I n t r o d u c t i o nHan Fei (d. 233 BCE) was a student of the philosopher Xunzi (c. 310-c. 219 BCE), but abandoned Confucian philosophy in favor of the more pragmatic and hardheaded approach of men like Lord Shang (Shang Yang or Gongsun Yang, d. 338 BCE), whom we collectively label as “Legalists.” Han Fei worked as an official for the state of Qin until he was executed in 233 BCE, allegedly on charges manipulated by a fellow official, Li Si (d. 208 BCE), who was also formerly a fellow student under Xunzi. Han Fei is most famous, however, for having developed a thorough and systematic synthesis of Legalist and Daoist philosophy, which we see in the book which bears his name--a book of which he is possibly the real author, but which at any rate is accepted as a reasonably accurate representation of his thinking.D o c u me n t E x c e r p t s wi t h Q u e s t i o n s (Longer selection follows this section)From Sources of Chinese Tradition, compiled by Wm. Theodore de Bary and Irene Bloom, 2nd ed., vol. 1 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), 199-203. © 1999 Columbia University Press. Reproduced with the permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.Selectionsfromthe Han Feizi:Chapter 49, “The Five Vermin
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