On the Legal Thoughts of Shang Yang and Han Feizi

Shang Yang and Han Feizi were both outstanding representatives of legal thought during the Qin Dynasty before A.D.Shang Yang was the representative of early law schools and he built up some very important law traditions.The book——The Book of Lord Shang collects all essense of his thoughts.Both Shang Yang and Han Fei Zi had a lot in common and shared some differences.As for Shang Yang,he attached importance to laws with ignoring the role of status and power in state ruling.However,Han Feizi did a better job with a new look at status and power based on the basic idea of law.Finally a whole law-ruling ideology system came into being via Han.To affiliation between monarchs and courtiers,Shang claimed monarchs and courtiers' co-rule of their country,making a harmony relationship with each other,whereas Han insisted that monarchs should govern his subjects by power.For goals of their thoughts,Shang agreed more with the combination of agriculture and wars to enrich and strengthen the country,however,Han focused on the monarchy from start to end.