This excerpt is from “Canon Six: Dismissal and Appointment” in Han Feizi. It shifts focus from domestic governance to international relations, exposing a cross‑border power tactic: hostile states undermine a realm by meddling in its official appointments instead of waging war.
— Li He The mason of Duanzhou has marvel-doing hands, Whetting his knife to carve blue clouds, aloft he stands. He grinds the stone in order to make an inkwell; Violet flowers look dim like cold blood shed pell-mell. Black flowers seem like spring at noon behind the screen; The pine-soot ink steeped in…