The People-based Legal Thought Of Guanzi And Its Contemporary Value

Although the book Guanzi was not written by Guan Zhong,it contains a large number of Guan Zhong’s ideas and concepts of governance during the pre-Qin period,and many of these ideas are still relevant today.This thesis aims to summarise the conditions for the emergence of people-oriented legal thought of Guanzi,to sort out the specific contents of people-oriented legal thought of Guanzi,and to explore the contemporary value of people-oriented legal thought of Guanzi through the methods of documentary research,comparative research,inductive deduction and interdisciplinary research.This paper is divided into three parts.The first part is an analysis of the emergence of people-oriented legal thought of Guanzi.The emergence of people-oriented legal thought of Guanzi has its historical origins and the background of the times.The transformation from a slave society to a feudal society,the increase in productivity and the prevalence of private learning were all important factors in the birth of people-oriented legal thinking of Guanzi.The second part of the book is devoted to sorting out the core elements of people-oriented legal thinking.The people-oriented thinking of Guanzi is an important part of the thinking of Guanzi,which mainly includes "loving the people","enriching the people","teaching the people" and "teaching the people","In addition,by comparing the people-oriented legal thought of Guanzi with the people-oriented thought of Confucian thinkers Confucius,Mencius and Xunzi in the pre-Qin dynasty,we can compare the people-oriented thought of Guanzi with the people-oriented thought of Confucius,Mencius and Xunzi.In addition,we compare the people-based legal thinking of Guanzi with the people-based thinking of Confucian thinkers Confucius,Mencius and Xunzi,and through comparing the differences and similarities between the people-based legal thinking of Guanzi and that of traditional Confucianism,we gain a deeper understanding of the people-based legal thinking of Guanzi,which is "to cultivate the law and to secure the people".The third part explores the contemporary value of people-based legal thought of Guanzi,based on Professor Yu Zhong’s theory of the three phases of legalism and Professor Wu Shuchen’s three classifications of legal culture,and elaborates on the contemporary value of people-based legal thought of Guanzi from three perspectives:building the rule of law,protecting people’s rights and interests,and personnel training.In the process of building a modern society based on the rule of law,the people-based legal thinking of Guanzi from the pre-Qin period should be re-examined as an excellent traditional Chinese legal thought.Although the whole set of people-based legal thought constructed by Guanzi is not a return to plebeian politics in the modern sense,on the one hand,this theory reflects the urgent need of the rulers for the people in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period,and on the other hand,it has certain reference value for the current construction of rule by law in China.