The Study Of Legalist Social Thought In Pre-qin Period

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States, the society had undergone a dramatic change. The whole society was immersed in changes. In economy, with the widespread of iron tools and the emergence of farming, the productive forces of the society had developed greatly. At the same time, the existing well-field system was destructed, and there emerged a large number of private farms, which lead to the feudal nature of the productive relations. In politics, the well-field-based Enfeoffing System and the Patrilineal Clan System had also undergone serious destructions. The strength of the Zhou Dynasty had been declining, while the strengths of seigneurs had been strengthening. And the etiquette and music tradition also appeared to be badly destructed. In ideology and culture, there emerged a bloom of all aspects of thoughts and classes. In this background, the Legalism came into being, which adapted to the need of the ruling class to enrich the country and strengthen the army forces so as to conquer the seigneurs. Legalism has undergone three periods, namely, germination, evolution and perfection. Legalism is rich in content, which covers the aspects of politics, economy, military, society, etc. This paper mainly illustrates the social aspect of Legalism.Firstly, the paper illustrates the thoughts of Shang Yang. In the thought of social change, Shang Yang divided human history into three historical periods, which refers to the ancient centuries, the Medieval and the new centuries. Each historical period corresponds to different features. And judging from his descriptions, these differences demonstrate the development process which ranks from junior to senior. His ideas for social change provided the theoretical foundation for his legal rules. As to human nature, Shang Yang proposed the idea that human beings are all prone to fame and fortune. In social control, he advocated to apply the rule of law, which he believed was the need of the society and an important way for the country to strengthen its forces. In applying the specific laws, Shang Yang insisted on using reward and punishment at the same time, but he was inclined to use punishments.Secondly, the paper demonstrates the social thoughts of Shen Buhai and that of Shen Dao. Shen Buhai proposed the social control thought to emphasize strategies, which suggested the monarchy to control the ministers by strategies. There are two aspects of Shen's strategies: on the one hand, it refers to the strategy which can be employed by the monarchy to appoint, monitor or assess the ministers; on the other hand, it refers to the art of mastering the followers. Shen Dao proposed the social control thought to emphasize powers. He considered power to be the premise of governing the society and emphasized the insurance of monarchy's power to dominate the whole country. Although Shen Dao emphasized power, he also advocated laws which he considered as the criterion of governing a country.Last but not least, the paper discusses the social thought of Han Fei who is the master of Legalism. In the aspect of social change, following Shang Yang's views on historical evolution, Shang Yang divided the human history into four periods, namely, the prehistory time, the medieval, the early history and the present history. The four historical periods were constantly progressing and developing forward in a positive direction. He recognized that economic and demographic factors were the driving forces of social changes. In addition, he proposed the governing measures should change according to different social conditions. As to human nature, Han Fei considered human beings as profit-inclined and harm-sick. He believed that man is born with the self-serving nature which is immutable and do not need to change. What people could do with this nature is to make use of it. As to social control, Han Fei advocated a combination of law, strategies and power, and he illustrated thoroughly on how to deal with these three aspects. As to social assistance, Han Fei opposed the idea of helping the poor. He believed that the assistance could only encourage their idleness.To conclude, the key thought of Legalism is to implement law in social control, which both has positive and negative effects. However, there are still some reasonable aspects in the law-based control and the enforcement of law principles, which can shed light on ruling by the law and strengthening the socialist legal system at the present days.