Red Mansion, Second Master Lian is too despicable

Chapter 108 Miscellaneous Talk: Shang Jun Shu
The art of controlling people exists objectively.

In the pre-Qin period, there was a classic with extremely distorted views on the Three Views. In this classic, the only central idea was to control the people.

In the eyes of ordinary people, the emperor and the people should complement each other. The relationship between them should be that the emperor cares about the people and the people support the emperor.

But in this book, it is believed that the emperor and the people are in opposition to each other. The first thing a ruler must learn is how to control the people.

What is even more unbelievable is that this classic was included in the study of emperors in many dynasties, and was even listed as a forbidden art to prevent common people from reading it.

Moreover, the theories in this classic have been actually applied and created an extremely powerful empire.

Gradually, he turned out to be the magic weapon to win in troubled times.

This classic is Shang Junshu.

Shang Yang, a thinker during the Warring States Period, was an extremely smart person, but if you understand his thoughts, you will find that this person is not smart, but insidious, extremely insidious.

Shang Yang was born in the State of Wei during the Warring States Period. Since he was a child, he has been particularly fond of studying the principles of governing the country and dealing with the world, and has revealed a sinister taste since he was a child.

When he grew up, Shang Yang followed the prime minister of Wei State, Gongshu Zuo, and served as a concubine under Gongshu Zuo, which can be understood as a counselor.

This is what Gongshuzuo said about Shang Yang. He told King Hui of Wei that if the lord does not use Shang Yang, he must kill him and not let him defect to other countries.

But King Hui of Wei didn't take it seriously and neither killed him nor used him.

Shang Yang felt that he could not realize his ideal in Wei State, so he went to Qin State.

In 359 BC, Qin was still a weak country among the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period. In order to change the status quo, Qin Xiaogong planned to implement reforms in Qin and replaced him. The person who implemented the reforms was Shang Yang.

Shang Yang did have a trick. After two reforms, he turned the originally weak Qin state into one of the most powerful states in just a dozen years.

It was at this time that Shang Yang was given the name Shang Jun, but what followed was the sequelae of the reform.

In 338 BC, Duke Xiao of Qin died and King Hui of Qin ascended the throne.

Because Shang Yang's reforms offended too many aristocratic forces, after King Qin Hui ascended the throne, the Qin nobles weaved a series of crimes against Shang Yang, and he ended up with a broken car.

The Book of Shang Jun is a classic written by Shang Yang and his descendants based on Shang Yang's reforms.

When we see Shang Yang in the textbook here, we have finished understanding it.

Although he doesn't sound like a hero, at least he's not a bad guy, right?

But is this really the case?Did Shang Yang really help the common people?
If Shang Yang didn't help the common people, why could Qin develop so rapidly?

Next, we will learn about a real book of emperors through Shang Jun Shulai.

The whole book of Shang Jun is about the way of governing the country. There is no dispute about this.

What is his method of governing the country?The most core method is to strengthen the country and weaken the people. It is recorded in it that if the people are weak, the country will be strong, and if the country is strong and the people are weak, a country with a righteousness must weaken the people.

Pu is strong, lewd is weak, weak is ghost, Yin is wiser, weak is useful, mentally weak is strong.Therefore, it is said to use the strong to eliminate the strong and the weak, and to use the weak to make the strong weak and strong.

What does it mean?

If any country wants to be strong, the first thing it must do is control its people.

How to control it?
Let the people become weak people.

Shang Yang's book believes that the country and the people are opposed to each other.When the country is strong, the people are weak; when the people are strong, the country is weak.Therefore, if a country wants to be strong, it must make its people weak.

The reason why Shang Yang eliminated the privileges of the nobility was not because of the people, but because of the principle of a strong country and a weak people.

He believes that law is the foundation of a country, and only by making people obey the law can better control be achieved.

In this case, people will not form a strong force to fight against the country and the monarch.

If the monarch's position is secure, the country will be easier to control. If the country is easier to control, it will be invincible.

The most terrifying thing here is the principle of the weak and ignorant people.

In order to make the people peaceful and weak, the majority of people think of formulating some laws to fool them and make them blind to some truths.

However, Shang Yang did not think so. He believed that human nature is inherently evil and cannot be fooled by fooling people.

If a wise monarch really governs the country, the country may not be strong. Human nature is greedy. When the monarch cannot satisfy the desires of the people, this greed will explode.

As a result, the country will face an unstoppable disaster.

Therefore, we must use evil to control good, rather than using good to control evil. We must strengthen military law and use force.

If the ruler becomes good, the people will become evil.

If the ruler becomes evil, then the people will become kind.

So how to achieve this effect?
The specific approach is to impose heavy punishments and light rewards.

Governing a country is not like managing a company. Although both are related to people, in the final analysis, they are different in nature.

When the rewards become fewer, the people will fight for them desperately. When their energy is focused on the few rewards, the ruling class will naturally become superior.

Where is the root of the evil of feudalism?
Many people don't understand it. You may be able to understand it by casually reading Shang Jun's book.

It is recorded in the book that if the country is governed by good people, the people will be in chaos; if the country is governed by filial piety, if the people are ruthless, the people who are kind will become the strongest.This sentence is quite easy to understand.

If a country uses good people to govern treacherous people, it will destroy itself.

If a country governs good people with treacherous people, it will become stronger and stronger.

Maybe we can't understand the reason now.

In ancient dynasties, there have always been many treacherous ministers and few loyal ministers. The treacherous ministers have great power and the loyal ministers have little power. This is the way of governing the country in the feudal dynasty.

Look at the next sentence again, a weak people will make a country strong, and a strong people will make a country weak. Therefore, a country with justice must weaken its people. The weaker the people are, the stronger the country will be. The stronger the people will be, the weaker the country will be.

Therefore, there is only one real way to govern the country, which is to weaken the people.

We must find ways to make the people weaker and weaker.

Many people don't know what the weak people are, so the next step is to be rich if you are rich, to be respected if you are weak, to be an official, and to be rich if you are poor.

What are the people?
The more you insult him, the more he values ​​power, the more you make him weak, the more he respects officials, the more you make him poor, the more he values ​​rewards.

Therefore, Shang Yang believes that a truly powerful organizational structure should be like this. The rulers use the law without mercy, and then let treacherous people take charge of the power. The treacherous people will bend the law for personal gain.

Therefore, the people will be oppressed, and the people will become weaker and weaker when oppressed.

However, two points should be noted in this. Such a deteriorating social status quo will definitely arouse people's resistance.

So the first point is to make the people weaker and weaker. How to make them weaker and weaker?It is nothing more than depriving them of what they should have, or making them get less and less.

In this way, they will naturally be unable to grow, and the country will become stronger and stronger.

The second point is that there must be rewards without hope, so that they can counterattack, and the rewards must be small so that they can fight to the death.So do you think Shang Yang deserved his ending?

But the most shocking thing is that this extremely distorted theory actually helped Qin become the Qin Dynasty.

If you still don't understand Shang Junshu's thoughts after reading this, then we can take a look at the current situation of Qin State at that time.

In this reform of the Qin State, it can be said that everyone except the emperor is a loser.

Let's take a look at them one by one.

For the nobles, the hereditary system was abolished, their original land was not recognized, and decisions began to be based on military merit.

The meaning of the military merit debate is that whoever performs more meritorious deeds on the battlefield will be more likely to become wealthy.

When many people see this, they think it’s quite reasonable. Isn’t this fair?
Yes, if you think this approach is fair, then you have become a slave to the reform.

The purpose of judging by military merit is not for fairness, but to give the people a way to counterattack, lest you become too desperate and lose the meaning of struggle.

If you don’t believe it, let’s look at the people again.

For the common people, Shang Yang's reform allowed them to obtain land, but once they planted the fields, they could not leave. They had to keep planting the fields to pay taxes to the emperor. They even implemented a joint sitting system, separated fathers and sons, and dispersed all kinship relationships among the people. .

The public rewarded various severe punishment systems, which made the people miserable.At that time, people could only do one thing in their lives. In peacetime, they worked hard to farm and provide more food for the country. If they did not provide enough food, they would be tortured.

This also caused the people of the Qin Dynasty to begin to crave war, because the only way to obtain titles in the Qin Dynasty was military merit, and war was the only room for advancement left by Shang Yang to the people at that time.

Therefore, Qin's military strength is very strong, but its military merits have not been learned by later countries, because this is a curse.

In peaceful times, the common people have no room for advancement.

Therefore, the people of Qin were very eager for war. Even in the later period, every time social conflicts became fierce, they had to use war to resolve them.

They are eager to fight a war.

Let us finally summarize it. In the book of Shang Jun, it is believed that Qin's power took five steps.

The first step is called fishermen, first unify their minds.

Then the weak people find ways to take away what they deserve, or to make them get less and less.

The third step is to call the civilians and let them keep tossing.

For example, find a way to make the rich poor, and then make a few poor people rich, so that they only see the poor and the rich, and of course it is not necessarily in terms of money. In the final analysis, it is just to keep tormenting them.

The fourth step is to ask Lu Min to find ways to make them lose their self-esteem and live in fear all day long.

The last step is called civilians, which is also the finishing touch.

In addition to the money they need to live, we must deprive them of the remaining money in their hands, leaving them without ability or ideas, and can only accept destiny.

Therefore, people who are poor have short ambitions.This is the essence of feudalism.

The Book of Shang Jun is the most banned book in ancient times. This book must not be time travel in the feudal era, because every time time travel will definitely cause a war.

If the people are humiliated, they will be noble, if they are weak, they will be respected by officials, and if they are poor, they will be rewarded generously.If you use punishment to control the people, you will be happy to use them; if you use rewards to reward the people for fighting, you will take death lightly.Therefore, in war, soldiers are said to be strong.If the people have private glory, they will be humble to the humble officials; if they are rich, they will be lightly rewarded.To govern the people is to humiliate and punish them; to fight is to fight.The people are afraid of death and fight in chaos, so the army and farmers are lazy and the country is weak.

Shang Yang met the King of Qin (Qin Xiaogong) three times and proposed three ways of kings, namely the imperial way, the royal way, and the hegemonic way.

Qin Xiaogong admired the hegemony very much, and immediately adopted the imperial art of hegemony. Subsequent generations became more and more domineering, until the first emperor Yingzheng was the best in ancient and modern times!

The remaining lieutenants of the sixth generation of Qin Fen took great measures to control Yu Nei.The six generations of kings of the Qin State ruled the country with hard work, and finally the Kyushu returned to the throne, and the world was unified!
Qin Yitong, in addition to several kings who worked hard to govern, also had a large number of talented ministers, such as Bai Qi, Meng Kuo, Wang Jian and his son, Li Si, Lu Buwei, Gan Luo, Shang Yang, etc.

Shang Yang's reforms were the foundation of a strong Qin and the cornerstone of Qin's transformation from a weak Qin to a strong Qin.

Shang Yang (390 BC - 338 BC), whose surname was Gongsun and whose given name was Yang Yang.A famous politician and military strategist in the middle period of the Warring States Period.

He is the author of "Shang Jun Shu", but the author of "Shang Jun Shu" has always had different opinions, so here it is written by Shang Yang.

In the "Shang Jun Shu" chapter on weakening the people, there are "Five Skills to Control the People"

To sum it up is.

Legalist Shang Yang's "Book of Shang Jun" mainly provided the monarch with five core secrets of an autocratic society.

First, weaken the people: use the weak to kill the strong, use treachery to control the good, kill the heroes and strengthen the people.

Second, fool the people: unify their thoughts and give only one thought.

Third, the poor: depriving people of their property and making them dependent on the state.

Fourth, humiliating the people: implementing policies that are unfavorable to the people and making them insecure.

The last is to fight and kill the strong people, and use the enemy to kill the strong through disasters, man-made disasters, and wars.

1. Use the weak to defeat the strong, use evil to control the good, and implement gangster politics.

If the strong and good people are eliminated, the country will become strong.

Including killing heroes, using traitors as leaders, village chiefs, etc.

2. Implement one teaching, unify thinking, and carry out thought control.

Fools are not uneducated

Instead, only one kind of ideological education is given, and the others are evil heresies.

As long as the brainwashing is done well, there is no political power that cannot be stabilized.

3. Deprive individuals of their assets, creating a society without assets and perseverance.

People lose their sense of security and must rely on the state.

For example, restricting the capital of various people, such as speaking, thinking, and bravery, all are deprived and banned.

4. Humiliating the people, the poor, and the weak is beneficial to rule.Insult the people, make the people poor, make them weak.If you are humiliated, you will be respected; if you are weak, you will be respected.Those who are poor are rewarded heavily, and those who are punished severely are rewarded lightly.

The country must implement policies that the people hate and formulate policies that the people don't like.

If it is not good for the people, the people will be weak and the country will be strong.

What if the strong people still cannot be eliminated?
5. To kill, to initiate wars, man-made disasters, and disasters, to kill powerful enemies externally and to strengthen the people internally.

Kill other countries through foreign wars, and kill and strengthen people through man-made disasters.

Man-made disasters, disasters, and wars can kill people, and they can even kill people and strengthen them.

Although the Qin system can greatly enhance the country's cohesion and combat effectiveness in the short term, it is tantamount to a chronic poison in the long term. The rise and fall of dynasties and the cycle of chaos for more than 2000 years have fully proved this.Therefore, later monarchs often mixed the Tao of Confucius and Mencius with the techniques of Huang and Lao to offset the negative impact of Shang Jun's books, but they never changed the main nature of Legalism.In a country built according to Shang Junshu, even if all enemies are defeated, the people will never be happy.

(End of this chapter)