The rule of Han Fei Tzu

Abstract

Legalism is one of schools of thought in Chinese philosophy which emphasis on legal system. Legalism sees human as being evil in nature and usually aim to take political control. Han Fei Tzu is the greatest conceptor of Legalism. His concept is characterized as adopting one philosophical concept from various schools of the similar thought which later partly added in some philosophical concepts of other schools in a semi-philosophy manner. According to Han Fei Tzu, ethics and traditional principles are too weak aspects to be used as the main regulations to keep society in order. Therefore, they are not effective tool that a leader of a country should apply to maintain the country’s discipline. On the other hand, it is believed that legal punishment is the best tool. Han Fei Tzu’s concept is also seen as the polularism as it views the application of ethics would result in the country’s chaos. In terms of the relation of individual and community, Han Fei Tzu postulates that these two must be separated because they are always in contrast. A careful study of Han Fei Tzu’s concept reveals that the different context between society and environment couldn’t be arranged under one same method. Instead, any method used should be altered to suit the existing situation. Han Fei Tzu sees the relation of ethical system and legal system as two different systems that couldn’t be mixed. In fact, he emphasizes on supporting the state security more than ethical system. This paper argues that Han Fei Tzu’s concept has conflict in itself. If there is no ethical system, there will be nothing that could monitor the leader’s exercising his power. A legal system in a hand of an unethical leader could ruin the country. This paper strongly argues that ethical principles, especially the humanitarian principle are the main mechanic that could maintain the state power. Although sometimes the strict law helps maintain the state, the ethical concepts could be combined so that both ethics and law could simultaneously work in enhancing one another. Therefore, the paper suggests that the combination of ethical and legal systems should be considered when a leader needs the most effective tool to run his state.