| During the pre-Qin period, due to the rise of the various schools of thought, there appeared a prosperity situation of one hundred schools of thought. It was the first trend of thought in Chinese history. Among the thoughts of pre-Qin times, there existed proximity between the Militarist School and Legalist School. They had the world outlook of contradiction. In their opinion, it was because men were always disputing benefit with each other that world was full of contradiction. For a better solution, they adopted three ways including the law, the tactics and the power, to restrain people with the unification standard, control people with trickery, and oppress people with the advantageous situation. In pursuit of efficiency, they proposed the centralization of power into individual, such as military officers or monarch. In view of the national condition, it was because the proximity between the Legalist school and the Military School that Qin choosed the Legalist School, which helped it to win strength finally.As the first legalist of Qin, Shang Yang was not only a thinker, but also a experienced statesman. The aim that Shang Yang entered Qin was to fulfill his dreams.The efforts which Shang Yang made originally to convince Qin Xiaogong to use the approach of emperor way or kingly way failed. Finally, it was the Shang Yang's technique of strengthening state that obtained Qin Xiaogong's recognition. The core of Shang Yang'thoughts was that'state first', and his technique of strengthening state lay in using people'powers. To this end, Shang Yang had firstly to weaken the people, only then they could be governed. The weaker the people's stength, the stronger the ruler's power. That was known as'the Reform of Shang Yang'. In Shang Yang's opinion, populace mostly prefer rank of nobility and its salary to penalty, so people could be governed by law. There was a complementary and interdependent relationship between the processes of weakening people and governing people, though both were different in the main objective. Shang Yang also emphasized the dominant role which monarch played during the implementation of the thought of Legalist school. It was on the basis of punishment, rewarding and education, that the thoughts of Legalist played a role. Otherwise, it was a mere scrap of paper.Although Shang Yang was executed after Qin Xiaogong died, his thought had been regarded as the political guidance, until Qin unified the other six states. Unlike Shang Yang, Han Fei, another representative of Legalist School, called for royalism. Minister and populace had to work for it. Han Fei inherited and developed Shang Yang's thoughts, among which he affirmed the part of the rule by law, but refuted the one-sidedness. He also criticized that there was only law, but not trickery in Shang Yang's thoughts, which restricted the development of Qin. In order to compensate the insufficiency of Shang Yang's thoughts, into which Han Fei blent the tactics of Shen Zi. Han Fei proposed also that rule a state by legal, but much preferred to do it by trickery. There was a large part speaking trickery in Han Feizi. Meanwhile, the role of the power was stressed. Just as Shang Yang, Han Fei proposed that criminal should be punished severely. Nevertheless, he still thought that there should be a limitation, otherwise the result would be counterproductive. To a certain extent, Han Fei took populace's benefit into consideration, although he gave prominence to monarch. At the same time, Han Fei also thought that the implementation of the thought of legalists must depend upon monarch's strength.Although Shang Yang's thought of legalists was in the same line as that of Han Fei's, they actually had the different result. Shang Yang payed great attention the rule of law, which strengthened Qin ultimately, and paved the way for Qin to unify China. Han Fei's thought adopted three ways that were consisted of the law, the tactics and the power to serve for autocratic monarchy, which caused so vicious an expansion of monarchical power that eventually led to Qin's downfall. |
