Chapter 23 Section 3 Knowing People by Reading Books

Wei Liao, male, was born in Daliang, Wei State. About Wei Liao's personal information, there is only so much that can be provided, so for those ladies who intend to have a blind date with Wei Liao, I can only say sorry here.Fortunately, Wei Liao left behind a copy of "Wei Liao Zi", and through this book, one can somewhat imagine him as a human being. According to "Hanshu Yiwenzhi", "Wei Liaozi" is classified as a miscellaneous book, with a total of 29 articles.What can be seen today is only five volumes and twenty-four chapters left. "Wei Liao Zi" discusses military affairs based on the ideas of Law, Confucianism, Mohism, and Taoism. It is unique among pre-Qin military books and has a profound influence on later generations.Let me briefly describe its uniqueness.

What best embodies Wei Liao's theory of law, Confucianism, Mohism, and Taoism is Wei Liao's definition of war. "A soldier is a murder weapon; a fighter is against morality; a general is a dead official. So use it as a last resort." He also said: "Soldiers do not attack cities without faults, and do not kill innocent people. Husbands kill people Fathers and brothers, profiting others' goods, and children of ministers and concubines, all of these are stolen." He also said: "Soldiers, therefore punish riots and prohibit unrighteousness. What soldiers add, farmers will not leave their fields, and Jia will not leave them. Its four houses, the scholar-bureaucrats never leave their official residences, so the soldiers are not bloody, and the world is close." This is what the warring states talk about soldiers.

When Wei Liao talked about governing the army, he paid special attention to rewards and punishments. "Anyone who punishes and rewards, so Ming Wu also. Killing one person will shock the three armies, kill him; rewarding one person and making thousands of people happy, rewarding him. Killing is more expensive, rewarding is less expensive. When killing, although it is valuable, it must be killed." In other words, punishment is the most important thing; rewarding those who are as good as cows, boys and horses is rewarding indecent." This point of view can be regarded as upright.However, Wei Liao over exaggerated the role of killing, to the point that "I heard that those who are good at using soldiers in ancient times can kill half of the soldiers, secondly kill thirteen, and next kill eleven. Those who can kill half of them, Wei Li Overseas; if you kill thirteen people, you will strengthen the princes; if you kill eleven people, you will order soldiers." The theory, no matter how you look at it, is a bit of evil martial arts and madness.

Wei Liao is like a missionary. In his book, he creates an idealized and deified image of generals for his readers (current or future generals). "A husband and general, the top is not controlled by the sky, the bottom is not controlled by the earth, and the middle is not controlled by people." "There is no sky above, no ground below, no master behind, and invincible front." After reaching such a state, it is natural to not make a move. Once a move is made, "a soldier of one man is like a wolf like a tiger, like the wind like rain, like thunder like a thunder, and the world is shocked."

Song Yuanfengzhong, promulgated martial arts, "Wei Liaozi", together with Sun, Wu Erzi, Sima Rangju's "The Art of War", Huang Shigong's "Three Strategies", Lu Wang's "Six Secret Teachings", and Li Weigong's "Questions and Duties", the title is " The Seven Books of Martial Arts has become the standard textbook for studying the art of war. In fact, "Wei Liao Zi" is not only a military book, but also involves politics and philosophy from time to time.For example, "The kingdom enriches the people, dominates the country Fuji, the only surviving country is a rich doctor, and the subjugated country is rich in warehouses. It is said that there is no way to save the affliction."Another example is "Therefore, it is said: To promote the virtuous and use the ability, do not use the time to make things beneficial; clear the law to judge the decree, do not divination but do auspicious things; the noble government supports the labor, do not pray to the shrine and get blessings. Therefore, it is said: The right time is not as good as the right place, and the right place is not as good as human affairs. Saints are precious, but human affairs are nothing more." Compared with the song "The Internationale", "There has never been a savior, nor does it rely on gods and emperors. To create human happiness, it depends entirely on ourselves." His ideology of activists , a full two thousand years earlier.

As for how to march and fight, and how to arrange troops in the book, they are all minor details, and I won't list them one by one if they are not important.After all this flashing, one may ask, since there are twenty-nine chapters in the full version of "Wei Liaozi", why did Meng Tian only see twelve fragments at that time?What are these twelve remnants? We have reason to believe that Meng Tian only saw twelve fragments, because Wei Liao really only wrote twelve chapters at that time.And these twelve articles should be the five articles of Tianguan, Bingtan, Zhitan, Strategy, and Attacking Power in Volume 1 of "Wei Liaozi", and the Shouyi, Twelve Tombs, Wuyi, General Li, and Yuanyuan in Volume 2. Five chapters on officials, and two chapters on root cause and war power in volume three.The remaining 17 chapters were supplemented by Wei Liao after he arrived in Qin State to meet the needs of Qin State and Ying Zheng.The supplementary part includes three chapters on the Severe Penalty Order, Military System Order, and Fortification Order in Volume 3; There are four chapters under the Bingjiao, Bingorder, and Bingorder.The other five are now lost, let alone.

We can see that the supplementary part is all military orders.Compared with "Sun Tzu" and other military books, there is only one possibility for the large number of such mechanical and rigid military orders in "Wei Liao Zi", that is, someone placed an order with Wei Liao for drafting.There is no doubt that the drafter is Ying Zheng.These military orders were later compiled and promulgated to the Qin army by Wei Liao when he was the captain of the state of Qin, and they were later included in the book "Wei Liaozi". (Note 1) From the book "Wei Liaozi", it is not difficult to see Wei Liao's extraordinary wisdom and its huge influence on the Qin army, and finally helped Qin to unify the world.What is puzzling is why Wei Liao, his native country, can't keep a master like Wei Liao and use him?When we look through the history of Wei, we can't help but feel relieved.It has always been the "excellent" tradition of Wei State to drive masters to other countries.Once upon a time, among the seven heroes of the Warring States Period, Wei State was the strongest and had the most talents.Thinking back to the days of Marquis Wen, Li Kui reformed the law, forcibly ruled the world, spread his prestige all over the world, and the princes surrendered.However, there were Shang Yang, Wu Qi, Zhang Yi, and Fan Sui in the past, and now there is Wei Liao, all of whom are outstanding talents. As long as Wei Guo can retain one of them, the fate of the country may be rewritten from then on.It's a pity that Wei Guo generously handed them over to others, and eventually became a country with big belly, which is also his own fault. (Note 2)

〖Note 1: The first twelve chapters written in "Wei Liaozi" should have been modified accordingly after Wei Liao entered Qin Dynasty, according to the needs of the situation.For example, in the General Principles, it is said, "Today's husband is in prison. There are no fewer than ten small prisons, no fewer than hundreds in middle prisons, and no fewer than thousands in large prisons. Ten people are connected with hundreds of people, hundreds of people are connected with thousands of people, and thousands of people are connected with tens of thousands." People's affairs. Those who are connected are relatives and brothers, secondly marriage, and secondly knowledge of old people. Farmers are all separated from their fields, households are all separated from their houses, and scholars are all separated from their government offices. Such a relationship with good people is the feeling of being a prisoner. Also. The Art of War says: "One hundred thousand troops come out, and the daily cost is thousands of gold." Today, one hundred thousand good people are united in the prison, and the superiors cannot be saved, and the ministers think it is dangerous." It should be sent out in response to Qin's heavy prison law.The book of Zhiben states, "In the blue sky, one cannot know its extreme; the overlord, who is the rule? The past life cannot be reached, and the next life cannot be waited for. Those who can understand the world are called the Son of Heaven. The so-called Son of Heaven, there are four words: one is The gods, the second is Suiguang, the third is Hongxu, and the fourth is invincible. This is also the matter of the Son of Heaven." It can also be regarded as a theoretical preparation in advance for Yingzheng to unify the six countries in the future and start doing the work of the Son of Heaven.

Note 2: "Wei Liao Zi" has been suspected by many scholars as a fake book. However, in April 1972, a batch of books from the Warring States Period were found in the No. 1 and No. 2 Han tombs in Yinqueshan, Linyi, Shandong. Among them is the ancient book "Wei Liao Zi", which is enough to prove that "Wei Liao Zi" is indeed a work of the Warring States Period. 〗