Careful Sub-road Law Thought

Shen Dao, the thinker in the middle of the War Period, is an outstanding intellectual of the time of various viewpoints contending. Besides an important member of Huang Lao School which subjects to the mainstream Ji Xia School, he is also a key figure in the course of the transition from Daoism to Legalism in early Qin Period. The present paper sets to discuss the cultural background and philosophical rationale for new academic project for Shen Dao conducting the combination of Daoism and Legalism or the transition from Daoism to Legalism depending on the historical situation of merging after long period of division and order from disorder in the middle of the War Period, so as to further discuss the key points of Shen Zi's theory of interpreting Legalism with Daoism and Shen Zi's idea of rule of law, which was followed by an evaluation of Shen Zi's historical significance as well as a discussion of the categorization of his theories, based on the researches carried out previously.The introduction part gives a brief introduction to the life story of Shen Zi and the reference base of the present research. Besides defining Shen Zi's academic activities, a literature review of previous researches on Shen Zi's theories and the presentation of the contradictory topics are also conducted in this part.Chapter One introduces the social background that Shen Zi lived in as well as the academic environment for the formation of Shen Zi's theories by discussing the new academic projects in the middle of the War Period.Chapter Two analyzes the origin of Shen Zi's theories as well as the relationship between the theories of Shen Zi and that of the other doctrines, so as to clarify the development route of Shen Zi's theories.Chapter Three discusses the philosophical base of Shen Zi's theories of interpreting Legalism with Daoism, the combination of Daoism and Legalism — the Daoist theory of "abandoning wisdom as well ego", naturalist epistemology of materialism, and the human nature theory of "egoism".Chapter Four reevaluates Shen Zi's theory of "Yin" as well as discusses of the transition from Daoism to Legalism, which is the key point of the new academic project in the middle and late part of the War Period.Chapter Five exemplifies She Zi's ideology of rule of law, based on the philosophy of Daoism, which includes respect for the law, emphasis on power, ministering by the ministers and non-ruling of the emperor, negation of the intellectuals and faithful ministers, etc. Besides, it also points out the differences between Shen Zi's ideology of rule of law and that of Shang Yang and Han Fei.The last chapter evaluates the historical significance as well as the categorization of Shen Zi's theories. Based on the discussion and comparison of previous studies, this part presents its views on the categorization of Shen Zi's theories as well as evaluates the historical significance and the function of the inheritance of academic tradition of Shen Zi's theory of the transition from Daoism to Legalism or the combination of Daoism and Legalism.