Legalism | |||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() Statue of the legalist Shang Yang | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 法家 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Literal meaning | School of law | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Part of a series on |
Chinese legalism |
---|
![]() |
Fajia (Chinese: 法家; pinyin: fǎjiā), or the School of fa (laws,methods), often translated as Legalism,[1] is a school of mainly Warring States period classical Chinese philosophy, whose ideas contributed greatly to the formation of the bureaucratic Chinese empire, and Daoism as prominent in the early Han. The later Han takes Guan Zhong as a forefather of the Fajia. Its more Legalistic figures include ministers Li Kui and Shang Yang, and more Daoistic figures Shen Buhai and philosopher Shen Dao, with the late Han Fei drawing on both. It is often characterized in the west along realist lines. With Shang Yang, Shen Buhai and Han Fei taken as a source for Qin dynasty practices by the Han,[2] the Qin to Tang were more characterized by its tradition.
Though the origins of the Chinese administrative system cannot be traced to any one person, grand chancellor Shen Buhai may have had more influence than any other for the construction of the merit system, and could be considered its founder. His philosophical successor Han Fei, regarded as their finest writer, wrote the most acclaimed of their texts, the Han Feizi, containing some of the earliest commentaries on the Daodejing. Sun Tzu's Art of War recommends Han Fei's concepts of power, technique, inaction, impartiality, punishment and reward.
Concerned largely with administrative and sociopolitical innovation, Shang Yang's reforms transformed the peripheral Qin state into a militarily powerful and strongly centralized kingdom, mobilizing the Qin to ultimate conquest of the other states of China in 221 BCE. With an administrative influence for the Qin dynasty, he had a formative influence for Chinese law. Succeeding emperors and reformers often followed the templates set by Han Fei, Shen Buhai and Shang Yang.
© MMXXIII Rich X Search. We shall prevail. All rights reserved. Rich X Search