Han Feizi Quotes on Justice
Han Feizi (c.280–233 BC) — the third-century BC Chinese Legalist whose collected work consolidates the philosophical tradition founded by Shang Yang and Shen Buhai — gave Warring States political philosophy its most rigorous theory of impartial law as the foundation of stable rule. The central thesis is that the apparent virtues of the Confucian junzi cannot reliably govern a populous state under conditions of self-interested human nature: only clearly published law (fa), administered by an effective bureaucratic technique (shu) under the authority of the ruler’s accumulated power-position (shi), can produce the impartial justice that the state’s survival requires. The framework, adopted under the First Emperor Qin Shi Huang as the operative ideology of the unified Chinese empire, became the principal Chinese theoretical alternative to Confucian moralism and the ancestor of the broader East Asian legal-administrative tradition.
Quotes
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Attributed to Han Feizi:
“The enlightened ruler does not need the worthy or the wise; he relies on law.”
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Attributed to Han Feizi:
“If laws and orders are clear, no one need rely on the wisdom of others.”
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Attributed to Han Feizi:
“The carpenter does not throw away the line because the wood is crooked; the ruler does not abandon the law because the people are unruly.”
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“The Law(道, Way) is Huge and Shapeless, its Moral extends everywhere.”
夫道者、弘大而無形，德者、覈理而普至。至於群生，斟酌用之，萬物皆盛，而不與其寧。 | More Power" (《揚權》) -
“When all within the four seas have been put in their proper places, [the sage] sits in darkness to observe the light. When those to his left and right have taken their places, he opens the gate to face the world. He changes nothing, alters nothing, but acts with the two handles of reward and punishment, acts and never ceases: this is what is called walking the path of principle.”
四海既藏，道陰見陽。左右既立，開門而當。勿變勿易，與二俱行，行之不已，是謂履理也。 | Wielding Power", in Han Feizi: Basic Writings (2003) -
“No state is forever strong or forever weak . If those who uphold the law are strong, the state will be strong; if they are weak, the state will be weak.”
國無常強，無常弱。奉法者強則國強，奉法者弱則國弱。 | On Having Standards", in Han Feizi: Basic Writings (2003) -
“A truly enlightened ruler uses the law to select men for him; he does not choose them himself. He uses the law to weigh their merits; he does not attempt to judge them for himself.”
On Having Standards", in Han Feizi: Basic Writings (2003) -
“To govern the state by law is to praise the right and blame the wrong.”
"Facing South" (《南面》) | from "Having Regulations—A Memorandum" in The Complete Works of Han Fei Tzu , Volume I, Arthur Probsthain, London. Translated by W.K. Liao. -
“The way is the beginning of all beings and the measure of right and wrong.”
"The Way of the Ruler" | from "The Way of the Ruler", Han Fei Tzu: Basic Writings , Columbia University Press, New York. Translated by Burton Watson.