Legalism (Chinese philosophy)

Legalism (Chinese法家, Pinyin fǎ Jia, law school '), also Legismus is a direction of Chinese philosophy from the time of the Warring States Period (around 480 BC to 221 BC).

Main work

The main work of legalism is the Han Feizi (韩非 子, Hán Fēizǐ, Master Han Fei '). Gist of the book is that reward and punishment are the key to maintaining the power. Another developer of this system was Li Si as Han Fei said to be a disciple of Xunzi.

Nature of human nature

Legalism says that human nature is bad and can not be significantly improved, but only by the threat of severe penalties by education. The Confucians were wrong with their idealization of the ancients. The more people studied, the less would be built on the land. Scholars should be used for more meaningful work. So, among the Qin, a centralized, meritocratic bureaucratic state, which until 1912 should be considered an important aspect of Chinese policy further ( but ironically in konfuzianisierter form).

Legalism as a form of government

In the government mainly three aspects must be considered:

• Power (势, shì ): Even the mythical emperors could only affect the people after they had ascended the throne.
• Method (术, Shu ): Virtue alone is not enough.
• Laws (法, fǎ ): Government required laws.

Legalism in pure form was achieved only by the Qin Dynasty. The contempt of scholarship led to the burning of books this time. The punishments - executions and severe slave labor - were not only intended for those who violated laws, but also for their closest relatives. Together with the Qin Dynasty perished with this pure legalism, although his ideas lived on and continued to exert influence.