The Legalists' Research

Legalism is an important branch among the exponents of the various schools of thought during pre-Qin. It should not be neglected in Chinese culture. It is the kernel of Chinese traditional law culture. So it is significant to study legalists' thought roundly and thoroughly.According to the region where the legalists were born, they can be divided into two groups:Qi and Jin.Guanzi is the representative of Qi legalists and Hanfeizi,, Shangjunshu are the representatives of Jin legalists. They have the sameness as legalists, and exist unneglective differences at the same time .So it is possible and necessary to draw a comparison study. On the base of production that have been made by other scholars, the paper pays attention to not only the obvious differences but also the subtle, significant differences between Qi legalists and Jin legalists. I do my best to draw a deep, general and delicate comparison. The paper includes chapters as following:Chapter 1st: Define the legalists at first, then expound the reasons and conditions that legalists were born from the political, economic and academic background. Because the legalists were born later than other pre-Qin schools, I discuss the effects that Confucian, Tao, Ming and Mo have on the legalists.Chapter 2nd: Compare Qi culture with Jin culture, and analyse the causes of formation in order to reveal the inevitability that legalists came into being in Qi and Jin. At the same time I analyse the differences between the two groups from the regional culture.Chapter 3rd: Though Guanzi and Shangjunshu were not written by Guan Zhong and Shang Yang themselves, they have close relation with them. In this chapter, the relation between Guanzi and Guan Zhong JShangjunshu and Shang Yang are discussed first, then the parentage, life experiences and characters of Guan Zhong, Shang Yang and Han Fei are compared in order to open out the differences between Qi legalists and Jin legalists from the angle of human being.Chapter 4th: Compare the sameness and differences in economy between Qi legalists and Jin legalists. They all attached importance to agriculture, but the policies they brought into effect are different. Qi insisted developing commerce, but Jin restrained it.Chapter 5*: On plebs Qi legalists admitted plebs' wisdom and power, so they loved plebs , made plebs rich at first ,then used them. But Jin legalists despised plebs.They made plebs poor and weak in order to use them.Chapter 6th: Qi legalists and Jin legalists all thought that the shortage of material compared to population caused the combat, so the law appeared. They all paid attention to the proportion between population and materials, occupation proportion and population quality, but the matter is different.Chapter 7th: On the relation between the king and the officials, Jin legalists thought they were absolutely opposite. Qi legalists tried to make a harmonious relation under the condition that the king was honorable and the officials were humble. The differences lie in the difference of Tao in their thoughts and the original idea about the relation between the king and the officials in Qi culture and Jin culture.Chapter 8~th: Compare the legislation principles from six respects. Tao is the legalists' legislation foundation. But Qi legalists claimed that the laws came from Tao, Jin legalists only...