During the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE, the formation of 5 or 6 mega-states emerged, consolidating the dozens of fragmented states that had existed in Confucius' times. This period, The Warring States Period, saw the emergence of many competing schools of philosophy, all of which in one way or another responded to Confucius' thought. Among them were 2 of lasting importance, viz., Daoism and Legalism. As we have seen, Taoism and Confucianism both agree that there is a natural and eternal Way (Tao or Dao) governing the cosmos (Heaven and Earth), and that endless wars and disharmony would end only when people lived in accordance with the Tao (however differently they conceived of the Way). Legalists had a very different response to the question of how to end the bloodshed and bring unity to bear in the contending states. As the Warring States era approached its endgame, in which one of the states would emerge victorious over the others, the Qin, Zhou, Wei, Han and Qi fought toward a bitter end. Sometimes 2 of these would form alliances to deal with one of the others, but in the end it was the Qin (pronounced "chin" the root word in "China") state that won the day. The Zhou Empire, such as it was, was finally and definitively brought to an end when it surrendered to a brutal Qin general, Bai Qi, who in turn had the entire Zhou army executed. Approximately 400,000 deaths resulted from this battle.
Legalism was never officially recognized as a state ideology as Confucianism would be from the Han Dynasty until the collapse of the last empire, the Qing, in 1911. But it is largely through legalism that the Qin was able to create and govern a large united empire where for centuries contending warlords had been fighting seemingly endless wars with one another, as the venerable Zhou Empire remained so only in name. Now with the Zhou annihilated, it was not clear how the Qin would rule. By 221, the King of the Qin, having survived several attempted assassinations, assumed the title of Qin Shi Huangdi, meaning something like "the first great Emperor." The title Huangdi had not been used by the Zhou who had ruled as kings ("Wang"). The Huangdi title originally belonged to the legendary, divine ruler of prehistoric China, https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Emperor and semi-legendary successors.There is no title of greater grandeur that could have been picked by this harsh legalistic autocrat, who for all his faults did so much to create a united empire in place of the warring states.
So began China's Imperial Age in which, with a few interruptions, great dynasties would succeed each other ruling over vast Chinese territories until the 20th century. If Confucians had asked the question "How can we bring peace and harmony to bear on these formerly great Zhou lands?," the answer given by history was, at first, very un-Confucian. The leaders of the Qin, including the first emperor, were guided not by Confucian thinkers but Legalists like Shang Yang and Han Feizi. What were the main tenets of Legalism, and how was it implemented?
Shang Yang(c. 390-338 BCE) was the first great Legalist. He was not a traveling teacher, like Confucius or Mencius, but the Prime Minister of the rapidly rising Qin state in the 4th century. Like later, and better known Legalists such as Han Feizi, he was opposed to what he considered to be the "empty talk" of all other schools of philosophy, and interested in inquiry only to the extent that it might guide concrete actions to consolidate power in the central state, and use that power efficiently to quell and unify the population under a regime of universal punishments and rewards. As the chief minister of Qin from about 360 to 330 BCE, Lord Shang (as he is known to history) launched programs that largely determined the Qin path to ultimate victory over the Zhou in the following century. Indicative of the legalist disdain for Confucian virtue, Shang invited a defeated Wei general for peace negotiations only to have him immediately imprisoned upon his arrival. As with the militarist school of Sun Tzu (Art of War), deception is seen as a necessary means to gain and/or maintain power. Where Confucian thought emphasized benevolence and the welfare of the common people, Legalism was essentially a doctrine propounded by and for those who would gain and maintain power for the sake of orderly rule with no special ethical ideals attached to that rule.
Historically, it appears that it took a heavy-handed, coercive philosophy like legalism, which stressed that all people were equally punishable under the law, to forge a unified empire larger than anything preceding it in Asia-- including the Zhou. And the catalogue of punishments was grotesque, featuring amputations, slow death by skinning ("death by a thousand cuts"), being mutilated, mutilation of corpses, being buried alive (as all the Confucians and other idealistic philosophers that could be identified and rounded up were, while all their found books were burned) castration, death by drowning, et al.
This was a philosophy of mandatory unity rather than cultivated harmony (like Confucianism which puts more faith in ritual than law), and both persist to this day, though nobody brags about the Legalists. It's notable that Legalism evolved, quite unlike Confucianism or Taoism, not among traveling teachers or hermits but among government officials and military men who actually shaped the Qin state before and during its unification of all China as an Empire. Shang Yang in particular is a case in point, as the reward for his hard work was to be torn apart by horses and have most of his relatives killed after having served as the chief minister of the Qin state for decades. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shang_Yang#Yang's_death The first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, whose draconian program did so much to unite China at all costs, ended up hiding from would-be assassins, and sending his minions out to find an elixir for eternal life! History records his death as the result of a mercury based elixir intended to give him immortality on earth. His obsession with survival and fears of death were the root cause of his own poisoning. https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang#Death_and_post_mortem_events Legalism teaches that all ideology is bunk, and this was sternly rejected after the short lived Qin Dynasty, though other aspects of legalism remain/ed influential.
While nepotism is a potential threat in Confucian based societies due to the stress placed on familial piety, Legalism stresses emphatically that nobody is above the law, including, in theory, the leader. In practice, though, the lack of respect for morals, family and ideology made legalists prone to power-grabs, in-fighting and tyranny by the strongest of the strongmen. Just as Shang Yang was killed by enemies, the later, and more famous Legalist, Han Feizi, https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Fei#Life was betrayed by his fellow Legalist philosopher, Li Si who feared that Han Fei would outshine him as an advisor to Qin Shi Huangdi before he took that title(i.e. when he was still King of Qin rather than Emperor of China). He had been called to serve along with Li Si, after his writings on statecraft came to the king's attention. The ruler admired Han Feizi so much that a jealous Li Si told the future emperor that Han Feizi could not be trusted, recommending that his former friend be executed. Before the ruler could change his mind, Li Si had him poisoned in prison awaiting execution. (Van Norden: pp.185-188).
Han Feizi, sometimes anachronistically dubbed the "Chinese Machiavelli," had studied (along with his "friend" Li Si) with Confucian philosopher Xunzi, who taught that human nature was evil and virtue had to be taught. Han Feizi taught that human nature was evil, but put little faith in the cultivation of virtues because individual self-interests were too potent. His sharp attack on the Confucians includes the observation that it was common for parents to kill their own babies when they turned out to be girls rather than boys. He writes:
When it comes to their children, parents who produce boys get congratulations but those who produce girls kill them. Both came from the bodies of the parents but the boys occasion congratulations while the girls are killed. This is due to their reckoning of benefits and calculations of profit. Thus evcen parents in dealing with their children use a calculating heart. How much more so those who lack the affection of parents? (Van Norden: 187)
Such arguments-- and Han Feizi had many of them-- led him to advise that effective rulers should harbor no illusions about honorable officials or ethical statesmen-- trust was to be, if present at all, tempered by extreme caution. Nor should the leader be swayed by flattery, but reward only those who bring greater power to the state he rules, and punish all those (including advisors, generals and armies that lose battles) who fail to do so. Though he's been condemned for this worldview, in his own era this advice, like that of Hobbes during the brutal English civil wars ("life is nasty, brutish and short") did reflect the tempestuous and unreliable nature of politics during the Warring States period.
Though the first emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi, was able to unite China in an amazingly brief period of about 10 or 12 years, he was unable to maintain rule. What he did to unite the erstwhile warring states was to severely weaken the old nobility by relocating the top members (i.e. hundreds of thousands of nobles!) in the capital city Xianyang, and then to formally abolish all the old noble houses which they led. China was then divided into 36 provinces, each of which was placed under the rule of administrative bureaucracies rather than feudal-type lords or individual leaders. This emphasis on standardized laws for all provinces under bureaucratic administration was retained in subsequent dynasties, though the system would reflect a world view including ethical principles, unlike the power politics of the first emperor. One of the things Qin Shi Huangdi did soon after becoming first emperor was to pass laws that made all philosophy books (except those on military or practical affairs) illegal subject to capital punishment. All the idealistic philosophers that could be found (Confucian, Taoist, Mohist etc.) were buried alive, and all the books burned.
Through standardization of written language, punishments and rewards, weights and measures, massive construction and infrastructure work projects, and the introduction of a bureaucratic administrative central and provincial type of rule, the Qin forged a template for China that lasts right up to this day. But the lack of moral restraints was an Achilles' Heel for Legalism. The emperor stood only for power, and those who were at his mercy ultimately rebelled. It would be a man of humble roots, Liu Bang, a jailor who united his prisoners to form a formidable if unlikely group of rebel bandits, who would defeat competing Qin rivals, and become the first emperor of the Han Dynasty which inherited the legal and bureaucratic structures, but soon rationalized all rule in ethical and cosmological terms. China's first emperor Qin Shi Huangdi, was, perhaps, a victim of the very brand of power politics he practiced. He died largely isolated in order to protect himself from assassins and rivals. He sent his minions out to find the "elixir of eternal life" but to no avail. The closest thing to eternity for this emperor is his famous Terracotta Army https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army
His successors were defeated swiftly by 2 main rival groups, and it was Liu Bang who took the reins of power as the founder of the Han Dynasty in 202 BCE. Originally a peasant who worked as a jailor under the Qin, he is known to history as Emperor Gaozu of Han. He named the dynasty after the state from which he came (Han state). Within 50 years, this dynasty would create an elaborate and syncretic ideology that more or less served as a ruling ideology for China throughout the centuries of its imperial rule, with resonances to this day. This is known as the Han Synthesis, and in making Confucianism the official ideology of the state, it altered it in very interesting ways that combined elements of Religious Taoism and Legalism with a form of Confucianism in which Confucius was given a semi-divine status, becoming the center of a cult with temples that endure to this day. That decisive change in Confucianism called the Han Synthesis will be the subject of the next post on the history of Chinese Philosophy.
References/Suggested Readings:
-China: Its History And Culture (Fourth Edition) by W. Scott Morton & Charlton M. Lewis: McGraw Hill Publishers: NY: 2005
-China: A Cultural History by Arthur Cotterell: Mentor Books:New York 1988
-Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook: ed. Patricia Buckley Ebrey: Free Press: NY: 1993
-Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy by Bryan W. Van Norden, Hackett Publishing Company: Indianapolis/Cambridge: 2011
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Q. Idealists and Realists in political theory have long quarreled about the role of ethics, ideals and ideology in statesmanship. Though efficient but heartless power calculations can accomplish a lot, do you think that it is possible to maintain power and govern in the long term, without ethics, ideals and ideology?
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