Q0209

Han Feizi

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

When the age changes, affairs change; when affairs change, preparations must change.
Thinker Han Feizi
School Legalism
Source Han Feizi, Five Vermin
Theme Philosophy
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Han Feizi, Five Vermin, within the tradition of Legalism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of philosophy, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Han Feizi's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Han Feizi. (n.d.). When the age changes, affairs change; when affairs change, preparations must change. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0209

MLA: Han Feizi. “When the age changes, affairs change; when affairs….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0209.

Chicago: Han Feizi. “When the age changes, affairs change; when affairs….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0209.

Same thinker

More from Han Feizi

  1. A dike a thousand li long can collapse from an ant hole.

All quotations by Han Feizi

Same theme

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  4. Death is nothing to us: for what has been dissolved has no sensation, and what has no sensation is nothing to us.
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