The Spirit of "On Feudalism" in Honoring Confucianism and Opposing Legalism

Abstract

In the Chinese history of feudal society, whether or not the system of prefectures and counties that conformed to the demand for centralization of authority or the system of conferment of titles that was favorable to the partitioning of the country into feudal states should be enforced had all along been a question of long drawn out controversy. This controversy was linked with the struggle between Confucianism and Legalism and with the appraisal of Ch'in Shih Huang. However, from the Western Han and Eastern Han dynasties up to the time of Liu Tsung-yüan, the controversialists of all ages had never broken away from the conventions of the traditional thought of the Confucian school. It was not until the latter part of the T'ang dynasty one thousand years afterward that Liu Tsung-yüan, who was strong in the spirit of honoring Legalism and opposing Confucianism, wrote "On Feudalism" (1) which for the first time broke away from the fetters of the traditional thought of the Confucian school and pushed the controversy to a new climax.