Should we patricide [1] the tigers?
Woodblock printing
Since ancient times it’s great to keep faith with the people
A word of honour is mightier than the worth of gold
Therefore we’d better not slander Lord Shang [2] so much
He was the man put through reforms with due reward and punishment
[1] Translated from the Chinese word “弑”, which means murder the king. As Hegel writes: “The Chinese regard themselves as belonging to their family, and at the same time as children of the State. In the Family itself they are not personalities, for the consolidated unity in which they exist as members of it is consanguinity and natural obligation.”
[2] Lord Shang and assisted Qin in its change from a peripheral state to that of a militarily powerful and strongly centralized kingdom. He changed the administration of the state through an emphasis on meritocracy and devolving power from the nobility.
[3] A Chinese economist, statesman, chancellor and poet of the Song Dynasty, who attempted controversial, major socioeconomic reforms. These reforms constituted the core concepts and motives of the Reformists
Workbook
