A so‑called doomed ruler does not necessarily lose his territory entirely, yet what he nominally possesses no longer truly belongs to him.
If a ruler allows his ministers to manipulate internal state affairs through foreign powers, he loses control of his state.
Some claim that obeying great powers saves a state from ruin, yet in reality submission brings swifter collapse than resistance. Therefore a ruler must refuse to obey them.
When ministers know the ruler will not yield to external feudal states, they will not collude with foreign powers. When foreign states realize the ruler cannot be manipulated, ministers cannot deceive their ruler by leveraging foreign influence.
Note
This passage concludes the eighth treachery countermeasure: a ruler must reject foreign‑state control to prevent ministers from using external forces to usurp power, thus maintaining true sovereignty.
Leading Legalist thinker of the late Warring‑States Period. This excerpt comes from The Eight Treacheries (Ba Jian), addressing the eighth treacherous tactic – ministerial manipulation via foreign states.
Foreign‑Power Manipulation (the Eighth Treachery)
In the Warring‑States Period, weak‑state ministers often allied with powerful foreign states to pressure their own ruler and seize power. Han Fei warns that yielding to foreign powers accelerates national collapse.
Monarchical Independence
Legalism stresses that the ruler must keep independent decision‑making power, free from both ministerial schemes and foreign interference.
Collusion Prevention
By refusing foreign pressure, the ruler cuts off ministers’ external leverage, stopping them from deceiving or coercing the sovereign.
所謂亡君者，非莫有其國也，而有之者，皆非己有也。令臣以外為制於內，則是君人者亡也，聽大國為救亡也，而亡亟於不聽，故不聽。群臣知不聽則不外諸侯，諸侯之不聽則不受之，臣誣其君矣。
Leave a Reply