Shang Yang, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
The law is both, and the two are not the same thing at different hours. They are one thing seen from two sides. Begin with the scales. The early kings hung up standard weights and fixed the lengths of feet and inches, and these are followed to this day because their divisions were clear. Take them away and let a man judge weight and length by his own opinion, and even an intelligent merchant would refuse the system, for it would lack definiteness.1
Only a Yao could judge worth and ability without a model, and the world is not made of Yaos.2 That is the whole argument for fa as a standard. It exists so that ordinary men, including ordinary princes, can govern without being sages, and so that the people need not dispute the appraisals made of them. Now ask who holds the law. Orderly government rests on three things: law, good faith, and the right standard.
Law is exercised in common by the prince and his ministers; good faith is established in common by them; the right standard is fixed by the prince alone.3 So the ruler is not outside the law, and he is not above it as its mere owner. When prince and ministers neglect the law and act for their own advantage, disorder is the inevitable result.3
Where the law is established, rights and duties are clear, and self-interest does not harm the law, there is order. An intelligent ruler loves right standards and values good faith, and will not for private gain harm the law.3 Look at what the book charges against the rulers of the present age: they relax the law and keep to knowledge, they turn their backs on merit and keep to men of reputation, and so soldiers do not fight and farmers drift away.4
But do not mistake me. The ruler is bound, and the people are not his judges. No one stands above him with a ruler's rod. What binds him is his own interest, rightly understood. If he promises rewards and cuts them, his subjects will not serve; if he issues order after severe order and does not apply the penalties, the people will despise the death-penalty.3
A prince who dismisses the law for private appraisal brings disorder to his state, and the state is what he lives by. Ministers serve according to what the ruler likes: if he likes law, they make law their principle, and if he likes words, flatterers crowd his side.2 The law is his instrument, yes, but it is an instrument that cuts the hand that uses it carelessly.
That is why it must be public and plain. If the law has neither measures nor figures, affairs grow more complicated every day, and though laws are established the administration falls into disorder.5 And since sages cannot hand over to others the sharp eye of Li Chu or the strength of Wu Huo, what a state needs is that whereby success may be attained, which is the law.5
A ruler's wisdom dies with him. A standard on which all can rely does not. So I would not call it impartial in the manner of a judge who owes nothing to anyone. It is impartial in the way the scales are: it weighs the minister and the farmer by the same standard, and whoever fulfils it is rewarded and whoever harms the public interest is punished.2
The ancient kings did not rule for themselves; they ruled for the sake of the empire.2 A prince who understands this binds himself by his own law and is stronger for it. One who does not will find that the state he has emptied of definiteness is a state he cannot hold.
Law is the standard by which all are measured, as scales and feet and inches are: without it even an intelligent merchant could not judge, and only a Yao could judge without a model, but the world is not made of Yaos.6 The prince who sets aside the law for his private opinion brings disorder. Laws must be clear and easy, so that the stupid and the wise alike understand them; law officers must keep the statutes, explain them to anyone who asks and be punished for misstating them. The ruler makes the law, and he governs by it, not around it.78910
The early kings hung up scales with standard weights, and fixed the length of feet and inches, and to the present day these are followed as models because their divisions were clear. Now dismissing standard scales and yet deciding weight, or abolishing feet and inches and yet forming an opinion about length, even an intelligent merchant would not apply this system, because it would lack definiteness.The Book of Lord Shang
Only a Yao would be able to judge knowledge and ability, worth or unworth without a model. But the world does not exist exclusively of Yaos!The Book of Lord Shang
Law is exercised in common by the prince and his ministers. Good faith is established in common by the prince and his ministers. The right standard is fixed by the prince alone.The Book of Lord Shang
They relax the law and keep to knowledge; they turn their backs on merit and keep to people of reputation. Therefore, soldiers do not fight and farmers are migratory.The Book of Lord Shang
If the law has neither measures nor figures, then affairs will daily become more complicated and although laws have been established, yet the result will be that the administration will be in disorder.The Book of Lord Shang
The early kings hung up scales with standard weights, and fixed the length of feet and inches, and to the present day these are followed as models because their divisions were clear. Now dismissing standard scales and yet deciding weight, or abolishing feet and inches and yet forming an opinion about length, even an intelligent merchant would not apply this system, because it would lack definiteness.The Book of Lord Shang
A sage-prince, by his ruling of men, is certain to win their hearts; consequently he is able to use force. Force produces strength, strength produces prestige, prestige produces virtue, and so virtue has its origin in force, which a sage-prince alone possesses, and therefore he is able to transmit benevolence and righteousness to the empire.The Book of Lord Shang
So where there is a tendency towards order, there cannot be disorder, and where there is a tendency towards disorder, there cannot be order. Indeed, where there is a tendency towards disorder and one governs it, the disorder will only increase, but where there is a tendency towards order and one governs it, there will be order. Therefore, the sage kings governed order and did not govern disorder.The Book of Lord Shang
The people should then at once inform the government officials, formally, of the law officer's statement. Thus the government officials, knowing that such is the course of events, dare not treat the people contrary to the law, nor do the people dare infringe the law.The Book of Lord Shang
If the first happens, the state will be strong, and if the second happens, it will be rich. Therefore one who, abroad, is strong in warfare, and at home, is rich in peace, attains supremacy. For, if grain is cheap, the value of money is high and cheap grain means poor farmers, and a high value of money means rich merchants, and if secondary occupations are not forbidden, then...The Book of Lord Shang
The doctrine that made his school the "fa" school and that moderns call rule of law; whether the ruler is truly bound, or only advised that binding himself pays, is the open question.