Han Fei<!--Chinese in infobox; see MOS:ZH--> (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. 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.

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.&nbsp;2. The king in question is believed to be either King An of Han (238–230&nbsp;BC) or his predecessor, King Huanhui (272–239&nbsp;BC).

References

Sources

Further reading

  • Burton Watson (1964). Han Fei Tzu: Basic Writings. New York: Columbia University Press. .
  • 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. .
  • The complete works of Han Fei Tzu, A classic of Chinese political science. Translator, Wenkui Liao.
  • 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