The collected writings of Han Fei, fifty-five chapters synthesizing earlier Legalist thinkers, Shang Yang on law, Shen Buhai on statecraft technique, and Shen Dao on positional power, into a single systematic argument that a ruler secures order through impersonal, publicly codified law and the strategic concealment of personal preference, not through personal virtue. It became the fullest philosophical statement of Legalism and is traditionally credited with shaping the administrative doctrine Qin used to unify China in 221 BCE.
Facts
Publication YearMost of the text's fifty five chapters date to the Warring States period, mid third century BCE; -250 marks a representative point within that range, following the convention already used for Zhuangzi. Original Language Classification
Genre / Form Connections
Authored By
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
In Branch
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Political Atlas: Legalism, influenced this subject there.
Sources
1. Han Feizi (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLead section
Its 55 chapters, most of which date to the Warring States period mid-3rd century BCE, are the only such text to survive fully intact.
Lead section, essays sentence
It comprises a selection of essays in the Legalist tradition, elucidating theories of state power, and synthesizing the methodologies of his predecessors.
Lead section, ancient Chinese text sentence
is an ancient Chinese text attributed to the Legalist political philosopher Han Fei.
View the Source 2. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and InformationSEP, "Han Feizi"
Han Feizi is considered as philosophically and literally more engaging than the Book of Lord Shang, and it has been more widely studied in China, Japan, and in the West.
- Authored By: Han Fei
- In Branch: Political Philosophy
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