How to Divide Spoils After War? The Army Hexagram Top Six: Credit Can Be Given, Positions Must Not Be Handed Out Casually

I’ve seen way too many teams fall apart exactly like this.

During the hardest days, everyone crammed into a tiny office, ate instant noodles, and pulled all-nighters — not a single complaint from anyone. But once the project took off and money started rolling in, that’s when the fighting broke out.

It’s never that there’s not enough to go around. It’s that the way of splitting things is all wrong.

The Top Six line of *The Army* Hexagram (地水师) is all about this exact phase after a victory.

The Line Text (Yao Ci) is just eleven characters: 大君有命，开国承家，小人勿用.

The great ruler issues a decree: enfeoffing meritorious officials as feudal lords is called "founding a state"; enfeoffing them as grand officials is called "sustaining a clan". Rewards are non-negotiable — no one gets left out. But the last four characters hit like a bucket of cold water: 小人勿用 (Do not employ petty people).

Put plainly, the Top Six of *The Army* Hexagram boils down to a very down-to-earth truth: give full credit where it’s due, and put people in the right roles. These two things are not the same.

Why this line comes last

*The Army* Hexagram starts with the First Six line’s 师出以律 (The army sets out with discipline), walking through how to raise troops, lead soldiers, assign people, and wrap up campaigns. By the time we reach the Top Six, the war is over — the people are still there, but the accounts haven’t been settled.

The Top Six is the end of this hexagram, and it’s also the point where a person’s true vision and breadth of mind show most clearly.

Because when everyone’s fighting the same battle, shared goals keep conflicts buried. The moment the goal is gone, people’s true colors come out.

Some want money, some want fame, some want a higher position, and some just want to hear, "Thanks for all your hard work these years."

How you split the rewards at this moment decides whether these people will still want to work with you down the line.

"Founding a state" and "sustaining a clan" are two different kinds of rewards

The ancients picked these two terms perfectly.

"Founding a state" means giving someone a piece of land to govern on their own. They get their own team, their own rules, their own harvest. It’s handing them a whole sphere of influence to run.

"Sustaining a clan" means giving someone a position where they’re in charge within the existing system. They get resources, benefits, and a say — but they still operate within the established rules.

"Founding a state" gives space; "sustaining a clan" gives a position.

These two reward styles match two different types of people.

If someone’s built to break new ground, trapping them in a senior executive role right by your side will suffocate them — they’ll leave sooner or later. If someone’s built to thrive within a system, dropping them in a barren territory to fend for themselves will make them panic, and odds are they won’t make it work.

The wisdom of the Top Six of *The Army* Hexagram is to first figure out which type someone is, then decide what to give them.

Get it wrong, and no matter how much you give, they’ll never feel seen.

"Do not employ petty people" — the four most overlooked words

When it comes to rewards and punishments, most people only fixate on "whether the reward is enough". The real problems almost always stem from "whether the right person is put in the right role".

What’s a "petty person"? They’re not villains. They’re people who only care about immediate gains, look out for themselves first, duck when trouble hits, and grab credit the second there’s a win.

Can you give these people money? Yes. If they actually contributed to a specific task, you owe them every cent they’ve earned.

Can you give them a position of power? Absolutely not.

Because a position isn’t just a perk — it’s authority. Once you give someone a position, every decision they make will be carried out by a whole team of people.

The Top Six of *The Army* Hexagram puts it bluntly: 小人勿用，必乱邦也 (Do not employ petty people, for they will surely bring chaos to the state). It’s not a question of whether they’ll make mistakes — it’s that sooner or later, they’ll turn the whole operation upside down.

Wen Laoshi once put it in rough, plain terms: Give work to people who can get the job done; give power to people who can take responsibility; give money to people who only know how to grab credit — then keep them at a distance.

How to split rewards in real life without hurting feelings

First, make rewards public, and clearly state the reasons behind them.

Hand the same bonus to someone in private, and they’ll be grateful to you personally. Announce at a team meeting exactly why they’re getting that bonus, and the whole team will respect the call. The former buys one person’s loyalty; the latter buys a whole group’s trust.

Second, take your time giving out promotions and positions.

Money can be handed out right away, but positions are better left on hold for a while. Why? Because once money is paid out, that’s the end of the matter. Once a position is given, that’s just the start. If you give the wrong person a role and have to take it back later, the cost is ten times higher.

Third, don’t forget the people who aren’t standing in the spotlight.

In every tough battle, the people front and center get all the applause. But the ones who actually keep everything from falling apart are usually the quiet folks who handle all the small, unglamorous details behind the scenes.

These people won’t come asking for recognition — you have to give it to them proactively. If you don’t, they’ll leave. And once they’re gone, you’ll realize just how much they were holding together.

If you’re the one on the receiving end of the split

A quick word for the people who’ve earned the rewards.

The timing of the Top Six of *The Army* Hexagram is a moment when everyone’s watching how you react.

If you want money, ask for it openly and honestly, and lay out the numbers clearly — you’ve earned it.

If you want a higher position, ask yourself first: Do I want the role itself, or do I want the perks that come with the role? The first is ambition; the second is greed. A position you got out of greed will be the most miserable seat to sit in.

One more thing. If someone else gets promoted and you don’t, don’t jump to the conclusion that you’re undervalued. Sometimes you’re just not ready yet; sometimes that role just isn’t a good fit for you.

When the cake is being cut, everyone’s eyes are on everyone else’s slice. But what really decides how much you’ll get down the line is whether you’re still willing to step up for the next battle.

Final thoughts

The Top Six line of *The Army* Hexagram is one of the rare lines among the 64 Hexagrams that’s entirely dedicated to "post-victory follow-up".

It doesn’t talk about how to win. It talks about what to do *after* you’ve won.

What do you do after winning? Give rewards that warm people’s hearts, and assign positions that put people at ease.

The real turning point for a team never comes during the hardest days. It comes during the sweetest days.

When times are tough, everyone sticks together. When times are sweet, that’s when you see who can go the distance with you.

Wen Laoshi says that if you want to know if someone can achieve great things, don’t look at how they fight to win the world — look at how they divide the world after winning it.

Winning the world takes skill. Dividing it takes vision and breadth of mind.

Skill can let you win once. Only vision can let you win for a lifetime.