Legalists Thoughts Premises example essay topic

In contrary to its contemporary antagonist philosophical schools, who advocate the practices of humanness and the rightness and set ideal of the past, the Legalists, in their complete rejection of the traditional ethics, embraces the efficacy of political power and uphold a society of laws and punishments. As the old feudal states decayed and the smoke of endemic warfare suffused, the need for a more rational government that can afford greater centralized power so as to strengthen a state against its rival increased substantially among the Warring States. Such a rising urge necessitated the emergence of the Legalists and further predetermined the Legalists' inherent nature - realistic, totalitarian and problem-solving - which, with the realization of its significance and duty in the stream of history, finds its hegemonic character as well. In function, the Legalist is more of a powerful and influential government consultative committee than a philosophical school.

In practice, they openly advocate war as a means of state expansion and transforming people into more submissive and loyal or inversely, a way for its people to server the state; they conceive a political structure where all government apparatus and social institutions reside under an absolute monarch, who has the ultimate power and set his foundation in an elaborately self-contained, austerely impartial and severely coercive legal machinery; the state would also find no existence of the earlier schools of thoughts if not their total annihilation; loyalty to their emperor and "weakened" minds among people would prevail, bringing about social stability enabling intensive and efficient farming. It is thus rational for us to question the validity of preconditions upon which these ideas were acquired and the legitimacy of the ideas; and later but more importantly, how did the Legalists become the only classical thoughts had its teaching adopted as the sole official doctrine of a regime ruling all China and bring about the unification of China; and lastly, the association of the all-too-soon collapse of the ephemeral Qin Dynasty and the Legalists thoughts. As for the precondition of the Legalists' thoughts, there are a few fundamental premises or judgments that we can find from the texts. As an independent school of thoughts in order to distinguish itself among all Hundreds of Schools and set aside all past ideals and standards, the Legalists, first of all, believed in the inevitability of a constant change in society. As noted by Han Fei (d. 233 B.C.E. ), "past and present have different customs" (101); at a "critical age" of the chaotic Warring States, "to try to use the ways of a generous and lenient government to rule the people", is like trying to "drive a runaway horse without using reins or whip" (101).

As a public defiance of the past, this fundamental believe in a changing world clearly draw the boarder between the Legalists and other schools headed by Confucianism, which was confirmed by Han Fei: "it is obvious that humaneness cannot be used to achieve order in the state" (102). It is not clear at this point whether it is rational for the Legalists to conclude that Confucianism is of no use to be applied in the current society. However, we should be able to say, as has been proven throughout the history, that Legalists were correct on their firm believe in change-to-fit. More importantly, those ideas had opened up the space for the Legalists to apply further reforms. It is the ultimate goal for every regime to build up a strong nation both economically and politically. But problems arise whenever resources are not meeting the demand of social developments, which became increasingly obvious in the late Warring States time due an increase in population, consumption and the spread of war.

Another fundamental precondition of the Legalists' thoughts, which in this case is rather a pessimistic interpretation of human nature, was gained in their studying of creating more wealth for the nation. They agreed with their predecessors that "human beings are inherently selfish and antisocial" and as pointed out by Shang Yang (d. 338 B.C.E. ): "they think of nothing but of how to realize their selfish interests" (187). They as well hold no believe in the society at large because "hardly ten men of true integrity and good faith can be found today, and yet the offices of the state number in the hundreds" (Han 109). Such a believe in human being, though not logically convincing to constitute a static judgment that holds forever, is at least reasonable enough to be a statement of a matter-of-fact. A third underlying premise, which is probably the most essential in setting the flash-and-burn nature of the Legalists, is an all-too-confident trust in the ruler's ability and virtue as well as an almost cultic, absolute believe his monarchal power, or in a term that might win favor in front of the emperor, deity - "The sage ruler, by his governing of men is certain to win their hearts; consequently he is able to exert strength.

Strength produces force; force produces prestige; prestige produces virtue. Virtue has its origin in strength. The sage ruler alone possesses it, and therefore he is able to transmit humaneness and rightness to all-under-heaven... ".

(Shang 259). However, I believe this is not quite concisely what the Legalists hold a firm believe in; such rhetoric might only represent the idea from an angle that the ruler could accept at ease. Being a political institution and a critical part of the regime, the Legalists have concerns for themselves and may therefore seek personal and power advancement as well in their assisting the state. With such a thought, the third premise can be better stated as: all individuals, authorities and government apparatus will never run into interest conflicts with, and will always reside under, the centralized administration headed by a tiny minority of people who have the ultimate supremacy and power. Note worthily, such a precondition has an immediate accord with the social need at that time as mentioned earlier, in which a rational government can afford greater centralized power so as to strengthen a state against its rival states. It also represents a significant role in making possible Qin's later command and conquests as well as a self-destructive effect over the internal government structure.

At this point with the three premises, however, we can only say that the believe in change is a proved one; the judgment of human nature is arguable but can be presented as a fact; and lastly their total embrace in supremacy and power is nothing more justifiable than only a meet of historical need. However, our subjective judging of the validity of the Legalists thoughts that are built upon the three premises is an even harder task to complete. History judges humanly achievement by its result but not the course of it. Winning gains preeminence and lost lead to oblivion.

In our case, history had labeled the Legalists' thought "win" in both their being the first and the only school of thought become the official doctrine of a regime and their further assisting Qin in the unification of China. Therefore, at the bottom line, from a history's critical point of view, the earlier "win" made the Legalists' thoughts' premises comprehensibly acceptable while the latter "win" made the Legalists' thoughts praiseworthily to the unification of China. In answering the most important question of how could the Legalists assist Qin bring about the unification of China, we can first look at the whole image they were facing. The Legalists had an ultimate goal of strengthening the nation and finally achieving unification of the whole nation; they were ready to bring in new ideologies and measurements, and at the same time they recognize the supremacy and power of the centralized government; they also bear in mind that the people have an inherently negative contribution to the nation. In achieving their goal, they have to somehow devise a system that could keep a sustainable situation where people can work and produce with efficiency while monarchial supremacy and power can be acquired and protected. Shang Yang once claimed: "a wise man creates laws, but a foolish man is controlled by them; a man of talent reforms rites, but a worthless man is enslaved by them...

". (171) and "a weak people means a strong state and a strong state means a weak people". (303) At this juncture, the Legalists proposed two ideas: to introduce an elaborate, impartial and coercive legal system, and to weaken and simplify the people of the state. It seems ironic though when we learn that what the Legalists mean by "a weak people" is not physical weakness or working inefficiency, but is instead an implication of intellectual dullness and mental simpleness. Holding such a point and in their general rejection to the Confucianism, the Legalists are in another way implying that Confucianism thoughts could make people stronger intellectually. The reason why the Legalists would rather prefer weaker people is that they believe the sophistry of philosophers would bring confusion, idleness to the people.

This is however never well proved in the text. Han Fei also pointed out that: "the way of enlightened ruler is to unify the laws instead of seeking for wise men, to lay down firm policies instead of longing for men of good faith" (109). With all these images in mind, we may conclude that the measures applied by the Legalists are not necessarily optimized for the benefits of the nation but the power and benefit of the monarch instead. The efficacy of these measurements is eminent; they greatly increased the power of the centralized government and the army; they also further enabled Qin to be strong enough to conquer all the other Warring States and achieve the unification of China. However, an increased power in return leverages the instability within the people foundation of the society. The Legalists put the state and its interests ahead of all human and moral concerns and look upon human beings as having no worth apart from their possible use of states.

Legalists and Qin's under-estimate of the power of people prophesied their own doom. In conclusion, emerged from a need for a more centralized power, the school of Legalists built upon their generally accepted premises their system of thoughts, which are mainly focused in building an efficient legal system and weakening the people. The measurements they have employed were justified by the history to be in light of the unification of China. Ironically, once only embraced the centralized power of monarch but looked down upon the power of people, the Legalists and Qin dynasty were at last toppled by the power of the latter.

Bibliography

Han, Fei (d. 233 B.C.E. ). The Han Fei zi. In WM. Theodore De Bary & Irene Bloom, ed. Sources of Chinese Tradition. 2nd ed. Vol 1. New York: Columbia University, 1999. Shang, Yang (d. 338 B.C.E. ). Shang jun Shu. In WM. 2nd ed. Vol 1.