Motse

We've all heard of Confucius. One of his competitors was Motse. Legend has it that many of the books from his school were burned, and a bunch of the scholars too.

I'm not sure I'll finish the work linked above. His style is maddening; repetitious and forever citing dubious details of the putative wonderful reigns of the first emperors. The first thing that looked different from the rest was this--but (spoiler) it isn't.

Motse said: The interest of the wise (ruler) lies in carrying out what makes for order among the people and avoiding what makes for confusion.

But what is it that makes for order among the people?

When the administration of the ruler answers to the desires of the people there will be order, otherwise there will be confusion.

How do we know it is so?

When the administration of the ruler answers to the desires of the subjects, it manifests an understanding of the approvals and disapprovals of the people. When there is such an understanding, the good will be discovered and rewarded and the bad will be discovered and punished, and the country will surely have order. When the administration of the ruler does not answer to the desires of the subjects, it shows a lack of understanding of the approvals and disapprovals of the subjects. When there is no such understanding then the good will not be discovered and rewarded and the bad will not be discovered and punished, such a government will surely put the country into disorder. Therefore when rewards and punishments do not answer to the desires of the people, the matter has to be carefully looked into.

But how can the desires of the people (being so many and various) be met?

Therefore Motse said: It can only be done only by adopting the principle of Identification with the Superior in government.

Nope. We don't have an ancient Chinese democrat here. "Identification with the Superior" means that the hierarchy takes its standards from the top. The desires of the people should be shaped into conformity with the rules of clan patriarch, with the feudal lords, and so on up the chain.

Whoever discovers a benefactor of the clan shall report it; whoever discovers a malefactor to the clan shall report it. Whoever reports the benefactor of the clan upon seeing one is equivalent to benefiting the clan himself. Knowing him the superior will reward him, hearing of him the group will praise him.

And then the feudal lord says the same about the state, and the emperor about the empire. "Now that the empire is orderly, the emperor will further organize the purposes in the empire and identify them with the Will of Heaven."

Quite a bit of the advice so far boils down to "You're supposed to be keeping the state orderly and prosperous for everybody." and "Don't appoint your relatives and sycophants; appoint the capable and honest." and "Make sure everybody knows to do what their superiors tell them to." and "Don't go in for excessive luxury."

I haven't gotten to the parts about designing fortifications yet. Apparently the Motse school was famously good at that.