Ancient China Legalism
by: R.Heitt
What is Legalism?
Legalism is a strict and harsh set of rules and laws. The Chinese government made rulers and forced people into harsh laws. This was happening in 221 B.C. under the Qin dynasty.
Who was involved in Chinese Legalism?
Qin Shi Huangdi
Qin Shi Huangdi was the first Chinese emperor. He formed China in 221 B.C. He was a very cruel ruler who would kill or banish people for not agreeing with him. The emperor connected and made the great wall of China longer and bigger to keep invaders out from the north.
Qin Dynasty
The Qin dynasty was the first part of China to "evolve". It's first ruler was Qin Shi Huangdi. A cruel and unfair ruler.
Shang Yang
Shang Yang was a legalist who force people to support law breakers. (Which means that he would want people who broke the law to be "told on".) He believed that law breakers should be cut into two.
Government Beliefs
China's Government strongly believes that all of the human nature is wicked, so to keep all of China in line the Government thought that they had to have harsh rules so people of China would Br afraid to do wrong. To teach people all the laws and punishments, the Government would send out mandarins to come teach all the rules and laws.
Punishments
All of the punishments from ancient China are very very harsh punishments that we would call illegal today in the U.S. An example of a harsh punishment that the had would be banishment or decapitation for murder. (compared to today in the U.S. someone would go to jail for 50 years.) The worst thing to happen would be if you tried to commit a crime against the emperor, the emperor would show or give no mercy.