12 dets. Why Did the Qin Dynasty Use Legalism
Of all the legalistic texts in the Han Imperial Catalogue, Han Feizi fared best during the vicissitudes of time: the 55 chapters attested in the Han Catalogue are still intact. Whether the entire book was written by Han Fei or not is controversial: considerable differences between the chapters in terms of style and argumentation lead many scholars to suspect that they come from different authors. On the other hand, the differences can be explained by the fact that they reflect Han Fei`s intellectual maturation process or the need to adapt reasoning to different target groups; and since most of the chapters offer a coherent perspective, this increases the likelihood that most of them were actually written by Han Fei (Goldin 2013). Overall, the Han Feizi is considered philosophical and literally more appealing than Lord Shang`s book, and it has been studied more in China, Japan, and the West. In the early Han Dynasty, Sima Tan`s Taoist syncretism almost undoubtedly used the same type of technique as Shen Buhai, saying: In the midst of the decline of the Qing Dynasty in the late 19th century, the understanding of Confucianism was shifted and turned to practice (the school of the practical statesman, substantial learning). For some reformist scholars, the emphasis on Confucianism has been eroded in favor of the legalistic principles of pien-fa (state reform), fu-chi`ang (state wealth and power), and even shang-chan (economic warfare). Albert Feuerwerker argues that this legalistic raison d`être was ultimately linked to the reform proposals of the 1890s, i.e. the Hundred Days reform, and thus to the new policy. Western science has been integrated into the Confucian worldview as an interpretation and application of Confucian principles. [309] Sinologist Herrlee G.
Creel believed that the term originally had the meaning of numbers, with implicit roots in statistical or categorization methods, the document being used in financial management as a numerical measure of performance. [96] [181] He notes that since the beginning of the Zhou dynasty, financial command has generally been held by the head of government; An example of an audit dates back to 800 BC. A.D., and the practice of annual accounting was consolidated by the Warring States period and budgeting in the first century BC. AD [31]: 51 In guanzi, the shu of the craftsman is explicitly compared to that of the good leader. [182] The History of the Han (Han Shu) lists the texts for Shu devoted to “computational techniques” and “techniques of the mind” and describes the Warring States period as a period when Shu appeared because the complete Tao had disappeared. [183] Hsu Kai (920-974 AD) calls Shu a branch or components of the great Tao and compares it to the spokes of a wheel. He defines it as “that by which the world of things is regulated; Die Algorithmen von Bewegung und Stille”. Mastery of techniques was a necessary element of wisdom. [183] The waning appeal of legalism became fully visible during the reign of Emperor Wu the Han (r. 141-87 BC). Although the emperor himself pursued an assertive domestic and foreign policy largely modeled on the Qin dynasty, he considered it wise to distance himself from Qin and legalism and, although superficially, to support Confucianism.
During his reign, initial proposals were made to ban followers of Shang Yang, Shen Buhai and Han Fei from holding positions. Although these proposals had limited short-term consequences (Shang Yang`s legacy was still openly defended by the government representative during court debates in 81 BC), attitudes towards legalists changed in the long run.