promulgate a law
"Lawmakers who make maps build maps in the government and distribute them to ordinary people." The role of law is to restrain people's behavior. The king has the right to punish those who violate the law and reward those who abide by the king's laws. The theoretical basis of motivating people through rewards and punishments is that human nature pursues advantages and avoids disadvantages. At the same time, Han Feizi said: "My husband and sage did not rely on others to be kind to me, but they managed the country badly." Not many people can rely on my goodwill, and not many people in China. There is nothing wrong with hiring people. A country can do all this together. For those in power, they use the masses and give up a few people, so they serve the law instead of morality. "The sage's way of governing the country is not to rely on everyone to do good deeds, but to prevent everyone from doing bad things. There are countless good people in a country. Let a few people who do bad things not do bad things, and the country will be peaceful. The king ruled the country with the strength of the whole people and did many evils. Therefore, don't always focus on promoting good morality, but try to establish rules and regulations. According to this inference, the king only needs to master the law to rule the people, and the society will be peaceful. It is futile to govern the country only by advocating good moral education.
According to the name and responsibility
This is the Legalist interpretation of "correcting the name". Kings need a statecraft to control their officials. However, officials who hold certain positions have the responsibility to complete all the tasks required by their positions. The duty of a monarch is to entrust a nominal position to someone. The relevant laws have clearly defined the work required for this position. The monarch only cares about whether the officials have done their duty. As for how to meet the job requirements, this is the official's own business and does not need the guidance of the monarch. What a king should do is to reward him for completing the task and punish him for not completing it. The key is how the king chooses the right person for a position. "As for who is Minister Chen, you are responsible for his work as he says. Do what you want, do what you say, and get what you want; If you don't do what you do, if you don't do what you say, you will be punished. " In this way, those who have the ability are better and those who have no ability are eliminated.
Good is rewarded with good, and evil with evil; good is rewarded with good, and evil with evil; virtue swill have a good reward, vice will have an evil recompense
Legalists believe that all people have the nature of "seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages" or "seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages". Guan Zhong once said that a businessman who travels day and night, even if he takes Wan Li Road, will not feel too far away, because the interests are attracting him ahead. Fishermen swim against the current and are not afraid of danger. They don't care if they are hundreds of miles away. They also pursue the interests of fishing. Similarly, Shang Yang concluded that "people have likes and dislikes, so they can be cured." Therefore, Legalists combine the advantages and disadvantages of human nature with the prosperity of the country. They use rewards and punishments to induce and drive people to "farm", "fight" and "sue traitors". Those who produce more food, kill more enemies and expose more crimes can be awarded official titles and farmland houses.
Legalists oppose the conservative thinking of retro and advocate positive reform. They believe that history is advancing, and all laws and systems should develop with the development of history. They can neither go back to ancient times nor take the old road. Shang Yang clearly put forward the proposition of "violating the past and not inheriting the present". Han Fei further developed Shang Yang's thought, and put forward that "times change and it is difficult to control chaos". He satirized the traditional Confucianism that fools wait for rabbits.
The combination of potential and technology
Shang Yang, Shen Dao and Shen Buhai advocated attaching importance to law, power and skill respectively, each with its own characteristics. Han Fei, a legalist at that time, put forward the idea of combining the three closely. Law refers to the perfection of the legal system, power refers to the power of the monarch to monopolize the military and political power, and art refers to the strategies and means to control officials, master political power and enforce laws. Mainly to find and prevent rebellion and maintain the status of the monarch. Liu Muyu, a contemporary scholar, mentioned in "On the Illegal Rule of Man" that "the protection of law is related to the monarch's government, and what the government does, what the government does together".
At the beginning of the Warring States, feudal systems were established in succession in various vassal states. In order to meet the needs of comprehensive reform of slavery in economic, political and ideological fields, the new landlord class legalist school came into being. The thinkers of this school have their own characteristics and strategies in theory, but they all advocate the rule of law. The legalists of Qi gave lectures at Jixia Academy, inherited and developed Guan Zhong's thought, studied Huang Lao's theory, advocated paying equal attention to law and etiquette, and valued virtue over punishment, thus forming a relatively moderate theory of rule of virtue and rule of law. Faguanzi, the Silk Classics, Sixteen Classics, Unknown and Daoyuan are his representative works. On the other hand, legalists in Qin Jin and China advocate severe punishment and oppose advocating propriety. They paid special attention to law, skills and power, and rewarded agricultural wars. They are rich in Qiang Bing and powerful in the world. They are brave and thorough members of the French family and have made great achievements. Historically, Qin Jin legalists were generally regarded as the main representatives of the pre-Qin legalists.
One of the founders of legalism, he was appointed as a monk. He advocated "increasing soil fertility", vigorously developing agricultural production, adjusting grain rent, and formulating a "flat purchase" law, taking into account the interests of farmers and citizens. He also collected the criminal laws of various countries at that time and arranged them into six articles from 0755 to 79000. Hokkekyo, larceny law, larceny law, prison law and arrest law. It is the first relatively complete code in ancient China. At the same time, Wu first carried out military reform in Wei, and then carried out political reform in Chu. "Knowing the law will harm the officials who are not in a hurry" and "the descendants of the monarch are knighted for the third time", which broke the old aristocratic system of clearing stones, forced the old aristocratic immigrants to reclaim wasteland and rewarded "warriors". Later, Shang Yang carried out two political reforms in the Qin Dynasty. The main contents are: clearing the way and abolishing the mining field system; Recognize private ownership of land and reward agricultural war. People who work hard at spinning can change their original position no matter how much millet and silk they pay. Those who have made military contributions can be awarded titles. Implement the county system; He advocates severe punishment to prevent crime. However, he refused moral education and despised the role of knowledge and culture. He looked at history from a developmental perspective, and put forward that "those who oppose the ancient times are indispensable, and there are not many courtiers" and "if the world is not cured, the country will violate the ancient laws". Shang Yang emphasized "Fa" and Shen Buhai emphasized "Shu". "Performers are given official positions because of their positions, and they are responsible for the actual situation in the name. He practiced the skill of hunting animals. He also teaches omnipotent priests. He is also the master of this person. " In order to prevent ministers from manipulating power and laws, Shen Buhai suggested that the supreme ruler must use laws, and the monarch should rule by "watching alone", "listening alone" and "acting arbitrarily". He believes that "the only observer is wise, and the only listener is also wise." You can act arbitrarily, so you can be the master of the world. "Jun" has a heart and a soul, and the world has a cure, so the word is determined by the world, and the word is not. "The monarch's personal comments and opinions can determine the rise and fall of the country, which shows the autocratic thought.
Taoism is a school of French scholars, which emphasizes the rule of "power" and advocates that the monarch can "control power by law" and "govern by doing nothing". From the point of view of "abandoning knowledge and forgetting myself", he puts forward that "if your majesty does not bow to the law, it will be the law." He regards the law as the highest standard and advocates that "there is no relationship between the government and the people, there is no love in the law, and only the law". He emphasized that "law" must be combined with "power" and regarded the power of the monarch as the power to execute the law. The so-called "sage wisdom is not enough to convince the public, but enough to help saints", but he also believes that the survival of the country is not entirely determined by the monarch. "The crime of subjugating the country is inhuman, and the power of governing the country is inhuman." He admitted that "the law" is not immutable, and proposed that "not changing the law is not obeying the law".
At the end of the Warring States Period, Han Fei combined Qin Jin's legalist thoughts, and combined "power", "technique" and "law" into one, that is, governing officials and people with power, and absorbing Taoist thoughts to systematize the theory of rule of law. He advocated strengthening the centralization of monarchy, cutting off private rights, "teaching according to law", implementing clear rewards and punishments, and rewarding agricultural warfare. In the view of history, he put forward the viewpoints of "if you don't fix it, you will have it" and "if you don't fix it, you will change it", and divided the development of history into the ancient world, the medieval world, the near ancient world and the modern world. Philosophically, Lao Tzu reformed Tao, pointing out that "Tao is the foundation of all things, and all things have their roots", Li wrote in his article. Tao is the general law of the development of all things, while reason is the special law of the development of individual things. Emphasize that people must follow objective laws to carry out activities. Epistemologically, he put forward the method of "participation and test", and used the actual effect of "action" to test people's words and deeds. He thinks that "those who don't take the exam but have to take it are stupid." Those who believe they can do it will be falsely accused. As a method to judge whether knowledge is true or false, inspection is of great significance to the development of China's ancient materialist epistemology.
Legalist thought played an important role in the feudal reform during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and even Qin Shihuang unified the six countries and established a centralized feudal autocratic country, which became the ruling thought of the Qin Dynasty. After the Western Han Dynasty, independent legalists gradually disappeared, and their thought of rule of law was absorbed into the Confucian system. Combined with moral punishment, it has become a powerful tool to maintain the dictatorship of the landlord class. However, the pre-Qin legalists still had some influence on some later materialists and progressive thinkers.
It's good for everyone.
The law should be made public because it is the basis for the monarch to govern the country and the code of conduct that the people should abide by. Then the law should appear in written form, be made public, and strive to become a "household name" law. Han Fei stressed: "If the law is enforced by the government, then the punishment must be imposed on the people. Reward it with caution and punish it with rape. " The purpose of this law is twofold: first, let people know what to avoid and what to avoid through the law; Second, supervision officials try cases in public to prevent criminals from mediating outside the law.
Act according to law
We must act in strict accordance with the law and safeguard the legal authority. Legalists are firmly opposed to talking about benevolence, righteousness and morality outside the "law". Han Feizi clearly pointed out: "We should find out its legal prohibition and review its plan. Ming, there is no danger of chaos; If you plan to do this, you won't be in danger of death. Therefore, it is unjust to defend the country. " He believes that "ruling the country according to law" should eliminate all human factors and avoid "saving lives when the government is working and the people lose the interests of the government". As the saying goes, "it is chaotic to rule by man, and it is dangerous to abandon the rule of law." Therefore, as the saying goes: resort to law rather than morality. '
There is no hierarchy in punishment.
Legalists believe that once a law is promulgated and takes effect, it must be "official rather than private, and the law does not abandon its feelings." The monarch and his ministers must "privatize the law", emphasizing that "law" is a unified standard for regulating society and a "law of size, rope, rules, weighing stones, playing basketball and measuring angles", which vividly illustrates the objectivity and stability of "law". In the application process, it should be treated equally. The so-called "respecting the monarch and the minister, abiding by the law", "the law has no dignity, and the rope is inelastic", and "the punishment does not evade the minister, and the reward does not abandon Shu Ren" all reflect the Legalists' determination to enforce the law impartially.
Legal stability
"One law" and "one respect" emphasize unifying the content and legislative power of the law and maintaining the stability of the law, that is, "one law" and "one respect". "Law is just a firm thing", and "one" refers to the content of "law". It can't be "new, opposite and inconsistent". "Firmness" means maintaining the stability of the law, and "day after day" will only be the way to national subjugation. This also reflects the change of legalist position from "reform" to "revision". Only "politics and law are completely ruled by God" can we ensure that "the government has no two doors" and realize the goal of unifying legislative power.