During Shi Huangdi`s reign, those who broke the law, even by minor offenses, were sentenced to forced labor in the construction of the Great Wall or Grand Canal, or the new roads that the Qin dynasty needed to transport troops and supplies. The Chinese people hated Qin legalism, but were powerless against the Qin soldiers and governors who enforced the law. Legalism is just one of many intellectual currents that flourished in China in the three centuries before imperial unification in 221 BC. This period, often referred to as the « hundred schools » age, is exceptionally rich in political thought. The eruption of interest in political issues is no coincidence: it took place in the context of a serious systemic crisis. The end of the spring and autumn period (Chunqiu 春秋, 770-453 BC). A.D.) A.D.) was characterized by the gradual disintegration of political structures in the Zhou 周 Empire (the Chinese world at that time). Gradually, the Zhou world became entangled in a network of crippling struggles between rival political regimes, between powerful nobles and lords within each regime, and between aristocratic lines, and between rival branches within the main lines. In the fourth century BC. A certain degree of recentralization was achieved in individual political regimes, but interstate warfare continued to intensify, giving the new era a threatening name: the Warring States era (Zhanguo 戰國, 453-221 BC). As wars became increasingly bloody and devastating, with no adequate diplomatic means in sight to resolve conflicts, most thinkers and statesmen understood that the unity of « Everything Under Heaven » (tianxia 天下) was the only way to achieve peace and stability (Pines 2000). How to achieve this unity and how to « stabilize everything under the sky » became the central question raised by competing thinkers. Ultimately, the ability of legalists to provide the most convincing answers to this question became the sole source of their ideological appeal.

Confucianism could be openly expressed again during the Han Dynasty. The suppression of legalism and legalistic philosophers reduced the danger of reaffirmation of philosophy and made it possible to explore opposing points of view. However, this does not mean that legalism has disappeared or no longer has an impact on Chinese culture. Legalism has remained a popular philosophy throughout China`s history into modern times. Whenever a government felt it was losing control, it resorted to a certain degree of legalism. Shen Dao concludes that the ministers may be guided by moral commitment; On the contrary, these exceptional people should not be employed at all. This sentiment is echoed in Han Feizi, a text that expresses with extreme clarity his conviction that each member of the elite – like each member of society – pursues his or her own interests (cf. Goldin 2005:58-65; 2013). There are officials of moral integrity, but they are extraordinary individuals: « One cannot even find a dozen men of integrity and trustworthiness of the service (shi士), while the officials within the borders number in the hundreds. If only men of integrity and trustworthiness can be employed in the ministry, then there will not be enough people to fill the positions » (Han Feizi 49:451). This awareness is the source of the thinker`s great concern about the continuous and intractable power struggle between the ruler and members of his entourage (see below), and is also a source of Han Fei`s (and other legalists`) insistence on the priority of impersonal norms and regulations in dealing with relations between leaders and ministers.

A sound administrative system should not be based on the trust and respect of ministers; On the contrary, they should be strictly controlled. A political system that presupposes human egoism is the only viable political system. Therefore, my teaching is that those who seek advantages gain them nowhere else but in tillage, and those who want to avoid evil escape nowhere else but in war. Within the borders, everyone in the people devotes himself first to agriculture and war, and only then receives what he wants. Although the area is small, grain is abundant, and although there are few people, the army is powerful. Those who are able to implement these two within borders will complete the path of hegemony and monarch. (Shang jun shu 25:139; Lord Shang Book 25.5) Legalism is sometimes compared to modern social sciences (Schwartz 1985), and this comparison captures some of its characteristics. Angus v. Graham (1989:269) notes that legalists were the first political philosophers in China « who assume not how society should be, but as it is. » In fact, it was the most practical of all pre-imperial intellectual currents. Their stated goal was to create a « rich state and a powerful army » (fu guo qiang bing 富國強兵)[2] which would be the prerequisite for the future unification of the entire subcelestial empire. Thinkers focused on how to achieve this goal rather than philosophical speculation. Therefore, their writings are generally free from overriding moral considerations or conformity with the divine will—topoi that recur in the writings of the disciples of Confucius 孔子 (551-479 BC) and Mozi墨子 (c.

460-390 BC). Cosmological determinations of the political order, which according to Laozi 老子 (fourth century BC). A.D.) They are mentioned in some fragments of Shen Buhai and Shen Dao, and especially in several chapters of Han Feizi. However, these speculations are not essential to the reasoning of these thinkers: therefore, Pace attempts to consider Han Fei`s cosmological digressions as the foundations of his political philosophy (Wang and Chang 1986), it would be more accurate to see them as argumentative means that have not been « fully assimilated » into Han Fei`s thought (Graham 1991: 285; cf. Goldin 2013: 14-18). [3] In general, legalistic thinkers exhibit considerable philosophical sophistication only when they have to justify their deviations from conventional approaches of other intellectual currents. In this regard, their views on historical development and human nature are very engaging. This claim implies that the legalism of the Qin Dynasty resembled the current censorship to control the dissemination of information. There was a lack of freedom for citizens and their right to express their ideas. Legalists were afraid of criticism and mistakes, and so they tried to keep their citizens docile by denying them information that could be used to question the way the government was run. Legalistic thinkers, both theoretically and as political practitioners, contributed significantly to the formation of the Chinese empire; and many of their ideas have continued to be used throughout China`s history.

But their mocking views on the moralistic discourse of their rivals, their haughty attitude toward other intellectuals, and their openly anti-ministerial rhetoric earned them immense aversion among imperial scholars.