China's Legalists: The Early Totalitarians: The Early Totalitarians (New Studies in Asian Culture) by Zhengyuan Fu

Author:Zhengyuan Fu [Fu, Zhengyuan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781315285238
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2016-09-15T21:00:00+00:00

Thought Control and Suppression of Heresy

The Legalists knew the importance of controlling the minds of the subjects. Their statecraft includes the manipulation of people’s thought. They understood that the most effective way to control the people’s action and behavior is through thought control. The Legalists were realists and knew that the people’s attitudes and beliefs are determining factors that influence their actions.

Among the methods of preventing treachery, the best method is to proscribe such [treacherous] thought, the next is to proscribe such [treacherous] speech, and the least effective is to proscribe such [treacherous] action. (Han Fei Zi, ch. 44)

For the Legalists, it is self-evident that the ruler is naturally the supreme arbiter of moral standards. Whatever the ruler dislikes and judges to be “wrong” ought to be prohibited. Politically incorrect behavior must be punished according to the laws promulgated at the will of the ruler. The Legalists were opposed to standards based on benevolence (ren) and justice (yi) because these were regarded as politically neutral moral concepts, as opposed to the laws decreed at the arbitrary wish of the ruler, which should be the highest ethical norms for the country. Hence the state should not tolerate independent private teachers and textbooks. Under the mandate of the state, the ruler’s laws should be used as the required textbooks in schools, and the judicial officers should serve as the teachers. Political indoctrination administered by the state should replace education in all alternate forms. Furthermore, whoever witnesses politically incorrect behavior or expression must report it to the state. As documented by historical records, these were indeed some of the important policies implemented by the Legalist chancellors.

It appears that the idea that the ruler should be the supreme judge of “right” versus “wrong” probably originated from the Moists and then was further expounded by the Legalists. As Mo Zi so categorically expressed:

What the superior thinks as right, all should consider it to be right. What the superior thinks as wrong, all should consider it to be wrong. (Mo Zi, ch. 2a)

Thus the state’s control over every individual should be total and comprehensive. Not only action and behavior, that were seen to be treacherous by the ruler should be proscribed, but also any sign or expression of heresy must be suppressed. By the same token, the people’s minds ought to be molded according to the will of the ruler. The Legalists believed the great majority of the people to be ignorant and stupid, and that they should not be exposed to decadent, politically incorrect influences. Only thus would they remain willing pawns and tools of the ruler. The Legalists also suggested auxiliary institutionalized measures and specific policies to augment control over the people’s minds. These will be discussed later in this chapter.

According to the obscurantist policy of the Legalists, the common people should not only be kept ignorant but also, to be logically consistent, even the Legalists’ writings should be kept away from the general populace. The Legalists thought that statecraft loses its effectiveness if its content is known to all the subjects.

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