Was China ruled by law or by man in ancient times?

In ancient China, the rule of virtue by Confucianism and the rule of law by legalists were two different strategies for governing the country. "Rule by virtue" firmly believes that "rule by people" is more important than people's "virtue", and its essence is rule by man. Legalists' "rule of law" is called "rule of law", but it is limited to "rule of law of monarch". The law is not for the people, and the monarch is out of the scope of the rule of law, but its essence is the rule of man. Although the rule of Confucianism and Legalism is based on human nature. Legalists look for external causes), theoretical basis (Confucianism firmly believes that "ruling by the people" focuses on the "morality" of the people, and Legalists firmly believe that "ruling by the law" focuses on the combination of law, situation and technique), and object consideration (Confucianism is aimed at everyone, especially the monarch; Legalists have differences and opposites in targeting and excluding monarchs. However, they did not destroy or replace each other, but became complementary wings in the autocratic monarchy, which shows that the logical starting point of China's traditional theory of state power is monarchical power, not civil rights. This traditional political thought of seeing monarchy but not civil rights is being subverted by the social practice in modern China, and the pursuit of civil rights has become the mainstream of China's political modernization.