Thoughts about Legalism in China

Legalism is a political philosophy which has been adopted by the ministers of the northwestern state of Ch’in. Legalism appealed to the ministers of the Ch’in as they organized a new state in China during the third and second centuries BCE.


Legalism had been adopted by the ministers of the Ch’in to help them install a new strong dynasty that brought peace and order. In the northwest of China, the rise of Ch’in as a national dynasty fulfilled for a while all what the Chinese were yearning for. Legalism grew as a dominant philosophy in a chaotic China mined by wars. This chaotic period is called the Warring States period. Ancient China was dominated by the Shang and the Chou. These independent states were always fighting over territories. Therefore, the “unsentimental and hardnosed policies” of the Legalists “succeeded in ending the Chaos of the Era of the warring states and in unifying China."


The main idea inherent to Legalism was to “establish and perpetuate an all powerful state protected by all embracing laws, impersonally administered”. Legalists believed that human beings were selfish, lazy, and disobedient. So they completely ignored the classics and moral values such as filial piety, sincerity and humanity. They wanted to eliminate aristocrats, artisans, innkeepers, philanthropist, diviners and swashbucklers.

They were too cynics to agree with the Confucians. They were against the Confucians idealism which preached that the goal of life should be the pursuit of happiness and that human nature is good. Nor only they had no patience with the Confucians but they had none either with the Taoists. They found the Taoists unproductive and totally passive who preached a return to nature and a total laissez-faire.

The Legalists were realist and considered individuals as tools who have to serve the agriculture, the war and the expansion of the State. As a matter of fact, the Legalists idea that emphasizes the need for order above all human concern helped the short-lived Ch’in dynasty to unite all of China. This political doctrine believes that a government needs a strong devised code of law and harsh punishments. Although Legalists ideas were harsh, they succeeded in making Ch’in the most “efficiently run state in its time."

Many reforms had taken place. First of all, political changes happened. A part of Ch’in was divided into thirty one counties and administered by magistrates appointed by the central government. Therefore, there is no hereditary succession. Officials were chosen on merit and promoted or demoted on their performances. Secondly, the land was more equally divided among the farmers who were capable to buy and sell the land. The abolition of serfdom attracted new people and they were free men and women working as tax-paying and land-owning peasants. Thirdly, the Hundred Schools came to an end to leave the place to Legalism and only Legalism. All the books were confiscated and burnt. All intellectual discussions were prohibited. Fourthly, the new laws were displayed to the view of the population. Aristocrats or ordinary people had to abide to the same laws. Therefore, no privileges by birth were taken into account. Then, Legalists install a group responsibility. The population was shared into units and they organized all the families into mutual surveillance groups. In addition, they created hierarchy of honorary ranks to encourage military and civil achievements. Furthermore, they had banished the trading of luxury goods and promoted only farmers and soldiers. Legalists were opposed to education, except in medicine and agriculture. They had the imperial university for training bureaucrats. Finally, the standardization of measures had helped this centralized efficient run government. The Legalists had uniform currencies, standardization of weights and measures that simplified tax collection.

The political and cultural unification, combined with the legal and economic measures, permitted the Legalists to “triumph over the other Warring States and unified China”. Legalism appealed to the ministers of the Ch’in because it helped them to achieve a state of political unity by controlling totally people’s lives and actions through laws and punishments. Death and mutilation were given without piety. Quickly, people were not able to cope anymore with this regime of terror. Therefore, the whole repressive, autocratic, and cruel structure collapsed. However, even after the “speedy collapse of the Ch’in empire," the Legalists are still remembered as brilliant political theorists and reformers.