The system of legalism is extremely rigid and gives people the least freedom, and it is far more strict than Confucianism and Daoism. In the system of legalism, you must strictly adhere to the rules or you will be punished terribly. Legalism literally means "excessive adherence to law or formula." Also in the legalist system, people have little freedom of what they say or do, and criticism against the government can get you seriously punished. Legalism was created partially by Li Si and Hanfeizi. They believed that the government should use law and punishment to end civil disorder. They also believed that a strong government was key to the system of legalism.
After the Zhou dynasty was replaced by the Qin dynasty, legalist ideals were employed within the new dynasty. The Emperor of this new dynasty was named Shi Huangdi, which translates to " the
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As you can see from the examples and other parts of history, amazing structures were built and amazing things were accomplished using legalism. On the contrary, some very bad things were done under the system of legalism, including how the Nazis controlled the camps and ghettos. In both of the examples discussed above, legalism worked well to do what the people wanted to do. The Nazis wanted to order and fear within their camps, and what they got was exactly that. The Qin Dynasty wanted to build a wall, and by using legalism to force the poor to do it, they built a wall. There is a reoccurring theme when the legalism system is used, and that is that the people who are under the control of the ruler don't like the ruler. This is because they are made fearful and given little freedom. Although a lot of work is getting done, it is at the cost of their freedom. Overall, legalism was generally effective because things got done but relations between the ruled and ruler were