Abstract
The main theoretical projects that have been historically undertaken to resolve the conflicts inherent in political organization tend to identify the passions, the intrinsically impetuous side of human beings, as the main pitfall. In my contribution, I shall demonstrate that, unlike all these efforts to reduce or tame people’s impulses, the Han Feizi claims that the instinctive dimension driving men to pursue what gives them pleasure and to avoid what displeases them not only does not pose a problem for achieving an effective political order, but also constitutes, in itself, the true foundation of the social order, the only possibility for fashioning a lasting peace. The inclinations and aversions inherent in human beings are what make possible the application of punishments and rewards, that is, the true cement of law (fa) and, by extension, life in society. But if human beings are essentially defined by their impulsive quest for profit and the avoidance of damage, what happens then with those who do not fit in this scheme, with those who place themselves beyond the reach of the organs of administration and the logic that governs them, rejecting rewards and disdaining punishments? And, more important, is the sovereign also included in this human dimension driven by passions and impulses? My paper will try to elucidate the exceptional nature of the ruler as it is conceived in the Han Feizi by focusing in the apparent paradox of the sovereign power according to the this text, where the sovereign is defined as being simultaneously within and without the realm of the law.
This article was made possible by a fellowship from the International Consortium for Research in the Humanities, “Fate, Freedom and Prognostication: Strategies of Coping with the Future in East Asia and Europe” (supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research) at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and a Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation at the University of Cambridge. I would also like to thank Paul R. Goldin, Jean Levi, and the two anonymous reviewers for providing insightful and constructive comments on earlier versions of this chapter.
Notes
- 1.
In Sunzi’s Methods of War (Bingfa 兵法), it is stated that just as water has no fixed form (wu changxing 無常形), just as among the five stars there is none that permanently prevails (wu changsheng 無常勝) and just as with the four seasons no single one enduringly occupies a prominent position (wu changwei 無常位), neither are there constant circumstantial frameworks (wu changshi 無常勢) in warfare (Yang Bing’an 1999: 6.125). One may find similar assertions regarding the dynamism of historic becoming in the work attributed to shang Yang, which discusses the intrinsic disparity between time (時異也) and its radical mutability (時變): jiang Lihong 1986: 4.18.107.
- 2.
The critique of book-learning in this anecdote from the Han Feizi is reminiscent of the celebrated passage from the Zhuangzi where Lord Huan is taught a lesson by Wheelwright Bian on the impossibility of conveying knowledge through writing (Guo Qingfan 1968: 5B.13.490–92).
- 3.
Following sun Yirang 孫詒讓, I take fang 方 as mao 矛 (Chen Qiyou 2000: 1030).
- 4.
ōta Tadashi 太田方 (1759–1829) suggests that the expression lishou shehou 狸首射侯, which literally means “archer lords with wildcat heads,” and which I have translated as “noble ceremonial archers,” in fact refers to a ritual exercise in archery characteristic of the Spring and Autumn period (Chen Qiyou 2000: 1031).
- 5.
The evolution of military technology is frequently mentioned in the Han Feizi (e.g., Chen Qiyou 2000: 19.49.1092).
- 6.
On the crucial role played by the narratives about “human nature” in the history of Western political philosophy, see Sahlins 2008.
- 7.
- 8.
The xingde pair is frequently mentioned in the Mawangdui manuscripts that scholars have associated with Huang-Lao. See Chen Guying 1995: 276, 325.
- 9.
A passage from the text attributed to su Yu 蘇輿 reiterates the same idea: “The way of heaven and earth consists, then, of three seasons that consummate life and one season that annihilates with death” (zhong Zhe 1992: 12.49.341).
- 10.
- 11.
In the Han Feizi one reads, “The hammer and forge are used to level what is not flat, the stick and rod to straighten what is not straight. Similarly, the wise man turns to the law to level what is not flat and straighten what is not straight” (Chen Qiyou 2000: 14.35.832). For a thorough study of the political function of such metaphors, see Keightley 1989: 31–70.
- 12.
- 13.
- 14.
Describing this primordial time preceding the emergence of sages and political institutions, the Zhuangzi indicates that the acts of the men of such remote epochs were so simple and good-hearted that they left no trace, and neither were their deeds recorded for posterity. See Guo Qingfan 1968: 5A.12.455.
- 15.
The Han Feizi uses often the analogy of hunting or domesticating birds (e.g., Chen Qiyou 2000: 7.21.456 and 13.34776).
- 16.
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Galvany, A. (2013). Beyond the Rule of Rules: The Foundations of Sovereign Power in the Han Feizi . 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_5
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