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Concept
Legalism (Chinese philosophy)
Summary
Fajia, often termed Legalism, is one of six classical schools of thought in Chinese philosophy. Literally meaning (administrative) methods/standards (Fa; 法) "house" or "school" (Jia), the Fa "school" represents several branches of what Feng Youlan called "men of methods", in the West often termed "realist" statesmen, who played foundational roles in the construction of the bureaucratic Chinese empire. The earliest persona of the Fajia may be considered Guan Zhong (720–645 BCE), but Chinese historians commonly regard Li Kui (455–395 BCE) as the first or "founding" "Legalist" philosopher. The combination of Shen Buhai (400–337 BCE) and Shang Yang (390–338 BCE), syncretized under Han Fei (c. 240 BCE) became what would historically be known as the Fajia.
Calling them the "theorists of the state", Sinologist Jacques Gernet considered "those later christened 'Legalists' (Fajia)" to be the most important intellectual tradition of the fourth and third centuries BCE. With the Han dynasty taking over the governmental institutions of the Qin dynasty almost unchanged, the Qin to Tang dynasty may be characterized by the "centralizing, statist tendencies" of the "Legalist" tradition.
Dubbed by A. C. Graham the "great synthesizer of 'Legalism'", Han Fei is regarded as their finest writer, if not the greatest statesman in Chinese history (Hu Shi). Often considered the "culminating" or "greatest" of the "Legalist's" texts, the Han Feizi is believed to contain the first commentaries on the Dao De Jing. Sun Tzu's The Art of War incorporates both a Daoist philosophy of inaction and impartiality, and a "Legalist" system of punishment and rewards, recalling Han Fei's use of the concepts of power (勢, shì) and technique (術, shù). Temporarily coming to overt power as an ideology with the ascension of the Qin dynasty, the First Emperor of Qin and succeeding emperors often followed the template set by Han Fei.
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