(Translated by Sherwin Lu)

     The Yellow Emperor asks his minister Yan Ran:
     “I am going to take some measures to set things right for the country. What should I start with and end with?” 
     Yan Ran answers: “Start with improving yourself. Then you govern people with fair and just laws. When the way you conduct yourself is consistent with the way you treat others, you will end with success.”
     “I hold myself upright and seek no personal gains,” says the Yellow Emperor, “but the country is still sinking into chaos. What’s to be done?”
     “If your inner self is honest and sincere and your actions are just,” answers Yan Ran, “order will certainly be restored. If you hold onto the law with both hands, what is there under heaven to worry about? If all men and women discipline themselves or are disciplined by the law, what evils that are harmful to the country cannot be subdued? After policy measures are publicized, assign them to your ministers to be carried out. Hold the laws and rules in your hands and you can stand ready to give Chi You his punishment when it is due.”
    “What if I haven't got to know myself quite completely?” the Yellow Emperor continues to ask.
    “If so,” answers Yan Ran, “hide yourself for the time being and do self-introspection. After that you will be able to restrain yourself.”
    “I would like to restrain myself, but what does that imply?”
    “People sharing a same purpose do the same thing; people who differ in their purposes behave differently. Now people are fighting each other. That is the prevailing mentality today. Can you hold yourself from getting involved?” asks Yan Ran.
    “What does ‘hold from getting involved’ mean?”
    “Anger rises from seething blood, and fighting is triggered by craving of the senses. If anger is not vented, it may develop into a tumor.” Yan Ran answers, “If you can get rid of the passion and craving, you will be reduced to skin and bones and would not be able to fight.”

    Then the Yellow Emperor takes leave of his ministers and goes up Mount Bowang. There he stays by himself like a hermit, cultivating his own mind, for three years before Yan Ran comes to visit him and says:
    “Now is the time for action. It is evil to initiate a fight, but if we do not face and meet the challenge squarely, fighting will not die out by itself. So, why not go and fight it out?”
    On hearing this, the Yellow Emperor mobilizes his soldiers, hands out weapons and, beating the war drum by himself, leads the march to meet Chi You on the battlefield, and finally captivates him. After that, the Yellow Emperor forms a confederation with all tribes and declares in their covenant: Whoever breaks faith and goes against the call of the times for law and order would be punished in the same way as Chi You was; whoever breaks his word and betrays our ancestors’ will for unity and peace would end in self-destruction.