Chinese Legalism

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2015

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the origins and rise of Legalism in China, from the start of the Warring States Period (c475 - 221 BC) to the time of The First Emperor Qin Shi Huang (pictured), down to Chairman Mao and the present day. Advanced by the Qin statesman Shang Yang and later blended together by Han Fei, the three main aspects of Legalism were the firm implementation of laws, use of techniques such as responsibility and inscrutability, and taking advantage of the ruler's position. The Han dynasty that replaced the Qin discredited this philosophy for its apparent authoritarianism, but its influence continued, re-emerging throughout Chinese history. With Frances Wood Former Curator of the Chinese Collections at the British Library Hilde de Weerdt Professor of Chinese History at Leiden University And Roel Sterckx Joseph Needham Professor of Chinese History at the University of Cambridge. Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time for more details about In Our Time
0:04.0	and for our terms of use please go to bbc.co.uk slash radio4.
0:09.0	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:10.7	Hello, in 338 BC the Chinese statesman Shangyang was torn apart by four chariots pulling
0:17.2	in opposite directions and his entire extended family was murdered.
0:21.5	His violent death was the revenge of the aristocrats in his state of chin and rage by reforms
0:26.9	who had imposed which made all equal before the law.
0:30.6	Shangyang's legal structure survived him, strengthening the state of chin until he dominated rivals.
0:35.4	A century later, chin produced the first emperor of a unified China and emperor best known globally
0:40.6	now for his terracotta army.
0:43.1	Legalism, a Shangyang system became known, has often been vilified for putting law above
0:47.9	family ties and for the harsh punishments that imposed.
0:51.4	Successive leaders have seen its value though, from the hand in a seal it overthrew the
0:55.0	chin down to Mao Zedong in the 20th century.
0:58.9	When me to discuss Chinese legalism are, Francis Wood, former curator of the Chinese
1:03.5	collections at the British Library, Hilded a bit, Professor of Chinese History at Leiden
1:08.0	University and Rural Sturks, Joseph Needham, Professor of Chinese History at the University
1:12.5	of Cambridge.
1:13.5	Francis Wood, the period in which legalism emerged is from in which it emerged, it's called
1:18.6	the Warring State Spirit.
1:20.8	Who is warring and why?
1:23.2	The Warring States grows out of the previous system of the Joe dynasty.
	...

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