제자백가의 사상 지형을 이해하는 프레임으로는 ‘사승 관계’ 또는 ‘학파’가 있다. 그 가운데 유가의 순자와 법가의 한비자는 양자의 관계에 관한 사료 또는 사상적 유사성에 입각하여, 학파적으로는 구분되지만 상호 영향 관계를 맺은 것으로 이해되곤 한다. 본문에서는 이를 탈피한 시각에서, 한대 이후 확증된 양자의 관계 및 사상적 유사성은 특정한 가치 판단을 지지하는 의도로 정형화된 신념에 불과할 뿐 사상적으로 완연한 차이를 보이며, 나아가 그들의 유사성은 전국 말기 정치 체제의 전환과 더불어 발생한 인성론·천도관의 연속적 변화 추세 가운데 발생한 필연적 융합의 일환에 불과함을 지적한다. 결론적으로 제자백가 (...) 사상의 변화흐름은 후대에 정위된 ‘학파’ 또는 ‘사승’이 아니라 당시 지식인들의 정치적 신념을 목표로 두고 외재적 정치 수요와 연대하여 조성된 것이기에, 그 유사성 저변에는 ‘융합’이라는 역동적 양태가 본질로 자리하고 있음을 주장한다. (shrink)

The “Chu shuo” 儲說 chapters of the Hanfeizi 韓非 子, attributed to Han Fei 韓非, encompass an extensive collection of anecdotes. The jing 經 sections of these chapters are traditionally understood to be a set of “canonical” teachings, to be explicated by the anecdotes in the shuo 說 sections. Eschewing this assumption, my analysis substantiates an alternative hypothesis that sees many of the jing texts as later superimpositions intended to serve as paratexts to existing anecdotal collections. By interpreting the (...) jing and shuo sections as paratexts and main texts, respectively, this study reveals how early compilers sought to organize and inventory information, as well as to guide future users’ understanding and memorization of the anecdotal materials. This approach not only facilitates the reconstruction of early frameworks of information management and knowledge acquisition, but also places the “Chu shuo” chapters in a comparative context. It also proffers new answers to several long-standing philological debates, such as the meaning and function of the label yi yue 一曰. In its conclusion, this study draws attention to potential continuities between the pre-imperial and imperial periods’ textual and bibliographical practices. (shrink)

In the Confucian tradition, the ideal government is called "benevolent government" (ren zheng), central to which is the ruler's parental love toward his people who he deems as his children. Hanfeizi criticized this seemingly innocent political idea by pointing out that (1) not only is the state not a family but even within the family parental love is short of making the children orderly and (2) ren as love inevitably results in the ruin of the state because it confuses (...) what is right/meritorious with what is not, thus disrupts the legal system. In this paper, I defend Confucian virtue politics against Hanfeizi's criticisms. I argue that by failing to grasp the complex nature of ren that encompasses both emotion (ren as love) and moral virtue (ren as filiality), Hanfeizi also failed to understand the actual process in which the ruler's parental love is extended to the people. (shrink)

In this article we review Western discourse on the relationship between Daoism and anarchist political theory. In particular, we focus on the anarchist reading of Daoism given by Roger Ames, and the more recent contrasting argument against reading Daoism as an anarchism by Alex Feldt. Centering our discussion on the Daodejing 道德經, we argue that, on the one hand, Laozi’s 老子 political theory is less easily reconcilable with anarchist thinking than Ames suggests. On the other hand, we dispute Feldt’s argument (...) that Laozi’s sage-ruler must, of necessity, maintain the capacity for coercive control. Counter to both Ames and Feldt, we suggest that Laozi’s sage-ruler is better framed as a maternal overseer, in contrast to other more paternalistic extrapolations of Daoist thinking, such as that offered in the Hanfeizi 韓非子. In reading Laozi’s thinking as a form of state “maternalism,” we aim to give a more distinctive voice to the nuances of early Daoist political theory. (shrink)

This article attempts to describe the extent to which the Legalist political vision possesses moral concern. Drawing from the Book of Lord Shang and the Hanfeizi 韓非子, I investigate the discipline reinforced by rewards and punishments, the relationship between the state and its subjects, and the interiorization of the law’s production of subject self-determination. With a positive sociological lens, this study guides its discussion utilizing a Durkheimian definition of moral education. I argue that its three elements of morality share (...) a very similar pedagogical quality with the interplay of Legalist law and its reinforcements. Moreover, the effects of rewards prove to play a particularly enhanced role in the cultivation of discipline and commitment to impersonal objectives amongst the populace. (shrink)

This essay traces changes in the relationship between filial piety and loyalty in early China. During the Spring and Autumn and early-mid Warring States periods, a conflict existed between the two values. Confucian thinkers such as Confucius and Mencius put a priority on filial piety, while Shang Yang 商鞅 regarded it detrimental to the state. However, scholars later tended to reconcile the values, as is evident in the Xiaojing 孝經 and the “Zhongxiao 忠孝” chapter of the Hanfeizi 韓非子. The (...) two texts reconcile filial piety with political authority, and show that the two values are based on the same foundation. Ancient Chinese legal documents are in agreement with the same trend. Early Chinese governments made unfiliality illegal and permitted the head of a family to have very strong authority over other members of the household. Still, governments maintained control of individual households by putting the head of the family’s authority under political authority. (shrink)

Feizi 韓非子 in terms of the concept of shi 勢 (circumstantial advantage, power, or authority). This argument is based on the A Critique of Circumstantial Advantage (Nanshi 難勢) chapter of the Hanfeizi, where Han Feizi advances his own idea of shi after criticizing both Shen Dao and an anonymous Confucian. However, there are other primary sources to contain Shen Dao’s thought, namely, seven incomplete Shenzi 慎子 chapters of the Essentials on Government from the Assemblage of Books (Qunshu zhi yao (...) 群書治要) and other fragments preserved in other Chinese texts. This article examines the Shenzi fragments in order to ask whether Shen Dao stresses the concept of shi. (shrink)

The Warring States period was without doubt a time when reason thrived. The Confucians, Mohists, and Daoists, respectively, displayed three of its intellectual inclinations. One was reason with an exceptionally prominent moral flavor, and the cultivation of human character as its object. It calls on men to uphold the dignity, tranquillity, and loftiness of their inner selves. One was reason with a very strong practical flavor, and the realization of beneficent profit as its object. It leads men to address ways (...) of maintaining the stability of society, material wealth to support men's livelihoods, and individual survival. Apart from these two, there was reason that has spiritual transcendence and human immortality as its object, and which was manifested as a tendency toward anti-intellectualism. It tries to protect individual survival and freedom of the spirit, despite social pressures. As for those mystical ideas and techniques that seemed absurd, they gradually regressed into simplistic ceremonies, fables, and symbols among the cultural workers who pursued reason. The psychological attitude of "sacrificing to spirits as if they were present" led many cultural aristocrats to distance themselves from mystical ideas and techniques. Mysticism gradually disappeared from among men of culture, especially once it became increasingly difficult for those divination methods and technical arts, used merely to satisfy concrete needs, to avoid the scrutiny of reason. Some late Warring States period texts can help us understand the direction this way of thinking took. "Xian xue" in the Hanfeizi says,When the shaman priests pray for someone, they say, "May you live a thousand autumns and ten thousand years!" But the "thousand autumns and ten thousand years" are only a noise dinning on the ear: No one has ever proven [zheng] that such prayers add so much as a day to anyone"s life. For this reason people despise the shaman priests.". (shrink)

This review examines Paul Goldin’s book The Art of Chinese Philosophy: Eight Classical Texts and How to Read Them. The book gives interpretations of eight texts from the classical period that respond to the same set of central questions and each other’s arguments. In addition, the book presents historical background and describes the complexity of authorship of these texts.