In ancient Chinese culture there is the principle which states that everything exists as a contradiction. Darkness and light; old and young; hot and cold; each could not exist without their counterpart. Equity is key. A leader must learn how to balance both truth and deceit, their light and darkness, to establish a substantial reign; even if the acts that they commit do not follow their own or other’s normal ethical standards.
Marcus Aurelius wrote in his work Meditations that “Injustice is a king of blasphemy. Nature designed rational beings for each other’s sake: to help - not harm - one another, as they deserve. To transgress its will, then, is to blaspheme against the oldest of the gods.” Standing as an emperor who employed religion and
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He uses a metaphor of a fox and a lion as his vehicle to represent this balance. The fox being sly but weak in defense; the lion being strong in presence, but not being able to protect himself from traps. He states that “from wolves, you have to be a fox in order to be wary of traps, and a lion to overawe the wolves.” He continues this metaphor relating it back to how a “prudent prince cannot and should not keep his word when to do so would go against his interest.” Even though Machiavelli states that a leader is not obligated to keep his word close to his heart while making promises, he does state that a leader should attempt to keep his word for as long as possible “but he should be ready to enter on evil if he has to.” Machiavelli gives his reservation by stating that “this rule would be bad” if all men were good. However, he uncovers the painful and irrefutable truth that humans “keep no faith with you - you in your turn are under no obligation to keep it with them.” Even though the ethically of deceit may be questionable; Machiavelli shows that throughout history the balance between truth and deceit is the glue that keeps civilizations