The Thoughts Of Law By Confucianists And Legalists In Pre-Qin Period-A Comparative Analysis Based On The Theory Of Human Nature

The theory of human nature is recognition of self-essence, and theproduct of the development of the idea of the nature and human. It reflects thecharacteristics of the national culture in some degree. Being as the theoretical basis ofthe thoughts of law, the theory of human nature can be regarded as a manifestation ofself-recognition, which modelizing and affecting the human in reality conversely.This paper takes the idea of the human and nature as its basis, aims at making acomparative analysis of the thoughts of legal ways of thinking on the theory of humannature.This paper contains five parts:Part 1 is a brief introduction about the topic selected, the premise of the presentresearch, the structure and the materials used for reference, and the research method.Part 2 is the argument foundation of the whole passage, which focuses on theanalysis of the thinking method in the theory of human and nature in Pre-Qin period. Italso discusses the similarities and dissimilarities of the theories of the human natureput forward by Confucianists and Legalist respectively. The theory of the humannature is the product of the evolving of the idea of heaven and man, and oneness ofman and nature is the basis point of view of recognizing the relationship betweenhuman and nature as well as the common thinking method of discussing the theory ofthe human and nature. Compared with the dichotomy of man and nature in the ancienttimes in the West, the thinking method of oneness of man and nature has not takenhuman beings as representatives of the existence of rational and free view, which isquite different from the essence of the dichotomy of man and nature. And it is fromthis point that it is believed that the theories of human and nature put forward byConfucianists and Legalists have got something in common. However, because of thedifferent understanding of the main contents of the theory of human and nature, theircontents of the theory have great differences which mainly are expressed by theirdifferent attitudes and angels toward the human nature from the angle of moralprinciples, define the human nature as a combination of kindness and evil. However, the legalists, by contrast, believe that humans like advantages and hate disadvantages,and talk about the human nature from the angle of fame and wealth. So it is concludedthat the Confucianists take a positive attitudes toward human nature regardless ofwhether they are theory of original goodness of human nature or theory of original evilof human nature, while the Legalists take a pessimistic attitude toward it.Part 3 and 4 are the further explanation of part 2. Because of the different anglesand attitudes toward the human nature,the content of the thoughts of legal may bedifferent of this two schools. The Confucianists emphasize the human relations. Whilethe Legalists regard this kind of relation as "personal relations" to compel. TheConfucianists advocate rule of propriety, rule of virtue and rule by men, while theLegalists specifically stress the compelling function of "law", however, some of theirthoughts of law may be rational, while can be drawed lessons nowadays. From thestarting of the theory of human nature, it seems that the origins of the two schools onthe thoughts of law are same. Both of them take "the Tao" as their theoretical basis ofthe law. However, "the Tao" is not completely transcend the this life, it depends onthe media of the wise man. So both of the Confucianists and Legalists believe that thelaw was made by "the wise man". The origin of the law is totally different from thenatural law and social contract in the ancient times of the West. The common featuresof the thoughts of law, which are advocated by these two schools, have greatlyinfluenced on the traditional view, such as the emphasizing on authority, completewhole and duty, and neglecting law, individual and power. These commons pointsare also the deficiencies of these two Schools, which should be remedied nowadays.However, the critical points due to the setting up of free individual view andpersonality.Part 5 is the summary of the whole passage, which contains the main points ofview, the gist and the end result. We should carefully and seriously examine andcriticize the deficiencies of traditional thoughts from the origin of our understanding,so that we can carry on and take in the rational components from them.