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Legalism

Legalism in ancient China was a philosophical belief that human beings are more inclined to do wrong than right because they are motivated entirely by self-interest and require strict laws to control their impulses. It was developed by the philosopher Han Feizi (l. c. 280 - 233 BCE) of the state of Qin.

Han Feizi is thought to have been a student of the Confucian reformer (and last of the Five Great Sages of Confucianism), Xunzi (l. c. 310-c.235 BCE) who departed from the central precept of Confucianism that humans were basically good, claiming they most certainly were not for, if they were, they would not need instruction in goodness.

Han Feizi drew on this one aspect of Xunzi's work as well as earlier writings of the Warring States Period of China (c. 481 - 221 BCE) by a Qin statesman named Shang Yang (d. 338 BCE) to develop his philosophy that, since humans were inherently evil, laws to control and punish were a necessity for social order. Even though Legalism during the Qin Dynasty resulted in huge loss of life and culture, it should be remembered that the philosophy developed during a time of constant warfare in China when each state fought every other for control and imposing order on this chaos was, obviously, considered of the utmost importance.

The Adoption of Legalism

For over 200 years the people of China 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 doing wrong - would have seemed like the best way to deal with the chaos. Shang Yang's legalism dealt with everyday situations but extended to how one should conduct one's self in war and he is credited with the tactics of total war which allowed the state of Qin to defeat the other warring states to control China.

Legalism became the official philosophy of the Qin Dynasty (221 - 206 BCE) when the first emperor of China, Shi Huangdi (r. 221-210 BCE), rose to power and banned all other philosophies as a corrupting influence. Confucianism was especially condemned because of its insistence on the basic goodness of human beings and its teaching that people only needed to be gently directed toward good in order to behave well.

During the Qin Dynasty any books which did not support the Legalist philosophy were burned and writers, philosophers, and teachers of other philosophies were executed. The excesses of the Qin Dynasty's legalism made the regime very unpopular with the people of the time. After the Qin were overthrown, Legalism was abandoned in favor of Confucianism and this influenced the development of the culture of China significantly.