Analects of Confucius 12.19

Chi K’ang asked Confucius about government, saying, ‘What do you say to killing the unprincipled for the good of the principled?’ Confucius replied, ‘Sir, in carrying on your government, why should you use killing at all? Let your evinced desires be for what is good, and the people will be good. The relation

between superiors and inferiors, is like that between the wind and the grass. The grass must bend, when the wind blows across it.’