Han Fei Tzi, Chapter III, On the Difficulty in Speaking: A Memorial

Thy servant, Fei, is by no means diffident of speaking. As to why he has to hesitate in speaking: if his speeches are compliant and harmonious, magnificent and orderly, he is then regarded as ostentatious and insincere; if his speeches are sincere and courteous, straightforward and careful, he is then regarded as awkward and unsystematic; if his speeches are widely cited and subtly composed, frequently illustrated and continuously analogized, he is then regarded as empty and unpractical; if his speeches summarize minute points and present general ideas, being thus plain and concise, he is then regarded as simple and not discerning; if his speeches are very personally observing and well-versed in the inner nature of mankind, he is then regarded as self-assuming and self-conceited; if his speeches are erudite and profound, he is then regarded as boastful but useless; if his speeches touch the details of house-keeping and estimate each item in terms of numerals, he is then regarded as vulgar; if his speeches are too much concerned with worldly affairs and not offensive in wording, he is then regarded as a coward 2 and a flatterer; if his speeches are far from commonplace and contrary 3 to human experience, he is then regarded as fantastic; if his speeches are witty and eloquent and full of rhetorical excellences, he is then regarded as flippant; if he discards all literary forms of expression and speaks solely of the naked facts, he is then regarded as rustic; and should he quote the Books of Poetry and History from time to time and act on the teachings of the former sages, he is then regarded as a book chantor. 4 These things explain the reason why thy servant, Fei, is diffident in speaking and worried about speaking.

The powerful nation of Chu was sending a large army against Qi. The king of Qi gave Chunyu Kun a hundred catties of gold and ten four-horse carriages, and told him to go to the neighboring state of Zhao to ask for help.

« Chunyu Kun threw back his head and laughed so hard that the cord of his hat snapped. »
The king asked if he thought it was too little, and Chunyu Kun said, « How dare I? »
« Then why are you laughing? »
Chunyu Kun replied, « I saw… a man praying for a good harvest and offering one pig’s trotter and one cup of wine. ‘May the crops from the highland fill whole crates!’ he prayed. ‘May the crops from the lowland fill whole carts! May grain harvested in abundance fill my house!’ He offered so little but expected so much in return. That is why I laughed. »

The king then gave him « one thousand yi of gold, ten pairs of white jade discs and a hundred four-horse carriages. » Chunyu Kun took them and successfully arranged military aid from Zhao, which forced the troops of Chu to return home.^[*]

(*) Sima, Qian (2001). Selections from Records of the Historian. Translated by Yang Xianyi; Gladys Yang. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, p. 486.

Quoted from Wikipedia, Chunyu Kun (10-23-2025)

Baccini, Giulia.  2008. The Forest of Laughs (Xiaolin) – Mapping the offspring of self-aware literature in ancient China. Dottorato di ricerca in Lingue, Culture e Società, Tutori del dottorando, Prof. Tiziana Lippiello. Prof. Olga Lomová. 

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

To honestly and adequatey advise the king facing an alternative, the counsellor must, in principle, to be clear about the pro and contra of each possible choice. Exposing both is not contradictory.
He has also to be clear about the advice he gives to the king.
Then he is supposed to persuade the king that this solution he recommends is the better one.
To persuade somebody of something, the most comfortable place for the counsellor is to exhibit some involvement in with it, that is to identify with the case, and exhibit the corresponding ethos.
In any case, the king has to ratify and reinvindicate the proposed solution.

Chunyu Kun possibly did something like that, that is, convincingly recommended one, then the other solution.
The king is disoriented. Both advice are unexploitable by the king.
Chunyu Kun plays with the king’s, possibly because he wants to expose the lack of capacity of the king.  thinks that the king has no capacity to choose.

In this case, his speech  must underline the strengh and weaknesses of each solution.
A counsellor can honestly  blame and reject one possibility and recommend the other.

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