The secular foundation of rulership: The political thought of Han Feizi (ca. 280–233 BC) and his predecessors

This dissertation examines the popular view of four thinkers in Chinese Warring States period: Shen Dao, Shang Yang, Shen Buhai, and Han Feizi. They have been classified as Fajia. Specifically, Han Feizi has been known as a synthesizer of his predecessors on the basis of their three major tenets, Shang Yang\u27s fa (written penal laws to regulate the people), Shen Buhai\u27s shu (techniques to manipulate ministers), and Shen Dao\u27s shi (power or authority). The first half part of this dissertation deals with three forerunners of Han Feizi in order to explore whether shi, shu, and fa are the major tenets of Shen Dao, Shen Buhai, and Shang Yang respectively by analyzing overlooked sources such as fragments of their work. My examination shows that the conventional view has no solid textual basis. Shen Dao stresses the idea of fa rather than shi; Shen Buhai discusses fa instead of shu. In addition, I analyze Shang Yang\u27s theory of fa from the perspective of the relationship between law and utilitarianism, in which agriculture and war are the main tools to accelerate the interests of a state. In other words, fa is the most critical issue in the view of these three thinkers; it means a standard of rewards and punishments, which thus can be rendered as laws. The second part of this dissertation discusses Han Feizi\u27s own thought and interprets him from a different perspective, not as a synthesizer of the Fajia group. His main concern is how a ruler controls powerful ministers and strengthens his authority by means of fa along with li (ritual propriety). In the process, the term fa in Han Feizi\u27s work is used in two connotations: laws and administrative regulations. That is, Han Feizi adopts the term fa in the same way as his predecessors on the one hand, but expands it into a wide-ranging concept of sociopolitical regulation on the other. Han Feizi shares a concern with his predecessors, which is the establishment of a ruler-centered government by means of fa, but exposes himself to vibrant intellectual environments of the Warring States period