Discussion On Guan Zi's Theory Of "Morality And Penalty"

The book Guanzi, written under the circumstances of Ji culture in the pre-qin warring states, was gradually completed with the development of "a hundred schools contend" in the scholastic court of Ji Xia. Academics generally agree that Guanzi belongs to Guan Zhong school (Ji Xia Academy). As a generation of sage, Guan Zhong met the needs of times and proposed a legal thought that could make the country rich and strong, which won the favor of Duke Huan of Qi. Under the assistance of Guan Zhong, Duke Huan made the Qi seek hegemony in the world. Legalisms originated from the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, during which social systems in the history of our country had changed radically. As a representative personage of the early stage of legalisms, Guan Zhong helped Duke Huan with domestic reform, economic development and the building of a prosperous country and a powerful army. And at last, the unprecedented feat"Unit the seniors, and make the whole world under control."was appeared.The rules of law principle in the book Guanzi, such as"people oriented; people foremost","Laws principle of universe to Tao", and"paying attention to both morality and law", is an important symbol of the historical value of early Chinese law culture. Guanzi regarded people as the foundation in governing a country, and took laws as an important way to bring peace and stability to the country. Such notions of law enforcement as monarch lead the law-abiding and superintendents rewards justice that were promoted in the book is an important link to Rule by Law. At the same time, it paid much attention to build the authority of morality and regarded equal emphasis on morality and legalism as the two backbones to maintain social stability, and even saw them as the factors concerning the life and death of the state. Both of them oppose and unify mutually, and their significance is far-reaching.Based on analysis of the producing background and theoretical origins of legal thoughts of Guanzi, the present paper attempts to give an overview of the main contents of legal thoughts, and at the same time, gives the evaluation to its legal thoughts so as to expose theoretical value of legal thoughts of Guanzi from the perspective of legal culture.This thesis is divided into five parts. The first part emphasizes on Guan Zhong and the book Guanzi, the legal thoughts of Guanzi and its producing background and theoretical origin. And the following two parts will introduce the core contents of legal thoughts of Guanzi, including core view of rule by law, decorum indoctrination theory of propriety, righteousness, honesty, and a sense of shame , and the enforcement idea of law enforcement breakers line will upright and so on. As to the forth part, it gives an evaluation to the thoughts of morality and legalism of Guanzi, which includes theoretical contribution, limits of legal thoughts of Guanzi and a summary of its reasonable value to later thought. The last part primarily discusses the modern enlightenment of its legal thoughts, and it also does a research on the positive meaning that legal thoughts of Guanzi brings to today's socialist legal construction.