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Chinese Legalism and Confucianism

Order through strict public law, or through virtue and ritual?

6th to 3rd century BC, and after · China. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.

Read this first. This is a first map of a large subject. Each school is a family of views, and its thinkers often disagree with one another, so every summary simplifies. We describe each school in terms its own followers would accept and give the strongest criticism beside it. Read the original works before you cite anyone, and check your own course's reading list. This is general information, not legal advice.

What is law?

The Legalists (Shang Yang, Han Feizi) held that clear, public, firmly enforced laws, with rewards and punishments applied to everyone alike, keep order. The Confucians stressed moral example, ritual (li) and the education of rulers, with law as a last resort.

Law and morality

Legalists treated law as a tool of the state, not of morality. Confucians put government by virtue first.

Where does its authority come from?

For Legalists, the ruler's power and clear rules. For Confucians, virtue and tradition.

How should judges decide?

Legalists: apply the written law strictly and equally. Confucians: judge with attention to roles, relationships and moral education.

The question it asks

Is order better kept by law or by virtue?

Main criticism

Confucians said that law alone breeds evasion without shame. Legalists said that virtue cannot be relied on to keep order.

Legacy today

Imperial Chinese law fused both, with a strong code and Confucian values written into it, as in the Tang Code. Modern debates on the rule of law in China draw on both.

Key thinkers

Confucius, Mencius, Xunzi, Shang Yang, Han Feizi.

Key works

  • The Analects
  • The Book of Lord Shang
  • Han Feizi

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Read further

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Chinese legalism. For the exact arguments, go to the original works above.

TheLawToKnow Tools’s guide to schools of legal thought is an educational overview. It is not legal advice. Report a mistake.