From "Law Out Of Taoism" To "Methods To Administrate"

In Chunqiu Dynasty,feudal dukes were getting stronger and stronger. The noble patriarchal clan system on the basis of consanguinity began to collapse. The Li Yue, which maintained the class order of noble society had lost its authority, it was truth that an abnormal relationship had been shaped between the king and his feudal dukes. Cruel punishments and method to prevent the treacherous were actually good method to rule, but it could not avoid endless wars between the king and his feudal dukes. To solve this problem, the Confucian referred that resisting oneself by rites, and the Mohist advocated universal love without assault. However, Shen Buhai advocated rule of nature on the basis of Taoism.There are four parts in this paper:Part I is about the sources of Shen Buhai's thoughts, as well as the relationship between his and the Taoism. The academic thoughts of Shen Buhai was influenced by Taoism obviously. However, compared with Zhuanzi's, Shenzi's thoughts were not from Laozi's directly. When he discussed the Shenzi's thoughts, Si Maqian made a conclusion as follow: the theory of Shenzi started from taosim and emphasized the punishment methods. Zhang Taiyan who was a great master on classics in modern times pointed out in his works named General Summary on Various Schools that the reason why Taoism could diverge to Fa school could be found from that Laozi and Hanfei had a same source of thoughts. It is believed that Taoism whose representation was Laozi diverged to two directions in Zhou Dynasty: one was as Zhuanzi their representation, which emphasized to inherent Laozi's thoughts, and perused the value ideal in psychological field. The other was as Qixia their representation, emphasized to develop the material theory, paid attention to politics and life in reality. Shenzi and Hanfei developed their thoughts on the basis of Taoism.Part II is to display Shen Buhai's theories on Law. As a master of law,in his opinion, a uniform clear and steady law system, which was enforced by the king, officials and citizens took an important part in the country. He advocated legislation, enforcement of law and steady rules, and took laws as a basis of a country. Shenzi believed that as a wise king, he must cautiously legislate and execute the laws. People could have foundation to act, and the decrees from the king could be actually executed only under a certain and regulated law system. For this aim, what the king should do first was to assure the nature, an assured nature could bring steady legislation, a steady legislation could bring an effective execution. Compared with the masters who emphasized the authority of the king, Shen Buhai's thoughts were different from theirs. The former often emphasized that the king made laws, laws were tools for the king to rule, without over experienced sources in morality and theory, while the later had thought about the over experienced sources in morality and theory of laws. He thought that nature of things bore laws which could not be disobeyed, was the basis of ruling a country. Though made by the king, it shouldn't be broken by the king as they wish.Part III is about nature and method. Two key concepts of Shen Buhai will be demonstrated in this part. The content of the two concepts are not singles, they have different meanings in different degrees, at the same time, they overlap somehow in the practice.Two meanings are included at least. First, nature is not a representation of all materials in the world, it also show the connection of them, as well, it represents the limitation unavoidable which is because of the connection and influence brought by the nature itself. It is a net including the possibility limits, in which compared with other things, one has its own position, and moves under its own regulations without any exceeding. Just like flowers blossom in spring and the leaves fall in autumn, and people cannot prevent. Second, in the nature system named Ming, the position on which every specific part sits and the regulation which every specific part obeys are also named Ming. In this net, it is for what Shen Buhai advocated to exist, which is not noninterference, but a limited interference.Methods also can be classified to two kinds, which are Yin and Yang. Yang is a method to entitle, supervise and exam the officials. It is an administrative method to keep the noninterference of the king at the same time to keep the officials obeying their nature. Yin is the tricks which control the powers, which can be used by the king as well as the officials. Therefore, it cannot become the dependence for the king to rule, but it can be used to get the advantage in tactics between the king and his officials, or at least, it can prevent the king to be in a disadvantage position.Part IV is on the political practice of Shen Buhai. This part is from every kinds of history works, so the information provided by materials are limited. However, it can be found at least that Shen Buhai was different from the legal reformers like Shang Yang, he didn't conclude a country into the social organized form like modern nation wars, enhancing the fighting ability with every available power of the country, but to adopt a national reformed form which is more suitable for the peace, and on the basis of this to achieve the success of economic development and political victory. However, it seemed that he didn't absorb the benefit from his political practice to deepen and perfect his political theory, so as to make his theory to a degree that is accurate enough and detailed, and feasible to everyone without caring about the ability.In the conclusion, this paper concludes the theoretical value and the limitation of Shen Buhai's thoughts, as follow. First, Shen Buhai's theories emphasized enhancing the king's power, so as to maintain the political ruling order of the autocracy, which was meaningful to the unsteady reality for every countrie. Objectively, it met the need to the unsteady social order in the Chunqiu dynasty. Second, Shen Buhai's political theory reflected his peruses to enrich the country and empower the arms. It was important not only in the early Zhanguo dynasty, but also important in any dynasty. One country can provide common benefit at any time as it is strong. Third, he advocated that methods should be used, which reflect that he had a deep reorganization on the deceiving in the ruling class. At the same time, Shen Buhai advocated that execute according to the nature. All above became the sources of the later Fa school. Therefore, Shen Buhai played a key role in the course of development of Fa school's political thoughts in Zhanguo dynasty. Last, the limitation of Shen Buhai's thoughts is that his method advocation overemphasized the function of methods, and had not enough reorganization to the effect of legal regulations. His theory had a tendency of immorality without understanding the politics by moral sight. Therefore, when belief of method ruling was believed by the rulers, the social life would become crueler, and the quality of social life would be descended. Under his influence, it was reflected by the theory of existing of law, method and authority from Han Fei, and the political practice in the Qin Dynasty.