Han Fei

Han Fei, the great theorist of China's Legalist school, argued that a ruler should not rely on virtue or on trusted ministers but on three tools: clear laws (fa), administrative technique (shu) and positional authority (shi), backed by the "two handles" of reward and punishment. His ideas guided the Qin unification of China. Set beside Confucian rule by moral example, he poses the lasting question of whether institutions or character should do the governing.