TERMBASES
This term originally means awarding those who deserve it, and punishing those who must be punished. Later on it was used to mean that one must be strict, fair, and transparent in governance. Ancient Chinese believed that honors and punishments were important principles and methods in governing a state or an army. These measures can play an exemplary role. The purpose of giving award is to encourage people to do good things, and the purpose of meting out punishment is to bring wrongdoers to justice. Awards and punishments encourage people to follow the rules, and are used to distinguish merit from error and good from bad. When applied properly, awards and punishments avoid favoritism and partiality and urge people to better themselves.
This term means acting in good faith. Good faith is one of the principal ethical standards one should observe in order to establish oneself in society. However, one must comply with ethical principles in honoring a promise. If a promise goes against ethical principles, one should not blindly deliver it. Confucianism stresses the importance of acting in good faith for both rulers and people: A ruler must keep his promises made to the people so that they will abide by his decrees; one should be honest and truthful towards friends.
In this context, two handles mean a sovereign ruler has the power to both confer rewards and mete out punishments. Both are basic ways of governance and have been subjects of discussion in different schools of thought. Ancient scholar Hanfeizi (280?-233 BC) attached great importance to the role of rewards and punishments in governance, believing that both should be given according to the law. One who abode by the law should be offered rewards and one who broke the law should be given punishment. This would make people behave in accordance with the law as they love rewards and fear punishment. He also emphasized that a sovereign should exercise his power in such a way so that rewards and punishments were given exactly as the law requires and that such power was not abused as a tool to seek personal gain.
This term, from The Book of Rites, means attaching great value to good faith and seeking harmonious relations, which was a key features of the society of “universal harmony” envisioned by Confucian scholars from the Warring States Period through the Qin and Han dynasties. They believed that in an ideal society, the land should belong to all its people, and there should be mutual trust, cooperation and harmonious relations between people and between states. “Keeping good faith and pursuing harmony” subsequently became an ethical norm advocated by Confucian scholars; it later also became an important Chinese cultural norm governing relations between people and between states.
Without the trust of the people, the government will not be stable. Chinese people have since antiquity put high value on “trust” (good faith). Confucius（551-479 BC） applied it to the relationship between officials and the people and saw it as a crucial factor in the stability of the state. What this means is that the government or the ruler should be honest in dealing with the people, not acting recklessly with force or power, so that the people will trust the authorities and act in good faith in regard to them. This is the solid basis and guarantee of state power. It is also an extension of the notion of “people are the foundation of the state.”
The expression comes from Mozi and The Analects. Followers of Mozi and Confucian ethics admired those who could keep their promises and whose actions were resolute. They believed speech and action should match. However, Confucius (551-479BC) and Mencius (372?-289BC) took this further to apply to rulers who, only by being as good as their words and trustworthy in their speech, could earn the confidence and support of their subjects who, in turn, would be truthful with them. For Confucius, this principle, rather than be followed too rigidly, should in practice be applied on the basis of what is ethical under specific conditions and after careful weighing the pros and cons. Later, the expression came to refer to honest speech and firm action, keeping one’s word, and also “suit action to word.”
Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press Co.,Ltd. Copyright 1999-2022 FLTRP, All Rights Reserved
Tel：010-88819132 Email：shuyu@fltrp.com
