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Shen Dao’s Theory of fa and His Influence on Han Fei

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Abstract

It has been generally agreed that Han Fei was influenced by Shen Dao 慎到in terms of the concept shi 勢 (circumstantial advantage, power or authority). This conventional view, which is based the “Critique of Circumstantial Advantage” (“Nanshi” 難勢) chapter of the Han Feizi, would lead us to believe that Shen Dao was a theorist of shi. This article attempts to examine whether Shen Dao’s main idea is shi by analyzing Shenzi 愼子fragments and other early Chinese texts. Contrary to the traditional view of Shen Dao, this article shows that his central idea is relevant to a theory of fa法 (law, standard or model).

In addition, this article proposes a reason why Han Fei cited Shen Dao’s theory of shi in the “Nanshi” chapter despite the fact that Shen Dao’s writings give detailed discussions of another concept, fa. Han Fei was influenced by Shen Dao’s insight that shi (political authority or power) takes precedence over moral and intellectual superiority (xianzhi 賢智) in drawing obedience from people. In other words, Han Fei quoted Shen Dao in the “Nanshi” chapter not because Shen Dao focused on the concept of shi, but because he pointed out that political power or authority takes precedence over other individual capabilities in achieving political control.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For biographical information on Shen Dao, see Thompson 1979: 127–31.

  2. 2.

    To my knowledge, Fung Yu-lan is the first modern scholar to suggest this view. Benjamin Schwartz’s appraisal of the Legalists is basically in line with Fung’s, in spite of their differences on some issues. He treats Shang Yang, Shen Buhai and Shen Dao as critical theoreticians of the Legalists and presents Han Fei as the grand synthesizer of Legalism (Schwartz 1985: 320).

  3. 3.

    See Thompson 1979: 401. However, T. H. Barrett has objected to this argument (Barrett 1980: 168–71).

  4. 4.

    Fragment 13 is similar to the well-known passage in the “Nanshi” chapter of the Han Feizi.

  5. 5.

    In making these calculations, I have disregarded passages regarded as spurious by Thompson even if they are included in the Shoushan’ge congshu version. A.C. Graham (Graham 1989: 268) and R.P. Peerenboom (Peerenboom 1993: 334) also point out that fa is prominent in the Shenzi fragments.

  6. 6.

    Xunzi criticizes Shen Dao in two other chapters: “The Teachings of the Ru” (“Ruxiao” 儒效, Wang Xianqian 1988: 4.8.123) and “The Discourse on Heaven” (“Tianlun” 天論, Wang Xianqian 1988: 11.17.319). The chapter “Working Songs” (“Chengxiang” 成相, Wang Xianqian 1988: 18.25.460) also mentions the name of Shen Dao, but the authenticity of the chapter is uncertain.

  7. 7.

    There is another fragment where fa is compared to “scales” (Thompson 1979: fragment 102). I think this also shows fa as an objective standard.

  8. 8.

    Shen Dao does, however, presuppose a mediocre ruler in other parts of his work, specifically, when he discusses fa (Thompson 1979: fragments 42–43).

  9. 9.

    At the same time, Shen Dao’s view is similar to Han Fei’s in that both think ministers should work, whereas a ruler should engage in non-action (Thompson 1979: fragment 38).

  10. 10.

    Liu Bin mentions that fa was adopted together with li in Qi 齊, which was one of the major powers during Warring States period (Liu Bin 1998:31).

  11. 11.

    Graham takes qing to refer to “essential qualities” of something, without the connotations of “emotions,” “passion,” or “feelings” in pre-Qin texts (Graham 1990: 63). It seems to me that it also covers those meanings to the extent that emotions, passion or feelings are essential qualities of human beings. Therefore, I think qing refers to “essential qualities” and senses related to emotion.

  12. 12.

    To my knowledge, Xunzi is the first text to use the term tianqing 天情 in the Warring States period.

  13. 13.

    There are diverse senses of natural. Peerenboom provides a summary of the senses of the word: (1) that which conforms to the laws of nature, (2) that which is in keeping with one’s inner nature, (3) that which is spontaneous, unforced, (4) the opposite of artificial (4) human behavior or social practices that imitate or are modeled on nonhuman nature, and (5) human behavior or social practices that instantiate a predetermined role in the cosmic natural order. He adds that the last two are the primary senses of natural for Huang-Lao (Peerenboom 1993: 293n.4). In this essay, I use “natural” in Peerenboom’s second sense.

  14. 14.

    These two senses of tian can be found in the Xunzi. Of course, Xunzi discusses tian from a more sophisticated perspective. According to Xunzi, tian maintains its religious and normative dimensions, so that humans should respect and emulate the order of tian. However, human purposive faculties are attributed not to qing, but to xin 心 (the heart-mind), which is also granted to human beings by tian. In contrast, it is hard to find any normative or religious aspect of tian in the Shenzi fragments. Therefore, it would be inaccurate to conclude that tian has the same significance in both texts. For the concept of tian in the Xunzi, see Goldin 1999: 39–54; and Eno 1990: 131–69.

  15. 15.

    Thompson does not include this phrase in fragment 68 because it is indirect speech attributed to Shen Dao, but Shen Maoshang places fragment 68 after the following introduction: “Xu Fan asked Master Shen, ‘How does law come into existence?’ and Master Shen answered, ‘Law does not come from Heaven; it does not come out from the Earth; it comes from humans and simply accords with human mind’” (Thompson 1979: 271). Several scholars, including Jiang Ronghai and Liu Bin, use this phrase for their arguments, so it is worth considering here. Liu Bin considers renjian 人間 as meaning su 俗 (custom), and then postulates that law comes from custom, so that it is in harmony with human mind. Also, citing another passage: “Rituals come from custom; government comes from superiors; and employment comes from a ruler” (禮從俗,政從上,使從君), (Thompson 1979: fragment 74), he argues that both law and rituals derive from custom.

  16. 16.

    E.g., Thompson 1979: fragment 65.

  17. 17.

    All legal positivists share the one tenet that there are possible legal systems without moral constraints on legal validity, but they have dissenting views on whether there are possible legal systems with such constraints. According to exclusive positivism (also called hard positivism), legality and morality are necessarily separate from one another; moral argument can never be used to determine what the law is, but only what it ought to be. Exclusive positivists, like Joseph Raz, deny that a legal system can incorporate moral constraints on legal validity (Raz 1985). By contrast, according to inclusive positivism (also known as incorporationism and soft positivism), it is possible for a society’s rule of recognition to incorporate moral constraints on the content of law. Inclusive positivists, such as H.L.A. Hart, reject the strong separation thesis but fully endorse the separation thesis (Hart 1994).

  18. 18.

    For more arguments on Hobbes’s legal theory, see, e.g., Finkelstein 2005.

  19. 19.

    For this reason, Mark C. Murphy holds that Hobbes is a natural legal theorist (Mark C. Murphy 1995: 846–73).

  20. 20.

    On the term shi, see Lau and Ames 2003: 62–64; Lu Ruirong 2004; Luo Duxiu 2002; Jullien 1995; Ames 1994: Chapter 3.

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Yang, Sj. (2013). Shen Dao’s Theory of fa and His Influence on Han Fei. In: Goldin, P. (eds) Dao Companion to the Philosophy of Han Fei. Dao Companions to Chinese Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4318-2_3

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