Han Feizi

Han Fei, known as Han Feizi, was a prince of the state of Han in the late Warring States period and the leading synthesiser of Legalist thought. According to Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian he studied under Xunzi and died in custody in the state of Qin. The text that bears his name argues that order comes from government through fa (standards and laws), administrative techniques and positional authority, rather than from reliance on rulers' or subjects' moral cultivation.

Key ideas

• Order rests on clear, publicly known standards (fa) applied impartially with rewards and punishments.
• The ruler should control officials through techniques (shu), matching their words to their performance.
• Power depends on position and authority (shi) rather than on personal virtue.
• Appeals to the example of ancient sage-kings are a poor guide to governing changed circumstances.

Major works

• Han Feizi (the text attributed to him; some chapters' authorship is debated)
• Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) by Sima Qian, which contains the earliest biography of him

In the conversation

• Discussion Han Feizi’s case for clear law, read in Lahore Hamza Qureshi · 5 replies
• Question What do fa, shu and shi mean in Han Feizi? Liu Mingqiao · 4 replies
• Discussion At my office “Confucian values” means obey the boss. Where did the reciprocity go? Vũ Quốc Bảo · 4 replies
• Debate “The best ruler is barely noticed” is compatible with abandonment, and the Legalists exploited exactly that Chen Yuting · 6 replies
• Discussion Was Laozi the first laissez-faire economist? Why wu wei is not the invisible hand Javier Ferrandis · 6 replies
• Debate The fall of Qin refutes Legalism itself, not merely its excesses Chen Yuting · 5 replies
• Debate Han Feizi was right that good government cannot wait for good rulers Chen Yuting · 6 replies
• Debate The Qin collapse did not refute Han Feizi; the Han dynasty quietly proved him right Chen Yuting · 5 replies