You must cherish, prize, esteem, and revere your subject.
If you proceed in this way, your speeches will seldom fail to achieve their proper effect.
This is known as ‘making precious what one regards as precious.’ A passage in an old text says, ‘Only a man of quality is able to act so as to make precious what he regards as precious.’” As is said in the Odes, “Do not lightly put things into speech; / Do not say, ‘This is trivial.’” Guiguzi3 said, “It is difficult, if one is unskillful, to correct the behavior of others.
If your speeches prove ineffective and your advice is not adopted, it is because your exposition has not been clear.
If your exposition has been clear, but your advice is not followed, it is because you have not been tenacious.
If you have been tenacious, but your advice is not followed, it is because you have failed to hit the heart’s desire of your listener.
If you are precise, clear, consecutive, tenacious, and hit the heart’s desire of your listener, and, if your speech, while spirited and eloquent, is clear and precise, then you will be able to gain entry into people’s hearts.
There has never in the realm been a person with these attributes whose speeches failed to convince his listeners.
This is what is known as ‘skill in speech.’” Zigong4 said, “It is upon skill in marshaling arguments and arranging phrases that personal survival and state security depend.” As is said in the Odes, “On harmony of speech / Depends the people’s peace.” One might say that speech is what people use to move through obstructions.
Zhu-fu Yan6 said, “If a man has no words, what can one have him do?