Legalism revolves around the
ideology that people should be ruled by very strict law. The legalist schools,
also called the School of Law, had a very strict view of laws and human nature.
Members of this school believed that success required organizing the State as
if it were a military camp, and failure was equivalent to extinction. They
challenged the Confucian model of ritually constituted communities, holding
that different times required different approaches. Shang Yang, for example,
argued that agriculture and warfare, the two main State concerns at his time,
could be carried out successfully by articulating laws clearly and in a
detailed manner, and steadfastly enforcing punishments for even minor
violations.
Within
the school, students were taught that law and order were supposed to replace
morality by articulating and enforcing detailed laws through using techniques
like accountability and doing nothing. The schools also adapted the military
concept of strategic advantage to government where the ruler should rely on the
collective strength of the empire to impose their rule. Thus showing that the
success of a ruler was based on total distrust.
In terms
of morality, it was the least emphasized as there was no concern to the
legalist philosophers because they felt it played no part in people's decision-making
process. In Legalism, laws direct one's natural inclinations for the betterment
of all. The person who wants to kill their neighbor is prevented by law but
would be allowed to kill others by joining the army. In this way the person's
selfish desires are gratified and the state benefits by having a dedicated
soldier. Legalism was practiced through enacting laws to control the population
of China. These laws would include how one was to address social superiors,
women, children, servants as well as criminal law dealing with theft or murder.
Since it was a given that people would act on their self-interest, and always
in the worst way, the penalties for breaking the law were severe and included
heavy fines, conscription in the army, or being sentenced to years of community
service building public monuments or fortifications.
Other philosophies which argue for people's inherent goodness were considered dangerous lies which would lead people astray. The beliefs of philosophers like Confucius, Mencius, Mo-Ti, or Lao-Tzu, with their emphasis on finding the good within and expressing it, were considered threatening to a belief system which claimed the opposite. Legalism was not only opposed to Confucianism but could not tolerate it.
Other philosophies which argue for people's inherent goodness were considered dangerous lies which would lead people astray. The beliefs of philosophers like Confucius, Mencius, Mo-Ti, or Lao-Tzu, with their emphasis on finding the good within and expressing it, were considered threatening to a belief system which claimed the opposite. Legalism was not only opposed to Confucianism but could not tolerate it.
