鐔津文集 5.8

5.8

至政者。言其至義也。天下以義舉則政有所伸也（政或作正）邪有所抑也。善有所勸也。惡有所沮也。愛惡是非其事萬端有所決也。天權可以扶義。其權雖重必行也。義可以行權。其義雖輕必舉也。權不以義會。甚之則終賊。義不以權扶。失之則必亂。故古之擅大政者必有其權也。操大柄者必濟其政也。湯武運大權。其所以扶斯義也。周昭徐偃亡大權。故斯義所以愆也。義也者何。域大中而與天下同適者也。適之得其所。天下謂之有道也。適之非其所。天下謂之無道也。聖人建厥中以正天下之所適也。其世變而人甚苟私。大則私其國。次則私其家。小則私其身。協義者少也。反義者多也。而後聖懼其爭且亂也。示有刑非苟暴也。示有兵非苟殺也。欲驅人而趨其義者也。在執者與人不義眾得以而去之。與眾不義官得以而治之。是故禹湯文武周公。此五聖人者謹大政。故不苟擅大權也。行大權故不苟讓大位也。征有扈也。放夏傑也。殛葛也。伐紂也。攝天下誅管蔡也。以家傳天下。而天下之人從而服之而不有怨也。蓋其政至矣。故逸詩曰。棠棣之華。偏其反而。豈不爾思。室是遠而。書曰。刑其于無刑民協于中時乃功懋哉。君子以是不亦慎政而重權乎。迨其政之敝也。人因之而作勢。其權之敝也。人資之以為亂。謂政者名在而實亡也。謂權者任枉（枉或作奇）而忘正也。夷王下堂而交諸侯。可謂政之不足也。隱公苟讓千乘之國。可謂權之不足也。齊桓公以伯自誇。可謂權之始邪也。周公王以王自降。可謂政之始微也。夫政之於權猶量之有概也。權之於政猶衡之從石也。得其人則正之也。非其人則欺之也。故道也者待人而隆也。孰曰時乎。

Consummate governance speaks of consummate righteousness. When all under Heaven are mobilized through righteousness, governance has that by which it extends, perversity has that by which it is suppressed, good has that by which it is encouraged, and evil has that by which it is checked. In matters of liking and disliking, right and wrong—with their myriad facets—there is that by which decisions are made. Authority can uphold righteousness; even if that authority is weighty, it must be exercised. Righteousness can enact authority; even if that righteousness is light, it must be upheld. If authority does not align with righteousness, pushed to extremes it ultimately causes harm. If righteousness is not upheld by authority, when lost it inevitably leads to disorder. Therefore, those of antiquity who held great governance inevitably possessed its authority; those who wielded great power inevitably brought their governance to success. Tang and Wu wielded great authority, which was the means by which they upheld this righteousness. King Zhao of Zhou and King Yan of Xu lost great authority, which was the reason this righteousness went astray. What is righteousness? It is dwelling in the great balance and proceeding together in accord with all under Heaven. When proceeding attains its proper place, all under Heaven say there is the Way. When proceeding is not in its proper place, all under Heaven say there is no Way. The sage establishes that balance in order to correct where all under Heaven proceed. When the times changed and people became intensely selfish and improper, on a large scale they treated their states as private, next they treated their families as private, and on a small scale they treated their own persons as private. Those who accorded with righteousness were few, while those who opposed righteousness were many. Thereupon later sages feared contention and disorder; setting forth punishments was not done for arbitrary cruelty, and setting forth military force was not done for arbitrary killing—they sought to urge people to hasten toward righteousness. If a ruler is unrighteous toward the people, the multitude may remove him; if the multitude is unrighteous, the officials may govern them. For this reason, Yu, Tang, Wen, Wu, and the Duke of Zhou—these five sages—were cautious with great governance; hence they did not arbitrarily usurp great authority. Because they exercised great authority, they did not arbitrarily yield the great position. They campaigned against the Youhu clan, exiled Jie of Xia, executed the ruler of Ge, attacked Zhou, and acted as regent over all under Heaven to execute Guan and Cai. They transmitted the realm within their families, yet the people of the realm followed and submitted to them without resentment. This was because their governance was consummate. Thus a lost ode says: 'The flowers of the cherry tree, how they flutter and turn! Do I not long for you? But your house is far away.' The *Shujing* says: 'Punish so that there will be no more punishments, and the people will accord with the mean—truly your merit is great!' Taking this into account, should not a noble person be cautious about governance and careful with authority? When governance declines, people take advantage of it to build power; when authority declines, people rely on it to make disorder. 'Governance' then means having the name while the substance is lost; 'authority' then means indulging the crooked and forgetting the upright. When King Yi stepped down from his hall to meet the feudal lords, this can be called an insufficiency of governance. When Duke Yin improperly yielded a state of a thousand chariots, this can be called an insufficiency of authority. When Duke Huan of Qi boasted of his hegemony, this can be called the beginning of authority's corruption. When King Gong of Zhou degraded his status as king, this can be called the beginning of governance's decline. Now, the relation of governance to authority is like a measure having its scraper; the relation of authority to governance is like a balance following its weight. When the right person is found, they are made upright; when it is not the right person, they are subverted. Therefore, the Way awaits the right person to flourish—who can say it depends merely on the times?