The Counter-Text

A remarkable Tang dynasty work long overlooked by mainstream reading. Unlike the Confucian classics, which speak only of the constant Way, it holds benevolence, righteousness, ritual, law, and the way of the sages up to both their front and back: where their benefits lie and where their hidden dangers lurk; the same method that is a good policy in one age may become a source of disaster in another. Zhao Rui's very choice of the word "changduan" (strengths and weaknesses) signals that he means to weigh the merits of the Hundred Schools rather than exalt any single doctrine. The greatest value in reading it is not to pick up ready-made stratagems but to learn a perspective that knows both one side and the other—whether looking at people, at events, or at oneself, it reminds you not to mistake a single standard for the whole truth. This annotated Zhonghua edition pairs the original text with notes and translation, lowering the barrier of classical Chinese, and its length is fairly restrained, making it suitable as the first Fan Jing one reads; once you are comfortable with it, consulting Liang Yunhua's complete edition will yield even more. A work completed in the high Tang yet structured around the rise and fall of dynasties, it speaks of governing the state, but today it reads more like a book about judgment and a sense of proportion.