Chinese Classic Culture Series - Great Wisdom of the Legalists

Author: Zhang Yi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-11-01
Features: The source of Chinese culture, the crystallization of civilized wisdom. Legalist thought is ruthless, narrow-minded, ungrateful, and harsh, cold, and oppressive, advocating for power, advocating for execution, and good at using conspiracies. It can be said that Legalism is nearly a heartless doctrine. The power rules of Legalism: politics without restraint, so one can achieve great things. Only the strong have a voice. Use politics with rigor, consolidate power through execution. Judge heroes only by success or failure, act decisively when the time comes. Only with plots is it hard to succeed, plots and tricks must be used frequently. When the axe is needed, don’t use a knife, fearing that deviation from the norm is not enough. Use ruthless power to its extreme, the heartless are the emperors. The ancient fables—wait for a hare to run into a tree stump, three people make a tiger, the man from Zheng buys shoes, writing from Ying to Yan, buying a box to return a pearl, self-contradiction, the old horse knows the road, filling the orchestra with non-musicians, and one hand cannot clap—have been warning people for ages. A thousand-foot embankment collapses due to a mole’s hole, a hundred-foot room is burned down by a smoldering gap. Trying to put out a fire by drawing water from the sea, even though the sea is vast, the fire will not be extinguished, as distant water cannot save near fires. The sage does not concern himself with the petty people, the wise ruler does not handle trivial matters. His famous sayings and maxims move the hearts of people.