SuaveG – The Gentle Path

Chinese mythology, folktales, and literature

human nature

  • Warning‑Signs of Personal Decline vs. Han Fei’s Omens of Ruin

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    This article adapts Han Feizi’s Omens of Ruin, originally for state collapse, into thirteen modern warning‑signs of personal decline. It stresses early detection and course‑correction before small flaws escalate into disaster.

  • The Wagon‑Maker and the Coffin-Maker

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    This article unpacks Han‑Feizi’s famous carriage make and coffin maker parable. It compares his interest‑centered insight with Adam Smith, warning people’s motives are shaped by self‑interest rather than inherent goodness or malice.

  • Han Feizi – Chapter 55

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    This Han Feizi ‑ Chapter55 (Defining Divisions) stresses sharp, impartial reward‑punishment distinctions. It advocates collective‑liability surveillance to uncover hidden deceit and prioritizes impersonal institutional systems over fallible individual judgment or hollow reputations.

  • Han Feizi – Chapter 54

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    This Han Feizi ‑ Chapter 54 (Mind‑Measure) holds punishment serves public welfare. It stresses laws must adapt to eras, prioritize agriculture‑military power, block private cliques, and rely on state institutions rather than external conditions to achieve kingship.

  • Han Feizi – Chapter 48.1

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    This Han Feizi ‑ Chapter 48.1 argues governance must follow human desires for likes‑dislikes. Rulers should firmly hold power‑handles, enforce impartial, heavy rewards‑punishments, keep inner intentions concealed and bar private parties from legal judgments.

  • Han Feizi – Chapter 37.7

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    This Han Feizi ‑ Chapter 37.7 challenges Zhu Guo’s military advice to Zhao Jianzi. It rejects relying on rare loyal devotion, holding commanders should depend on reliable systems of generous rewards and strict punishments to motivate troops.

  • Mencius – Chapter 14.31

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    Mencius holds benevolence and righteousness grow from extending innate compassion and moral reluctance. Expanding such inner conscience yields endless virtue. He condemns scholars manipulating speech or silence for favor, equating such hypocrisy to theft.

  • Mencius – Chapter 14.24

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    Mencius distinguishes human nature and fate. Sensory desires are innate yet limited by fate, so gentlemen do not prioritize them. Moral virtues lie in innate nature despite external constraints, so people must persist in cultivating them rather than yielding to fate.

  • Mencius – Chapter 13.30

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    Mencius divides moral levels: Yao and Shun hold virtue naturally; Tang and Wu attain it via self-cultivation; Five Hegemons only borrow morality for power. Yet long-term virtuous practice may turn borrowed goodness into genuine inner virtue.