Chapter 176 Saint-level political summons (this chapter also contains data)
"Ding! Summon the first person, Han Feizi, who governs the country by law. Command is 80, force is 66, intelligence is 94, and politics is 103."

Han Fei, respectfully called "Han Feizi" or "Han Zi" by later generations, was the main representative and integrator of the Legalist school.

Han Fei studied under Xunzi, the representative figure of the Confucian school, but his ideas were different from Xunzi and he did not inherit Confucian thoughts.

He "liked the study of criminal law and magic" and "returned to the roots of Huang-Lao", inherited and developed the Legalist thought, and became the culmination of the Legalist thought in the late Warring States period.

As a prince of the State of Han, Han Fei wrote many letters to the King of Han to advise him, hoping that the King of Han would work hard to govern the country, but the King of Han turned a deaf ear to him and never adopted his advice.

This made him very sad, angry and disappointed, so he wrote many books to expound his thoughts on the rule of law. After reading them, the Qin Emperor praised them highly and admired them very much.

In order to meet Han Fei, he ordered an attack on the Kingdom of Han.

The King of Han was forced to send Han Fei to the State of Qin. However, Han Fei was not trusted or valued in Qin. Later, he was alienated by Li Si and imprisoned. He died in prison soon after.

Han Fei elevated the Legalist thought to the level of cosmology, thus forming a complete theoretical system.

He wrote articles such as "Gu Fen", "Wu Du", "Nei Chu Shuo", "Wai Chu Shuo", "Shuo Lin" and "Shuo Nan", and later generations collected his works and compiled them into the book "Han Feizi".

The Legalist doctrine founded by Han Fei provided a theoretical basis for the birth of China's first unified, autocratic, centralized state.

After Han Fei's death, his Legalist thought was highly valued by King Ying Zheng of Qin and was regarded as the key to governing the Qin State. It helped the Qin State become rich and strong, and eventually unified the six states.

"Ding! Summon the second person, Wu Qi, the second sage of military strategy, command 104, force 85, intelligence 96, politics 101."

What the hell!

Boss!

A military strategist who is both a saint and a political saint?

In the long history of ancient China, Wu Qi, the second sage of military strategy, is like a shining star. With his extraordinary military talents and far-reaching political influence, he illuminated the chaotic times of the Warring States Period.

Moreover, Wu Qi was not only an outstanding military commander, but also a visionary politician. His life stories and achievements are still praised by later generations.

Wu Qi, who was born in the Wei State during the Warring States Period, is one of the important representatives of military strategists.

He lived in an era when princes were competing for supremacy and wars were frequent. Such a social background provided a broad stage for him to display his talents.

In his early years, Wu Qi studied Confucianism under Zeng Shen, but later gave up Confucianism to study military affairs.

When he first arrived in Lu, he was ordered to command the Lu army to defeat Qi.

He then went to the State of Wei and was highly valued by Wei Wenhou.

He commanded the Wei army to defeat the Qin State many times and occupied the Hexi area. He was the first governor of Xihe County. At the same time, he reformed the military system and created the Wei Wuzu. He "fought 76 battles with the princes and won 64 of them."

In the Battle of Yinjin, Wu Qi defeated the 50-strong Qin army with a smaller force.

The reason why the Qin State later carried out reforms and wanted to become stronger was because it was badly bullied by the Wei State and was forced into a corner.

If we don't fight back, we will most likely be annexed by the State of Wei.

Later, due to the suspicion of Wei Wuhou, Wu Qi defected to the State of Chu and was initially appointed as the Guardian of Wan. A year later, he was appointed as the Prime Minister by King Dao of Chu and carried out reforms to attack and restrict the power of the old aristocracy and strengthen military construction.

His ideas and concepts of reform also indirectly influenced Shang Yang's Reforms in Qin State.

After drastic reforms, the national strength of Chu was successfully enhanced in a short period of time, making it possible for Chu to "pacify the Baiyue in the south, annex Chen and Cai in the north, repel the Three Jins, and attack Qin in the west". It also defeated Wei at one point and reached a powerful situation where "horses drank from the Yellow River".

Wu Qi lived in the three kingdoms of Lu, Wei, and Chu. He was proficient in the three schools of thought: military, legal, and Confucianism. He made extremely high achievements in domestic affairs and military affairs. Together with Sun Wu, he was called "Sun Wu".

During the reign of Emperor Suzong of Tang, he became one of the Ten Sages of the Temple of Martial Arts.

Mr. Guo Moruo said in "Criticism of Early Legalists" that "If Wu Qi's hegemony had been successful in the State of Chu, the fame of unifying China would not necessarily have fallen into the hands of the Qin people."

This shows the cruelty of this military sage. At that time, the Qin State was not yet the giant it later became, nor did it have a powerful army.

So, he was pinned to the ground and beaten hard by Wu Qi.

Everyone was stunned.

"Ding! Summon the third person, Li Si, Prime Minister of the Qin Dynasty, with a command of 65, a force of 73, an intelligence of 97, and a politics of 101."

Li Si followed Xun Qing to learn the art of emperors in his early years, and later became an official in the Qin State. He persuaded the King of Qin to defeat the princes, become an emperor, and unify the world. He also sent counselors to lobby the princes with gold and jade to alienate the monarchs and ministers of the six countries.

When Ying Zheng ordered the expulsion of guests from the six states, Li Si was a guest official and was also among those expelled.

Li Si wrote the memorial "Remonstrance Against Expelling Aliens" to the King of Qin, and King Ying Zheng of Qin immediately cancelled the order of expulsion. Li Si was reinstated and later promoted to the position of Chief Justice.

After Qin unified the six kingdoms, Li Si participated in the discussion of the emperor's title and related etiquette systems.

He insisted on replacing the feudal system with the system of counties and counties, and formulated laws to unify the system of carriage tracks, writing and weights and measures. It was recommended to ban private schools, burn poems and books, and formulate corresponding laws.

Although later Li Si participated in the conspiracy of Zhao Gao and Hu Hai and forged an imperial edict to enthrone Hu Hai as emperor.

It lowered the wind for him a lot.

Later, in order to monopolize power, Zhao Gao falsely accused Li Si and his son of colluding with Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, and Li Si was eventually forced to plead guilty.

He was beheaded in the market of Xianyang, and his three clans were exterminated.

It can be considered as retribution.

But this does not deny his outstanding ability.

He assisted Qin Shihuang in unifying the world and strongly advocated the implementation of the county system and the abolition of the feudal system.

There is absolutely no problem with ability.

It deserves the attribute of saint-level politics.

"Ding! Summon the fourth person, Li Kui, the founder of the Legalist School. Commander 83, military strength, intelligence 96, politics 102."

Li Kui lived during the reigns of Wei Wenhou and Wei Wuhou. He studied under Zeng Shen, a disciple of Zixia, and served as the Prime Minister of Zhongshan and the Governor of Shangdi.

He often fought against the Qin army, and Huan Tan appointed him as the teacher of Marquis Wen. Later, he was highly valued by Marquis Wen of Wei and presided over the reform.

Politically, Li Kui advocated selecting virtuous and capable people, and rewarding merits and punishing mistakes.

He strongly advocated the abolition of the privileges of hereditary aristocracy, "food should be given to those who work and salary should be given to those who have made contributions, rewards should be given to those who are capable and punishments should be appropriate."

In terms of economy, Li Kui mainly implemented the policy of "making full use of the land" and "equal purchase and sale of grain", uniformly distributed arable land to farmers, and urged farmers to work hard and increase production.

Later, Li Kui caused the death of an innocent person due to a miscarriage of justice, so he chose to write a suicide note and die for his country.

Li Kui once called those who received salaries without any merit as lewd people, and wanted to "take away the salaries of the lewd people and attract talents from all over the country." This was the first challenge to the corrupt and backward hereditary system in Chinese history.

As a result, a group of privileged people who were useless and harmful to the country were driven out of the political arena. Some people from the general landlord class were able to enter politics because of their military achievements or talents, paving the way for feudalism to replace slavery in the future.

The results of his reforms greatly weakened Wei's "hereditary aristocracy" system, and the political situation improved.

Li Kui's most outstanding contribution to the history of the rule of law in China is that he formulated China's first representative written code of law, "Fa Jing", which affirmed and protected the reform in the form of law and solidified the feudal legal power of the time.

This had a great impact on other countries at that time, triggering the first vigorous nationwide reform in Chinese history and paving the way for the transition from slavery to feudalism.

Later famous reforms such as Shang Yang's Reform and Wu Qi's Reform were all influenced by Li Kui's Reform.

(End of this chapter)