Ten Faults:
- First, practicing petty loyalty undermines great loyalty.
- Second, seeking trivial profits ruins great long‑term benefits.
- Third, acting perversely and arbitrarily, showing discourtesy to feudal lords, leads to one’s own death.
- Fourth, neglecting state governance while indulging in music brings personal decline and poverty.
- Fifth, greed, obstinacy and love of profit are the root of state ruin and personal execution.
- Sixth, indulging in female entertainers and neglecting state administration causes national collapse.
- Seventh, traveling far away from the capital and ignoring remonstrating ministers endangers one’s life.
- Eighth, committing faults yet refusing loyal ministers’ advice and acting arbitrarily begins the loss of noble reputation and invites public ridicule.
- Ninth, overestimating domestic strength while relying externally on other states leads to territorial loss.
- Tenth, a small state behaving discourteously and rejecting remonstrating ministers faces the extinction of its royal line.
Note
This passage establishes a concise list of autocratic governance taboos: rulers must avoid trivial loyalties and short‑sighted gains, restrain indulgence, accept criticism, conduct proper diplomacy, and govern diligently to prevent national decline.
Han Fei
Representative Legalist political thinker of the late Warring‑States Period. This passage is the opening of The Ten Faults (Shi Guo), which summarizes ten fatal mistakes rulers commonly make, followed by historical case studies for each fault.
Ten Faults
A classic Legalist political warning framework listing ten self‑destructive behaviors for monarchs, covering morality, diplomacy, governance, entertainment, personnel and foreign relations.
Petty Loyalty vs Great Loyalty
A key Legalist distinction: blind personal devotion (petty loyalty) may harm state‑oriented great loyalty to the public good.
Five Notes
Traditional Chinese pentatonic music. Excessive love of music symbolizes indulgence that distracts rulers from state duties.
Feudal Lord Diplomacy
In the Warring‑States Period, interstate etiquette determined alliances and conflicts; rude conduct by small states often brought military retaliation.
Remonstrating Ministers
Loyal critics who point out rulers’ faults are essential to Legalist governance; ignoring them leads to tyranny and ruin.
十過：一曰、行小忠則大忠之賊也。二曰、顧小利則大利之殘也。三曰、行僻自用，無禮諸侯，則亡身之至也。四曰、不務聽治而好五音，則窮身之事也。五曰、貪愎喜利則滅國殺身之本也。六曰、耽於女樂，不顧國政，則亡國之禍也。七曰、離內遠遊而忽於諫士，則危身之道也。八曰、過而不聽於忠臣，而獨行其意，則滅高名為人笑之始也。九曰、內不量力，外恃諸侯，則削國之患也。十曰、國小無禮，不用諫臣，則絕世之勢也。
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