Shang Yang, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
Antiquity is no model. Take it to the duke's own court. When Tu Chih said that in taking antiquity as an example one makes no mistakes, and in following established rites one commits no offence, I asked him which antiquity he meant.1 Former generations did not follow the same doctrines, and the emperors and kings did not copy one another. Fu Hsi and Shen-nung taught but did not punish; Huang-ti, Yao and Shun punished but were not angry; Wen-wang and Wu-wang fixed their rites and laws by what was opportune.1
The sages the Confucians revere are my witnesses. Each broke with the one before him. T'ang and Wu won supremacy without following antiquity, and Yin and Hsia were ruined without a single rite altered.1 Those who act against antiquity do not deserve blame for it, and those who keep the old rites deserve little praise. The ruler who models himself on antiquity is hampered by it.
His subordinates follow the present and do not change with the times, and neither understands that the customs of the world have shifted. The result is that multiplying rewards only multiplies punishments, and lightening punishments only empties the rewards.2 The ruler sets up penalties and the people do not obey; his rewards run out and crime still grows.2
So the sage does not imitate antiquity and does not simply follow the present. He governs by the needs of the times and makes laws that take account of customs, for laws enacted without examining the people's condition do not succeed.2 When Kan Lung said that a sage teaches without changing the people and a wise man governs without altering the laws, I told him that was the view of the man in the street.3
Ordinary people abide by old practices, and students are buried in what is reported from antiquity. Such men are fit to fill offices and keep the law, but not to discuss anything that goes beyond it. The Three Dynasties each attained supremacy by different rites, and the five Lords Protector by different laws. A wise man creates laws, and a foolish man is controlled by them; a man of talent reforms rites, and a worthless man is enslaved by them.3
The measure of a law is whether it suits its time. A law fitted to its age brings order, and a law left standing after the age has changed brings peril. If the customs change while the laws stay, the laws and the times run contrary to each other, and then though laws are established, disorder grows.4 Even the ruler's severity is a matter of the age.
Shen-nung ruled without punishments or mailed soldiers because men then ploughed for food and wove for clothing. After he died the strong conquered the weak and the many oppressed the few, so Huang-ti created prince and minister and used sword and saw at home and armour abroad. Shen-nung is not higher than Huang-ti; his name was honoured because he suited his time.5 A ruler who wants to know which laws to make must first look at what his own age is like.
Former generations did not follow the same teaching and the founders of dynasties did not copy one another; each made laws and rites to suit the time. Society passes through stages — kinship, then the honouring of talent and virtue, then office and rank under a ruler — each forced on it when numbers grew and the old order broke down. A sage does not imitate antiquity and does not simply follow the present. Laws and rites are instruments: the test of an instrument is whether it strengthens the state and benefits the people.6789
Former generations did not follow the same doctrines, so what antiquity should one imitate! The emperors and kings did not copy one another, so what rites should one follow?The Book of Lord Shang
The sage's way, therefore, of organizing a country, is not to imitate antiquity, nor to follow the present, but to govern in accordance with the needs of the times, and to make laws which take into account customs.The Book of Lord Shang
Therefore, a wise man creates laws, but a foolish man is controlled by them; a man of talent reforms rites, but a worthless man is enslaved by them.The Book of Lord Shang
Thus the laws and the times are contrary to each other and affairs and that, to which attention is given, are different from each other. Therefore, though laws are established, disorder increases.The Book of Lord Shang
Looking at it from this point of view, Shen-nung is not higher than Huang-ti, but the reason that his name was honoured was because he suited his time.The Book of Lord Shang
Therefore a sage, if he is able to strengthen the state thereby, does not model himself on antiquity, and if he is able to benefit the people thereby, does not adhere to the established rites." Duke Hsiao expressed his approval, but Kan Lung said: Not so.The Book of Lord Shang
Let Your Highness not hesitate." Tu Chih said: " Unless the advantage be a hundredfold, one should not reform the law; unless the benefit be tenfold, one should not alter an instrument. I have heard it said, that in taking antiquity as an example, one makes no mistakes, and in following established rites one commits no offence.The Book of Lord Shang
It is the nature of people, when they have no knowledge, to study, and when they have no strength, to submit. So when Shen-nung taught ploughing and attained supreme sway, the leadership was by means of his knowledge; when T'ang and Wu made themselves strong and attacked the feudal lords, the subjugation was by means of their force.The Book of Lord Shang
Under these circumstances then, the country's regulations will be clear and the people's force will be used to the utmost, the titles, granted by the ruler will be honoured and the... will be advanced.The Book of Lord Shang
The argument his enemies could least answer and the one they least forgave; distinctive not for the bare call to adapt, which many shared, but for the theory of history in stages that grounds it.