Han Feizi

The collected writings associated with Han Fei, a prince of the state of Han who, according to tradition, studied with Xunzi, and whose ideas were taken up by the Qin state that unified China in 221 BCE. The book draws earlier 'Legalist' thought into a theory of rule: the ruler governs through clear, publicly known standards and laws (fa), through techniques (shu) for controlling ministers by checking their words against their results, and through positional power (shi) rather than personal virtue. In 'The Two Handles' he argues that reward and punishment are the ruler's real instruments. 'The Five Vermin' attacks scholars who appeal to the ways of the ancients, mocking them with the farmer who waited by a tree stump for another rabbit to break its neck there. Other chapters include a sharp study of the dangers of persuading a ruler, collections of anecdotes, and commentary on the Laozi.

It is the most unsentimental work of political theory in the classical world, a counterweight to Confucian trust in virtue that reads at times like Machiavelli and at times like a study of bureaucratic incentives.