Chapter 174

「Ding! Summoned the first person, Han Feizi, who governs the state by law, Commander-in-Chief 80, Martial Strength 66, Intelligence 94, Politics 103. 」

Han Fei, later generations respectfully call him 「Han Feizi」 or 「Han Zi」, the main representative figure and synthesizer of the Legalist school.

Han Fei studied under Xunzi, a representative figure of the Confucian school, but his ideas differed from his and he did not inherit Confucian thought.

「Favoring the study of criminal names and legal techniques」, 「Returning to the Huang-Lao」, he inherited and developed Legalist thought, becoming the synthesizer of Legalism at the end of the Warring States period.

Han Fei, as a prince of Han, repeatedly submitted memorials to the King of Han, advising him to strive for good governance, but the King of Han paid no attention and never adopted his suggestions.

This made him extremely indignant and disappointed, so he wrote many essays expounding his legalist thought; after reading them, the Qin Emperor highly praised and greatly admired him.

In order to meet Han Fei, he issued an order to attack the state of Han.

The King of Han was forced to send Han Fei on a mission to Qin. However, Han Fei was not trusted or valued in Qin, and was later imprisoned due to Li Si's sowing of discord, and soon died in prison.

Han Fei elevated Legalist thought to the level of cosmology, thereby forming a complete theoretical system.

He authored works such as "Lone Indignation", "Five Vermin", "On Internal Storage", "On External Storage", "Forest of Sayings", "On the Difficulty of Persuasion", etc.; later generations collected his works, compiled and edited them into the book Han Feizi.

The Legalist school founded by Han Fei provided the theoretical basis for the birth of China's first unified autocratic centralized state.

After Han Fei's death, his Legalist thought was highly valued by Qin King Ying Zheng, who adopted it as the essential guide for governing Qin, helping Qin become rich and strong, and ultimately unifying the six states.

「Ding! Summoned the second person, the military minor sage Wu Qi, Commander-in-Chief 104, Martial Strength 85, Intelligence 96, Politics 101. 」

Holy shit!

Big shot!

A military minor sage with both Commander-in-Chief and Politics at Saint Rank?

In the long river of ancient Chinese history, the military minor sage Wu Qi shone like a brilliant star, illuminating the chaotic era of the Warring States with his extraordinary military talent and far-reaching political influence.

Moreover, Wu Qi was not only an outstanding military commander, but also a politician with far-sighted vision; his deeds and achievements are still celebrated by later generations.

Wu Qi, born in the state of Wei during the Warring States period, is one of the important representatives of the military school.

He lived in an age of feudal lords vying for hegemony and frequent warfare; this social background provided him a broad stage to display his talents.

In his early years, Wu Qi studied Confucianism under Zeng Shen, but later abandoned Confucianism for military studies.

Initially, while in the state of Lu, he was ordered to command the Lu army and defeat Qi.

Later he went to Wei, where he was highly trusted by Lord Wen of Wei.

He commanded the Wei army to repeatedly defeat Qin, seize the lands west of the Yellow River, becoming the first governor of Xihe Commandery; at the same time he reformed the military system and created the Wei Wu troops, "engaging in seventy-six battles against the feudal lords, winning sixty-four."

In the Battle of Yinjin, Wu Qi even won with fewer forces, crushing a Qin army of 500,000.

Why did Qin later carry out reforms and seek strength? It was because back then they had been badly bullied by Wei, driven into a corner.

If they did not fight back, they would very likely have been annexed by Wei.

Later, Wu Qi defected to Chu due to suspicions of Lord Wu of Wei; he was first appointed governor of Wan, and a year later King Dao of Chu appointed him as Lingyin, to carry out reforms aimed at striking and restricting the old aristocracy and strengthening military construction.

The ideas and concepts of his reforms also indirectly influenced Qin's Shang Yang reforms.

After sweeping reforms, Chu's national strength was rapidly enhanced, leading to the situation "subjugating the southern Yue, annexing Chen and Cai in the north, yet the three Jin, attacking Qin in the west"; for a time it soundly defeated Wei, presenting the mighty scene of "horses drinking at the great river."

Wu Qi served the states of Lu, Wei, and Chu, understood the doctrines of military, legal, and Confucian schools, and achieved great accomplishments in both domestic affairs and the military, being paired with Sun Wu as "Sun-Wu".

During the reign of Emperor Suzong of Tang, he further became one of the Ten Philosophers of the Martial Temple.

Mr. Guo Moruo said in his 「Critique of Early Legalism」: "If Wu Qi's hegemony had succeeded in Chu, the merit of unifying China might not necessarily have fallen into the hands of the Qin people."

From this, one can see the ferocity of this military minor sage.

At that time, Qin was not yet the later behemoth, nor did it have a tiger-and-wolf army.

Thus, Wu Qi pressed him to the ground and gave him a fierce beating.

Everyone was beaten into stupidity.

「Ding! Summoned the third person, Qin dynasty chancellor Li Si, Commander-in-Chief 65, Martial Strength 73, Intelligence 97, Politics 101. 」

Li Si, in his early years, followed Xun Qing to study the art of kingship, then entered Qin service, advising King Ying Zheng of Qin to overthrow the feudal lords, accomplish the imperial undertaking, unify all under heaven, and also sent strategists bearing gold and jade to persuade the feudal lords, sowing discord among the rulers and ministers of the six states.

When Ying Zheng issued the order to expel foreign guests from the six states, Li Si, then a guest minister, was also among those to be expelled.

Li Si memorialized with the 「Jianzhuke Shu」 (Memorial Against the Expulsion of Guests); King Ying Zheng immediately repealed the expulsion order, Li Si was reinstated to his former post, and later promoted to Minister of Justice.

After Qin unified the six states, Li Si participated in deliberating the emperor's title and the related ritual system.

He insisted on replacing the feudal system with the commandery-county system, enacted laws, unified axle lengths, script, and weights and measures, advocated prohibiting private schools, burning the classics, and establishing corresponding decrees.

Although later, because Li Si participated in the plot of Zhao Gao and Hu Hai, a forged decree was issued to install Hu Hai as emperor.

This greatly damaged his reputation.

Afterwards, Zhao Gao, seeking to monopolize power, falsely accused Li Si and his son of colluding with Chen Sheng and Wu Guang; in the end Li Si was forced to confess.

He was sliced in half at the market of Xianyang, and his three clans were exterminated.

This could be considered his just deserts.

But this does not deny his outstanding ability.

He assisted Qin Shi Huang in unifying all under heaven, and strongly advocated implementing the commandery-county system and abolishing the feudal system.

In terms of ability, there is absolutely no problem.

He is worthy of the Saint Rank in Politics.

「Ding! Summoned the fourth person, the originator of Legalism Li Kui, Commander-in-Chief 83, Martial Strength Cultivation, Intelligence 96, Politics 102. 」

Li Kui was a person from the time of Lord Wen to Lord Wu of Wei; he once studied under Zeng Shen, a disciple of Zi Xia, and served as the chancellor of Zhongshan and governor of Shangdi.

He often fought against the Qin people; Huan Tan regarded him as a teacher of Lord Wen. Later, Lord Wen of Wei highly valued him and put him in charge of reforms.

Politically, Li Kui advocated appointing the virtuous and capable, rewarding merit and punishing faults.

He strongly advocated abolishing hereditary noble privileges, "those who eat should have labor, those who receive stipends should have achievement; those who are capable shall surely be rewarded, and punishments shall be fitting."

Economically, Li Kui mainly implemented "exhausting the land's potential" and the "equal transport law", uniformly allocating farmland to peasants, urging them to work diligently in cultivation, and increasing production.

Afterwards, Li Kui, having mistakenly judged and killed an innocent person, chose to write a good last testament and committed suicide in accordance with the law.

Li Kui once called those who enjoyed stipends without merit "indecent people", and sought to "seize the stipends of the indecent to bring in talents from all directions"; this was the first challenge in Chinese history to the corrupt and backward hereditary system.

It drove out of the political stage a batch of people belonging to a privileged class that was useless and harmful to the state; some people from the ordinary landlord class could enter politics thanks to military achievements or talent, thereby opening the road for feudalism to replace slavery.

The results of his reforms greatly weakened Wei's hereditary stipend system, and the political situation improved.

Li Hui's contribution to Chinese legal history is most outstanding in that he formulated China's first representative written legal code, the Legal Classic, thereby affirming and protecting reform in legal form and consolidating the contemporary feudal legal authority.

At the time it caused a great shock to the other states, thereby triggering the first sweeping nationwide reform in Chinese history, smoothing the road for the transition from slavery to feudalism.

Later, the famous reforms of Shang Yang and Wu Qi, among others, were all influenced by Li Hui's reforms.

(End of chapter)