编户齐民、任人唯贤和公议
，
在结构上都
在讲
相互关系
，
是
双边的，而不是自上
而
下
或是令和的
，
这些概念都
与
名实相符所传
达的原则
一样
，
这个原则背后的隐喻就是符节。贵族权威是自我授权的道理
，
而
中华
帝国的政治权威需要第三方从事实中验证
，
这是对政府进行任何形式的分权制横所必需的基本条件。早在孟德斯鸠的《
论
法的精神》一书出版
的十六
年前，中国
的
制衡制度就在
英国和法国的一些
出版物中有所描述
，
这些著作解释说，中国的制衡
不仅
是自上
而
下的，也是
自下
而
上
施行的。同时，中国的制衡制度是基于
权力
分立的原则。这一观点的依据
来自于
“
符节
”
模式，即一方提出的主张必须与事实相符。从宋朝到清朝，这一原则在许多中国
图像
中都有直观的
表达
。在英国和美国，符节模型为自由思想家和开国元勋们的理论提供了依据。
18
世纪中期以后，这种观念的痕迹开始出现在英国印刷品中。
In the first three lectures we will have seen that
bian hu qi min (
编户齐民),
ren ren wei xian
(任人唯贤), and
gong yi
(公议) were all relational and bilateral in structure, never top-down or zero-sum. These concepts were all different expressions of the principle conveyed in
ming shi xiang fu
(名实相符). The metaphor informing that principle is the tally. Where aristocratic authority is self-authorized, political authority in China always required third-party verification from the facts. This is the fundamental condition required for any form of systemic checks in government. 16 years before Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws, China’s system of formal checks was described in several English and French publications. These works explained that checks in China worked bottom up as well as top down, and were based on the principle of the separation of powers. Informing this idea was the model of a tally, where one side made a claim which had to match the facts. This principle takes visual form in many Chinese pictures from Song through Qing times. In England and America the tally model informs the theories of the Free Thinkers and the Founding Fathers. Traces of the idea began to appear in English prints after the mid-18th century.
