Assisting the Government

AnonymousBashu Publishing House · ChinaJul 2024

1.8

Word count: 727 words
Chapters: 2

Summary

One who occupies a high place must see to it that his footing is secure; one who treads a dangerous path must see to it that his staff is firm. If his footing is not secure, he falls; if his staff is not firm, he stumbles. Therefore the sage, occupying a high place and standing above others, makes benevolence and righteousness his nest; treading danger and walking on the brink, he makes worthies and sages his staff. Thus he is high without falling and in danger without stumbling.

Editor's review

Fuzheng takes "occupying a high place and treading danger" as its central image and, through the simplest of metaphors, sets out with great clarity the mutual dependence between those who hold power and those who assist them. The opening line—"if his footing is not secure, he falls; if his staff is not firm, he stumbles"—links the way one in high office conducts himself to the everyday experience of walking with a staff, and the subsequent phrases "benevolence and righteousness as his nest" and "worthies and sages as his staff" turn abstract political ethics into tangible images. The book is short, its language close to that of ancient maxims and aphorisms; its persuasiveness rests not on elaborate argument but on the force of contrast and epigram, and it reads with the flavor of a pre-Qin philosophical text. This Bashu Press edition is convenient to carry and suited to repeated pondering in spare moments. Its value lies not in offering specific policies but in reminding readers that the higher one's position, the more one must examine whether the ground beneath one is firm and whether the people one relies on are trustworthy. Its reflections still carry over to dealings between superiors and subordinates, teamwork, and personal conduct today. Read it as a mirror for one's own situation rather than skimming it as a historical anecdote.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers interested in pre-Qin political ethics and classical maxims
Managers in the workplace who need to handle relations between superiors and subordinates and team collaboration
Readers who enjoy short chapters and aphorisms and can read in fragments
Readers who wish to reflect on personal conduct and conduct in the world through ancient maxims

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting systematic political theory or detailed case analysis
Readers who prefer long narratives and complete storylines
Beginners who need sentence-by-sentence plain-language translation and extensive annotation

Reading tips

Read the original once through without rushing to interpret, sensing the rhythm of metaphor and contrast.
On a second reading, copy it out sentence by sentence and sketch the images of "nest" and "staff" as a diagram of relations.
Relate it to your own work situation and write a short commentary of about a hundred words to test whether the maxim holds.
Read it alongside passages on ruler-minister relations in the Analects and the Xunzi.

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
辅政第三

FAQ

Is this book a complete treatise on government?

From the available materials, it reads more like a polished ancient maxim than a complete treatise on government. It develops its argument through metaphor around "occupying a high place and conducting oneself" and "the staff must be firm"; it is short, with its weight on epigram and contrast rather than systematic argument. It is best read as a short text to be pondered repeatedly, not as a theory work with clearly divided chapters.

How should "benevolence and righteousness as his nest, worthies and sages as his staff" be understood?

These are two metaphors: the nest is where a bird finds safety, and the staff is what supports a traveler. The author uses them to say that one in high office who conducts himself with benevolence and righteousness has a secure footing, and one who relies on worthies and sages as assistants has reliable support. The core point is that the higher one's position, the more one must attend to one's own foundation and to the people one employs, rather than resting secure on rank alone.

Can I read it without any grounding in classical Chinese?

The original is concise in wording and regular in sentence pattern, but it contains classical expressions and allusions, so readers with no grounding in classical Chinese may find it difficult. It is best to read first in a reliable annotated translation and then return to the original; you might also memorize key lines such as "if his footing is not secure, he falls; if his staff is not firm, he stumbles" and work gradually toward understanding the whole.

Related on WeRead

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

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.