The way of maintaining unity takes naming as the foremost principle. When names are upright, things are settled; when names are biased, things shift.
Therefore the sage holds fast to unity with tranquility, letting names define themselves and affairs settle naturally. Not displaying his brilliance, the ruler keeps subordinates plain and upright.
He appoints them accordingly, letting them manage their own duties; he grants authority accordingly, letting them take initiative. Abiding by rectitude in dealing with them, he lets all stabilize by themselves.
The ruler promotes men according to their titles. If titles are unclear, he examines their actual deeds. By matching deeds with titles, he governs based on outcomes. When both titles and deeds are trustworthy, subordinates offer genuine information.
Ministers carefully perform their duties and await the ruler’s mandate. He who never loses the essentials becomes a sage.
The sage’s way abandons personal wit and craftiness. Without discarding wit and craft, one cannot uphold constant principles.
Common people who use wit suffer personal misfortunes; rulers who use wit bring peril and ruin to their states.
Follow the way of heaven, return to the logic of forms, examine and verify thoroughly, and let endings bring new beginnings. Remain empty and tranquil, reacting only afterward, never acting out of personal will.
The ruler’s greatest disaster lies in sharing the same desires as his subordinates. Being sincere and trustworthy without aligning with them, he unites all people under his rule.
Note
This passage presents the Legalist‑Taoist ideal of monarchical rule: uphold unity and tranquility, verify officials by titles and deeds, abandon personal wit, and remain independent from subordinates to secure supreme power.
The representative Legalist thinker of the late Warring‑States Period. This excerpt is from Upholding Authority (Yang Quan), which combines Taoist metaphysics of unity and tranquility with Legalist statecraft of title‑performance inspection.
Unity (Yi)
A core concept here: the ruler holds one supreme unchanging principle of governance, focusing on title‑performance verification rather than trivial personal decisions.
Title‑Performance Matching (Xing‑Ming)
Key Legalist technique: judge officials by comparing their official titles with actual achievements, to reveal truth and prevent fraud.
Tranquil Non‑action (Xu‑Jing Wu‑wei)
Inherited from Taoism: the ruler stays empty‑minded and calm, avoids personal cleverness, and lets subordinates take charge of daily work.
In Dao De Jing, Laozi claimed that:
Thus the sage says:
“I practice non-action, and the people transform themselves; I cherish stillness, and the people right themselves….”
Rejection of Personal Wit
Han Fei warns that self‑seeking cleverness corrupts both common people and rulers; rulers who rely on personal schemes risk state collapse.
Non‑collusion with Subordinates
The ruler must keep authority independent, not sharing private interests with ministers, so as to unify public loyalty.
用一之道，以名為首。名正物定，名倚物徙。故聖人執一以靜，使名自命，令事自定。不見其采，下故素正。因而任之，使自事之。因而予之，彼將自舉之。正與處之，使皆自定之。上以名舉之，不知其名，復脩其形。形名參同，用其所生。二者誠信，下乃貢情。謹脩所事，待命於天。毋失其要，乃為聖人。聖人之道，去智與巧，智巧不去，難以為常。民人用之，其身多殃，主上用之，其國危亡。因天之道，反形之理，督參鞠之，終則有始。虛以靜後，未嘗用己。凡上之患，必同其端。信而勿同，萬民一從。
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