Shen Buhai

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Shen.
Shen Buhai
Chinese 申不害

Shen Buhai (Chinese: 申不害; c. 400 BC – c. 337 BC)[1] was a Chinese bureaucrat who was the Chancellor of Han under Marquis Zhao of Han from 351 BC to 337 BC.[2] Born in the State of Zheng, he likely a minor official there. After Han conquered Zheng in 375 BC, he rose up in the ranks of the Han officialdom, successfully reforming it. Though not dealing in penal law, his administration innovations would be taken up Legalists and would become associated therewith, the most famous student of his doctrine being Han Fei. He died of natural causes while in office.

Credited with writing the Shenzi, Shen believed that the greatest threat to a ruler's power came from within, and championed Shu (術 administrative methods/techniques), or equally applied checks against the power of officials. Shen touted the primacy of finding the right person for the job (Xing-Ming 刑名), evaluating officials based on skill, achievement and seniority, encouraging the routine assessments of officials.

Philosophy

Shen was chiefly concerned with government administration through the use of bureaucracy. His system required a strong ruler at the center. Shen Buhai believed that the ideal ruler should remain distant from his officials, keeping his innermost thoughts secret and maintaining an independence of thought. According to Shen, the ruler needed to be the loneliest person in the world.

Earlier modern scholars suggested that Shen's legalism blended with Taoism. He used the term wu-wei to mean that the ruler, though vigilant, should not interfere with the duties of his ministers. But since the only other book to use the term in this manner is the Tao Te Ching, and since the latter was composed later it may therefore be assumed that Shen influenced the Tao Te Ching.[3] But he makes no reference to metaphysics. In Shen's usae, he believed that rulers maximized power by exercising it as little as possible, and encouraged rulers to limit their scope, leaving the details of administration to capable ministers.

Historiography

Shen Buhai was criticized by both Confucians and Legalists. Unlike the Confucians, he never mentioned virtue; unlike the Shang Yang wing of the Legalists, he never mentioned Fa (Law). The Confucian Xun Zi strongly criticized Shen Buhai's emphasis on secrecy and lack of trust in ministers. The legalist Han Fei criticized Shen for paying too much attention to methodology at the expense of laws.

Although Shen Buhai was later linked inseparably with the Legalists, it was Hanfei who merged the ideas of Shen Buhai with those of Shang Yang. In 141 BC, under the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, Shen Buhai's name was listed with other legalist thinkers whose ideas were officially banned from the government; from that point on, scholarship on the ideas of Shen Buhai went into a steep decline.

Shenzi

Shen Buhai was known for his cryptic writing style. He was credited with writing a now extinct two chapter text, the Shenzi (申子). During the Han Dynasty, the compilation was organized into two outer chapters, and six inner chapters, but the admeasurement might be different as time goes by. The last mention of this work occurred in 1616, some scholars believe his work did not survived. During the Qing Dynasty, three major attempts were made to reconstruct the contents of this work. The only traces of this work remain in surviving texts which quote from the Shenzi in Qunshu Zhiyao, compiled in 631, and Yilin, compiled around 786.[4]

References

Footnotes
  1. ↑ Knechtges (2014), p. 874.
  2. ↑ S.Y. Hsieh, 1995. p.90 Chinese Thought: An Introduction
  3. ↑ S.Y. Hsieh, 1995. p.92 Chinese Thought: An Introduction https://books.google.com/books?id=-E5LZeR7QKwC&pg=PA92
  4. ↑ 申不害
Works cited
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