Reflections on the Concept of “Law” of Shang Yang from the Perspective of Political Philosophy: Function, Value, and Spirit of the “Rule of Law”

EDITOR’S ABSTRACT

This article argues that Shang Yang’s philosophy of law was not only a means to enrich the state and strengthen its army, but also envisioned the orderly rule of all All-under-Heaven. Through a fair, universal, and reliable use of rewards, punishments, and also teaching, this vision of laws could ultimately lead to the promotion of moral values, popular consensus, and people’s self-governance. While the authors admit that in Shang Yang’s own historical context, law was no more than a tool used by the ruler to suppress his people, potentially his ideas could contribute to a future Chinese society fully ruled by law and morality, and inspired by the rule of law.

Notes

It is commonly accepted nowadays that the extant Book of Lord Shang was produced by Shang Yang and his followers. Some scholars consider these later contributors “Qin Legalists”; they use the name “Shang Yang” not as a personal name but as a common designation of Shang Yang and the later Qin Legalists. This is, for instance, the usage made by Lin Cunguang in his The Realm of Political: Studies in Classical Chinese Political Philosophy (Zhengzhi de jingjie: Zhongguo gudian zhengzhi zhexue yanjiu) (Beijing: Zhongguo zhengfa daxue, 2014). Other scholars call these followers of Shang Yang by the name of “Shang Yang’s school”; see, for example, Zheng Liangshu, Shang Yang and His School [Shang Yang ji qi xuepai] (Shanghai: Guji, 1989). In the present article, whenever we discuss Shang Yang’s concept of “law,” we refer both to Shang Yang and to his school. Fa of Shang Yang refers to political ideas of Shang Yang himself and those of his followers.

All citations from the Book of Lord Shang are from the translation by Yuri Pines, The Book of Lord Shang: Apologetics of State Power in Early China (New York: Columbia University Press, 2017). Henceforth only the chapter and section number are provided throughout the text.—Trans.

Reference to the Book of Lord Shang 18.4.—Trans.

Faling [法令]; this compound appears only in chapter 26 (“Fixing divisions”) of the Book of Lord Shang.—Trans.

Fazhi [法制]; this compound appears only in chapter 23 (“Ruler and ministers”).—Trans.

Wu Baoping and Zhang Xiaomang, “Fa of Shang Yang and Its Logics in Terms of Forms and Names,” Bulletin of Wuhan University (Philosophy and Social Sciences) [Wuhan daxue xuebao (Zhexue, shehui kexue ban)] 6 (2012): 42–44.

The chapter “On making the law clear” (Ming fa) of Guanzi says: “Majesty cannot be wielded by two persons; government cannot have two gates. [When a ruler] uses laws to govern his country, he need only put them in place and that is all. For this reason, when there is a system of laws and procedures, clever ruses based on deceit become impossible. When there is weighing by a balance scale, cheating in respect to weight becomes impossible. When calculations are made according to xun and zhang [eight and ten feet measures], discrepancies in length become impossible” [from W. Allyn Rickett, trans., Guanzi, vol. 2 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998), pp. 158–162]. Here the profound meaning of “using laws to govern a country” is “to govern according to laws.”

Cheng Liaoyuan, “Renewed Explanation of the ‘Rule of Law’ Concept in Pre-imperial China,” Political Tribune [Zhengzhi luntan] 2 (2011): 7.

Cheng Liaoyuan, “Renewed Explanation,” p. 8.

Wu Baoping and Zhang Xiaomang, “Fa of Shang Yang,” p. 43.

According to Sima Qian’s account in the “Biography of Lord Shang,” on the eve of promulgating his new laws, Shang Yang wanted to win the people’s trust by promising a lavish reward (first ten, then fifty pieces of gold) to anyone who would move a pole from one place to another. When somebody volunteered to do it and was duly rewarded, Shang Yang gained the needed trust to launch the new laws.

Strategies of the Warring States [Zhanguo ce] (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1990), 3.1: 71 (“Qin strategies 1”).

Records of the Historian [Shiji] (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1997), 130: 3291.

Records of the Historian 5: 205.

Records of the Historian 68: 2231.

Ibid.

This phrase encapsulates the problem of any legal system: The laws themselves matter little unless one is able to make them universally enforceable. The modern relevance of this phrase is buttressed by its usage by the would-be General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping (b. 1953) in his 2007 speech (see http://cpc.people.com.cn/n/2014/0522/c64387-25048530.html, accessed February 11, 2016).—Trans.

The compound mingfen (名分) appears only in chapter 26 of the Book of Lord Shang (actually, it almost never appears in pre-imperial texts, aside from Yinwenzi, the authenticity of which is contested). The term ming is one of the most multifaceted ones in early Chinese thought; in the Book of Lord Shang the term normally refers to one’s repute and social status but in chapter 26 it also occasionally refers to the items of legal codes (26.5), and, more frequently, to something akin to a proper bureaucratic nomenclature. Fen, which is paired with ming throughout much of chapter 26, refers to social divisions, distinctions, individual allotment and the like. The compound mingfen refers in chapter 26 to the essence of legal and administrative practices.—Trans.

Hou Wailu et al., Comprehensive History of Chinese Thought [Zhongguo sixiang tongshi], vol. 1 (Beijing: Renmin, 2004), pp. 20–21.

Hou Wailu et al., Comprehensive History, p. 21.

Jiang Lihong, Pointing an Awl at the Book of Lord Shang [Shangjunshu zhuizhi] (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1986), p. 19.

He Shan and Zhang Lei, “Correspondence Between Marx’s and Shang Yang’s Legal Consciousness,” Frontline [Qianyan] 23 (2012): 95.

Benjamin I. Schwartz, The World of Thought in Ancient China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986), p. 349.

Zeng Zhenyu and Cui Mingde, “Returning to Virtue from Law: Analyzing Shang Yang’s Social Ideal,” Studies in Chinese History [Zhongguo shi yanjiu] 1 (1997): 32.

Lü Jia, “Social Functions of Political Philosophy,” Study and Research [Xuexi yu tansuo] 1 (2006): 76.

For debates over evolutionary view of history in the Book of Lord Shang or the lack thereof, see the articles by Li Cunshan and Zhang Linxiang, this issue.—Trans.

Schwartz, The World of Thought, p. 331.

Zhuo Zeyuan, “On the State Ruled by Law,” Contemporary Legal Studies [Xiandai faxue] 5 (2002): 16.

He Tiechuan, “Dual Function of the Rule of Law,” Police Daily [Jiancha ribao] 18 Oct. 2000, p. 7.

Cited from Volume 39 of Chinese edition of Collected Works of Lenin (Beijing: Renmin, 1986). I failed to locate this passage in Lenin’s works.—Trans.

Lin Cunguang, The Realm of Political, p. 330.

Lu Peng, “The Value of the Rule of Law,” Bulletin of Yantai University [Yantai daxue xuebao] 2 (2013): 6.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Wu Baoping

Wu Baoping and Lin Cunguang are, respectively a postdoctoral researcher and a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, in the College of Political Affairs and Public Management.