Ethical thought of legalist thought

Legalist thought is rich in content and relatively complete in structure, including ethical thought, social development thought, political thought and rule of law thought. Legalist ethics. Legalist ethics refers to the concept of honesty, justice and benefit based on the concept of human nature. Honesty is an important part of China's traditional moral norms, which has universal standards for adults. It has been pointed out by China sages since ancient times. Legalist elite is no exception. "Honesty", sincere and open. The basic meaning of "faith" is honesty, no doubt and no deception. Guan Zhong, a pioneer of legalism, believes that honesty is the key to the code of conduct in the world. He explained how to be honest from two aspects. First of all, he emphasized honesty and brought it into the category of virtue. "Guiwang honesty first, honesty first, the knot of the world. Virtue doctors don't rely on imperial clan, and scholars don't rely on external work. The advantage of Tantan is that it does not attack, and Tantan's preparation is unnecessary. Therefore, it is difficult to save the country and secure the country. Believers are benevolent. Don't be deceived, so is wisdom. Yan Shu the Pipe. "Its Wang xin Ming sage, its minister is. How do you know that the king's faith is clear and sacred? Say: use it carefully and be good at listening. He who speaks, listens, and believes is rewarded by heaven. Those who can't forget fainting or fainting are all suffering from heaven "("Guan Shi Si "). Second, Guan Zhong extended the moral concept of honesty to the fields of punishment and military affairs. He pointed out in Guan Zi Quan Xiu, Guan Zi Semi-solution and Guan Zi Jiu Fei respectively: "Reward and punish what you see, although you don't see it, how dare you do it?" ; "If punishment is rewarded, it is good to persuade rape"; "Today, unbelievers seek wisdom; Those who don't keep it must be solid; Win without fighting; The third soldier is dark. "

Wu Qi, Shang Yang and other reformers incorporated honesty into the reform measures and attached great importance to the role of honesty in the process of advocating the practice of political reform. In a sense, he laid the foundation of political reform with honesty, and he knew how to win people's hearts with honesty and establish the image of a reformer from honesty. Wuqi won the support of the people by being honest and trustworthy, and maintained his moral image. "Lu Chunqiu Shen Xiao" records: "Wu Qi ruled the Xihe River and wanted to tell his believers. In the evening, Kaya Hioki was outside the South Gate. He said in the city,' If someone looks like the South Gate tomorrow, he is a doctor.' Tomorrow will be a sad day without shame. People say, "This is unbelievable." One person said,' If you try to look at your watch, you won't get a reward. Why are you injured? Pay tribute to Wu Qi on the table. Chi WU came out of his eyes and became a long-term doctor. Night after night, the watch stands again, and the city remains the same. After entering the city to fight for the watch, the watch was not rewarded, and the people naturally believed in the rewards and punishments of Wuqi. Sima Qian described in Biography of Shang Jun in Historical Records: "Filial piety ... changed Wei Yang as the left master, and changed the imperial edict into a pawn ... so that the people didn't believe that it was already set up at the south gate of the country, and those who could move to the north gate were given ten gold. People blame it and dare not migrate. Answer:' Those who can migrate will be rewarded with 50 gold.' There is a person who moves to it and needs to pay 50 gold, making it clear that he will not cheat. Order of death "

Han Fei, as a master of legalists, absorbed the integrity view of Shang Yang and other former legalists, and advocated and publicized integrity. First of all, he believes in utilitarianism. There is a record in Everything is done in Nan Yi: "Jin Wengong wanted to beat the Chu people, so he called his uncle to ask him,' I want to beat the Chu people, and the others are outnumbered. What can I do? My uncle said:' I heard: a gentleman is polite and loyal; There is no lack of fraud between wars. You're just cheating. "Wen Gong resigned from his uncle and asked him because he called Yongji:' I will fight the Chu people, and his people are few. What can I do? Yongji said to him:' If you burn the forest and farm, you will steal many animals, and then you won't have to live without them; Lie to the people, steal for a while, and never recover afterwards. "Wen Gong said,' Good! Say goodbye to yongji. On the advice of my uncle, I defeated the Chu people. Return to the throne, first help the uncle and then commit crimes. Ministers said,' My uncle planned a plot against Chengpu. A husband uses his language and then his body, but what? Wen Gong said,' This is something you don't know. If my husband and uncle make mistakes, they will have the right for a period of time; Forever Ji Yan, for the benefit of the ages. "Hearing this, Zhong Ni said,' It's appropriate to be the master of literati! I know both the power of the moment and the benefits of this world. ""Second, Han Fei praised the virtue of honesty. "Everything is wrong, and the foreign reserves say left" praised Jin Wengong's sincerity in defending the country. "Jin Wengong attacked the original okada, wrapped in ten rations, and then promised to give the doctor ten days. On the tenth day of the original, the original could not be captured, but he retreated with gold. Some scholars from the original work said,' It will come down in three days. The left and right ministers remonstrated and said,' The original food has been exhausted, so you should treat me. Gong said: I will accompany the scholar for ten days, and I will believe it if I don't go. I won't do it if I break my promise. So get out. Primitive people heard:' If you have a monarch, you can trust it, and you can't return it?' That is surrender. When Confucius heard this, he wrote down:' attack its origin and keep what it believes. "The first role is to' divide', that is, to clarify the ownership of things. Shen Dao, one of the legalists, made a very simple analogy: "A rabbit went and a hundred people chased it. Accumulate rabbits in the market and ignore them. If you don't want rabbits, you can't argue. "It means that a rabbit ran away and many people chased it, but they didn't look at so many rabbits in the market. It's not that you don't want rabbits, but that the ownership has been determined and you can't argue any more, otherwise you will violate the law and be punished.

The second function is to "make meritorious deeds and fear violence", that is, to encourage people to make meritorious deeds and make those who are lawless feel afraid. The ultimate goal of prosperity is to make Qiang Bing rich and win the war of annexation. Legalists believe that "the power system was broken by the monarch, and the legislative power was in the hands of the monarch (country), and it was not allowed to be exercised, thus establishing the feudal political system and legal system of the monarch's extreme autocracy." The emperor himself is above the law and is not bound by it. In the Qin Shihuang period, it was even more violent for private use, and the law completely became a tool for the monarch to realize his personal desires. We know that unfettered power is terrible. "Historical Records of Qin Shihuang's Biography" records: "Happiness is threatened by punishment, and the world is afraid of sin and keeps its promise, not loyal. If you don't smell it in the world, you will be arrogant and coerced to get it. Qin law, you can't have two sides, you don't take the exam, you need to die. However, those who get angry with 300 people early are good people, afraid of taboos and dare not say. "

Legalists' thought of "no intimacy, no extreme nobility" is commendable. But in feudal autocratic society, it is difficult to measure and judge with all usage. Those who have power and influence will not willingly be bound by the law, so the representatives of legalists, such as Wu Qi of Chu State and Shang Yang of Qin State, all paid the price of their lives in the end for the reform.

In the process of unifying China, the goal of legalists is to make Qiang Bing a rich country. How to achieve this goal, legalists think it is an agricultural war, but legalists realize that "the internal affairs of the people are not affected by the foreign affairs of farmers, and it is difficult to fight." The hardship of farming and the difficulty of war are great obstacles to the implementation of agricultural war. So how can we drive people to farm and fight? Legalists believe that people should be placed in poverty and poverty, and then by means of rewards and punishments, people should obey orders, overcome their own difficulties and go to war. Only when the people work hard can the country be strong. In the eyes of legalists, rich countries and rich countries, powerful countries and strong people are antagonistic and cannot have both. Shang Yang said: "People are weak and the country is strong, while the country is strong and the people are weak. Therefore, a country with a way should be weak. "

Legalists' theory of "strengthening the country and weakening the people" embodies the boundary between the rights and obligations of the state and the people. On this issue, the Legalists advocate the unlimited expansion of state power and the narrowing of people's interests, which is the crisis of Legalists' theory. If people are too weak to survive, they will no longer restrain the country's grain, but will get up and grab it. At that time, any rewards and punishments will lose their effectiveness and the prosperity of the country will cease to exist. Legalists are not aware of this simple law of unity of opposites. In the eyes of legalists, severe punishment is the source of strength and the basis of prohibiting crime, which can lead to "no punishment". The son of "Casting the Ding of Punishment" once said: "The husband is fierce, the people are afraid of it, and it is rare to die; If the water is weak and the people play with it, there will be many deaths, so it is difficult. " This is the bud of the theory of severe punishment. In the eyes of Legalists, the reason why rape is prohibited is that the punishment is heavy, so the people dare not try, so there is no punishment for the people in the country. Therefore, in practice, legalist representatives basically have the evaluation of cruel officials. "Punishment is used for excessive punishment" is an extreme manifestation of severe punishment. Legalists believe that people should be punished when they are about to commit a crime but have not yet constituted a crime. However, judging from the constitution of crime, there is only the idea of crime, but no criminal act has been committed, which has not yet caused harmful consequences to society and should not be convicted and punished. In essence, punishing "excesses" is to convict people according to their thoughts rather than their actions. This is extremely inconsistent with jurisprudence and confuses the boundaries between crime and non-crime. Legalist thought advocates "breaking the law and not following the present", and its core spirit is that the legal system takes precedence.