Why did all the greatest thinkers in China appear in the pre-Qin period?

This is determined by the historical background at that time.

In the pre-Qin period, a hundred schools of thought contended, and legalism was particularly prevalent in Qi, Sanjin and Qin Dynasties. Why was it safe and sound? Representatives of various factions and their views? What influence did legalism have on later politics?

Legalist school is a set of theories that examine reality and oppose conservatism gradually formed in the process of the collapse of feudal system. Due to the decline of aristocratic politics and the robbery of princes, the "ceremony" that maintained the political and social structure was efficient again. Therefore, countries feel that in order to survive, they need to reform, complete an objective and effective administrative system to achieve prosperity and national subjugation, and the legalist ideology is becoming more and more complete.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the east and the west were both connected and technically integrated, which was mixed but not unified, and the rise of political thoughts in various places had different tendencies. The popularity of legalism in Qi, San Jin and Qin Dynasties has its specific geographical environment, political conditions and a folk custom, which shows its own characteristics with the different environment.

First of all, geographically speaking, it is related to the stimulation of foreign nationalities: whether it is mixed blood of Qi and Jin or Qin. Qi is surrounded by other nationalities, Rong Di is everywhere in Jin, and Qin is in Xirong. Therefore, in order to compete with foreign countries, we must first strengthen military strength and unify government decrees in order to defeat the enemy. Therefore, in order to complete military activities, the state should be strict with the monarch and ministers, focus on enriching Qiang Bing, and distinguish rewards and punishments. This is the origin of legalist thought. For example, in the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Qi Taigong suffered from the chaos of Lion. In order to strengthen its rule, it implemented political reforms and made Qi rich and strong. Moreover, the folk customs of foreigners are simple and tenacious, and they live with the people. To end the law with severe punishment is enough to make them obey orders, drive them to work hard on farming and weaving, and stabilize the four schools. In this environment, legalist thought develops the fastest.

Secondly, as far as political conditions are concerned, this is related to the need of political reform in Qi, Jin and Qin: Qi is close to mountains and seas, which is beneficial to fishing for salt. However, since the Western Zhou Dynasty, civil strife has lasted for more than 300 years, and politics has never been on the track, but Qi Huangong acceded to the throne, determined to make the country rich and strong. Coupled with the weakening of the old aristocratic forces in Japan, it was not enough to obstruct Qi's political reform, so he had the idea of managing the law and advocated accumulating money to enrich the country, which was based on internal affairs.

Legalist thought flourished in Sanjin, and Xiao Gongchuan's History of China Thought said that "the environment in Sanjin was particularly suitable for the growth of legalists". Jin was far away from Lu and was less influenced by Lu Zhong's rites. Therefore, the realistic thought of legalists is easy to produce, and Jin Xiangong tried his best to punish the son of the clique, and the weakness of the six departments after the Qing Dynasty completely destroyed the public, which contributed to the extension of the imperial system. Therefore, legalist thoughts aimed at reducing the nobility and stabilizing the monarchy are naturally more likely to sprout and grow in Sri Lanka. In addition, it also has a lot to do with Jin Wengong's hegemony in the Jin Dynasty. According to Zuo Zhuan, Wen Gong is the law of staying behind, and is the official who holds the rank, so the legalist thought prospers. In addition, when Jin Fan Zi Xuan was casting The Ding of Punishment, he began to act as the ethos of legalists as early as the Warring States Period, and his legalist thoughts were even more brilliant. Because Korea, Zhao and Wei compete with each other, Zhao has Shinto and Wei.

The prosperity of Qin legalist thought began with Shang Yang's political reform. Before Qin Xiaogong ascended the throne, the influence of the old nobles was quite strong, and their national strength was increasing day by day. Filial piety is determined to be strong, and Shang Yang's political reform laid the foundation of the rule of law in Qin, so the legalist school flourished in Qin, which has a direct and obvious relationship with this.

Secondly, as far as folk customs are concerned, it also encourages Chyi Chin's legalist thought: According to Records of the Historian, "all common customs tend to be utilitarian, and they are fond of exaggeration and deception", and Guan Zhong conforms to human feelings, "accumulate wealth with money, make the army rich and strong, and like and dislike the common customs", thus forming his legalist system. Huainanzi should also be abbreviated as "the custom of Qin, greedy for wolves and strong, ungrateful and beneficial." Punishment can not be turned into good, and it can be advised to take the river in the name of reward but not encouragement. It is convenient to collect money, honor tigers and wolves, and swallow princes. Therefore, the method of Shang Yang was born. " This clearly points out the reason why Legalism is still superior to Qin.

Legalist ideology was established relatively late, but its ideological origin was very early, advocating power and power, which constituted power politics with strict laws. Then legalist thought prevailed, instead of ruling the country by courtesy and morality, which was started by Guan Zhong, followed by Shen Bu's emphasis on art and Shang Yang's emphasis on law. He affirmed the important position of Shinto and reached the conclusion of Han Fei's legal thought, thus completing the establishment of Legalist political philosophy. Generally speaking, the Legalist School can be divided into the Eastern School and the Western School. The works of this legalist school include Guanzi and Yanzi, and their arguments focus on the economy. Guan Zhong, for example, advocated taking government decrees as a means, focusing on the policy of attaching importance to agriculture and seeking the fundamental interests of the people. Therefore, industry and commerce are beneficial to the country, supplemented by saving money to help the poor, so that people can eat and drink.

Western learning originated in Sanjin, and the legalists in Sanjin focused on politics, that is, how to consolidate the position of the government and strengthen the power of the monarch. By the mid-Warring States period, it can be divided into three schools:

(a) the so-called "power" refers to the status of the monarch and the majestic power generated by this status, which is driven by fear of the monarch and "dare not do anything wrong." This school is represented by Shen Dao and A Zhao, and Shen Dao's thought is actually between Taoism and Legalism. Shen Dao believes that unscrupulous sages, people with low power and unscrupulous people can serve sages. Yao is an ordinary person and can't cure three people; Being an emperor can mess up the world because of the situation. Therefore, it is natural for envoys to be afraid to advocate that the monarch exercise the supreme power of reward and punishment. The so-called "Heaven is too close to look up" is concealed by the idea of authoritarian politics, so its purpose is to improve the authority of a gentleman over everything. However, Shen Dao only knows the role of power, ignoring that talent is also very important to the quality of politics. Therefore, Han Fei criticized it, thinking that "the strong use it and the wise use it, then the world will rule it;" If unscrupulous people use it, the world will be in chaos. "

(2) The school of attaching importance to art-the so-called "art" is a secret, political skill or clever plan for the monarch to control his subjects. Everything Everything is done by Han Feizi says: "An executor gets an official position because of his position and is responsible for the truth according to his name. He has the handle of killing people, and he teaches his ministers this ability. What this person has done is also true. " He advocated replacing responsibility with name and secretly controlling the ministers with secret techniques, with Shen Buhai as the representative. Legalists are responsible for the purpose of fame and reality, but from "everything is done wrong? It was the criticism of that French article: "Although Shen Buhai made Han Zhaohou use magic ten times, the treacherous court official still made some remarks." There is no end to knowing how to sink the sea.

(3) The legalist school, represented by Shang Yang, advocates rewarding the government with torture. The so-called "law", "everything is wrong? It is a legal article that says, "If the constitutional order is formulated by the government, the punishment will be determined by the people's will, and rewards and punishments depend on careful law. If the punishment is added to the rape order, the minister's teacher will also be there. However, Han Fei believes that "there is no skill in migration, and people have no knowledge of rape, but they are rich and strong, and people have money and ministers" also has its disadvantages.

In China's Primitive Philosophy, Tang Junyi believes that Shen Dao's words and deeds, Shen Buhai's words and deeds, and Shang Yang's words and deeds can be called "the beginning of legalism", but each has its own shortcomings. Until the Warring States Period, Han Feizi, a disciple of Xun Qing, took advantage of his weakness, learned from others and merged spells. The theory of "potential" is more important, and reward and punishment are the second handle for the monarch, thus completing a systematic jurisprudence.

Han Fei's thoughts come from Xun Qing's theory of evil nature and Laozi's theory of governing by doing nothing. Take advantage of the weakness of human nature and set severe punishments and rewards to drive it. At the same time, the monarch doesn't have to be respectful and close as brothers. Everything drives his deputies to do it, from each according to his ability, to perform his duties and to achieve great success. His political views can be analyzed in detail:

(1) "Pursuing fame and profit", that is, Han Fei cooperates with real politics with the theory of rectifying the name.

(2) Han Fei emphasizes "punishment" and "reward", but "punishment" and "reward" are from the name, and those who affix their names are rewarded without punishment. "Everything is finished? The second chapter holds that "punishment" and "reward" are the two major powers of the government, and that "anyone who governs the world must take human feelings and likes and dislikes as the criteria, so there can be rewards and punishments", and that "the monarch exercises them to control his ministers, and the ministers can raise them" shows that Han Fei believes that rewards and punishments are extremely important for the monarch to govern the people and the officials. Among the rewards and punishments, Han Fei believes that "reward is not as good as trust, and punishment is not as good as need." So he's in Han Feizi? The article "Xianxue" explicitly denies the rule of virtue. As long as the master holds the handle of punishment and reward, he can believe in reward and punishment, order them to do things through coercion, and then take responsibility at different levels, then the master can do nothing.

(3) It is argued that power, skill and law are all imperial tools, which should not be neglected, but should be centered on the law and punished if you want to believe it. The purpose of Shen Wei's monasticism is to improve monarchical power and enable people to have power and means. Power, the authority of the monarch; The executor is the means by which the monarch controls his subjects; Legislators pay attention to the reward and punishment clauses in the notice. "Skill" should be deeply hidden in people's minds, "law" should be clearly known to the public, and "law" must be easy to understand and unified. Not only the law itself should be unified, but also the monarch and his subjects should abide by the law, that is to say, the dignity of the law should be maintained forever, and no one can break the law. Therefore, "the law is as solid as ever." "Between the monarch and the minister, Han Fei thinks that there is no benevolence, righteousness and faithfulness, so he advocates that the monarch and the minister should give priority to" skill "to fight the liegeman, and its main point is to clearly observe the evil of the liegeman and reduce the right of private door. Anyone who is a monarch should never indulge his men in private, so as not to give treacherous court officials a good opportunity to cultivate their power, so the monarch should be passive and distrustful. Don't give the craftsman a chance to peep and please; He must have his own opinions in everything and never give his men a chance to steal power. Therefore, Han Feizi integrated power, art and law and formed a systematic legalist thought.

(4) Legalists, when talking about "potential", "technique" and "law", take interests as the basis and strengthen people's strength as the means to break all prejudices and face reality. Therefore, Han Fei was not the first king, and thought that "things are easy when things are easy, and things are easy when things are easy", and that people are in charge of politics and "can't follow the ancient times by surprise", which must be based on. The fifth chapter points out that "taking law as teaching, Wang Yan as the first, and officials as teachers", which became the source of Lisi's thought of burning books later.

Legalist thought, from the initial starting point of pursuing fame and profit, gradually changed to the end of the Warring States period, and gradually formed a set of mean and ruthless ideological system, which had a great influence on later history. To sum up, there are the following points:

(A) contribute to the completion of centralized system-the political ideal of Legalists, because it meets the needs of the times, which directly contributed to the disintegration of aristocratic feudal system and the establishment of centralized system, pushed the history of China to a brand-new situation, and also contributed to the prosperity of Qin State, enabling the first emperor to destroy the six countries and unify the whole country. Qin Shihuang's measures of centralization were also due to the application of Han Fei's thought, so the politics of Qin Dynasty can be said to be the realization of Legalism.

(2) The political thought of Legalists, which led to Qin's sudden death, is like Ban Gu's Han Shu? "Yi Wen Zhi" said: "Those who carve it do it, have no education, love it, specialize in criminal law, and want to rule it. As for killing the closest relatives, the injury is thin and thick. " It constitutes a set of despicable disloyalty that is purely utilitarian. In the end, Qin died soon because of the punishment of Tai Chi, just as Jia Yi said, "The king of Qin put the world under the punishment of law, hated it like hatred, harmed himself and destroyed his descendants." (Public safety policy)

(3) To lay a foundation for the effectiveness of Huang Lao's rule of law in the early Han Dynasty-the political atmosphere in the early Han Dynasty was based on the principle of "quietism" both at home and abroad, which did not exaggerate, gave people a rest and made society peaceful. In fact, the success of Huang Lao's rule of law to "people prefer one" is based on the rule of law. The contribution of this rule of law thought is also.

(4) Customization in the early Han Dynasty had many legalist connotations-historian Yu Yingshi said in his article "Anti-intelligence and China's Political Tradition" that Confucianism in the early Han Dynasty was a legalist in politics and character, which can be found in History and Thought. Although Uncle Sun Tong set the court ceremony, he said it was a "rather ancient ceremony". In fact, it was the etiquette of "respecting the monarch and humble the minister" in Qin Ting. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was this system that was gradually pushed into perfection. In addition, Xiao He enacted laws to attack the Qin system, and the political system should be based on the old Qin system. It is obvious that the measures taken in the early Han Dynasty have profound legal connotations.

(e) The Han Dynasty ruled the Tao, and Yang Confucianism ruled the Yin-although Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ousted a hundred schools of thought and respected Confucianism alone, the actual administration was Wang Ba's miscellaneous use, just like Han Shu? Yuan Di Collection contains Xuan Di's words: "The Han family has its own statutes, which are mixed. "

Wang Ru used it to flout the law. "

(6) Legalism has always been the backbone of supporting politics in past dynasties-as far as China's more than two thousand years of monarchical rule is concerned, legalism has its indelible significance. Whenever the country is in danger and weak, it always relies on the Legalists to strive for self-improvement. For example, during the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao used his power slightly more than Kong Ming to govern Shu with sincerity, which was the expression of legalism. Therefore, Wang Fuzhi thought that reaffirming the skill of Korea and innovating Wang Anshi in the Song Dynasty and Zhang Lizhi in the Ming Dynasty were also based on legalism.

In short, the spirit of Legalism comes from the disputes between countries. Feng Youlan's History of China Philosophy: He said: "Respecting monarchical power, emphasizing the rule of law, and prohibiting private studies were the natural trend of real politics at that time, and the study of Legalism only theorized it." What he said is true. Legalist thought flourished in the Qi, Sanjin and Qin Dynasties, which contributed to the prosperity and unification of Qin State. It was the basis of the main academic thought of Qin State's administration and had a great influence on later generations.