Wei Liaozi

尉繚子 (Master Wei Liao)

attributed to Wei Liao; authorship and date contested · c. 350-220 BC (authorship and precise date contested) · Daliang, State of Wei (China) · other

Military law must be uniform and impersonal, punishing cowardice and rewarding valor by fixed rule rather than by a commander's mood, because an army governed like a state at war outlasts one governed by a general's charisma. The text's own place of composition is disputed: the received dialogue opens at Daliang, but the Shiji tradition places its author instead at Qin.