Shang Yang Outstanding Chinese thinker, one of the founders of legalism - a philosophical and political doctrine contrary to the teachings of Taoism and Confucianism Country: China

Biography of Shan Yan

Shan Yan was an eminent Chinese thinker and one of the founders of Legalism, a philosophical and political doctrine that opposed Daoism and Confucianism. He came from a impoverished aristocratic family in the Wei Kingdom and left his homeland to serve under King Xiao Gong of the Qin Kingdom in 361 BC. Shan Yan became the king's first counselor and implemented significant political and economic reforms from 356 BC onwards. These reforms aimed to consolidate the absolute power of the monarchy, undermine the economic and political status of the hereditary aristocracy, and strengthen the position of the communal agricultural elite. He established private ownership of land for the first time in China's history and was rewarded with the rule of the Shan region.

After the death of King Xiao Gong and the ascension of King Huaiwen, Shan Yan was accused of treason in 338 BC. He fled to the Wei Kingdom and then to the Shan region, where he raised his own army. However, he was defeated in battle and executed. Shan Yan's ideas had a profound impact not only on his contemporaries but also on many subsequent generations. Thanks to the implementation of his ideas, the Qin kings were able to transform their state into the strongest of the Seven Warring States within a century, enabling Qin Shi Huang to unify China under the rule of the Qin Dynasty.

However, in ancient times, the evaluation of Shan Yan's ideas was not unanimous. While many Chinese thinkers recognized the practical results of their implementation, they could not reconcile themselves with certain key principles of Legalism, which were most fully developed by Shan Yan. These included the idea of the inherent depravity of human nature, the benefits of wars and an increasingly aggressive foreign policy, the establishment of a uniform and universal set of punishments, the introduction of collective responsibility for crimes, the unconditional prohibition on the dissemination of any teachings that contradicted Legalism, and the physical destruction of any written works that contradicted its norms.

Nevertheless, the centuries-long struggle against the teachings of Shan Yan only resulted in a formal victory, as other philosophical and political doctrines in China, particularly Confucianism, incorporated many aspects of Legalism, including those that elicited the greatest rejection.

In modern historiography, Shan Yan is primarily known as the person who first formulated the principle of a totalitarian state. His treatise "The Book of the Ruler of the Shan Region" (Shan Jun Shu) has survived to the present day, although questions of its authenticity remain.