 Han Fei’s views of traditional culture and of learning echo Shang Yang’s, but he is even more vehement in his dislike of traveling scholars who rise up the sociopolitical ladder by selling their ideas to the rulers and to high ministers. He repeatedly ridicules rulers who are fond of argumentativeness and of crafty words: they employ proponents of mutually exclusive doctrines just out of admiration of their rhetorical skills, and without any consideration of the doctrines’ political worth. Han Fei advises: