legalism
Legalism ( Chinese 法家 , Pinyin fǎ jiā - "school of law"), also Legism , is a branch of Chinese philosophy from the time of the Warring States (around 480 BC to 221 BC ).
Main work
The main work of legalism is the Han Feizi ( 韓非 子 , Hán Fēizǐ - "Master Han Fei "). The essence of the book is that reward and punishment are the keys to maintaining power. Another developer of this system was Li Si , like Han Fei supposedly a student of Xunzi .
Constitution of human nature
Legalism says that human nature is bad and can not be improved decisively even through education , but only through the threat of severe punishment. The Confucians would be wrong in idealizing the ancients. The more people studied, the less the land would be cultivated. Scholars should be used for more meaningful work. Thus a centralized, meritocratic official state emerged under the Qin , which would continue to exist until 1912 as an important aspect of Chinese politics (ironically, however, in a Confucianized form).
Legalism as a form of government
In the government mainly have three aspects to be considered:
- Power ( 勢 , shì ): Even the mythical emperors could only influence the people after they had ascended the throne .
- Method ( 術 , shù ): virtue alone is not enough.
- Laws ( 法 , fǎ ): Government needs laws.
Legalism in its purest form was only realized by the Qin Dynasty . The contempt for scholarship led to the book burnings of the time. The punishments - executions and gross slave labor - were intended not only for those who break the law, but also for their closest relatives. Along with the Qin dynasty, this pure legalism also perished, although its ideas lived on and continued to exert influence.
See also
literature
- The art of governance: the writings of the master Han Fei , translated from Old Chinese by Wilmar Mögling, Leipzig: Kiepenheuer, 1994