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Power and organisation

Yan Ying

Remonstrance

Yan Ying (Spring and Autumn · Qi · d. 500 BC) — Remonstrance.

Power and organisationPre-Qin and classicalRemonstrance

What actually happened?

According to Sima Qian, Yan Ying's charioteer drove four horses under a tall canopy, swaggering and pleased with himself. When he got home, his wife said she was leaving. Yan Ying, she said, is under six feet tall and chief minister of Qi, famous among the lords, yet when I saw him go out he looked like a man who thought he fell short. You are eight feet tall and a charioteer, and you seem satisfied. The man began to hold himself in. Yan Ying noticed, asked, and was told the truth. He recommended the charioteer for office.

He got a truth across with one figure

Duke Jing's punishments were heavy. Yan Ying did not say so; he answered that the shoes for the maimed were dear and ordinary shoes cheap. Criticism makes people defend themselves; a price does not.

Not 'you squeeze sales too hard,' but 'of the seven who left this quarter, five were in sales.'

He listened to the end when told he was wrong

After he ransomed Yue Shifu, the man asked to break off the friendship. Yan Ying straightened his robes, apologised, heard him out and made him an honoured guest. People speak up when your position visibly moves afterwards.

Someone says you gave him no face last time. Put his point on the next meeting's agenda and let him present it.

He used the people who could see him

The charioteer's wife had watched the chief minister leave the house looking like he fell short. Yan Ying did not resent a charioteer's wife judging him; he used her eyes, and made her husband an officer.

Someone says you talk too much in meetings. Ask him which meeting, and which sentence.

How do I use it today?

Pick one thing you want to tell someone above you and fear will not land. Write three lines: what figure can he check himself; whether it helps me finish the sentence or lets me walk around it; whether it points at the real wound. If you are the one in the high seat, count how many sentences you let someone finish the last time he said you were wrong. His one judgement runs through all three: say it so that it can be heard, and be someone it can be said to.

Deep read

The Price of ShoesTo be heard by someone above you, hand him a figure he can check himselfHe did not say the punishments were too harsh, only which shoes were dear and which were cheapThe Man He Ransomed Wanted OutWhen someone tells you to your face you were wrong, do not tally your favoursHe bought a man's freedom, the man asked to end the friendship, and he straightened his robes and apologised

Read alongside

Li ShiminBoth are about getting words across between above and below. Li Shimin sat above, and with ministers like Wei Zheng he could stand to be contradicted. Yan Ying stood below, did not contradict, and handed over a figure so the man above could see it for himself. One teaches how to listen, the other how to speak. Han FeiziBoth guard against being walled in by the people around you. Han Feizi relies on technique and audit, against ministers who hide things. Yan Ying relies on being someone people dare to tell, and on hearing the man out when he is told he was wrong. One closes the gaps from the system, the other opens up in himself first.

Further

Guan Zhong Li Shimin Han Feizi The Analects

Lines to keep

Were Yan Zi alive, I would gladly hold his whip.