Studies on Han Fei Tzu

The book of “Han Fei Zi” was not only an important and great jurisprudential works in Chinese ancient age, but also a monumental literary work. Han Fei received theories and thinking directly from scholars of the school of Law (Fa Chia), in the meanwhile, his also picked up ideas that were in accordance with school of law in his writings, for example, the Confucianism, Taoism and Moism. As a result, he was able to build up an accurate and fine framework of the thought of the school of Law.
The articles of Han Fei Tzu took a variety of forms and expression. The writing is not only on the blueprint of governing for rescuing the country from danger and further to build up a stronger nation, to avoid the country from declining and to lead to a more secure, peaceful, richer and stronger country, but is also an expression of his feeling toward the situation with which the country was facing, his worry about the indignant national affairs and his innermost frustrated feelings and his personal ideals.
This course will be conducted through seminar. We will deliberated one by one on the literary arts of Han Fei Tzu, the motivation of the emergence of Han Fei’s thought, the origins of Han Fei’s thinking, the essence of the thought of Han Fei, the critiques Han Fei made on other schools of thought, the comparison between theory of Han Fei and the jurisprudence of modern age, the significance of the thought of Han Fei in the contemporary age and so on. Students will also have to draw up topics on their own to conduct oral report and presentation in the class by turn.