Essay On Chinese Legalism

The Main Features of the Legalist School of Thought
Legalism is a school of thought in classical Chinese whose main pillar is societal order. It holds that order in society is more important than any other human interest. Adherents of the doctrine believed that rulers should abandon the ideals of humanity and tradition to achieve a systematic government. They held that education and ethics teachings could not be used to improve people’s lives. Their vision of an ideal government was one that was established on a rigorously formulated law and an enforcing authority that would ensure absolute adherence to the law. This paper discusses the features that typically characterized Chinese Legalism.
Perhaps, the main feature of Chinese Legalism and

Thus, human beings cannot act morally naturally; they must be compelled. Since they held strict social order in high regard, individuals were not allowed to defy such order for any reason. Thus, they believed that people must be forced to act morally by being punished for beaching the law. Forcing people to act morally meant imposing strict prohibitions on personal

Fa was an integral part of the structure of a Legalist government. Its most valuable aspect in that society was that it did not depend on the moral perfection of rulers to work (Harris 156). Since rulers were equally human beings, they would be fallibleto selfish interest and moral corruption. Consequently, it would be impossible to achieve consistency in the government which would lead to disorder.Thus, this set of administrative standardsensured that, regardless of the powers that be, the established rules of social demeanor are enforced at all