Discussion On Han Fei's " Rule Of Law " Thought

The "Ruling by Law" thought of Han Fei is a brilliant pearl in the civilization of the Chinese nation and one of the most important thought achievements gestate in Chinese land.First of all, the sources and background of the "Ruling by Law" thought of Han Fei are diversified: first: the special environment where he lived made him be, he was one of the noble birth in Han State, witnessing the gradually deteriorative situation in the State, he was unable to realize his will to dedicate himself to the State though full of righteous indignation and zeal, After thinking with bitter hatred, he decided to give up and turn to book writing; Second, the social situation made him be, at that time, wars broke out amongst kingdoms, a great number of kingdoms and kings were perished. How to enrich the State and strengthen military strength, unite the States and keep peace for a long time became a main issue for Han Fei to explore, meanwhile, the social situation there needed the birth of such thinker; third, his thought originated from the economic base of that time, besides, the square-fields system gradually broke up, and a great number of private lands appeared, which required united politics and economy around the State, "Benefits originated from land only", so that the society required to pay more attention to agriculture, to war, and then enrich the State and strengthen military forces, and protect the interests owned by newly-born landed class; fourth, the "Ruling by Law" thought of Han Fei was formed in the late Spring-Autumn and Warring Period, which absorbed the essence of other schools, forming a school of thought system of his own, which was adopted by Qin State; fifth, the lawmaking conditions had been well prepared, not only did the earlier Legalists began to explore in practice but also appeared the written laws.Second, the basic thought of "ruling by law" of Han Fei mainly includes:First, base of theory, Han Fei inherited the "Dao" thought of Lao Zi, according to the relation between universe and Dao, the king is the same as Dao, and the subjects are the same as the universe. Thus, the king becomes a pronoun of the Dao, and the two are integrated, where his legal theory found a theoretical base; the logical initial point of "Ruling by Law" of Han Fei is: "interest-base human nature", at his opinion, the "interest-based human nature" depended on the demand of human's instinct, he directly pointed out that the relations between the king and officials are completely buy-sell relations, like tiger and wolf. The so-called obedience is not to satisfy morale and public opinion, but to figure out the interest demand of the people, and established governing policies according to the nature of interest demand of the people. Human is of interest demand, if the demand is not based on some order and direction, the society will be out of order. So, the governors have to instruct it and utilize the demands for interest. Finally, his evolutional history conception, Han Fei, inheriting the thought "changing situation, changing laws" of Legalists as Shang Yang, considered that social development is developing from low level to high level, he made analysis on the cases of historical evolution. Fore the human is selfish, living in the world of "numerous people but little fortune", fighting is inevitable, then in order to solve the fighting, at the opinions of Han Fei, the governor should adopt not the "policy of benevolence" advocated by Confucian but cruel torture and cruel laws.II. Basic opinions of "Ruling by Law" of Han Fei, he put forward "king with centralized state power", and governed the State by law ad arbitrium. Han Fei advocated establishing a feudalistic State with centralization of state power, and executing absolute monarchy, his "Ruling by Law" thought is the integration of regality purpose theory and "Ruling by Law" methodology. He thought that the law is made by and for the king; the law is operated by the king for the benefits of the king, all of these are methods and means for the king to rule by law, the basic purpose to rule by law is to serve the king for autocracy via centralization of state power, however, "the law is applicable for governs as well" and "cruel torture and punishment" are very obvious.III. Opinions of "Laws, measures and situation" integration, within the three points, the "law" is the basic one, yet the three have to be united for support. Due to the different natures of the three points, the detailed methods are different, "law to the public", "private methods adopts by the king", "the king cannot loose the power like fish to survive without water", only firmly solidifying the power, can the king adopts his laws and policies..IV. Obvious characteristics of Legalists theory, such as the theory base of nature and Sky Dao theory, fair principle in law and uniform standards, interest core thought in human nature, impersonal situation opinion and denial to human-based governing opinion, remaining of clanship, policy discussion from the above to the lower and arbitrary economic opinions, wartime policies eager for quick success and instant, and complex characteristics of different theory schools rising.The progress of the "Ruling by Law" of Han Fei: 1. provide theoretical guide for centralism, and place basis for the combination of Confucianism and Legalists; 2. adopt evolutional historical opinion to improve the policies, change laws for development, which is the demands of the society of that time; 3. "Nobles cannot be out of the laws" it contributed a lot to protect "everyone is equal before the law"; 4. Han Fei owned some materialistic opinions. For example, he connected social phenomena with economic conditions; inheriting materialistic thought of Before-Qin Dynasty philosophy; fight against the nature-based life opinion, advocate the sky Dao thought. However, the limitation of his thought include: the distance between his cruel torture thought and the tolerance of the people will lead to sharp countermeasure; 2. He over emphasized the opposite between the king and ministers, nobles yet neglected the dependency between them. Han Fei was eager for quick success and instant, the thought was not meeting the demands of long-term ruling expectation by the ruling class.However, the "ruing by law" thought of Han Fei is still helpful for current society as reference. First, it is needed to conduct study on the valve of the law so as to make the lawmaking and judicatory indicate the principle of justness. Second, further establish and improve social power restricted and balanced system so as to strictly carry out the law of justness, and accelerate the progress of the building of "ruling by law", greatly develop legal institutions education, improve legal conception and rights consciousness of the people, which is a social base necessary for law building. Certainly, the law shall follow the times so as to establish perfect legal systems. Besides, "everyone is equal before the law" and "strict law enforcement" so as to protect the justness of the judicature.