Hold the Law, Occupy the Position

CORE DEFINITION

The phrase comes from Han Feizi, who argued that even a worthy man cannot control a vicious dog without the leverage of position, while a mediocre man in high office can command the worthy. Law supplies objective standards of reward and punishment; position supplies the power to enforce them; technique supplies the means to detect deceit. The core claim is that order comes from institutional arrangements rather than from the character of the person in charge. The qualification is that the three must work together: law without position produces orders no one follows, and position without law produces arbitrary rule.