Han Feizi

Han Fei

Han Fei (about 280 bc-233 BC), also known as Han Feizi, was born in Xinzheng (now Henan) in the late Warring States period. Ancient Chinese thinker, philosopher, essayist and representative of Legalist school.

Han Fei is a great master of legalist thought. He combines Shangyang's "law", shenbuhui's "technique" and Shendao's "potential", and integrates dialectics, simple materialism and law. He has left a lot of comments and works for later generations. His theory has always been the ideological basis for the ruling class to govern the country in the feudal society of China.

Han Fei wrote Gu Fen, Wu Gu, Nei Chu Shuo, Wai Chu Shuo, Shuo Lin, Shuo Nan and other articles. Later generations collected and compiled Han Fei Zi.

(the general picture is taken from the portrait of Han Feizi by fan Zeng in the Museum of Chinese History)

Life of the characters

Early experience

Han Fei was born in the imperial clan of South Korea. He was born in 280 B.C. in the 15th year of King Hanli in a noble family in Xinzheng, the capital of South Korea at the end of the Warring States period.

In the 20th year of King Hanli (275 BC), South Korea was in great difficulty. Han Fei began to read the books of business and management, Sun Zhi and Wu Zhi, and also read all kinds of miscellaneous books.

In 262 BC, general Bai Qi led his troops to attack Korea and captured 50 cities. The governor of Shangdang in South Korea surrendered to Zhao. South Korea's ruling class began to fall apart. Before and after that, young Han Fei began to write, which took about five years.

In the 15th year of emperor Huan Hui of Han Dynasty (257 BC), Han Fei hated that he couldn't find and employ talented people to govern the country. Instead, he promoted boastful people to those with practical achievements, so he began to write.

In 1929 (253 BC), Xunzi left Jixia and came to the state of Chu. Chunshen appointed him as Lanling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling. Before and after this, Han Fei went to Xunzi to "learn the art of Emperors", and his classmates included Li Si and others.

An envoy to the state of Qin

When Han Fei's book came to the state of Qin, the king of Qin appreciated Han Fei's talent very much. The king of Qin said, "well, I don't hate to see this person travel with me." In the third year of Han Wang'an (235 BC), because of Qin's attack on Korea, Han Wang summoned Han Fei at a critical moment and planned with Han Fei to weaken Qin's strength.

Killed in prison

Li Si and Yao Jia trapped Han Fei and slandered him, saying: "Han Fei is the son of South Korea. Now that you want to merge the vassal states, it is only natural for Han Fei to turn to Korea instead of Qin. Now if you don't appoint him and leave him for a long time before you let him go, it's better to add a crime to him and punish him according to law. " The king of Qin thought they were right, so he handed Han Fei over to the judge for punishment. " Li Si instructs people to send poison to Han Fei and make him commit suicide. Han Fei wanted to express himself to the king of Qin, but he didn't see him. Later, the king of Qin regretted very much and sent someone to pardon Han Fei, who was dead.

Main impact

Han Fei was a materialist philosopher in the late Warring States period and a master of legalism. Han Fei witnessed the poverty and weakness of South Korea in the late Warring States period. He wrote to the king of South Korea many times, hoping to change the situation that the rule of law was not enforced, the support was not used, and the use was not supported. Han Fei believes that this is "honest and upright, not to be wronged." When he wrote the book of "Shuo Gu Chu, Shuo Wai" and so on. In these articles, Han Fei mainly publicized the theory of rule of law combining law, technique and potential, which reached the peak of Legalist theory in the pre Qin period, provided a theoretical weapon for the Qin Dynasty to unify the six states, and also provided a theoretical basis for the autocratic monarchy in the later feudal society.

thought

political thought

Han Fei's political ideal is to establish a unified feudal state with centralized monarchy. Facing the situation of fierce struggle between the old and new forces and the separatist regime of the vassals at the end of the Warring States period, he summed up the historical lesson that the emperor was weak and the vassals were strong, and advocated the establishment of a unified feudal state with centralized monarchy. In his works, such words as "new saint", "Emperor Yan", "King's capital", "emperor's capital" and "all over the world" reflect his wish; and in the chapter of Yang Quan, he clearly points out that this kind of unified monarchy centralization should achieve the goal of "doing things in the four directions, in the center, and the sages should insist on the four directions to work", replacing division with unification and separation with centralization.

In order to protect the monarch's sacred power from infringement, Han Fei advocated respecting the monarch and belittling his ministers, and proposed to "strengthen the public office, Du private door" (NEI Chu Shuo Xia). He advocated that those private forces and powerful ministers like evil tigers should be separated, the rest should be collected, the door should be closed, and the auxiliary power should be seized (the main way), so as to resolutely eradicate and suppress them However, he absolves the monarchy and believes that the interests of monarchs and ministers are necessarily opposite, which also deepens the contradiction between monarchs and ministers.

Reform and rule, reform and strength, is an important part of Han Fei's thought. Han Fei inherited Shang Yang's thought tradition of "governing the world differently, then the country will not follow the law of the ancient", and put forward the viewpoint of "not expecting to repair the ancient, but not always following the law". He advocated that "when the world is different, things will be different" and "when things are different, they will be ready for change" (Wugu).

Han Fei holds the view of historical evolution, and thinks that the times are constantly moving forward. If we do not proceed from today's reality, but blindly beautify the ancient kings and imitate the ancient, "if we are not stupid, we will prove it" ("Xianxue"). Since the times have changed, the measures of governing the country should also be reformed. Therefore, he advocates that "sages do not expect to repair the ancient, do not follow the law, discuss the affairs of the world, because they are prepared" (Wuzhi) ）。 He believes that "in ancient times, people competed for Tao, in the middle ages, they competed for wisdom, and today they competed for strength" (Wugu). In the era of "today's struggle for strength", we must not use lenient politics to govern the people in urgent need "(Wugu). Only by implementing a series of policies conducive to the establishment and consolidation of new jiandujing and the promotion of grand unification, can we follow the historical trend. Han Fei's historical view of development and evolution is his theoretical and ideological weapon for the implementation of the rule of law.

The thought of rule of law

Han Fei's thought of rule of law is based on the historical view of evolution as the theoretical basis for the implementation of rule of law, with the establishment of a unified feudal monarchy as the ideal and goal of struggle, with the "rule of law" as the core of his thought and theory, and the materialist Epistemology as his weapon for observing things and fighting. They are organically linked and integrated, forming the comparative end of Han Fei's thought The whole system of thought.

Han Fei's works summed up the experience of the early Legalists, formed a political and ideological system with the law as the center and the combination of law, technique and potential, and became a master of the Legalists. Han Fei summed up the thoughts of Shang Yang, Shen Buhai and Shendao. Shang Yang, Shen Dao and Shen Buhui advocated attaching importance to law, power and skill, respectively. Han Fei put forward the idea of combining the three closely. Law refers to the improvement of the legal system, potential refers to the power of the monarch, to be in charge of the military and political power alone, and Shu refers to the strategy and means of controlling the officials, mastering the political power, and carrying out laws and regulations. The main purpose of power is to detect, prevent and maintain the monarchy. Han Fei integrated the three. At the same time, he pointed out that the biggest shortcoming of Shen Shang's theory was that it didn't combine method with technique. Secondly, the second major shortcoming of Shen and Shang theories is that they are not perfect. Shenzi is not perfect in technique, and Shangjun is not perfect in law. According to his own point of view, Han Fei discussed the content of Shu and FA as well as the relationship between them. He believed that in order to govern the country, the monarch should make good use of his power and at the same time, his subordinates must abide by the law. Compared with Shen Buhui, Han Fei's "Shu" has developed mainly in the aspect of "Shu Zhixie". In his opinion, the monarch should not trust his subordinates too much, but also "try the names of the criminals". In the aspect of law, Han Fei emphasizes the thought of "stopping punishment by punishment", and emphasizes "severe punishment" and "severe punishment". In his opinion, it's not enough to have methods and techniques alone. There must be "potential" as a guarantee. "Shi", that is, power, political power, is the power and status of the monarch, which can be understood as national authority. He appreciated Shen Dao's saying that "Yao is a man who can't rule three people, while Jie is the son of heaven who can make trouble in the world" (the difficult one), and put forward the argument that "if you uphold the law and deal with the situation, you will rule; if you recite the law and get rid of the situation, you will be in disorder" (the difficult situation).

For the first time, Han Fei clearly put forward the idea of "law is not noble", advocating that "punishment should not avoid ministers, and reward should not leave a man.". This is a great contribution to the rule of law in China, and has a positive impact on the elimination of aristocratic privileges and the maintenance of legal dignity.

Confucianists pay attention to "etiquette is not inferior to common people, punishment is not superior to the doctor", and Legalists represented by Han Fei develop it into equality before the law. The law does not show partiality even to the noble and powerful.

Han Fei advocates law as education, which means that in addition to making laws, we must also publicize laws, popularize legal knowledge, let the broad masses of the people abide by the law, use the law, and form a good atmosphere of "knowing, understanding and abiding by the law" in the whole society. To teach by law is one of the symbols of implementing policies, Strengthening Ideology and legal system, and consolidating centralization of power in Qin Dynasty.

Han Fei's thought of rule of law adapted to the needs of a certain historical development stage in China and played a theoretical guiding role in the establishment of China's feudal centralized system. After Han Fei's death, monarchs and ministers of various countries competed to study his work Hanzi. Under the guidance of his thoughts, Qin Shihuang completed the imperial cause of unifying the six countries. Han Fei's thought of rule of law has a certain practical significance in later generations, especially his theory of "law, technique and potential". Han Fei's idea of "taking law as the foundation" has been put into practice and has become the mainstream of contemporary thought.

The highest ideal of Han Fei's learning is that "the king does nothing and the law does nothing". He thinks that the king does not have to worry when the law is practiced; the officials do not have to work; the people abide by the law, and the people rule the world when they do nothing. But his theory is too respectful of the monarch

Chinese PinYin : Han Fei Zi