Legalism

Fajia, often termed Legalism, is one of six classical schools of thought in Chinese philosophy. The "Fa school of thought" represents several branches of what Feng Youlan called "men of methods"—statesmen or theoreticians often compared in the west with "political realism"—who contributed greatly to the construction of the bureaucratic Chinese empire. Although lacking a recognized founder, the earliest persona of the Fajia may be considered Guan Zhong (720–645 BCE), while Chinese historians commonly regard Li Kui (455–395 BCE) as the first Legalist philosopher. Sinologist Herrlee G. Creel regarded the combination of administrator Shen Buhai (400–337 BCE) and Legalist Shang Yang (390–338 BCE), syncretized under Han Fei (c. 240 BCE), as becoming what would historically be known as the Fajia, with the former two representing its founding branches. Sinologist Jacques Gernet considered the "theorists of the state" later christened Fajia or 'Legalists' to be the most important intellectual tradition of the fourth and third centuries BCE. With the Han dynasty taking over the governmental institutions of the Qin dynasty almost unchanged, the Qin to Tang dynasty were characterized by the "centralizing, statist tendencies" of the Fa tradition. Leon Vandermeersch and Vitaly Rubin would assert not a single state measure throughout Chinese history as having been without Legalist influence. Dubbed by A. C. Graham the "great synthesizer of 'Legalism'", Han Fei is regarded as their finest writer, if not the greatest statesman in Chinese history (Hu Shi). Often considered the "culminating" or "greatest" of the "Legalist's" texts, the Han Feizi is believed to contain the first commentaries on the Dao De Jing. Sun Tzu's The Art of War incorporates both a Daoist philosophy of inaction and impartiality, and a Legalist system of punishment and rewards, recalling Han Fei's use of the concepts of power (勢, shì) and technique (術, shù). Temporarily coming to overt power as an ideology with the ascension of the Qin dynasty, the First Emperor of Qin and succeeding emperors often followed the template set by Han Fei. Though the origins of the Chinese administrative system cannot be traced to any one person, prime minister Shen Buhai may have had more influence than any other in the construction of the merit system, and might be considered its founder, if not valuable as a rare pre-modern example of abstract theory of administration.