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Chapter XII

DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF PERSUASION[1]

i.—Difficulties in the way of persuasion, generally
speaking, are not difficulties in my knowledge with which
I persuade the ruler, nor are they difficulties in my skill of
argumentation which enables me to make my ideas clear,
nor are they difficulties in my courage to exert my abilities
without reserve. As a whole, the difficulties in the way of
persuasion lie in my knowing the heart of the persuaded in
order thereby to fit my wording into it.

If the persuaded strives after high fame while you persuade
him of big profit, you will be considered low-bred, accorded
mean treatment, and shunned from afar. If the persuaded
strives after big profit while you persuade him of high fame,
you will be considered mindless and ignorant of worldly
affairs and will never be accepted. If the persuaded strives
after big profit in secret but openly seeks for high fame
while you persuade him of high fame, you will be accepted
in name but kept distant in fact; and, if you persuade him
of big profit, your word will be adopted in secret but your
person will be left out openly. These points should be
carefully deliberated.

Indeed, affairs succeed if kept secret and[2] fail if divulged.

Though you never intend to expose the ruler's secrets, yet
if you happen to speak of anything he wants to conceal,
you are then in danger. When the ruler embarks openly
on an enterprise but plans thereby to accomplish a different
task, if the persuader knows not only its motive but also its
purpose, he is then in danger. When the persuader has
devised an extraordinary scheme which suits the ruler, if
another wise man finds it out by inferring it from other
sources and divulges the secret to the world, the ruler will
think he has divulged the secret, wherefore he is in danger.
If the persuader exhausts all his wisdom before his master's
favour becomes thick, then though his persuasion prevails
and has merits, his fruitful services will be forgotten with
ease. If his persuasion takes no effect and has demerits, he
will fall under suspicion. In such a case he is in danger.
Supposing the ruler had an aptitude for certain faults and
the persuader spoke plainly on propriety and righteousness
and thereby challenged his vices, he would be in danger.
If the ruler has taken a scheme from somebody else, which
he assumes to be his own work, and the persuader happens
to know the whole secret, he is in danger. Whoever forcibly
persuades the ruler to do what he cannot do and not to do
what he cannot stop doing, is in danger.

Therefore, if you talk about great men to him, he thinks
you are intimating his defects. If you talk about small men
to him, he thinks you are showing off your superiority. If
you discuss an object of his love, he thinks you are expecting
a special favour from it. If you discuss an object of his hate,
he thinks you are testing his temper. If you simplify your
discussion, he thinks you are unwise and will spurn you.
If your discussion is lucidly wayward and extensively

refined,[3] he thinks you are superficial and flippant.[4] If you
omit details and present generalizations only, he thinks you
are cowardly and incomplete. If you trace the principles
of facts and use wide illustrations, he thinks you are rustic
and arrogant. These are difficulties in the way of persuasion,
which every persuader should know.

2.—In general, the business of the persuader is to embellish
the pride and obliterate the shame of the persuaded. If he
has any private urgent need, you ought to encourage him
with the cause of public justice. If the persuaded has a mean
intention but cannot help it, you ought to praise its excellent
points and minimize its harmfulness to the public. If he has
a high ambition in mind but his real ability falls short of
the mark, you ought to enumerate its mistakes, disclose its
disadvantages, and esteem his suspension from realizing it.
If he aspires to the pride of wisdom and talent, you ought
to enumerate different species of the same genus with
reference to every object of knowledge and thereby supply
him with abundant information and let him derive ideas
from you but pretend to ignorance of his derivation so as
to elevate his wisdom.

If you want the persuaded to adopt your suggestion to
cultivate inter-state friendship, you ought to explain it in
the light of a glorious cause and intimate its accord with
his private interest. If you want to describe things dangerous
and injurious to the state welfare, you ought to enumerate

the reproaches and slanders against them first and then
intimate their discord with his private interest.

Praise those men doing the same things as he does. Esteem
the tasks under the same scheme as his tasks are. In regard
to men having the same faults as he has, be sure to defend
their harmlessness. In regard to men having met the same
failures as he met, be sure to bring out their incurring no
loss. If he makes much of his own strength, do not bring in
any difficult task that impedes him. If he thinks his own
decisions brave, do not point out their unlawfulness; that
angers him. If he thinks his own scheme wise, do not recall
his past failures which embarrass him. When your meaning
is not offensive and your wording is not flippant, you are
then under way to use all your wisdom and eloquence to
persuade anybody. In this way you can become near and
dear to him, avoid all suspicion, and exert your speech to
the utmost.

I Yin had to work as a cook and Pai-li Hsi had to go as
a captive, both aiming thereby to approach their masters.
These two men were sages. Still they could not help lowering
themselves to such a humble level in order to introduce
themselves to notice. Now take me[5] as cook or captive.
If you find it possible to take advice from me, carry out
my suggestion, and thereby save the world, it is no shame
to an able man.

Indeed, as days multiply in the long course of time and
favour with the ruler grows well-grounded, when you are
no longer suspected of devising schemes profoundly and
not convicted in joining issue with the ruler on any point,

then you may frankly weigh[6] the relative advantages and
disadvantages of the trend of the times and thereby forecast
your meritorious services and straightly point out what is
right and what is wrong in the course of government and
thereby assert yourself. If ruler and minister stand together
in such relationship, it is due to the success of persuasion.

3.—In by-gone days, Duke Wu of Chêng, thinking of
invading Hu, married his daughter to the Ruler of Hu and
thereby pleased his mind. Then he asked his ministers,
"I am thinking of starting a military campaign. Which
country should be invaded?" In reply High Officer Kuan
Ch`i-ssŭ said, "Hu should be invaded." Angered thereby,
Duke Wu executed him saying: "Hu is a sister[7] state.
Why do you suggest invading her?" Hearing about this,
the Ruler of Hu thought Chêng was friendly to him and so
took no precaution against her invasion. Meanwhile, the
Chêngs made a surprise attack upon Hu and took the
country.

There was in Sung a rich man. Once it rained and his
mud fence collapsed. Thereupon his son said: "If the fence
is not immediately rebuilt, burglars might come." So also did
the father of his neighbours say to him. On the evening
of that day he incurred a great loss of money. Thereafter
his family had high regard for his son's wisdom but suspected
the father of the neighbours.

Now, what these two men[8] said came out equally true.
Yet, the one in the serious case met the death penalty while

the other in the minor case incurred suspicion. Not that
they had difficulties in getting knowledge, but that they had
difficulties in using their knowledge.

Therefore, Jao Ch`ao,[9] after his words had proved true,
became a sage in Chin but was executed in Ch`in. This is
what every persuader should carefully deliberate.

In by-gone days, Mi Tzŭ-hsia was in favour with the
Ruler of Wei. According to the Law of the Wei State,
"whoever in secret rides in the Ruler's coach shall have his
feet cut off." Once Mi Tzŭ-hsia's mother fell ill. Somebody,
hearing about this, sent a message to Mi Tzŭ late at night.
Thereupon Mi Tzŭ on the pretence of the Ruler's order rode
in the Ruler's coach. At the news of this, the Ruler regarded
his act as worthy, saying: "How dutiful he is! For his
mother's sake he even forgot that he was committing a
crime making him liable to lose his feet." Another day,
when taking a stroll with the Ruler in an orchard, he ate
a peach. It being so sweet, he did not finish it, but gave the
Ruler the remaining half to eat. So, the Ruler said: "You
love me so much indeed, that you would even forget your
own saliva taste and let me eat the rest of the peach." When
the colour of Mi Tzŭ faded, the Ruler's love for him
slackened. Once he happened to offend the Ruler, the
Ruler said: "This fellow once rode in my coach under

pretence of my order and another time gave me a half-eaten
peach." The deeds of Mi Tzŭ had themselves never
changed. Yet he was at first regarded as worthy and
later found guilty because his master's love turned into
hate.

Therefore, if anybody stands in his master's favour, his
wisdom will function well and his intimacy with him will
grow; once he incurs the master's hatred, his wisdom will
stop functioning[10] and his relationship with him will become
more and more distant. For this reason, whoever attempts
remonstration, persuasion, explanation, and discussion,
before the Throne, must carefully observe the sovereign's
feelings of love and hate before he starts persuading him.
Indeed, when the dragon moves like a worm, man can tame
it, play with it,[11] and ride on its back. However, there are
below its throat inverted scales, each one foot in diameter.
These scales would kill anyone touching them. So does
the lord of men have inverted scales. Any persuader
able to avoid touching the inverted scales of the lord of
men must be very near to the mastery of the art of
persuasion.