China's Legalists: The Early Totalitarians

This text discusses the Chinese Legalists an ancient school of Chinese philosophy which flourished during the Period of the Hundred Contending Schools (6th-3rd century B.C.E.) The school perfected the science of government and art of statecraft to a level that would have greatly impressed Machiavelli. This period and its personalities as well as a taste of the style and spirit of the Legalists' discourse are made accessible to the student and general reader placing into focus the roots of the great Chinese philosophy-as-statecraft tradition. The Legalists - most famously Li Kui Shang Yang Shen Buhai Shen Dao and Han Fei - had a great impact not only on the institutions and practices of Chinese imperial tradition but also on the Maoist totalitarianism of the People's Republic of China.