The Evolution Of The Internal Logic Of The Chinese Traditional Philosophy Of Law

Legal philosophy, as a highly abstract concept of law, is the extension of world outlook and the externalization of view. Therefore, it enjoys a wide adapability, namely, it is the pursuit of "The way from what is beneath abstraction" and the yearning for a harmonious order of nature. To make a general survey of human history, we find that human cognitive process is a negative-negative one. At the early stage, thought was characterized by primitiveness. The true was the good, and vice versa. Whether it was the pious worship, which was forbidden or the subconscious observance of customs and traditions, all sounded well-reasoned no matter it was true or false, good or evil, and beautiful or ugly. However, with the development of productive forces and human thought, ethics and knoeledges began to separate from primitive thought, but according to David Hume in the western world, the true was quite distinct from the good. The true meant" It is what actually" while the good refered to " It should be what." It was impossible to deduce the latter from the former. During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period, the division between the true and the good did exist, but it was not so complete as that in the west. In terms of "Man is an integral part of nature", Daism held that nature was under the command of law, which emphasized Heaven and nature, and used the true of nature to govern human nature, treating the true as the good. Nevertheless, Confucians School and Legal ism advocated following the way of Heaven, they laid stress on human affairs and incorporated the nature of heaven into human nature, governing the true by means of the good. With regard to "governing the true through the good" and "putting emphasis on human affairs", Confucian School and Legalism differed in the ways of administering the state. On the relationship between "propriety" and "punishment", Confucian School valued "propriety", administering the state by virtue; whereas Legalism centered on "punishment", ruling the state by force. Despite their differences, the two shared a same purpose, that is, to create a good social order for autocratic monarchy. In this aspect, it might be said that different routes led to the same goal. Later on, Confucius way of ruling the state—"If the people led by laws and uniformitysought to be given them by punishment, they will try to avoid the punishment, but have no sense of shame; if they be led by virtue and uniformity sought to be given them by the rules of propriety, they will have the sense of shame and moreover will become good.", gradually won the recognition of rulers and became the dominant thought of ancient feudal society. Yet those virtues, proprieties and rightness adopted by Confucian School with an aim to pursue harmonious interpersonal relationship showed alienation in its practice, it's so serious to the extent that "People were killed or eaten by proprieties," finally it came to a dead end. Due to the leading role that Confucian thought played in traditional society, those moral principles of Confucian School turned out to be ideology of feudal society and its view that the state should by governed through virtue became the ruling strategy of feudal society. Therefore, laws in traditional society were by no means without the color of administering the state by virtue. It had the characteristics of valuing proprieties, making slight of rights and paying much attention to political power etc.. The fundamental reason of this phenomenon lied in cyclic interaction between thought and economy based on geography.