 The proposed way of estimating the official’s performance is not entirely reasonable (why punish a minister for over-performing?) but at least it tries to establish firm criteria of evaluation, which in this case are related to the minister’s own “bid” (Goldin 2013: 8–10). The advantages are clear: the system will prevent ministerial manipulations and will reaffirm the ruler’s control over his officials. This latter point is of particular importance to the Legalists. Various means through which the ruler should monitor the ministers are named in Han Feizi and other Legalist texts as “technique” (shu 術) or “rules” (shù 數) (the meaning of both terms may overlap: Creel 1974: 125–134; Yang 2010). Both terms are similar to fa but are narrower in their meaning, referring primarily to a variety of means through which the ruler controls his officials. Han Fei claims that shu is the hallmark of Shen Buhai’s ideas, and explains its meaning as follows: