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Given the fact that Rome conquered because of its vast pool of military manpower, rulers
“should contrive with every industriousness to make [the city] full of inhabitants,” for instance,
by “keeping the ways open and secure for foreigners . . . so that everyone may inhabit it
voluntarily (D II 3). Like Shang, he realized that “not gold . . . but good soldiers are the sinew of
war; for gold is not sufficient to find good soldiers, but good soldiers are quite sufficient to find
gold” (D II 10.2). Regarding quality, Machiavelli relies on the martial aspect of virtù, which is
acquired by military exercises. And, he shares Shang’s appreciation of the rustic way of life as
productive of good soldiers and his disdain for mental sophistication, in the sense that the
“strength of well-armed spirits cannot be corrupted by a more honorable leisure than that of
letters, nor can leisure enter into well-instituted cities with a greater and more dangerous deceit”
(FH V.1).
The Highest Condition of Power
The highest form of orderly government, according to Shang, is reached when the
administration of rewards, punishment, and education has been so effective that order can be
kept without the further use of rewards, punishment, and education.
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In particular, Shang argues
that if rewards are unified in relation to military merit, then no further expenses for rewards will
be incurred because of the riches gained by conquest: “The effect of unifying rewards is that the
army will have no equal,” and, “if, in battles, one always routs the other’s army and, in assaults,
one always captures the other’s towns, with the result that finally one has all the cities and all
their riches accrue, then what expense or loss can one suffer, even though there are rich
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According to Ssu-ma Ch’ien, such a condition was indeed accomplished by the reforms of Lord Shang: "When
[the laws of Lord Shang] had been in force for ten years, the people of Ch’in greatly rejoiced: things dropped on the
road were not picked up; in the mountains there were no robbers; families were self-supporting, and people had
Convention