Han Fei Vs Confucius Analysis

Han Fei’s ideas greatly conflicted with Confucius’s ideas when it came to running a state. Han Fei believed that the enforcement of laws was vital in order to run a state and that punishment was compulsory for all wrong-doers. On the other hand, Confucius believed that virtue was the essential element that the person in charge of the government needed to have and that the government needed to set an example for its people and thus, they depended on elite emulation.
One reason why Han Fei would oppose Confucius’s opinion on how to run a state would be because Han Fei believed that rules and regulations in the form of laws needed to exist in order to lead and guide people towards the right path in order to make the country strong. “Having Regulations”

“If people be led by laws…they will try to avoid punishment, but have no sense of shame” but “if they be led by virtue, and uniformity sought to be given them by the rules of propriety, they will have the sense of shame and moreover will become good”. This meant that having laws and punishments would have no effective impact on the morals of the citizens, he believed that virtue, however, would have a positive impact as it would instill good morals in the citizens and make them feel shame meaning that they may not repeat the same act in the future and become good. Moreover, once virtue begins to impact some citizens and instill good morals in them then there would a positive bias towards conformity as other people after seeing their family or friends would also want to have good morals and thus, be impact by

Confucius wrote about his ideas during a period in which states were at war and there was a lot of confusion, it can be inferred from the continuous mention of “virtue” that Confucius was trying to instill good morals in his citizens and he tries to inspire them to do good. In a way he wants to spread calmness righteousness inside the state at this time as the state is already at war with others, support and love is required from the citizens for its state so if the government puts strict laws and punishments there may be backlash from the citizens causing more problems for the government to deal with at a time where they need to be focused on warring other states. In the case of Han Fei, he wrote his article at the very end of the warring states period, meaning that the government had more or less dealt with the wars already meaning that they had more time and resources on their hands to focus elsewhere at that time. They focused their time and resources (e.g. soldiers/police) to solve problems inside their own state now to set up laws and enforce them in order to improve their state and make it stronger from the inside. As a result, Han Fei would disagree with Confucius’s ideas because his state would not be in the same position as Confucius’s was due to the difference of periods and circumstances.
In conclusion, Han Fei differed