5. Devotion to Secrecy[51]
The lord of men has the duty of devoting his attention to
secrecy. For this reason, when his delight is revealed, his
conduct will be slighted;[52]
when his anger is revealed, his
prestige will fall to the ground. The words of the intelligent
sovereign, therefore, are blockaded in such wise that they
are not communicable outwards and are kept in such secrecy
that they are unknowable. Therefore, to find ten culprits
with the wisdom of one person is an inferior way, to find one
culprit through the mutual watch of ten persons is a superior
way.[53]
As the intelligent sovereign takes both the superior
and the inferior ways, no culprit is ever missed. Members of
the same group of five families, of the same village,[54]
and of
the same county,[55]
all live like close neighbours. Who
denounces anybody else's fault, is rewarded; who misses[56]
anybody else's fault, is censured. The same is true of the
superior towards the inferior and of the inferior towards the
superior. Accordingly, superior and inferior, high and low,
warn each other to obey the law, and teach each other to
secure profits.[57]
By nature everybody wants to live in fact and
in reputation. So does the ruler want both the name of being
worthy and intelligent and the fact of rewarding and punishing
people. When fame and fact are equally complete, he will
certainly be known as lucky and good.
