Chinese Statecraft Maxims
LY 12:19
Against Draconic Punishments
(c0326)

Ji Kangdz asked Confucius about government, saying, Suppose I kill those who have not the Way to support those who do have the Way? Confucius replied, You are there to govern, what use have you for killing? If you desire the good, the people will be good. The character of the gentleman is the wind; the character of the little people is the grass. The wind on the grass will surely bend it.

The grass can be induced from above to change its direction; it is not necessary to cut it down. "Ji Kangdz" represents the hard-government Legalism of the middle 04c. Against that view, it is urged that moral example is superior to internal terrorism as an instrument of civic order. "Confucius" attributes a moral nature, or more precisely a moral susceptibility, to the people.

In the 04c, formerly social terms like "gentleman" and "little people" (see LY 4:11) were beginning to be used in an ethicized sense. Here, the older social sense itself undergoes evolution: in this passage it means, not the elite and the sub-elite members of the ruling group, but rather "rulers and ruled."

 

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