XXX. "Being Easy to Follow, It Achieves Merit": Merit Is an Achievement in Which the Multitude Can Take Part

The Way of Kun is simple, and so it is easy to follow; being easy to follow, it achieves merit. Here, merit is not one person's boastful record of conquest, but a matter brought to completion and the myriad things benefiting from it. However good a beginning, if only a tiny few can carry it out, it cannot become an undertaking of the whole world. Only when the path is simple and clear, responsibility is distinct, the burden bearable, and the multitude both willing and able to follow, can merit accumulate.

Controlling floodwaters cannot be accomplished by a single command; it requires knowing the terrain, channeling the rivers and marshes, gathering manpower, and supplying grain. If orders are chaotic and labor service has no fixed season, the people, though coerced, can hardly achieve anything. Conversely, when the overall direction is fitting, each locality channels the water according to its own configuration, and the multitude knows what it is doing, small individual works accumulate into a great achievement. This is precisely Kun's capability through simplicity: not doing nothing, but letting the ten thousand tasks each find their proper order.

The Master, discussing governance, stressed raising up the upright and setting aside the crooked, so that the people would respect their ruler, be loyal, and encourage one another. When the right people are employed, each office fulfills its own function, and those above need not personally manage every small detail. If every matter is decided by one person alone, power appears concentrated on the surface, but in fact both above and below grow exhausted. Being easy to follow demands trusting those with virtue and talent, and also demands that division of labor and responsibility be clearly defined. The ruler's Way does not contend with ministers over their offices, just as Qian's beginning does not do Kun's completing in its place.

The Guanzi stresses "giving in order to take" -- one who governs must first give the people their livelihood and convenience before he can draw upon their strength for the affairs of state. Being easy to follow does not mean manipulation, but policy according with people's legitimate needs. When the common people see that labor brings them sustenance and that obeying the law protects their household, they are willing to take part. If boundless sacrifice is demanded without any guarantee of livelihood, sustained only by the awe of punishment, merit cannot endure.

Merit must also be judged by its object. Attacking cities and seizing territory is merit; defending one's borders and giving the people peace is also merit. Amassing wealth in the treasury may be recorded as merit; storing wealth among the people may likewise be called merit. If the measure is not correct, the more capable one is, the more one may harm the world. This chapter first fixes the direction through Qian's knowing of the great beginning, and only then speaks of Kun's bringing things to completion; hence "achieving merit" is bound by the knowing of the great beginning. Being able to accomplish something does not mean everything accomplished is good; the achievement of the worthy must accord with the principle of all under Heaven.

In self-cultivation, achieving merit means that virtuous conduct produces actual effect. Learning forbearance reduces contention and anger; learning frugality regulates household expenditure; learning trustworthiness lets friends entrust themselves to one; learning reverence keeps one's conduct from carelessness. If one's learning makes one's speech more lofty and yet makes one difficult for kin and friends to deal with, one must examine whether one's so-called knowing is genuine. The Way of Kun tests virtuous intention by its result; merit is no empty name, but people and things truly finding their proper place because of it.