The Advent of Confucianism in Zhou China and the Socio-political forces that led to the Eventual Rise of Legalism as a Pragmatic Alternative But not as a Total Master of the Former

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The Advent of Confucianism in Zhou China and the Socio-political forces that led to the Eventual Rise of Legalism as a Pragmatic Alternative But not as a Total Master of the FormerAs many belief systems arose in China around the Yellow River before 1000 B.C.E., the teachings of the “Divine Sage,” Confucius (Kong Fuzi) ca. 551-479 B.C.E took center stage to give Zhou China 1029-258 B.C.E. a humanistic philosophy that worked in harmony with nature and was structured to fit within the social, political, and cultural ethos of Chinese society. Competing schools of thought would gain strength—especially the pragmatic, authoritarian, and state centered teachings of Legalism during the Qin and early Han periods in the 6th and 5th ...

... penalty, regardless of the position or status of the person breaking the law, is fixed; no one is above the fixed laws of the state. Such operation of the laws of a state, the Legalists argued, should not be held exclusively in the hands of “magistrates” who would, at times, adjust, unjust, or disallow the penalties of law for specific persons of status or class—thus disrupting the harmony of the people within a society. Without a doubt, Legalism—with its support of fixed, unaltered laws of the land—rested its power in state control and not upon the power of the people and represented to the Confucian adherents an obvious regression from the high moral standards that

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