The Two Handles

AnonymousBashu Publishing House · ChinaJul 2024

4.4

Word count: 1.1K words
Chapters: 2

Summary

What enables an enlightened ruler to control his ministers is nothing more than the two handles. The two handles are punishment and reward. What are punishment and reward? Killing is punishment; bestowing favors is reward. Ministers fear execution and punishment and profit from rewards and favors; therefore, if the ruler himself wields punishment and reward, his ministers will fear his authority and turn to his favors. But wicked ministers of the age are not like this: those they hate, they are able to obtain from their ruler and have punished; those they love, they are able to obtain from their ruler and have rewarded. Now if a ruler does not ensure that the authority of reward and punishment and the benefits thereof issue from himself, but listens to his ministers and lets them carry out reward and punishment, then everyone in the state will fear the ministers and slight the ruler, attach themselves to the ministers and desert the ruler. This is the calamity of the ruler losing punishment and reward. What enables the tiger to subdue the dog is its claws and fangs. If the tiger were to let go of its claws and fangs and let the dog use them, then the tiger would instead be subdued by the dog. The ruler is one who controls his ministers by punishment and reward; now if the ruler of men lets go of his punishment and reward and lets his ministers use them, then the ruler will instead be controlled by his ministers. Therefore Tian Chang requested ranks and stipends from above and distributed them among the ministers, and below he used large measures to dispense grain to the common people; this was Duke Jian losing reward and Tian Chang using it, and so Duke Jian was murdered.

Editor's review

"The Two Handles" is a famous chapter in the Guanzi on the ruler's way of controlling ministers. Its core thesis is the "two handles" of punishment and reward: killing is punishment, and bestowing favors is reward; the ruler must hold the power of reward and punishment himself and must not let ministers exercise it in his place. The text uses the tiger's claws and fangs as a metaphor to show that once a ruler gives up punishment and reward, he will instead be controlled by his ministers, and it cites the historical example of Tian Chang and Duke Jian of Qi as proof. The writing is short and the argument tightly constructed, with vivid metaphors; it is an important text for understanding pre-Qin legalist-style political thinking. Published as a single chapter by Bashu Press, it is convenient for concentrated study and citation. Its value for reading lies not in storytelling but in concepts and argument: punishment and reward, authority and benefit, and the shifting balance of power between ruler and minister are all unavoidable topics in reading pre-Qin political thought. It is suitable for reading alongside related chapters of the Han Feizi to compare different formulations of similar propositions. Some foundation in classical Chinese is required; on first reading one should use annotations to clarify sentence by sentence the specific referents of "punishment," "reward," and "handle," and then grasp the overall argument of the chapter.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars studying pre-Qin political thought and legalist doctrine
University students in Chinese, history, and philosophy
Readers interested in ruler-minister statecraft and systems of reward and punishment
Teachers who need a single text for teaching or citation

Not a good fit for

General readers expecting light reading or narrative content
Beginners who struggle with classical Chinese and rely entirely on modern translations
Management readers hoping for practical modern management methods

Reading tips

First clarify the exact referents of "punishment," "reward," and "handle" in the text, then read the chapter's argument as a whole.
Read alongside chapters of the Han Feizi on reward and punishment, comparing the similarities and differences in the two works' formulations.
Extract the tiger-and-dog metaphor separately and analyze the role it plays in the argument.
Using the historical example of Tian Chang and Duke Jian of Qi, examine the text's method of citing history to discuss politics.

About the publisher

Bashu Publishing House China · Founded in 1983

Bashu Publishing House is a publisher centered on collating and publishing classical Chinese cultural texts, with its main publishing areas covering classical literature, Eastern philosophy, ancient poetry, and educational classics. Its library currently holds 1,075 titles, including representative works such as Dream of the Red Chamber, the Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Gathering, Renjian Cihua, and Out to the Frontier, involving authors such as Cao Xueqin, Wang Xizhi, Wang Guowei, Wang Changling, Liu Xie, and Yan Yu. These reflect the publisher's focus on literary classics, poetry criticism, and philosophical readings. Its publishing character lies in working around ancient texts and canonical works, with attention to textual collation and presentation. Public information on its more detailed publishing background and series plans is limited; this introduction is based only on the library's book information.

版权信息
二柄第七

FAQ

What exactly do the "two handles" refer to?

According to the opening of this chapter, the "two handles" are punishment and reward. Killing is called punishment; bestowing favors is called reward. The author holds that these two are the fundamental means by which the ruler controls his ministers, and they must be held by the ruler himself and not delegated to ministers; otherwise the ruler's power will be usurped by ministers.

Is this chapter related to the Han Feizi?

Both works discuss the proposition that the ruler should hold reward and punishment himself and control ministers through punishment and reward, and their lines of thought are similar; but "The Two Handles" is a single chapter in the Guanzi, with its own textual and argumentative features. They can be compared through parallel reading, but the views of the two books should not be directly equated; each argument must be grounded in its own text.

What does the tiger-and-dog metaphor in the text illustrate?

The tiger can subdue the dog because of its claws and fangs. If the tiger gives up its claws and fangs and lets the dog use them, the tiger will instead be subdued by the dog. The author uses this to show that what the ruler relies on to control ministers is the power of punishment and reward; once he yields this power to ministers, the ruler will in turn be controlled by them.

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About the author

Anonymous Author

Anonymous is not a real personal name but a general Chinese designation for authors whose names are unknown, lost, or unsigned. Neither nationality nor dates of birth and death can be verified, and available public information is limited, so the works attributed to this name are the only basis for description. The collection holds 2,078 works under Anonymous, spanning medicine, classics, historical readings, ancient poetry, classical literature, and philosophy. Representative works include The Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon: Lingshu, Mencius, The Book of Documents, Nineteen Old Poems, Complete Song Ci, and The Peacock Flies Southeast. Most of these works took shape through long transmission and editing, emerging either from collective folk creation or from authors whose names were lost over time. In ancient China, the Book of Songs, the Great Learning, and many popular storybooks and plays were signed Anonymous because their authors could not be traced. Anonymous works cross the classics, histories, philosophical writings, medical texts, and poetry; their subjects are broad, and their styles vary from archaic simplicity to clear naturalness, making them important and influential sources for understanding ancient Chinese thought, medicine, and literature.