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Laws should be respected
by the sovereign ruler and people equally. This means that once a law is
promulgated, everyone, regardless of status or wealth, has to abide by it; even
the supreme ruler of the state cannot make changes at will. This notion can be
seen as an extension of the ancient Legalist idea that “the law does not favor the rich and powerful.” It emphasizes not just the inflexibility and equality of
the law; the law supersedes power and politics.
The Chinese character fa (法), originally meaning “penalty,” refers to the legal system consisting of laws, decrees, and regulations. In ancient China, both fa and li (礼rite) set standards for individual behavior. In particular, rites rewarded virtue, while laws punished vice. It was generally accepted that while only a sovereign ruler had the right to enact and promulgate laws, everyone, be it a ruler or a subject, had to obey the laws. This point of view reflects the justice and fairness of law. In 536 BC, Zichan (?-522 BC), the chief minister in the State of Zheng, had the legal provisions cast on a bronze ding, a tripodal vessel that symbolized the power of the ducal ruler. Zichan’s action, known as “casting the penal code,” was the very first example of publishing a statute in Chinese history. The Warring States Period witnessed the rise of the Legalists such as Shang Yang (390?-338 BC) and Hanfeizi (280?-233 BC). Fa (法) is also a Buddhist term. In scriptures, it is the Chinese equivalent of the Sanskrit word dharma with three shades of meaning. First, it refers to real being, which is the object of genuine knowledge. Buddhism argues that all things in daily life are produced through the concomitance of causes and conditions. In this sense, what one appears to see or know is unreal in nature. However, one can perceive the dharmas, the indivisible real elements beneath the surface, through mental practices. Indeed, there are more than a hundred types of the elements, such as substance and consciousness. Second, dharma can be defined as the Buddhist teachings. The teachings here not only refer to the words dictated by the Buddha but also what dharma-hearers receive and pursue. This point of view is different from the characteristics of dharma discussed in the Abhidhamma Pitaka (Basket of Advanced Dharma). But they do not contradict each other, because both of them advocate that perception of reality be based on relevant teachings. For Buddhism as a whole, the teachings constitute a significant portion of its knowledge system; for all Buddhists, the teachings pave the way for their personal liberation. Third, dharma denotes the worldly phenomenon, which is clearly distinguishable from the previous meaning. In scriptures, zhufa (all dharmas) and wanfa (tens of thousands of dharmas) represent all worldly phenomena, unreal in nature, in the broadest sense.
This term referred mainly to all the land under the name of the Son of Heaven and the right to rule on such land. The ancient Chinese held that the rule of senior officials was over their enfeoffed land, and that of dukes and princes was over feudal states. The rule of the Son of Heaven was over all the land. Literally, tianxia (天下) means “all under heaven.” It actually refers to all the territory embracing the enfeoffed land and feudal states under the rule or in the name of the Son of Heaven, as well as all the subjects and the right to rule. The term has later evolved to refer to the whole nation or the whole world.
Rule by law, as opposed to rule by man, calls for ruling a state and its people by the ruler through enacting and strictly enforcing laws and regulations. It is an important political thought of the Legalist scholars in the pre-Qin period. Rule by law meted out well-defined rewards and punishments, but tended to be excessively severe and rigid in enforcement. From the Han Dynasty all the way to the Qing Dynasty, rule by law and rule by man were exercised by various dynasties, mostly in combination. With the spread of Western thoughts to China in more recent times, the concept of “rule by law” acquired new implications, evolving into one of “rule of law.”
The law treats everybody equally, not favoring the rich and powerful. The Legalists in ancient China argued that there should be no distinction between noble and poor or close and distant people; punishment or reward should be meted out strictly in accordance with the law. They believed in fairness in enforcing the law and treating everyone as equal before the law. This belief has been championed through the ages and is a major source of the notion of rule of law.
The world is a public realm and therefore belongs to all the people. Tianxia (天下), which literally means everything under heaven, used to refer to the monarch, state power, or the nation; later it extended to mean the whole world. In the narrow sense, gong (公) refers to figures with both integrity and competence, while in the broad sense it refers to all the people of a country, or everyone in the world. This term has two meanings. The first is that the position of a ruler is not the private property of just one person or his family, but rather belongs to all people of virtue and ability. Hence, the throne should be passed on to people according to their merit rather than through bloodline. The second meaning is that a country does not belong to a single individual or family, but belongs to the public. This is a people-centered vision, which opposes hereditary rule and believes that people with virtue and competence should be selected to exercise power. Ancient Chinese held this to be the foundation and guarantee for people to enjoy a happy life and realize universal harmony. In modern times, it evolved into a key concept calling for overthrowing autocracy and realizing democracy and later into a longing for an ideal society.
Law being a means of loving the people suggests that laws and institutions are for the benefit of the people. It is an important guiding principle of the Legalist school. The profound significance of this is: Changing laws and institutions or establishing new ones must have “loving the people” as its basis and aim. The Legalists are known for advocating harsh laws and severe punishments, in contrast to Confucian “rule by virtue,” but at a deeper level they are not so much at odds with such concepts as “the people being the foundation” and “benevolence.”
All under heaven belongs to all the people in the world; a country belongs to all the people in the country. “All under heaven” can here be understood as the country or highest sovereign power of the country. The ancients regarded all under heaven as belonging neither to a single person nor to a single family but to all the people. Whoever acted according to morality and justice and was good to the people of all under heaven, such a person was qualified to possess and rule all under heaven. This implies a concept of human rights bestowed by heaven and governance by virtue. In a modern context, this can be understood in the following way: the world belongs to all the people of the world – every country and every person have the right to take part in government.
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