On Strategies Of Han Fei's Thought

Han Fei, who was born in Vassal State Han during the late Warring States Period, is the main representative of the pre-Qin legists as well as a synthesizer of legists'thought. Although he absorbed the previous legists' theory and established his own set of relatively mature theories, Han Fei didn't practise his theory, so he was only a comprehensive political theorist, not a politician. However, many ideas and methods in Han Fei's articles were available for the society at that time, and were useful to help the monarch achieve reunification. Unfortunately, Han Fei's own life is miserable.This paper is mainly divided into four parts.The first part is about Han Fei and his times, which tells the conditions and the social background for the generation of Han Fei's theory. Han Fei was a noble of the late Warring States period and he was nurtured by various kinds of thoughts in his youth. Vassal State Han's decayed politics at that time prompted him to tend to Legist ideas. He hoped to strengthen Vassal State Han's monarchy through political reform as well as to make the country rich and its military force efficient. In addition, his family's influences on him made him always think from the perspective of the nobility. Therefore, his theory, emphasizing the sovereign dictatorship, to some extent, was established for monarch and served the sovereign interests. However, Han Fei's ambition was not achieved in his own country. As his articles were wide-spread, he got the attention of the King of Qin State, whose name was Zheng. Thus, Hanfei was called in by Zheng, who intended to appoint him. Unfortunately, he was framed by Li Si's calumny and died in the prison of Qin State. Nevertheless, his theory that combined rewards and punishments, strategies and Sovereign power handed down. Han Fei was the one who actively absorbed previous legists'theory and further developed it. Without his effort the legist theory wouldn't be so complete and unified.The Warring States period, in which Han Fei was born, was the times of social and ideological upheavals. At that time, fights for hegemony among the Seven Vassal States and different contestations of respective school led to the country's disintegrity and social disorder. To govern the country it's of vital importance to build an effective bureaucratic management system. Han Fei's "rewards and punishments" and "strategic governance" ideas were put forward in this situation. Based on selective and critical absorption and inheriting of the thoughts of different schools, Han Fei developed his own theories. That was the theory for governance, which combined rewards and punishments, strategies and Sovereign power. He was the last ideologist of that era and a significant representative synthesizer of previous ideologists'thoughts.The second part is about theoretical sources of his idea on"rewards and punishments". The ideological sources of Han Fei's theory were very complicated. But Xun Zi's ideas about human's evil nature and Taoism theory had the most significant impact on the formation of Han Fei's own legist theory. Han Fei was Xun Zi's student. Thus, his thinking was inevitably influenced by his teacher. Xun Zi believes that people have evil nature, and Han Fei agrees. However, instead of pushing the"evil nature"idea to extreme, Han Fei proposed solutions of"evil nature"- "nomocracy" and "penalty". He pointed out that only by relying on the strict rules of rewards and punishments and stressing the deterrent effect of the penalty to the ruled, the establishment of an orderly society and the normal relations between monarch and subjects could be realized. Meanwhile, Han Fei's theory was also affected by Lao Zi's Taoism Thought, which had close relation with Legist Thought. Han Fei believed that to realize monarchy despotism, dictatorship should be kept hidden, which was described in the Taoism theory as the calm and quiet appearance. Han Fei also developed the essence of Lao Zi's Taoism theory–"the attitude of calmness and few desires"as well as"to govern with no interference"into strategies for monarch mastering subjects, that is to say, the strategies for sovereign to control his subjects. It was a creative development of Taoist philosophy.The third part focuses on"strategies"of Han Fei's theory. The strategy means the sovereign power to control subjects. It was designed to serve the sovereign. The core content of Han Fei's "strategies" and relevant thought is about "instructing the person with a certain position to fulfill his duty", which is also known as "rewards and punishments according to officials'titles and behaviors". Han Fei emphasized mystery of "strategies". He pointed out that "strategies" was the monarch's exclusive sovereign right. Only by maintaining "strategies" mystic could maximize the effectiveness of subjects control; only by highlighting the supremacy of the monarch's authority, it could be considered to fully play the role of "strategies". In this section, the author believes that among Han Fei's various "strategies", "instructing the person with a certain position to fulfill his duty" is the heart and the fundamental essence. Based on this strategy, he further developed appointment strategy, strategy Tingyan (listening to the advisers wisely), strategy to control by doing nothing and so on."Rewards and punishments according to officials'titles and behaviors" is the core of Han Fei's strategies. It was the strategy formed to rein the subjects against people's good and evil natures. The standard of rewards and punishments is to inspect officials'behavior according to the result of their practices. Han Fei also emphasized that rewards and punishment must be based on nomocracy and should be strictly carried out according to the rules. The two points were of vital importance and they were the most effective methods to consolidate the rule of monarchs.The appointment strategy was significant for the monarch's rule as well. If the monarch appointed the right person, he'd get the supposed result with fewer efforts, if not, he might suffer a crushing defeat. Han Fei's "appointment strategy" includes the government of officials, traitors, keeping away from traitors and other appointment polices. The main question is actually focused on the management of officials, appointment and removal, assessment and reward & punishment system and so on. In "Eight Sayings" Han Fei focused on the description of some basic principles that the monarch appointed officials, which were the so-called "giving rewards and punishments according to the standard". In addition, there was a very important discussion on keeping away from traitors and dealing with them. In Han Fei's opinion, only the monarch is exclusively in charge of the right to give rewards and punishments, to deal with government affairs, he could ultimately avoid being betrayed by traitors.Strategy Tingyan is made specifically for the monarch to listen to a group trying to promote his own political ideas and to control them and it persuades the sovereign to listen to all parties and various views, ensure fairness and to listen to reverse words as well as to demand the officials to give insightful and practical comments. Only by carrying out a comprehensive analysis on all of these, could the monarch make accurate judgments on the merits and demerits.The strategy to control by doing nothing, which came from Taoism, was applied by Han Fei as a strategy for the monarch to rein the subjects. It reflects that Han Fei's thought is inextricably linked withTaoism, especially Lao Zi's ideas, and even can be said that there was a clear relationship of succeeding. Han Fei's strategy to control by doing nothing means that people and things have their proper places, officials and subjects were all doing their supposed work, and then monarch made awards or punishments in accordance with what officials did by examining whether they had done what they'd promised. Besides, Han Fei's strategy to control by doing nothing can make the Sovereign power mystic. Monarch quietly observes the officials, while the officials could not be able to guess monarch's thought, so there is no chance for the officials to flatter the monarch and violate Sovereign power. The fourth part expounds the relations of"strategies","rewards and punishments"and"Sovereign power". Han Fei syncretized the three and set up a complete legist theoretical system for politics. In his articles he put great emphasis on the significance of the rules and Sovereign power for controlling the officials. The three are complementary. Without the support of"rewards and punishments", the Sovereign power cannot be guaranteed, strategies cannot be properly carried out, either. Without Sovereign power, the ruler can't implement nomocracy and fulfill the strategies. The same way, if the Sovereign power was violated, rewards and punishments couldn't be accomplished. Based on the above, Han Fei not only absorbed the ideas of the legists pioneers, but also made a profound criticism on their shortages.Furthermore, for the strategies to rein the officials, the standard of rewards and punishments is the final gist, which is the principle that strategies must follow. The standard here played a role of final constraint. That's why Legist Thought is not called"Strategy Thought"or"Sovereign Power Thought".In a word, the author believes that among Han Fei's "strategies", "rewards and punishments according to officials'titles and behaviors" is the core, while appointment strategy, strategy Tingyan (listening to the advisers wisely), strategy to control by doing nothing are strategies that rely on it.