VOLUME V, CHAPTER 12
The Depth of International Behavior, the Taker and the Taken
The end of the last chapter opened the line between nations and set the first stone, that between nations there is no highest enforcer. This chapter walks three steps on. It sorts the behavior of a strong nation toward a weak one into depths, then turns the lens onto the end that strikes and the end that is struck, to see what position pushes a nation into a taker, and what position sinks a nation into the taken.
The first section sorts international behavior from shallow to deep into five layers, colonization, the taking of resources and people, the taking of territory, the treaty, and occupying a position, each harder to see through and harder to turn back than the last, the deepest, occupying a position, being a way of putting it newly set here. This is the thirty-fifth layer.
The second section looks at the position of the taker. Strip away the hero and the ambition and a cord surfaces that runs through the whole of history. The taker is always the one whose output falls short and whose armies are strong enough, and output falling short and output running to excess both push a nation outward. This is the thirty-sixth layer.
The third section looks at the position of the taken, a house full of gold and jade, and none can keep it. The thicker the estate and the emptier the guard, the greater the chance of being taken. This is the thirty-seventh layer.
These three sections build from the thirty-fifth layer to the thirty-seventh. Laozi's a house full of gold and jade, none can keep it speaks of the taken, Han Fei's when goods are few, men fight speaks of the taker, and joining the two ends completes the reason nations repeat one story again and again. This chapter keeps one discipline in particular. The taker is not a born evil man, the taken is not a born good man, it all turns on which position each stood in at that moment. It lays out only the structure, hands down no good and evil, and leaves the judgment to you.
Contents
Section One. The Five Depths of International Behavior.
Section Two. The Position of the Taker, Output Falling Short and a Strong Army.
Section Three. The Position of the Taken, Gold and Jade That None Can Keep.
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.