wrong. With no standard of what was right and wrong, what was permissible and impermissible varied each day. Those whom Deng Xi wished to win in litigation did win, and those whom Deng Xi wished to punish were punished.

The state of Zheng fell into complete chaos, and the populace clamored. Prince Chan, troubled by this turn of events, had Deng Xi executed and his corpse exposed. The peopled hearts were then stilled, right and wrong were settled, and the laws and regulations enforced.

Deng Xi administers justice. According to the accusation, he set the price for judgments handed down in favor of cases, large or small.
Considering Deng Xi expertise in interpretating the law, one could suppose that he found and applied an interpretation of the law that exonerated his clients.
If so, he simply did what a lawyer is supposed to do and paid for. The problem is that judge and advocate are one and the same person.