Yukiko Nagata Ms. Snyder
Religions of Asia: Response Paper 12/03/2007

Making Orders Strict: From Chapter 7 Legalists and Militarists
In applying punishments, light offenses should be punished heavily; if light offenses do not appear, heavy offenses will not come. This is said to be abolishing penalties by means of penalties, and if penalties are abolished, affairs will succeed. If crimes are serious and penalties light, penalties will appear and trouble will arise. This is said to be bringing about penalties by means of penalties, and such a state will surely be dismembered.
The sage ruler understands what is essential in affairs and so, in the governing of the people, there is that which is most essential. Therefore in administering rewards and punishments he relies on uniformity. Humaneness is extending the heart. The sage ruler, by his governing of men, is certain to win their hearts; consequently he is able to exert strength. Strength produces force: force produces prestige; prestige produces virtue. Virtue has its origin in strength. The sage ruler alone possesses it, and therefore he is able to transmit humaneness and rightness to all-under-Heaven.
The most crucial aspect of Legalism is that people be submissive and respectful to the leader of the state so that more stable, well-organized and powerful central state ruled by a strong leader can be formed. Legalism was widespread during the Qing dynasty and seeing how successful they were at expanding their territories and conquering a large part of China, it can be implied that this principle worked very well, leading Chinese society to an accomplishment of establishing an ideal government. By enforcing harsh punishments to any types of crimes and encouraging people to be subservient to the authority figure, Legalism sought a formation of a society with a dominant ruler and a well-ordered government.
In the first paragraph, it is said that by imposing tough penalties on every single crime regardless of situations, people will not commit bad sins or crimes. In other words, if the penalty for murdering a person is to be put in jail until the criminal dies, then the penalty for stealing a piece of bread from someone else to save one’s family members who are starving to death would be exactly the same. In the current society, stealing a piece of bread from someone else seems a lighter crime by far than murdering somebody and thus should receive a lighter punishment; however, in Legalism, it was crucial that every single kind of crime is treated equally with the same punishments. It was believed that equal application of the law was important, because they thought that tough penalties on even small crimes will result in less number of crimes overall and will help to keep the order of the society by all means.
The main idea in the second part of this passage is that strength by the ruler is the key to the rightness of everyone. In Legalism, it was understood anything that does not contribute to a formation of a strong state such as rich people and scholars should be set aside; the ultimate goal, according to this religion, was to form a strong state composed of strong central authority. The society was largely based on agriculture with nice, quiet and obedient people. The people who believed in this religion saw “order” as a significant factor; any kinds of social mobility were seen as a threat to the traditional society. For example, scholars were “aids to lawlessness. More specifically, being educated and informative about the government, like the scholars, were seen as detrimental and disadvantage factors to the society, since the scholars could revolt against the emperor’s decisions when they did not agree with them. Educated people with a lot of wealth which enabled them to go against the authority figure were thought that they should become poor and contribute to unifying in order to create a strong central authority. In contrast, obedient and poor people, mostly farmers, were valued and treated nicely; the society and the government thought that they should be rewarded with land and status.
In conclusion, Legalism is similar to Confucianism, because they both emphasize the importance of “being polite and dutiful to the elders and the authority figure. However, in Confucianism, mastering of cultural arts such as martial art and calligraphy was valued and seen as one of the basic foundations. On the other hand, in Legalism, it was believed that any kinds of learning is harmful to the creation and maintaining a strong government since people will become educated and will attempt to use their knowledge to go against the ruler’s idea when their own opinions differ; farmers who did not receive education was well-liked by the rulers since they were law-abiding and supportive to whatever the ruler said.