XXVII. The Followability of Simplicity: Good Order Lets People Act

"Being simple, it is easy to follow." Once a principle can be known, there must also be a path by which it can be carried out. If institutions are so complex that the common people cannot understand them, if ritual observances are so minutely detailed that everyone stumbles into fault at every turn, if orders conflict with one another, then however fine the stated aim, it cannot be followed. Kun being capable through simplicity turns the clear direction set by Qian into a practice that can be sustained.

The first condition of simplicity is clarity between name and actuality. Why a reward is given, why a punishment is imposed, where taxes come from and where they are used, whose responsibility a duty falls under -- all of this should be fixed and clear. When categories are ambiguous, those who carry them out shift the blame onto one another; when rules are too numerous and contradict one another, the cunning can manipulate them at will, and the honest suffer for it instead. The Guanzi's emphasis that once a command is issued it must be carried out, and that the law must be unified, is precisely because a community needs predictability. Followability does not demand thoughtless obedience, but lets people know how to fulfill their own duty.

Ritual propriety, too, has the effect of simplicity-capability within a mature community. How to advance and withdraw before an elder, how to express grief in mourning, how to receive one another as host and guest -- all have their commonly accepted forms, so that people need not argue everything from scratch each time. Ritual propriety condenses the experience of generations into a workable form, saving the cost of conflict. But if ritual propriety is reduced to mere elaborate ornament, forgetting the root of reverence, grief, and deference, it turns from simple back into complex. The Master said that in ritual, rather than extravagance, better frugality; in mourning, rather than smooth formality, better genuine grief -- precisely a return to the root. Ceremonial forms should help true feeling take shape; they should not obscure true feeling.

The simplicity of governmental decree also comes from those above restraining their own desires. If the ruler's desires know no limit, officials must constantly extract more; palaces, gardens, military campaigns, and amusements each generate new demands, and laws naturally multiply day by day. If those above are frugal and take from the people according to a fixed measure, many disturbing institutions need not even be established, and simplicity follows of itself. What the Most High called "I have no desire, and the people become simple of themselves" does not attribute all social problems entirely to individual moral disposition, but points out that the desires of those above expand, layer upon layer, through institutions.

The simplicity of moral instruction lies in giving people a clear, sustainable practice. Honoring one's parents daily, dealing honestly with friends, concentrating on one's own occupation, correcting oneself upon hearing of one's fault -- these appear ordinary, and yet they can be sustained a whole lifetime. If, at the very outset, one presses people with lofty and distant rhetoric, making them feel that sagehood and worthiness are beyond learning, this is not easily followed. When the Master taught his disciples, he generally guided them according to their immediate faults, rather than imposing the same set of words on everyone. The path differs from person to person; the root remains simple and clear.

Simplicity also requires leaving room for one's own initiative. To fix every single step in rigid detail leaves those who carry it out appearing obedient, and yet in fact unable to adapt to change. Kun's bringing things to completion is not Qian doing everything on Kun's behalf. Those above establish the general outline; those in office act according to the circumstances; the teacher points the direction; the student must think and practice for himself; parents establish the household's rules; children must take up their own responsibility. If those above take everything upon themselves, the capability of those below grows weaker day by day; the order may appear meticulous on the surface, but in fact cannot endure.