Han Feizi Quotes on Knowledge
Han Feizi (c. 280 – 233 BC), the foremost philosophical exponent of the Chinese Legalist tradition and a principal source of the political theory on which the subsequent Qin unification was built, defended in the fifty-five chapters of the Han Feizi the case that the Confucian cultivation of moral character supplies no reliable foundation for political knowledge under the actual conditions of state-craft. The triple instrument of fa (publicly promulgated law), shu (the ruler's techniques for managing the bureaucracy), and shi (the structural authority of the ruler's position) supplies the framework's positive content, and the corresponding epistemology of statecraft treats the historical record as a comparative laboratory of political experiment from which the practical regularities of rule can be extracted.
Quotes
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Attributed to Han Feizi:
“When the ruler relies on his own intelligence and discards laws, even his ablest ministers will fail him.”
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Attributed to Han Feizi:
“Past and present have different customs; new and old must be measured by different standards.”
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“夫道者、弘大而無形，德者、覈理而普至。至於群生，斟酌用之，萬物皆盛，而不與其寧。”
The Law(道, Way) is Huge and Shapeless, its Moral extends everywhere. -
“四海既藏，道陰見陽。左右既立，開門而當。勿變勿易，與二俱行，行之不已，是謂履理也。”
When all within the four seas have been put in their proper places, [the sage] sits in darkness to observe the light. When those to his left and right have taken their places, he opens the gate to face the world. He changes nothing, alters nothing, but acts with the two handles of reward and punishment, acts and never ceases: this is what is called walking the path of principle. -
“from "The Eight Villanies", Han Fei Tzu: Basic Writings , Columbia University Press, New York, 1996. Translated by Burton Watson.”
In dealing with those who share his bed, the enlightened ruler may enjoy their beauty but should not listen to their special pleas... -
“國無常強，無常弱。奉法者強則國強，奉法者弱則國弱。”
No state is forever strong or forever weak . If those who uphold the law are strong, the state will be strong; if they are weak, the state will be weak. -
“On Having Standards", in Han Feizi: Basic Writings (2003)”
No state is forever strong or forever weak . If those who uphold the law are strong, the state will be strong; if they are weak, the state will be weak.