The Book of Lord Shang

The Book of Lord Shang
Traditional Chinese 商君書
Simplified Chinese 商君书
Alternative Chinese name
Chinese 商子
Literal meaning "[Writings of] Master Shang"

The Book of Lord Shang (Chinese: 商君書; pinyin: Shāng jūn shū) is an ancient Chinese text from the 3rd century BC, regarded as a foundational work of "Chinese Legalism". The earliest surviving of such texts (the second being the Han Feizi),[1] it is named for and to some extent attributed to major Qin reformer Shang Yang, who served as minister to Duke Xiao of Qin (r. 361 – 338 BC) from 359 BC until his death in 338 BC and is generally considered to be the father of that state's "legalism".[2] No critical scholar supposes it to have been written by Shang Yang,[3] though "some chapters were almost certainly penned by Shang Yang himself; others may come from the hand of his immediate disciples and followers." Highly composite, it nonetheless forms a "relatively coherent ideological vision", likely reflecting the evolution of what Zheng Liangshu (1989) dubbed Shang Yang’s 'intellectual current' (xuepai 學派).[4]

The Book of Lord Shang includes a large number of ordinances, essays, and courtly petitions attributed to Shang Yang, as well as discourses delivered at the Qin court. The book focuses mainly on maintaining societal order through a system of impartial laws that strictly mete out rewards and punishments for citizens' actions. The first chapters advise promoting agriculture and suppressing other low-priority secondary activities, as well as encouraging martial virtues for use in creating and maintaining a state army for wars of conquest.[5]

The introduction of the freely available J.J.L. Duyvendak edition includes background information, such as short biography and a statement of likelihood that Lord Shang was responsible for the reform that phased out the old land-well system, making land tradeable provided that it would be used productively.

Overview

The Book of Lord Shang teaches that "The law is an expression of love for the people... The sage, if he is able to strengthen the state thereby, does not model himself on antiquity, and if he is able to benefit the people thereby, does not adhere to the established rites."[6] As such, the philosophy espoused is quite explicitly anti-Confucian:

“ Sophistry and cleverness are an aid to lawlessness; rites and music are symptoms of dissipations and licence; kindness and benevolence are the foster‑mother of transgressions; employment and promotion are opportunities for the rapacity of the wicked. If lawlessness is aided, it becomes current; if there are symptoms of dissipation and licence, they will become the practice; if there is a foster‑mother for transgressions, they will arise; if there are opportunities for the rapacity of the wicked, they will never cease. If these eight things come together, the people will be stronger than the government; but if these eight things are non‑existent in a state, the government will be stronger than the people. If the people are stronger than the government, the state is weak; if the government is stronger than the people, the army is strong. For if these eight things exist, the ruler has no one to use for defence and war, with the result that the state will be dismembered and will come to ruin; but if there are not these eight things, the ruler has the wherewithal for defence and war, with the result that the state will flourish and attain supremacy. ”
— Chapter 2, Paragraph 5 of The Book of Lord Shang, pg 109 of J.J.-L. Duyvendak, 1928

Comparison with other texts

Though considering them to be "digressions of minor importance", Yuri Pines notes in Legalism in Chinese Philosophy that The Book of Lord Shang "allowed for the possibility that the need for excessive reliance on coercion would end and a milder, morality-driven political structure would evolve". The Han Feizi does not.[7]

Translations

References

Footnotes
  1. ↑ Pines, Yuri, "Legalism in Chinese Philosophy", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), 1.1 Major Legalist Texts, http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2014/entries/chinese-legalism/
  2. ↑ Levi (1993), p. 368.
  3. ↑ Creel,What Is Taoism?, 101
  4. ↑ Pines, Yuri, "Legalism in Chinese Philosophy", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), 1.1 Major Legalist Texts, http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2014/entries/chinese-legalism/
  5. ↑ Knechtges & Shi (2014), p. 810.
  6. ↑ http://ctext.org/shang-jun-shu/reform-of-the-law
  7. ↑ Pines, Yuri, "Legalism in Chinese Philosophy", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), 2.1 Evolutionary view of History, http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2014/entries/chinese-legalism/
Works cited
Chinese Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Text of the work

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/26/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.