As the Roman Empire was taking shape in the Mediterranean basin, a powerful Chinese empire emerged in East Asia. More than in the Roman world, the political ideas and practices of imperial China drew on the past. The notion of China as a unified state ruled by a single sage/emperor who mediated between heaven and the human realm had an ancient pedigree. After a long period of political fragmentation, known as the era of warring states, such a unified Chinese state took shape once again during the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 B.C.E.), led by its formidable ruler Shihuangdi (see pp. 133–36). That state operated under a version of Legalism (see “The Legalist Answer”), a political philosophy that found expression in the writings of Han Fei (280–233 B.C.E.) and that in large measure guided the practices of Shihuangdi and the Qin dynasty. Han Fei’s Legalist thinking was discredited by the brutality and excesses of Shihuangdi’s reign, and the Han dynasty that followed was sharply critical of his ideas, favoring instead the “government by morality” approach of Confucianism. Nonetheless, Han Fei’s emphasis on the importance of laws and the need to enforce them influenced all succeeding Chinese dynasties.

The Writings of Master Han Fei

Third Century B.C.E.

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