When an enlightened ruler controls his ministers, he makes it so that ministers cannot get credit for achievements gained by overstepping the bounds of their offices or make proposals and then fail to match them with actual achievements.
The people in the well-ordered ages of the past upheld the public law and abandoned private strategies; they focused their intentions and unified their conduct. Everything they did was for the sake of being employed by the ruler.
A filial son to his father can be a traitorous subject to his ruler.
The intelligent ruler does not value people who are of themselves good without rewards and punishments. Why is that? The laws of the state cannot be neglected, and it is not one man who is being ruled.
The Way of an enlightened ruler is to make it so that no minister may make a proposal and then fail to match it with actions and results.
A ruler makes use of the majority and neglects the minority, and so he does not devote himself to virtue but to law.
