The Fa Theory Of The Huanglao In Warring States Period

The concept of Fa in the Huanglao doctrine started in the early Warring States Period, and became a whole theoretical system in the middle and late Warring States Period. The appearance of the Fa theory of the Huanglao aimed at making up the absence of the theories of social order and social rules after the Western Zhou Dynasty through the way of"bringing Fa into Taoism", that is to say, tried to deduce social rules that the society should be accustomed to from Taoism. The rise and fall of the Fa theory in the Huanglao doctrine was closely related to trend of thoughts and political practices of the time, and it brought huge impact on Confucianism of the Western Han Dynasty.This dissertation can be divided into six parts according to the stages of the evolution of the concept of the Fa.Part one discusses the background of the birth of the Fa theory of the Huanglao. Ever since Western Zhou Dynasty, the legal sources became diverse and the rationality of social order was not well discussed, while it drew both attention of the Confucians and the Mohists in the Spring and Autumn Period with a traditional thought mode. A new theory came into being from the conflict of the Confucianism and the Mohism.Part two discusses the birth of the Fa theory in Huanglao doctrine and the main represention statement of the doctrine. There were reasons reasonable that the Huanglao doctrine chose the Fa as the name of the social regulations. The Fa was not commonly seen before the Warring States Period, and it was not systematized until the Huanglao doctrine used the Fa as its core theory. The Huanglao doctrine believed that the Fa and Taoism had external and internal relationship. However, description of Taoism was completed through the forms of materialization of the Tiandi, Sishi, etc. The key to the transformation of the Taoism and the Fa lies in the examination of XingMing. On the other hand, the different attitudes towards the Ming made the Taoism dividing into two different schisms, namely the Huanglao and the Laozhuang.Part three discusses Wuwei, which is an important concept to supporting the system of the Fa theory in the Huanglao doctrine. The Fa originates from Taoism. So it excludes the involvement of personal ideas. So Wuwei means deferring to Taoism while doing nothing wrong. Wuwei is the basic state of mind for all members of society, either establishing the legal system or the enforcement of law. This part particularly discusses the practice of Wuwei in the context of political science with the help of other related systems. The theory of the legislation of Wuwei was undistributed. In order to closely unite the static legal system with the dynamic society, the Huanglao doctrine brought forward the XingDe theory later.Part four further discusses the relation of XingDe and the Fa. The creation of XingDe was to compensate the shortcoming the Wuwei, while the XingDe itself foreshowed the defect of the Wuwei. XingDe had to run within the framework of Wuwei, which made XingDe hard to execute. This led to the separation of XingDe theory, which attributed to the two transformations, one is from XingDe to XingShang and the other is from Xingde to religion (and Shushu as well). The former advocated the power of the sovereign while the latter advocated Shendao. But both of them led the policy"using Taoism to perfect social order"to a wrong way, and it declared the end of the legislation of Wuwei .Part five emphasizes the changing process of the Huanglao dctrine to an instrument for the authority in the Warring States and Qin-Han Dynasty. The Huanglao doctrine got further trapped in interpretating the reasons of rule-making, while thought of adjusting measures to local conditions began more and more popular was widely acknowledged . The Huanglao doctrine declined for the self-entrapment, and lost its vitality, while the connotation of the Fa changed accordinly as well.Part six is the conclusion of the whole dissertation. This part first elaborates the evolution of the concept of the Fa in Huanglao doctrine, secondly it makes a research on the reasons of the evolution of the concept and the rise and fall of theories. At last, it briefly summarizes the historical significance of Taoism-Fa, and reconsiders the philosophical functions in the forming process of the order of law.