A Study of Legal History of Spring and Autumn Annals

The thoughts of the Eclectics have always been neglected by the studies on legal history.Spring and Autumn Annals,the representative of the Eclectics in the late Warring States period,was based on the theory of observing the rules of the world.It constituted a preliminary system integrating the essence of the hundred schools of thoughts in the pre-Qin period,which provided a systematic legal thought of the Eclectics for the Qin Empire.The Eclectics thought of managing the state affairs was abandoned after Lv Buwei's total failure in politics.After unification,the Legalists thought of ruling the country by law which Qin Dynasty put into practice,but led to its rapid collapse.