| Sumario: | The present article analyses conceptions of self-interest and motivation as reflected in precepts about rewards and punishments – Han Fei’s 'two levers' of power – which are discussed in military writings of the pre-Qin to Han periods (ca. 3rd c. BCE – 2nd c. CE). On a fundamental level, military theorists grappled with the problem of how to establish control and exert power over defiant subjects, like the Legalist works Han Fei zi and Shang jun shu. Whereas the Legalist philosophers proposed exclusively to exploit people’s self-interest, manipulating them through the 'two levers', some military theorists espoused a more nuanced understanding of motivation. They acknowledged the significance of non-selfish obligations and emotional bonds in both horizontal and vertical relationships, and in doing so considered the wider social nexus of military activity. Historiographic records indicate furthermore that commanders employed certain performative strategies suggested by military writers in order to build rapport with their troops. Surprisingly, then, a more complex notion of human nature took shape within the confines of military specialism than in the political philosophy of the Legalists.
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