Legalist Role In Ancient China

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Recommended: The pros and the cons of legalism

Legalist was first proposed by a Qin statesman named Shang Yang and developed by the philosopher Han Feizi who had a big influence during the Warring States Era of China. Legalist played a very important role in ancient China history and Legists believe that human beings are more inclined to do wrong things than right things because they are motivated entirely by their own benefits. It had a positive influence but its development during the Qin Dynasty resulted in “burning of books” which is a disaster for Chinese culture. So the question is: Are there more advantages than disadvantages of Legalist theory’s growth?

The benefits of Legalist can be discussed in various ways. Legalist states that human beings were born evil because they are inherently selfish. No one will concern for others more than …show more content…

The most infamous one should be the “burning of books”, it is also called “burning of books and burying of scholars”. Because of the outstanding role that Legalist played during the unification wars. Ying Zheng decided to keep utilize Legalist as the Qin’s guiding ideology. Along with the Legalist’s expansion. Emperor Ying Zheng started to burn the books, many ancient books and records were burnt for good except The History of Qin Dynasty and books on medicine, divination and tree planting, etc. All other schools were considered as “heterodox” at that time. The history event was proposed by Li Si, prime minister of the Qin and he is also a Legist. He stated that all works by scholars of different schools should be burnt; also that those who dare to satiric the rulers will get a death sentence along with their families; and that those who had not burned the listed books within one month will be banished to finish the community service. Because of this event, Ying Zheng and Li Si became the symbol of evil and brutal in people’s mind, which can be a lead of Qin’

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