The Early Chinese Empires
(History of Imperial China)

Mark Lewis

One who is prince over the people and desires to cause the lands beyond the seas to submit must restrain to the highest degree his use of things and place no value on petty profit. Having his senses escape from the sway of custom, he can bring order to the age.

First, what is supposed as wished? to have lands ‘submit’. Sounds like power for the sake of power to me. Very Machiavellian. There is at the end a reference to ‘bringing order’ which may indeed be a worthy goal. Of course one man’s order is another’s tyranny, but not all tyranny comes from afar.

Next is “petty profit”. Is there another sort of profit that is worthy? I suspect not and “petty” is merely a redundant pejorative. Perhaps ‘plunder’ would have been a better translation. The speaker fits the stereotype of Jane Jacob’s “Guardian”.

Having one’s senses escape from the sway of custom may amount to critical thinking, but I doubt it. It sounds more like advice to be ruthless as a means to an end.

I don’t like this guy! It may well be good advice for building empires.

“lands beyond the seas” is often used to refer to far away places, but over only a river or two.

Later in the book, in the chapter on cities, page 84, Lewis describes the division that Jacobs makes between the governing and merchant classes. In this section it is clear that “profit” may well pertain to ill gotten goods.

Lewis says:

Thus, the market was feared by supporters of the state as a site where men gained power and status not awarded by the government, where this power and wealth were routinely displayed in violation of sumptuary regulations, and where wealth itself was manipulated to the detriment of criminal law and government regulation.

Lewis also remarks on the competition between these classes to set the styles of fashion for clothes and other expressions.