Han Feizi's Political Philosophy and Today's China

Abstract

Han Feizi is a Chinese thinker who lived in the 3rd century BCE
and had the opportunity to inspire the Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi
who is acknowledged as the founder of the Empire of China.
Taking the path of his realist Confucian teacher Xunzi (contrary to
Mengzi who was an idealist Confucian), he believed in the evil
character of the human being, as basically everyone only prioritizes
its own needs. Therefore Han Feizi deems it most important that
the ruler establishes order and peace in society. As such Han Feizi
teaches a political theory that differs from the mainstream of the
other classical Chinese thinkers in general who consider social
ethics as most significant. To establish harmony in society, he finds
strict laws, shrewd statecraft and clear authority more decisive than
the personal moral virtues of the ruler as taught by Confucius. In
order to govern effectively and efficiently, the ruler should employ
the “two handles” of governing by punishing law breakers and
rewarding law abiders proportionally vis-à-vis all his subjects. It
was indeed that kind of governance that was pursued by Mao
Zedong while dealing with the officials of the Communist Party of
China, resembling that what the Government of China did to deal
with civil unrest in Tibet in the 1950s and 2008, and now in Urumqi
as well.