A New Explanation Of The Theoretical Design On The Structure Of Han Feizi's Rule Power And Tactics

The design on the structure of Han Feizi s rule power and tactics includes two running system, the Centralization and Constraint of political power. The Centralization Design concentrates on"power", while rule acts as the objective standard to make judgments and administer a country,and tactics is the political techniques used by monarchs to distinguish whether their subjects are showing the same honesty as they have presented in their words. The using of tactics in the administration of law ensures power s standing. The Constraint Design includes two aspects. One is that, each of rule power and tactics maintains some inner sense to restrict the abuse of monarch authority. The other is that the Design on the structure of rule power and tactics should work under a certain condition that supreme rulers must control self-desire and follow the way of rule. Han Feizi believes that during the Spring and Autumn Period, the increasingly frequent replacement of governments should be responsible for the great disorder then. And the Centralization Design can help monarchs building strong political power as the foundation of recovering and restructuring a reasonable sequence, while the Constraint Design could act as effective measure to prevent the tyranny caused by over-expanded self-desire under over-centralization of sovereigns power. To assure monarchs acceptance of this half-half theory, on the one hand Han Feizi deliberately shows the beneficial aspect (Centralization) to monarchs, emphasizing the importance of by using exaggerate description to magnify the grudge between a monarch and his subjects. On the other hand, Han Feizi describes the Constraint Design as an essential prerequisite to the benefit harvested through centralization, that is, limited restriction over power is for the better consolidation, that is to say, the Centralization and Constraint are born as a pair of inseparable twins. Thus, when monarchs surely accept and actually practice the Design in their actually domination, which could hardly be from the outer then shall and achieve the goal of serving rule by power.In the last part of this essay, a short conclusion and analysis is placed on other three main schools of thought (except for the Legalist) of the great four the Confucian, Taoist, and Mohist during the pre-Qin Period. These three schools each propose their own opinions on how to limit the abuse of power and scourge in the respects of virtual (Confucian), mental (Taoist), and religious belief (Mohist). Similar with the Legalist represented by Han Feizi,these answers cannot avert the political and social risk raised by the seizing of highly centralized power by monarchs, who were born as natural beings. Still these schools each plays unalterable role in their own fields. Under the combined force of these schools, the traditional Chinese political thoughts showed strong vitality and created splendid civilization.