Most Chinese philosophers and political thinkers held negative views of legalism and associated it with totalitarianism. Many Chinese scholars believe that the backlash against legalism has led Chinese imperial policy to emphasize personal relationships and morality rather than the rule of law. Most Chinese historical documents were written by Confucian scholars persecuted among the Qin, and therefore may represent a biased view. The history of legalism in Korea dates back to Gyeonggukdaejeon, a code of laws compiled during the Joseon Dynasty. There is a mixed perception of legalism within South Korean society, as the military regime used the concept of legalism as a governmental tool after World War II. The ideas are closely related to Chinese legalism, but sometimes differ in some Koreans` aversion to what they see as China`s use of legalism to legitimize Chinese imperialism. [1] Legalism was discredited by later dynasties and ceased to be an independent school of thought. However, ancient and modern Confucian observers of Chinese politics have argued that some legalistic ideas have merged with mainstream Confucianism and still play a role in government. The philosophy of imperial China can be described externally as Confucianism (along with Buddhism during the Sui and Tang dynasties) and legalism within (儒表法裏).
The jurists stressed that the head of state is endowed with the “secrecy of authority” (勢 shì) and that his decisions must always require the respect and obedience of the people. Shen Dao and Shen Buhai devalued the charismatic leader`s importance and instead emphasized his position as a source of authority. The purpose of legalism was to establish a “natural” and automatic politics that would be consistent with Dao (the way the natural world works). A leader must therefore embody Dao by practicing “non-action”, “emptiness” and “calm” to allow the natural flow of events. The leader should not act, but let his subordinates act and be responsible for the consequences of their actions. The position of the ruler is comparable to the centre of a ladder or ladder; The center does not move, but knows which side of the ladder is heavier than the other. The ruler must distance himself and use the “two grips” of reward and punishment or power over life and death to control his people. But the story was cruel to legalists.
The Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC) AD), who was to rule for “countless generations” (Shiji 6:236), collapsed shortly after the death of the founder, who was brought down by a popular rebellion of unprecedented scale and cruelty. This rapid collapse – which occurred just a few years after Li Si`s infamous biblioclasm – shaped Qin`s image for millennia to come. The dynasty was no longer a success, but a story of dismal failure; And the ideas that guided their policymakers have also been discredited. Already in the first generations after the Qin, a consensus was reached: their collapse was due to excessive activism, abnormal assertion of its administrative apparatus, excessive use of punishment, senseless expansionism and paralyzing distrust between the emperors and their entourage (Jia Yi 賈誼 [200-168 BC]. A.D.] cited in Shiji 6: 276-284; Xin yu 4:62). All this policy could usefully be attributed to the legalists, whose intellectual heritage has therefore been discredited. At best, it was reduced to Sima Tan`s assessment: “a one-off policy that could not be applied all the time.” Given the information of the time (1955) and the period he speaks of, A. F. P. Hulsewé even went so far as to call Shang Yang the “founder of the law school” and considers his unification of sentences as one of his most important contributions; That is, to pronounce the death penalty for anyone who does not obey the king`s orders. Shang Yang even expected the king, although the source of the law (which authorized him), to follow him. This treatment contrasts with ideas that are more typical of archaic society and are portrayed more closely in Zhou`s rites, giving different punishments to different layers of society.
Shen Buhai (申不害, † 337 BC) AD), chief minister of the Han from 351 to 337 BC. AD, is credited with the letter Shenzi and creates an administrative system integrated with legalism. Shen mainly dealt with government administration through bureaucracy. His system required a strong rule in the middle. The ideal leader should stay away from his officials, keep his or her innermost convictions secret, and maintain independence of thought; The leader should be the loneliest person in the world. Shen Buhai saw the biggest threat to the power of a leader coming from within. He believed that threats from powerful independent ministers to take power were more dangerous than threats from outside. Shen defended the concept of shu (術 administrative methods/techniques) and advocated a system of maintaining control against the power of individual officials and equality among officials. Although the origins of the Chinese administrative system cannot be traced back to a single person, the administrator Shen Buhai (c. 400 BC – c. 337 BC) may have had more influence than anyone else on the construction of the meritocracy system and could be considered its founder, if not valuable as a rare pre-modern example of abstract administrative theory. Sinologist Herrlee G.
Creel sees Shen Buhai as the “seed of the civil service examination” and perhaps the first political scientist. [6]: 94 [31]: 4, 119 [32][33][34] Shen Buhai formalized the concept of shù (術, “methods”), a bureaucratic administrative model to assist the ruler and prevent mismanagement. In legalism, the intelligent minister was the ruler`s most important instrument of government. The minister`s job was to understand and regulate certain issues; The leader was responsible for properly assessing the ministers` achievements. The ruler must master the technique of comparing words (ming) and performance (xing). For more than 200 years, the Chinese people have experienced war as their daily reality, and a legalistic approach to trying to control people`s worst impulses – controlling people through the threat of severe punishment for injustice – would have been the best way to deal with the chaos. Shang Yang`s legalism dealt with everyday situations, but also extended to how to behave in wartime, and he is credited with the tactic of total war, which allowed the Qin state to defeat other warring states in order to control China. The ideals of legalism were born about 3,000 to 4,000 years ago by judicial officials of the Xia and Shang dynasties in China`s history. Unlike Confucianism, Taoism or Mohism, legalism had no exact founder. During the Qin Dynasty, all books that did not support legalistic philosophy were burned, and writers, philosophers, and teachers of other philosophies were executed.
The excesses of legalism of the Qin Dynasty made the regime very unpopular with the people of the time. After the fall of Qin, legalism was abandoned in favor of Confucianism, which significantly influenced the development of Chinese culture. The method by which a ruler exercises control, or shu (術 shù), was based on a Taoist view of nature as an amoral force. Unlike Confucianism, which legitimizes a ruler`s authority on the basis of superior moral character and wisdom, legalism attributes authority to the historical position of the ruler. Shen Dao (慎到, c. 350 BC-275 BC), a Chinese philosopher from Zhao, whose writings were mentioned in the works of Han Fei and Zhuang Zi, argued that authority arises and is maintained because of the nature of actual circumstances, and not in accordance with an abstract set of moral values. According to Shen Dao, things simply flow according to the natural course of the path (the Tao) and do not organize themselves in such a way as to conform to an ethical system. Recording and counting system in ancient Chinese culture (Tian Gan Di Zhi) In general, the “fajia” have understood that the power of the state lies in social and political institutions, and are innovative in their goal of subjugating the state to them. [217] [140]: 268 [173]: 175 Like Shen Buhai, Shen Dao largely focused on the statesman (Fa), and the Confucian Xun Kuang discusses this in this capacity, never referring to Shen Dao in terms of power. [218] [13]: 93 [219],[220] Shen Dao is known for his theories about Shih (lit.
