The 48 Laws Of Power

the
young

man

secretly

scoffedatthem.Hebelievedin

purephilosophy,

in

Imadorned
words,
in

speaking

thenakedtruth.IfAlexanderloved

learning

so

much,

Callisthenes

thought,

hecouldnot

object

toonewho

spoke

his

mind.
During

oneofAlexander’s

majorcampaigns,

Callisthenes

spoke

his

mindone
too
many

timesand

Alexander

hadhim

put

todeath.

Interpretation

In

court,

honesty

isafool’s

game.

Neverbesoself-absorbedastobelieve

thatthemasterisinterestedin

your

criticismsof

him,

nomatterhowaccu-

rate

they

are.

Scene

II

Beginning

intheHan

Dynasty

twothousand

yearsago,

Chinesescholars

compiled

aseriesof

writings

calledthe 27

Histories,

anofficial

biography

of

each

dynasty,including

stories,statistics,

census

figures,

andwarchroni-

cles.

Each

history

alsocontaineda

chapter

called“Unusual

Events,”

and

here,

among

the

listings

of

earthquakes

and

floods,

therewouldsometimes

suddenlyappear

descriptions

ofsuchbizarremanifestationsastwo—headed

sheep,

geese

flying

backward,

stars

suddenlyappearing

indifferent

parts

of

the

sky,

andsoon.The

earthquakes

couldbe

historically

verified,

butthe

monstersandweirdnatural

phenomena

were

clearly

insertedon

purpose,

and

invariably

occurred

in

clusters.What

could

thismean?

TheChinese

emperor

wasconsideredmorethanaman—hewasa

forceofnature.His

kingdom

wasthecenterofthe

universe,

and

every-

thing

revolvedaroundhim.Heembodiedtheworld’s

perfection.

Tocriti-

cize

himor

any

ofhisactionswouldhavebeentocriticizethedivine

order.

Noministerorcourtierdared

approach

the

emperor

witheventhe

slightest

cautionary

word.But

emperors

werefallihleandthe

kingdom

suffered

greatly

by

theirmistakes.

Insertingsightings

of

strange

phenomena

intothe

courtchronicleswasthe

onlyway

towarnthem.The

emperor

wouldread

of

geeseflying

backwardandmoonsoutof

orbit,

andrealizethathewas

being

cautioned.Hisactionswere

unbalancing

theuniverseandneededto

change.

interpretation

ForChinese

courtiers,

the

problem

ofhowto

give

the

emperor

advicewas

an

important

issue.Overthe

years,

thousandsofthem

had

died

trying

to

warnor

counsel

their

master.Tobemade

safely,

theircriticisms

hadto

be

indirect--yet

if

they

were tonindirect

they

wouldnotbeheeded.The

chroniclesweretheirsolution:

Identify

noone

person

asthesourceofcriti«

cism,

maketheadviceas

impersonal

as

possible,

butletthe

emperor

know

the

gravity

ofthesituation.

Yourmasteris

no

longer

thecenterofthe

universe,

buthestill

imag-

ines

that

everything

revolvesaroundhim.When

you

criticizehimhesees

the

person

criticizing,

notthecriticismitself.LiketheChinese

courtiers,

you

mustfinda

way

to

disappear

behindthe

warning.

Use

symbols

and

otherindirectmethodsto

paint

a

picture

ofthe

problems

to

come,

without

puttingyour

neck

ontheline.

LAW 24

‘

183