Han Fei

Han Fei (c. 280 – 233 BC), also known as Han Feizi or Han Fei Tzu, was a Chinese Legalist philosopher and statesman during the Warring States period. He was a prince of the state of Han.

Han Fei is often considered the greatest representative of Legalism for the Han Feizi, a later anthology of writings traditionally attributed to him, which synthesized the methods of his predecessors. Han Fei's ideas are sometimes compared with those of Niccolò Machiavelli, author of The Prince. Zhuge Liang is said to have attached great importance to the Han Feizi.

Sima Qian recounts that Qin Shi Huang went to war with the state of Han to obtain an audience with Han Fei, but was ultimately convinced to imprison him, whereupon he committed suicide. After the early demise of the Qin dynasty, the Legalist school was officially vilified by the Han dynasty that succeeded it. Despite its outcast status throughout the history of imperial China, Han Fei's political theory and Legalist ideas continued to heavily influence every dynasty thereafter, and the Confucian ideal of rule without laws was never to be realized.

Han Fei borrowed Shang Yang's emphasis on laws, Shen Buhai's emphasis on administrative technique, and Shen Dao's ideas on authority and prophecy, emphasizing that the autocrat will be able to achieve firm control over the state with the mastering of his predecessors' methodologies: his position of 'power' ( Template:Tlit), 'technique' ( Template:Tlit), and 'law' (fa). He stressed the importance of the concept of holding actual outcome accountable to speech ( xingming), coupled with the "two handles" system of punishment and reward, as well as wu wei ('non-exertion').

Names

Han Fei is also known respectfully as Hanzi ('Master Han') or as Han Feizi ('Master Han Fei'). In Wade–Giles transcription, his same name is written Han Tzu, Han-tzu, Han Fei Tzu, or Han Fei-tzu. The same name—sometimes as "Hanfeizi" or "Han-fei-tzu"—is used to denote the later anthology traditionally attributed to him.

Legitimacy

While early scholarship was not very open the idea there was a real Han Fei, modern scholarship has been open to the idea.

Masayuki Sato (2013) does not consider it likely that all of Sima Qian's literal details of Han Fei's life historically accurate, considering them too dramatic, with Han Fei and Li Si set up to become destined opponents. In the Stratagems of the Warring States, Han Fei supposedly slanders Qin diplomat Yao Jia, and the Qin king orders Han Fei's execution after Yao Jia successfully defends himself.

While not considering it very important for interpreting the Han Feizi, Sinologist Goldin (2013) was open to the idea that details of Han Fei's life were "probably not far from the truth"; that Han Fei was "descended from the ruling house of Hán", and seeking office in Qin, was "executed in 233 B.C.E., after being entrapped by Li Si".

Shang Yang and Shen Buhai

As chancellors of neighboring states, the doctrines of Shang Yang of the Qin state, and Shen Buhai of the Han state (associated with shu administrative technique), would have intersected before imperial unification. The Han Feizi is Shang Yang's first preserved reference outside Qin, the Book of Lord Shang possibly going into broad circulation alongside the Guanzi at that late time.

As argued by Sinologist Herrlee Creel (1970), it is geographically plausible that there was someone like a real Han Fei. A scion of the Han state, he would have been well positioned to learn of Shang Yang and Shen Buhai, and then write at least part of the Han Feizi. As would arguably be the case, most notably chapter 40, which discusses the two figures together. It is also plausible to have been familiar with chapter 43's Shen Dao, who was better known in the Warring States period.

Although Han Fei advocates both law and shu technique, the Han Feizi's Chapters 30 (“Inner congeries of explanations A”) and 38 ("Objections III") expresses a shu-centric point of view. Chapter 30 considers making punishments clear and inevitable a subset of techniques. Chapter 38 considers "clarifying rules and measures" a subset example of techniques of rule requiring the ruler assign duties. In these cases, Han Fei seems a more direct philosophical descendant of his Han state forbear Shen Buhai, just as tradition would place him.

The seven techniques are as follows: First: survey and compare all the various views on a matter; second: make punishments inevitable and majestic authority clear; third: make rewards reliable and make people use their abilities to the full; four: listen to proposals one by one, and hold the subordinates responsible [for proposals]; five: issue confusing edicts and make wily dispositions; six: keep your knowledge to yourself and ask for advice; seven: communicate words from one person to another and to say the opposite of what you mean. These seven are what the ruler should use. (Han Feizi 30.0.0; Chen 2000: 560)

If you do not rely on legal officials, if you do not look into how cross-checking and classifying is administered, if you are not clear about standards and measures, if you rely exclusively on your own hearing and sight, if you have to put your own intelligence to work and only then uncover wickedness, does that not show a lack of techniques of rule? Han Feizi 38.5.1. Christoph Harbsmeier

Life

The exact year of Han Fei's birth remains unknown, however, scholars have placed it at c. 280 BC.

Unlike the other famed philosophers of the time, Han Fei was a member of the ruling aristocracy, having been born into the ruling family of Han during the end phase of the Warring States period. In this context, his works have been interpreted by some scholars as being directed to his cousin, the King of Han.^[1] The Records of the Grand Historian say that Han Fei studied together with future Qin chancellor Li Si under the Confucian philosopher Xun Kuang. It is said that because of his stutter, Han Fei could not properly present his ideas in court, but Sima regards him as having been very intelligent. His advice otherwise being ignored, but observing the slow decline of his Han state, he developed "one of the most brilliant (writing) styles in ancient China."

Sima Qian's biography of Han Fei is as follows: Template:Quote

His works ultimately ended up in the hands of King Ying Zheng of Qin, who commented, "If I can make friends with this person [Han Fei], I may die without regrets." and invited Han Fei to the Qin court. Han Fei presented the essay "Preserving the Han" to ask the king not to attack his homeland, but his ex-friend and rival Li Si used that essay to have Han Fei imprisoned on account of his likely loyalty to Han. Han Fei responded by writing another essay named "In the first time of meeting Qin king", hoping to use his writing talent to win the king's heart. Han Fei did win the king's heart, but not before Li Si forced him to commit suicide by drinking poison. The Qin king afterward regretted Han Fei's death.

Summary of his legalism

Xunzi formed the hypothesis that human nature is evil and virtueless, therefore suggesting that human infants must be brought to their virtuous form through social-class-oriented Confucian moral education. Without such, Xunzi argued, man would act virtueless and be steered by his own human nature to commit immoral acts. Han Fei's education and life experience during the Warring States period, and in his own Han state, contributed his synthesis of a philosophy for the management of an amoral and interest-driven administration, to which morality seemed a loose and inefficient tool. Han agreed with his teacher's theory of "virtueless by birth", but as in previous Legalist philosophy, pragmatically proposed to steer people by their own interest-driven nature.

Notes

1. ^ Watson, Burton, Han Fei Tzu: Basic Writings. 1964, p. 2. The king in question is believed to be either King An of Han (238–230 BC) or his predecessor, King Huanhui (272–239 BC).

Sources

• Chang, Leo S (1998). The Four Political Treatises of the Yellow Emperor: Original Mawangdui Texts with Complete English Translations and an Introduction. Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy. Monograph No.15. University of Hawaiʻi Press.
• Creel, Herrlee Glessner (1982) [1970]. What Is Taoism?: And Other Studies in Chinese Cultural History. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226120478. JSTOR 1397689. OCLC 1256745090 – via Google Books.
• Fraser, Chris (2011). Oxford Handbook of World Philosophy. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-532899-8.
• Goldin, Paul R. (2005). After Confucius: Studies In Early Chinese Philosophy. University of Hawai'i Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-2842-4.
  • Goldin, Paul R. (2005a), "Insidious Syncretism in the Political Philosophy of Huainanzi", University of Hawai'i Press: 90–111, doi:10.1515/9780824873998-008, ISBN 978-0-8248-7399-8{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
• Goldin, Paul R. (2012). Dao Companion to the Philosophy of Han Fei. Dao Companions to Chinese Philosophy. University of Pennsylvania: Springer. ISBN 978-0-19-760347-5.
  • Goldin, Paul R. (2013), Introduction: Han Fei and the Han Feizi. In: Dao Companion to the Philosophy of Han Fei (PDF), Springer, pp. 1–21, ISBN 978-9-400-74318-2 – via the University of Pennsylvania
• Pines, Yuri (2014). Birth of an Empire. University of California Press. ISBN 978-1-938169-07-6.
• Graham, A.C. (1989). Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China. Open Court. ISBN 978-0-8126-9942-5.
• Hansen, Chad (1992). A Daoist Theory of Chinese Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-535076-0.
• Loewe, Michael (1986) [1978]. The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 1: The Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 BC-AD 220. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-24327-8.
• Loewe, Michael (1993). Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China; Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California Berkeley. ISBN 1-55729-043-1.
• Pines, Yuri (2019). The Book of Lord Shang: Apologetics of State Power in Early China. Abridged Edition. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-55038-3.
• Pines, Yuri (2024). Dao Companion to China's fa Tradition. Hebrew University of Jerusalem: Springer. ISBN 9789048129270.

• • Pines, Yuri (2024c), Chapter 4. Han Feizi: The World Driven by Self-Interest. In: Pines, Y. (eds) Dao Companion to China's fa Tradition (PDF), Dao Companions to Chinese Philosophy, Springer, Cham, pp. 99–138, doi:10.1007/978-3-031-53630-4_5, ISBN 9783031536298

Further reading

• Burton Watson (1964). Han Fei Tzu: Basic Writings. New York: Columbia University Press. Template:ISBN.
• Hàn Phi Tử, Vietnamese translation by Phan Ngọc, Nhà xuất bản Văn học, HCMC 2011.
• Mingyuan Hu (2023). Realpolitik: Han Fei on mighty reign. London and Paris: Hermits United. Template:ISBN.

External links

• The complete works of Han Fei Tzu, A classic of Chinese political science. Translator, Wenkui Liao.
• Works by Han Fei at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Han Fei at the Internet Archive
• Li, Guangcan, "Han Fei Quotes". Encyclopedia of China (Law Edition), 1st ed.
• Gu, Fang, "Han Fei Life Quotes". Encyclopedia of China (Philosophy Edition), 1st ed.
• Full text of Han Feizi
• Han Fei at PhilPapers