Five Vermin
Updated 2026-08-10
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
The Five Vermin is an essay by Han Feizi naming five groups he considered corrosive to the state: scholars of the classics, travelling rhetoricians, armed retainers, draft evaders, and merchants who hoard. Its core proposition is that groups rewarded with influence while contributing nothing to farming and war drain the state's strength. The key qualifier is that the judgment depends entirely on what the organization defines as its core value, so the same category can be parasitic in one setting and essential in another.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Value audit: list roles whose influence is not matched by contribution to core output. - Core identification: define clearly what counts as producing value before you judge anyone parasitic. - Space reduction: shrink the room available for status without output rather than attacking the people.
Anchor fast decisions
An organization rewards whatever it treats as valuable, so roles that gain status without contributing to the core task attract imitation. Each imitator consumes resources and, worse, signals that contribution does not matter. Removing the reward rather than the person removes the incentive, which is why the analysis targets the channel that lets non-contributors thrive.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- zh.wikipedia.orghttps://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BA%94%E8%A0%B9verified
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