The Ethical Study Of Hanfei’s Thought Of "Law, Tactics And Power"

Hanfei was the master of legalist school in the pre-Qin period. His deep insight of social reality and human nature, also his comprehensive elaboration of "rule of law" and combination of "Law, Tactics and Power" contributed to heated academic discussions on his thoughts. The combination and cooperation of "Law, Tactics and Power" was the main characteristic of Hanfei’s ideological system. On one hand, it rooted in the thoughts of early legalists like Shangyang, Shendao, Shen Buhai; on the other hand, it was based on the knowledge of selfishness of humanity, the viewpoints on uselessness of morality and reflection on the relation between morality and law. Some scholars criticized Hanfei for valuing harsh law, severe punishment and conspiratorial method, ignoring the importance of moral education. Therefore, Hanfei was labeled as Amoralist, which is unfair for him. The combination of "Law, Tactics and Power" which served as a way of governing the country was quite effective concerning the harsh reality and the weakness of morality. Besides, it also reflected Hanfei’s pursuit of Good Governance. Accordingly, from the perspective of ethics, this article talks about the origin and rationality of Hanfei’s thought of "Law, Tactics and Power". Framework for the writing of this paper can be divided into the following four parts:The first part shows the historical background and theory source of Hanfei’s thought of "Law, Tactics and Power". Firstly, during Spring and Autumn Period, our country was in a historical stage of the great social transformation. The change of economic foundation, political structure would inevitably lead to the development of academic thought. Legalism was actually the product of that era, but also promoting the historical trend of unification. In addition, as the master of legalist school, Hanfei’s critical inheritance of study of early legalism had helped him to set up his own ideology system.The second paragraph explains the theoretical basis for Hanfei’s thought of combination of "Law, Tactics and Power". The selfishness of human nature and the naked human interest relationship was the theoretical standpoint. Because interest was the only motive of one’s action, Confucius and Mocius’s theories about benevolence, righteousness and universal love were just empty talk. Therefore, the uselessness of morality was one of the reasons why Hanfei consisted on rule by law.The third part introduces the deep meaning of "Law, Tactics and Power" and the relationship between. Law was kind of ordinance and regulations for monarch governing the whole country; Tactics referred to the subtle and insidious means of ruling the courtiers; and Power meant the supremacy and authority of the monarch which nobody could shake. These three must be combined and cooperated, forming the core of Hanfei’s ideology, which reflected Hanfei’s deep ethical concern for the social reality and general public.The fourth part mainly talks about the advantages and disadvantages of Hanfei’s thoughts, pointing out its theoretical value and defects. It contributed to the perfection of the doctrine of absolute monarchy, traditional political ethics thought, and also promoting the development of feudal political system. However, because his prejudice attitudes towards morality, human nature and the relationship between monarch and his people, his method was too much harsh and cruel and had beencontroversial since then.