Legalists' Thoughts

Legalists in Pre-Qin and their thought is one of emphasic studies to the sphere of learning, especially of law thought history. Though today scholars mainly study a certain legalist and his thought from a microcosmic angle, and explain it in greater detail, their vews lack macroscopic examination and little about legalists studied as a whole of heredity of academic thought.The thesis, based on macroscopic thought, legalist's thought origin, legalist's experience and the heredity of thought, examines legalists lived in different experiod as a whole, and its aim is studing the history trace of legalists and their thought in Pre-Qin. At the same time, it involves ceremony and law's origin, law's origin from ceremony, the sepaeration of ceremony and law, the debate of between ceremony and law, and finally the confluence of ceremony and law. The thesis will investigate and discuss legalists and their thought from seven parts:The first part expounds the origin of law. The part firstly explains the meaning of the word law.then explains several different views about the origin of law in ancient books.The second part expounds the social source of legalists, birth. Great changes about society had taken place in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States.The collapse of the city-country system and the skaking of the heriditary system, rule by ceremony. Lacked the basis of economy and consanguinity, and it led to the shaking of ceremony. In order to build up a new rule order, another rule way and method should be found.The third part expounds the thought origin of legalists in the Warring State, which derived from the reformers' thought in the Spring andAutumn Period and Confucian and Tao and Mao's thought.The fourth part expounds Legalists' mainly thought and view, which is a numerous and jumbled system of academy. But we can draw some conclusions after simplifaction them by cutting out the superfluous: developing evolutionism of history and the theory of human nature about likes and dislikes the attached-Agriculture and restrained- Commerce policy and bellicose, centralized and autocratic monarchy, excluding against outsider of ceremony, advocating rule by severe law to put down people's rebellion.The fifth part expounds Legalists' tragedy. There were two chief reasons about legalists' tragedy: actually the counterattacks of old liners, theoritical legalists' behavior running counter to their thought.The sixth part expounds the debate between ceremony and law, which was a debate between Confucian and legalist's general plan about administering a country. And the aim of it was to safeguard their respective class and stratum interests.The seventh part expounds the rise and fall of Qin because of rule by severe law, which drives us to think deeply. The combination between ceremony and law is a optimum general plan of administering a country.