Explanation II
A man from Song asked King Yan of Yan to let him carve a female monkey on the tip of a thorn. He said the king must fast for three months before he could view it. The king therefore supported him with the revenue of three chariot teams. A metalworker in the royal service said to the king, “I have heard that no ruler goes ten days without breaking his fast for banquets. This man knows that Your Majesty cannot fast long enough to look at a useless object, so he sets a three-month deadline. In all carving, the tool used for cutting must be smaller than the object being cut. I am a metalworker, yet I cannot make a cutting tool small enough for this. This is an impossible thing. Your Majesty should examine it carefully.” The king imprisoned the man and questioned him. He was indeed a fraud, so the king killed him. The metalworker then said, “If plans are not measured, men of talk will mostly offer thorn-tip theories.”
Another version says: King Yan of Yan sought men with clever arts. A man from Wei claimed he could carve a female monkey on the tip of a thorn. The king was pleased and supported him with the revenue of five chariot teams. The king said, “Let me see you carve this thorn-tip monkey.” The guest replied, “If Your Majesty wishes to see it, you must not enter the inner palace for half a year, nor drink wine or eat meat. Only when rain clears, the sun comes out, and you look in the moment between shade and light, will the female monkey on the thorn become visible.” So the king kept the man from Wei, but could not see his monkey. A metalworker from below the terrace in Zheng said to the king, “I am a cutter. All tiny objects must be cut with a cutting tool, and the object being cut must be larger than the tool’s edge. The tip of a thorn cannot hold the edge of a cutter, so it is hard to work on the tip of a thorn. Let Your Majesty ask to see the guest’s cutter. Then you will know whether he can or cannot do it.” The king said, “Good.” He asked the man from Wei, “With what do you carve the thorn?” He answered, “With a cutter.” The king said, “I wish to see it.” The guest said, “Let me go to my lodging to fetch it.” He then fled.
Er Shuo was a man from Song and a skilled debater. By maintaining that “a white horse is not a horse,” he subdued the debaters at the Jixia Academy in Qi. Yet when he rode a white horse through a border gate, he still had to pay the tax for a white horse. Thus, relying on empty words, he could defeat the debaters of a whole state; but when tested against facts and forms, he could not deceive even one person.
If arrows and crossbows are freshly sharpened and fired at random, their tips may still strike something as fine as an autumn hair. Yet because one cannot hit the same spot again, this cannot be called good archery; there is no fixed target. If a five-inch target is set up ten paces away, even Yi and Pang Meng could not be certain of hitting it every time. Having a standard makes success difficult; lacking a standard makes it easy. When there is a fixed target, Yi and Pang Meng are admired for skill with a five-inch mark. When there is no fixed target, even a lucky hit on an autumn hair is poor shooting. Therefore, if one responds without a standard, debaters will multiply their talk; if one holds to a standard, even the wise will fear error and dare not speak recklessly.
Today, when rulers listen to speech, they do not test it by any standard; they are delighted by eloquence. They do not measure men by achievement; they praise conduct without subjecting it to any checkpoint. This is why rulers are long deceived, and why talkers are long maintained.
A guest taught King Yan of Yan the art of immortality. The king sent a man to learn it, but before the student could begin, the teacher died. The king was furious and executed the student. He did not realize that the teacher had deceived him; he punished the student for being late. To believe in what is not so, and to punish an innocent minister, is the trouble of failing to examine. Moreover, nothing is more urgent to a person than his own body. If the teacher could not keep himself from death, how could he make the king live forever?
Two men from Zheng argued about who was older. One said, “I was born in the same year as Yao.” The other said, “I was born in the same year as the elder brother of the Yellow Emperor.” The dispute could not be decided; the winner was simply the one who stopped talking last.
A guest painted a lacquered box for the ruler of Zhou. It took three years to complete. When the ruler looked at it, it seemed no different from an ordinary lacquered box. The ruler was furious. The painter said, “Build a wall ten boards high, cut a window eight chi wide, and place the box against it when the sun first rises. Then look.” The ruler did so, and saw that the box showed dragons, snakes, birds, beasts, carriages, horses, and the forms of all things. The ruler was delighted. The work on this box was indeed subtle and difficult, yet its use was the same as that of a plain lacquered box.
A guest was painting for the king of Qi. The king asked, “What is most difficult to paint?” He answered, “Dogs and horses are most difficult.” “What is easiest?” “Ghosts and demons are easiest.” Dogs and horses are known to all; they appear before people morning and evening, so they cannot be falsely represented. That is why they are difficult. Ghosts and demons have no fixed form and do not appear before people; that is why they are easy.
In Qi there was a reclusive scholar named Tian Zhong. Qu Gu, a man from Song, went to see him and said, “I have heard that you hold it right not to depend on others for food. Now I have a method concerning a great gourd. It is as hard as stone, thick, and without any opening. I offer it to you.” Tian Zhong said, “A gourd is valued because it can hold things. If it is thick and has no opening, it cannot be split open to hold anything. If it is as heavy as a hard stone, it cannot be split open to ladle from. I have no use for such a gourd.” Qu Gu said, “Very well. I shall discard it.” Now Tian Zhong does not depend on others for food, but he also brings no benefit to the state. He belongs to the class of hard, useless gourds.
Yu Qing was having a house built. He said to the craftsman, “The roof is too high.” The craftsman answered, “This is a new house. The plaster is still wet, and the rafters are still green.” Yu Qing said, “That is not so. Wet plaster is heavy, and green rafters bend. If bending rafters bear heavy wet plaster, the roof should be low. After time passes, the plaster will dry and the rafters will season. Dry plaster is light, and seasoned rafters are straight. When straight rafters bear light dry plaster, the roof will rise higher.” The craftsman was silenced. He built it accordingly, and the house collapsed.
Another version says: Yu Qing was about to have a house built. The craftsman said, “The timber is green and the plaster is wet. Green timber bends, and wet plaster is heavy. If bending timber bears heavy plaster, it may stand for a time, but it will surely collapse in the long run.” Yu Qing said, “When timber dries it becomes straight, and when plaster dries it becomes light. If it truly dries, each day it will become lighter and straighter, so it will never collapse.” The craftsman was silenced. He built it, and after a short time the house indeed collapsed.
Fan Qie said, “A bow breaks at its final stage, not at its beginning. When a worker strings a bow, he keeps it on the bending frame for thirty days before setting the string, and then uses the trigger in a single day. This treats it gently at the beginning and harshly at the end. How can it avoid breaking? The proper way is different: keep it on the frame for one day, set the string, and then use the trigger after thirty days. This treats it harshly at the beginning and gently at the end.” The worker was confounded. He made the bow accordingly, and it broke.
The words of Fan Qie and Yu Qing are both ornate in debate and victorious in speech, yet they go against the reality of affairs. If a ruler is pleased by such talk and does not prohibit it, this is why he fails. If he does not seek the achievement of order and strength, but is dazzled by the reputation of polished rhetoric, he will reject men who possess proper methods and instead entrust affairs to those who “collapse houses” and “break bows.” Thus, in matters of state, rulers fail to understand the craftsman’s work in building houses and stringing bows. Yet specialists are confounded by men like Fan Qie and Yu Qing because empty speech, though useless, wins, while plain facts, though undeniable, are silenced. Rulers value useless debate and undervalue undeniable speech; this is why disorder arises. If men like Fan Qie and Yu Qing do not cease, and rulers do not stop delighting in them, then they are honoring the kind that brings ruin and breakage, while treating those who know proper methods as mere craftsmen. Craftsmen cannot apply their skill, so houses collapse and bows break. Men who know how to govern cannot carry out their methods, so the state falls into disorder and the ruler is endangered.
When children play together, they make rice from dust, soup from mud, and meat from wood. Yet when evening comes, they must go home for their meal, because dust-rice and mud-soup can serve for play but not for eating. To praise ancient traditions with clever but insincere words, to speak of the benevolence and righteousness of former kings without being able to bring order to the state, is likewise fit for play but not for governance. Those who admired benevolence and righteousness yet grew weak and disordered were the three Jin states. Those who did not admire them yet achieved order and strength were Qin. Yet Qin has not become emperor, because its governance is not yet complete.
Note
This Legalist section from Han Feizi ‑ Chapter32.8 presents multiple tales including the thorn‑tip monkey fraud. It argues rulers must test theories against real‑world outcomes, rejecting persuasive yet impractical empty rhetoric.
A Legalist thinker of the Warring States period. He judges ideas by practical results, not by elegance, reputation, or moral display.
King Yan of Yan:
A ruler of the state of Yan. Here he is easily deceived by someone who claims to carve a monkey on a thorn tip.
Carving a female monkey on a thorn tip (棘刺母猴):
A famous Chinese idiom for an impossible or fraudulent claim. It warns against accepting impressive-sounding promises that cannot be verified.
Cutter:
A small carving knife. The metalworker’s point is practical: the tool must be smaller than the object being carved.
Er Shuo (兒说):
A debater from Song. He used the argument “a white horse is not a horse” to defeat other sophists.
“A white horse is not a horse” (白马非马):
A well-known paradox associated with the School of Names. Han Fei treats it as clever wordplay without practical value.
Jixia Academy (稷下):
An intellectual center in the state of Qi where many scholars debated philosophy and politics. For example, Mencius once stayed here and debated with other scholars. He promoted Confucian ideas to Qi’s ruler, King Xuan of Qi. Though respected, his proposals were not fully adopted. The academy offered a free forum for diverse thinkers of the Warring States era.
Yi and Pang Meng (羿,逄蒙):
Legendary master archers. Legend tells that Hou Yi, the great archer who once shot down nine suns, obtained an immortality elixir. He entrusted it to his apprentice Pang Meng. Greedy Pang Meng tried to steal the potion. To keep it out of his hands, Yi’s wife Chang’e drank it and flew to the moon.
Han Fei uses them to show that even great skill must be measured against a fixed target.
Autumn hair (秋毫):
The fine down of animals in autumn, used as a metaphor for something extremely small.
Art of immortality:
A Daoist-sounding claim to teach longevity or eternal life. Han Fei treats it as a typical fraud.
Yao and the Yellow Emperor:
The Yellow Emperor and Yao were legendary sage-kings in Chinese tradition. Claiming to be as old as them is a comic way to show an untestable boast.
Painted box:
A lacquered box painted so subtly that its images can only be seen under special light. Han Fei admits it is technically impressive but practically useless.
Dogs and horses are difficult; ghosts are easy:
A famous Chinese artistic insight. Familiar things are hard to fake because everyone can judge them; invisible things are easy because no one can check them.
Tian Zhong (田仲):
A reclusive scholar who prides himself on not depending on others. Han Fei compares him to a hard gourd with no opening: impressive in principle, useless in practice.
Hard gourd (坚瓠):
A gourd too thick and solid to be cut open or used as a container. It symbolizes high-minded but impractical people.
Yu Qing (虞庆):
A man whose elegant reasoning about wet plaster and green rafters contradicts the craftsman’s experience. His advice causes the house to collapse.
Fan Qie (范且, Fan Ju, 范雎):
Fan Ju was a strategist and prime minister of Qin in the Warring States Period. Hailing from Wei, he endured cruel humiliation before escaping to Qin. He proposed the famous strategy “befriend distant states while attacking nearby ones”. This plan boosted Qin’s expansion. He helped King Zhaoxiang consolidate power. He repaid both kindness and grudges.
In this article, his theory about stringing bows sounds persuasive but leads to a broken bow. He represents rhetoric that defeats experts yet fails in reality.
Dust-rice and mud-soup (尘饭涂羹):
Children’s pretend food. Han Fei uses it to mock ancient moral talk that cannot feed the state.
Three Jin (三晋):
The states of Han, Wei, and Zhao, which emerged from Jin. Han Fei criticizes them for admiring benevolence and righteousness while growing weak.
Qin (秦):
Qin is the state that later unified China. Han Fei sees it as strong because it focuses on practical governance, though he still considers its rule incomplete.
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