Most Famous Legalism Philosophers

Legalism is a Chinese political and philosophical tradition of the Warring States period, given its definitive synthesis by Han Feizi in the third century BC and its decisive practical application by the statesman Shang Yang in the state of Qin. Its central claim is that effective government depends not on the moral cultivation of the ruler in the Confucian style, but on clearly written laws strictly enforced, on the distribution of administrative power through bureaucratic technique, and on the unchallenged authority of the ruler. Legalism provided the political and administrative framework of the Qin unification of China in 221 BC and shaped the practice of every subsequent Chinese imperial dynasty. Its severity made it deeply unpopular as a self-described doctrine after the fall of Qin, but its influence on Chinese statecraft endured for two millennia. Han Feizi has been compared with Machiavelli and Hobbes for the realism of his political analysis.