A Structural Crisis of the Preservation Phase in Zhenguan Zhengyao
1. Question
Why can “peace,” although it is originally the most desirable condition, become a trigger for the deterioration of a state or an organization?
2. Abstract
In a state or an organization, peace is usually regarded as the most desirable condition. When war and crisis have passed and people can live in stability, this is normally understood as a success of governance. However, there is a paradox: peace itself can become a factor that causes organizational deterioration.
This problem is discussed directly in Zhenguan Zhengyao. Wei Zheng in particular was deeply concerned that once the realm had been pacified and peace had been achieved, arrogance, ease, and the disappearance of remonstrance would advance, and the state’s power of self-correction would decline.
This study examines the dialogues between Emperor Taizong and his ministers in Zhenguan Zhengyao in order to clarify why peace becomes the starting point of deterioration, and then abstracts that structure in a form applicable to modern organizations.
3. Method
This study extracts, as Layer 1 facts, the dialogues between Emperor Taizong and his ministers in Zhenguan Zhengyao, especially Taizong’s understanding of preservation after founding and Wei Zheng’s concern about the disappearance of remonstrance in times of peace.
It then reconstructs, in Layer 2, why a sense of danger is lost in times of peace, why remonstrance comes to be seen as unnecessary, and why the function of self-correction weakens. Finally, in Layer 3, it derives insights that remain applicable to modern organizations.
4. Layer 1: Fact
1) Peace easily becomes linked with arrogance and ease
In Chapter 9 of the Political Order section of Zhenguan Zhengyao, Wei Zheng states, in effect, that after winning the realm, the tendency to fall into arrogance and ease becomes the starting point of decline, and that this is what must be most carefully guarded against in the preservation phase. In response, Taizong also confirms that in the preservation phase, arrogance in spirit and indulgence in comfort easily arise, and that ease and arrogance become the starting point of state decline.
What is shown here is the recognition that after a national crisis has passed, the human inner state becomes loose and the tension of governance is easily lost.
2) Listening broadly is what supports clarity in governance
In Chapter 2 of the Ruler and Minister section, Wei Zheng says that the reason a ruler is clear is that he listens to many opinions and uses what is good among them, while the reason he becomes dark is that he trusts only what one side says. He further says that if the ruler hears the words of many and accepts the voices from below broadly, powerful ministers cannot block the ruler’s eyes and ears, and the realities below will certainly reach above.
Also, in Chapter 1 of the Political Order section, Taizong says that he did not even fully understand the principles of archery, so all the more he could not know all the politics of the realm by himself. He therefore made the capital officials stay on night duty and broadly asked about outside affairs, the gains and losses of the people, and the gains and losses of government and teaching. In this way, he institutionalized the practice of listening broadly.
This shows that the soundness of governance depends not simply on the personal quality of the ruler, but on whether diverse informational input is secured.
3) What is most easily lost in times of peace is a sense of danger
In Chapter 1 of the On Being Careful at the End section, Wei Zheng says that throughout history it has been rare for both ruler and ministers to be excellent at the same time, and that even if the ruler is wise, it is of no benefit if, once peace has arrived, he relaxes and leaves politics to his ministers. He then urges that precisely because the realm is now at peace, the ruler must still think of danger and must not neglect effort.
What is shown here is that what is most easily lost in times of peace is exactly a sense of danger and vigilance. The difficulty of preservation, therefore, lies not in fighting external enemies, but in continuing to maintain self-discipline in the midst of peace.
5. Layer 2: Order
From these facts, the relation between peace and national deterioration in Zhenguan Zhengyao can be understood as the following structure.
In the founding phase or a period of crisis, the state is under external pressure. For this reason, self-control for the sake of survival is effectively forced. Both the ruling layer and the ruled layer know that wrong judgment can immediately lead to destruction. Therefore, they seek wise people, need dissent, and try to gather information. In other words, crisis gives tension to the governing OS from outside and works as a pressure that promotes self-control.
However, when peace arrives, this external pressure disappears.
As a result, four changes are likely to occur inside the state.
1) The disappearance of external pressure under peace
When war and threats to survival disappear, the ruling layer no longer strongly feels the need to seek wise people or to accept dissent in order to preserve the status quo. The self-control that crisis had enforced weakens, and a feeling emerges that the state can continue without effort.
2) Inner change brought by peace
The loss of a sense of danger invites arrogance, ease, and the expansion of desire. As a result, the virtue of decision-makers weakens, and the caution, self-restraint, and vigilance required in the preservation phase are lost. Peace is therefore not only an external success, but also a condition that easily invites internal slackening.
3) Change in the information structure under peace
When external pressure disappears, dissent and remonstrance are no longer seen as necessary warnings, but are more easily seen as unpleasant noise. Then people who flatter the top increase, loyal ministers who offer severe advice are disliked, and eventually remonstrance itself disappears. In this way, peace transforms the structure of informational input and makes remonstrance, which is the core of the self-correction function, appear unnecessary.
4) Change in recognition under peace
Under peace, survival is not immediately threatened even if reality is not faced directly. Therefore, even if only convenient information is accepted, governance can still appear to function for the time being. As a result, distortions in recognition accumulate more easily. A condition in which reality does not have to be faced creates the habit of not facing reality.
Taken together, peace is not simply a condition of safety.
It is a condition in which self-control, information circulation, and self-correction easily weaken because external pressure has disappeared.
Structurally, this can be expressed as follows:
Founding / Crisis
↓
Tension created by external pressure
↓
Self-control / Acceptance of dissent / Appointment of the wise
↓
Success
↓
Peace
↓
Loss of a sense of danger
↓
Arrogance / Ease
↓
Disappearance of remonstrance
↓
Information distortion
↓
Deterioration of recognition
↓
Deterioration of the state
In this sense, peace is not completion. Rather, it is the stage at which the difficulty of preservation begins in full.
6. Layer 3: Insight
A structural reading of Zhenguan Zhengyao shows that peace is not a simple state of safety, but a dangerous state that contains within itself a decline in the power of self-repair.
Under crisis, people seek correct judgment for the sake of survival. If they fail, destruction follows immediately. Therefore, in the middle of crisis, dissent, remonstrance, the advice of the wise, and the maintenance of realistic recognition are treated as indispensable.
Under peace, however, survival is still possible for the time being even without effort. As a result, the deterioration of the OS is less likely to become visible, and the perceived need to accept dissent also declines. What is first lost here is sensitivity to danger, and what is lost next is the function of self-correction. In other words, peace is a condition in which the conditions for gradual internal decline are formed while the signs of deterioration remain difficult to see.
From this, three major insights can be derived:
- Peace is not a condition that simply continues by itself; it is a condition that must be consciously preserved.
- Under peace, internal control must replace external pressure; this means the maintenance of self-control and information circulation.
- When remonstrance and dissent begin to look unnecessary, a state or organization has already reached the entrance to deterioration.
Therefore, the condition for maintaining peace is not merely the exclusion of external enemies. It is the continuous and conscious maintenance of a sense of danger, remonstrance, self-control, and information circulation, on the premise that peace itself can generate deterioration.
7. Implications for the Present
The same principle applies to modern organizations. Peace in this sense means a condition in which external pressure has declined and internal control through self-control and information circulation becomes decisive. In other words, good performance, a stable market, and the absence of visible crisis do not by themselves prove soundness.
Rather, the weaker the external pressure becomes, the more an organization must make conscious efforts to maintain correct judgment. This is because human beings easily stop making effort when their survival instinct is not being threatened.
As a result, under peaceful conditions, the following phenomena easily appear:
- severe opinions stop being voiced
- an atmosphere of affirming the status quo becomes stronger
- only information convenient for the top moves upward
- capable but uncomfortable people are pushed away
- deterioration continues without being recognized as a crisis
If this condition continues, wrong judgments increase, institutional operation becomes distorted, and the trust on the ground and social stability are gradually lost. In this sense, the loss of peace is not caused only by external enemies. Its true cause is the abandonment of effort and the loss of corrective functions within peace itself.
8. Conclusion
If the rise and fall of the OS is viewed structurally, the process is as follows:
Founding (with external pressure)
↓
Success
↓
Peace
↓
Decline of self-control
↓
Information distortion through arrogance
↓
Deterioration
Therefore, what is most important for a state or organization is not simply to attain peace. What is most important is how to maintain it afterward. In other words, the technique of preservation is the central issue.
What Zhenguan Zhengyao shows is that peace is not an endpoint, but the stage at which the least visible form of deterioration begins. True excellence in governance therefore lies not only in overcoming crisis, but in continuing to think of danger and not abandoning self-correction even in the midst of peace.
Thus, peace becomes a trigger of state or organizational deterioration not because peace itself is evil, but because peace creates an environment in which self-control and self-correction can be neglected while the system still continues to survive for a time.
9. Source Texts
Harada Tanenari, Shinshaku Kanbun Taikei: Zhenguan Zhengyao (Vol. 1), Meiji Shoin, 1978.
Harada Tanenari, Shinshaku Kanbun Taikei: Zhenguan Zhengyao (Vol. 2), Meiji Shoin, 1978.