Legalism Appreciation And Confucianism Honor:Study Of Wang Anshi’s Legal Philosophy

Wang Anshi(1021-1086),styled Jiepu,had the literal name Banshan. As a famous politician and reformer,Wang led the far-reaching Xining Reform in Song Dynasty. In the reform,Wang used a lot of reasonable parts in Legalism for reference,thus making him a Legalism representative. When mentioned by later generations,he has always been seen as a Legalist.However,Wang was educated with Confucianism and took Confucianism revival as his responsibility in his reform,during which time Confucianism was going downhill while Buddhism and Taoism were going uphill.Therefore,the theoretical basis of his reform was Confucianism.For this reason,this thesis holds that Wang’s legal philosophy was legitimate Confucianism and the Legalism concepts in his reform was actually Confucianism though integrated with Legalism. Modified Legalism philosophy under the instruction of Confucianism was the character of Wang’s legal philosophy,i.e.”Legalism appreciation,Confucianism honor” and “Legalism surface,Confucianism core”.This thesis takes it as the entry point and makes a further and detailed exploration thereof.The dissertation is conducted as follows:The introduction part mainly discusses the value of studying Wang’s legal philosophy, present study of Wang,research methods and innovative points of this thesis.The first part of the main body explains the historical background of how Wang’s legal philosophy got into shape,explores the source of his legal character.The first is the development background of Legalism.In the Spring-Autumn and Warring States Periods,all schools of thoughts contended for attention.Since Western Han Dynasty,Confucianism became the legitimate legal philosophy of the feudal governments.Later,with the entry of Buddhism and arising of Taoism,Confucianism got challenged.The Tang and Song Dynasties saw the Confucianism renaissance;the second is the overview of the Song Dynasty in which Wang lived.Song Dynasty was established in the chaos of the Five Dynasties Period,when social orders and laws were completely disrupted.After establishment, Song Dynasty was still faced with poverty and weakness,therefore,Wang’s reform and order reconstruction showed a new appearance of legal development of Song Dynasty;the last is Wang’s family background,study and political experience and their influences to his legal philosophy.The second part demonstrates Wang’s legal character:“Legalism appreciation,Confucianism honor” and “Legalism surface,Confucianism core”.This part starts with Confucianism honor in Wang’s legal philosophy,namely,ideas on learning from sages, people as foundation,govern the country by force or by humanity and rule by man,etc;then continues with the reasonable and Legalism appreciation part,which is“Legalism surface,Confucianism core”——besides all the Legalism appreciation,Wang took Legalism measures and ideas that reflected Confucianism.The third part details the analysis of Wang’s legal philosophy.Through A Yun Case,this thesis analyzes Wang’s legal philosophy in judicial practice on adoption and application of Confucianism and Legalism;Through his views on revenge,this thesis explores Wang’s understanding on the central issues of the long-standing debate between Confucianism and Legalism,then analyzes his Confucianism orientation;this thesis ends with the Confucianism assessments on Wang’s legal philosophy from reform opposition of the time,Northern Song Dynasty and scholar officials of later time.