The Evolution Of Legalists’ Theories Of The Western Han Dynasty

The Confucians of Qing Dynasty always said they were the legitimacy of the Confucianism. They were hostile to the Confucian school of idealist philosophy of the Song and Ming Dynasties who insisted on the heavenly principles and human’s desires, and criticized them sharply. Some Confucians of Song Dynasty, like Zhang Zai, Cheng Yi, Zhu Xi, they required to abolish corporal punishment. But the demand was regarded as a typical case of killing people with idealist and criticized sharply. The Confucians of Qing Dynasty thought the thoughts and actions of some Confucians of Song Dynasty were close to the Legalists, and said they were Confucians of Legalists. But if we make a general survey of the history of ideas, we can find that this special phenomenon of embellishing Legalists with Confucian’s views was not started in Song Dynasty but started from the Western Han Dynasty when Confucians and Legalists were mixed together. In early days of the Western Han Dynasty, Confucians who emphasized kindheartedness and moralities, and Legalists who emphasized severe laws were started the process of mixed together. In this process, the characters of both Confucians and Legalists were different from what they were in the pre-Qin period.In the Warring States, monarchical power was very important in the theories of Legalists especially Hanfei, but they were also focus on the demand of limiting the private purposes of the monarch. So the theory of Law was also a very important part in the theories of Legalists. Although the theory of Law was sure about the monarchical power, it also insisted on abiding by the law in development of political. They thought the Law was a standard which was used to limit the he private purposes of the monarch. Hanfei’s Shu theory, including the Xingming Shu and the Xujingwuwei Shu, required the monarch follow this standard. This theory represented the ideal projects of political in the Legalists. But in the real world, limiting the private purposes of the monarch was too idealism. The policies of vassal states was just absorbed the theory of concentration of power.In the Western Han Dynasty, the intellectuals was hostile to the Legalist theory because of the destroy of Qin Dynasty. At the same time, the intellectuals of the Western Han Dynasty amended the Legalist theory continually, and embellished it with Confucianism, in order to make it meet the demand of the concentration of power much more. In this time, the theory of Legalist showed two tendencies definitely. First, the tendency of the concentration of power in Chaocuo’s theory; second, the insist to authority of Law in Zhangtang’s theory. Although this two opinions especially the second one was started in the Warring States. Shangyang and Hanfei were both insist the authority of Law in their theories. But in the Western Han Dynasty, the identify with Law was fit into the background of the concentration of power and was limited by the authority of the monarch and his private purposes. In the judicial tries of Zhangtang and Zhangshizhi, the most important reason was monarch’s private purposes. On the other side, Chaocuo and Zhangtang started a process that studied theories from Confucians in order to make it believed by government in this environment that Confucian was very popular. This process had an affect on the politics of the Western Han Dynasty. Although in educational circles, the intellectuals thought the Confucianism had the most important effect on the politics of the politics in Western Han Dynasty especially after Wu emperor. But people in Han Dynasty thought Han’s politics was mixed with Confucianism and Legalists. Confucianism was definitely used and the Legalist was used in the dark. So the Legalist of Western Han Dynasty lost the ideal things like the Legalist of the Warring States and showed opportunistic things.However, the Legalists of the Western Han Dynasty also carried forward and developed the basic spirits and principles of the Legalists of the Warring States. These spirits and principles included four points:the confirming of the authority of Law, the cognition about the effect of Law in politics construct, the praise of the system of concentration of power, and the basic cognition of humanity. In these four points, the cognition of bad humanity from the Warring States to the Western Han Dynasty became the common foundation of Legalists both in the Warring States and the Western Han Dynasty.