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Legalism. The legalists A group of philosophers and practical politicians known as the Legalists, who were closely associated with the state of Ch ’ in.
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Legalism Prof. Frederick Hok-ming CHEUNG
The legalists A group of philosophers and practical politicians known as the Legalists, who were closely associated with the state of Ch’in. A leading thinker of this school was Han Fei Tzu (d.233B.C.) & a prominent Ch’in statesman identified with it was Li Ssu (d.208B.C) were both disciples of Hsun Tzu. (c.300-237B.C.)
Hsun Tzu was a Confucian who left a deep mark on Chinese civilization, though he was condemned by later Confucians as unorthodox (probably because he was opposite to Mencius in many aspects of ideas). Nevertheless, in his day, Hsun Tzu was a great success both as a politician and teacher, and sections of his book, the Hsun Tzu, which is made up of well-organized essays, was incorporated into the Record of Rituals.
Hsun Tzu flatly contradicted Mencius’ basic idea that man is naturally good. Human nature, Hsun Tzu argued, is derived from an impersonal, amoral Heaven; man’s emotions and natural desires lead to conflict and therefore is bad. The cure for this situation is improvement through education. His emphasis on education, rituals, an hierarchic order, and strict ruler through warnings and punishments seem to have contributed to a growing authoritarian trend in government.
Nevertheless, Legalist ideas found full exposition in the Han Fei Tzu written by the philosopher, Han Fei Tzu, who was a member of the royal house of the state of Han. He was said to have studied under Hsun Tzu at the same time as Li Ssu who subsequently became the prime minister of Ch’in. When the state of Han was on the verge of collapse in the face of the attack by Ch’in, Han Fei was sent as envoy to Ch’in. Although the king of Ch’in was pleased with him, he was said to have died as a result of the machination or trick & trap of Li Ssu, who was jealous of his superior talent.
[At first, Li Ssu was not afraid of Han Fei Tzu (even though he was extremely talented, because Han Fei Tzu was not fluent in spoken language- he easily got tongue-tied. But then, despite of that, the king of Ch’in was pleased with Han Fei Tzu, so Li Ssu worried that the king of Ch’in might replace himself with Han Fei Tzu as prime minister, therefore, Li Ssu imprisoned Han Fei Tzu and executed him.)
In his though, Han Fei Tzu combined the teachings of a number of schools to form the system known as Legalist thought. It combined “the ruler of law” (fa) advocated by Lord Shang “the methods of dealing with the subjects” (shu) advocated by Shen Pu-hai, and “the exploitation of the vantage position of the ruler” (shih) advocated by Shen Tao.
Lord Shang was a descendant of the ducal family of Wei. His given name was Yang. In his youth, he was fond of the studies of criminal law; and he had served the Minister of Wei. Later, Shang Yang went to the State of Ch’in where he greatly pleased Duke Hsiao of Ch’in and was appointed as a councilor.
He order the people to be organized into groups of fives and tens, mutually to control one another and to share in one another’s punishments. Whoever did not denounce a culprit would be cut in two; Whoever denounced the culprit would receive the same reward as he who decapitated an enemy; Whoever concealed a culprit would receive the same punishment as he who surrendered to an enemy.
When the ordinances were already drawn up but still unpublished, feaing that the people would not believe it, Lord Shang had a 30feet pole erected near the south gate of the capital, and announced to the people that he would give 10 oz of gold to anyone who could move it to the north gate. The people found that strange; there was no one who dared move it. Thereupon, Lord Shang announced that he would give 50 oz of gold to make it clear that he deceived no one.
Han Fei Tzu is the last figure in Legalism’s development, and he in fact brought all the earlier contributors to that development together into a grand synthesis. • “the ruler of law” • “the political methods of dealing with the subjects” • “the exploitation of the vantage position of the ruler or power” are the three principal concepts in his thought-system, all were the products of historical circumstances; they were conceived, given birth, and nurtured; then coming to Han Fei Tzu, they took on the form of their ultimate maturity.
The historical circumstances that conceived, gave birth to, and nurtured those concepts were, in a word, simply those various social and political realities through which the old feudal world disintegrated and collapsed. The direct consequence of feudalism’s collapse was the weakening of the Son of Heaven of Chou, and the strengthening of the feudal lords.
Government by means of power had its origins in the elevation of the ruler. When the feudal order of Chou Dynasty was declining, gradually, the powerful ministers took over the states. The Legalists not only recognized the logic of this new historical reality, they also added their explanations on it. Theories of authority and power consequently took form. Shen Tao, with his Phrases about flying dragons and soaring serpents (metaphors suggesting the sovereign’s shih, or power) can be looked upon as the representative figure in the emergence of these theories.
Governing with “methods” took form with Shen Pu-hai. It is also related to the elevation of the ruler, but in particular, it was a response to political needs following the collapse of the feudal system of the Chou Dynasty – cases of assassinations of lords and usurpation of thrones were frequent. Analysts tracing the causes could lay the blame on rulers’ lack of methods in handling their ministers. Therefore, the Legalists on the art ruling eventually began to produce theories about governing by “methods”. Cf. Machiavelli, The Prince
In ancient Greece, Plato, in his theories of government, first erected the ideal of the absolute ruler by a philosopher-king, but subsequently discovered that this was a practical impossibility, and changed his views to support a legalist polity. His intent was to replace the impractical ideal of the enlightened ruler with that of good laws capable of being enforced. Thereafter, having gone through successive developments, this concept has at last splendidly emerged as the modern theory and practice of constitutional government.
Lord Shang applied himself to the ruler of law; Shen Tao clarified the subject of power, and Shen Pu-hai discoursed on methods; Han Fei Tzu synthesized the three bodies of thought, taking the ruler’s power as the basic substance, and regarding laws and methods as its functions or applications….. From these elements, Han Fei Tzu created and brought to completion the most comprehensive system of Legalist thought.
Lord Shang and Han Fei Tzu failed to realize how difficult it is to have an enlightened monarch. Therefore, they developed their ruler-centered Legalist political thought, and succeeded only in opening the door for subsequent dictator. Cf. Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemy (Vol.1: The Spell of Plato)
It was in the 4th to 3rd centuries B.C. that we see the full emergence of the theory of Legalism with the figures Shang Yang, Sheng Pu-hai, Shen Tao, and Han Fei Tzu. Han Fei Tzu was considered the grand synthesizer of Legalist thought. According to Han Fei Tzu, Lord Shang is preeminently the theorist of fa (the rule of law), while Shen Pu-hai is the theorist of shu (bureaucratic method or technique), and Shen Tao is the theorist of shih (authority).
Lord Shang’s fa stress severe punishment (penal law) more than positive reinforcement of rewards. Shen Pu-hai’s shu usually translated as “method’ or “technique”– the technique of organizing and controlling an effective bureaucracy. Han Fei Tzu perceives that the doctrines of Lord Shang and Shen Pu-hai are as complimentary as food and clothing. Lord Shang’s fa provided the program for controlling the entire society. Shen Pu-hai’s shu provided the organization for implementing the enlightened ruler’s program.
Because Lord Shang neglected the principle of proper bureaucratic organization, various powerful elements in the state were able to maintain their own bases of power even to use Lord Shang’s reforms to enhance their own power. Lord Shang’s own tragic death resulted from this fatal oversight in the matter of the control of officials. Han Fei Tzu seems to have sought the ultimate common foundation of Legalism at a deeper level. What penal laws and bureaucratic devices have in common is that they are all universalistic, impersonal, and objective mechanisms for controlling human behavior.
In Han Fei Tzu’s synthesis, we find a third component which in his view had been neglected by both Shang Yang and Shen Pu-hai – Shen Tao’s principle of authority (shih). The entire system in the end rests on the authority of the ruler. Without authority, the ruler cannot be the ultimate source of all the impersonal codes and mechanisms of control which maintain the entire social order.
In recent years, the Legalists have often called totalitarians. In their own days, they were reactionary in their unquestioning acceptance of royal absolutism. At the same time, they were undoubtedly in their emphasis on a universal system of law and impersonal, uniform relations between the government and the people it ruled.
Despite the condemnation of later ages (about its inhumane, impersonal ruler), Legalism left a lasting mark on Chinese civilization. Through the triumph of Ch’in and the imperial system that Ch’in originated, it became an important part of the Chinese political tradition, partially accounting for the highly centralized government of later times and its harsh and strict rule.
