Shang Yang

For the contemporary Chinese painter Shang Yang, see Shang Yang (artist).
Statue of Shang Yang

Shang Yang (Chinese: 商鞅; pinyin: Shāng Yāng; Wade–Giles: Shang Yang, 390–338 BC) was an important Chinese statesman of the State of Qin during the Warring States period associated with the Legalist Philosophy of the The Book of Lord Shang. Born Wei Yang (simplified Chinese: 卫鞅; traditional Chinese: 衛鞅) in the State of Wei, with the support of Duke Xiao of Qin, Yang enacted numerous reforms in Qin and assisted Qin in its change from a peripheral state to a militarily powerful and strongly centralized kingdom. He enhanced the administration of the state through an emphasis on meritocracy, devolving power from the nobility.

Reforms

The vast majority of Yang's reforms were taken from policies instituted elsewhere, such as from Wu Qi of the State of Chu; however, Shang's reforms were more thorough and extreme than those of other states. Under Shang's tenure, Qin quickly caught up with and surpassed the reforms of other states.

After Duke Xiao of Qin ascended the Qin throne, Shang Yang left his lowly position in the State of Wei (to whose ruling family he had been born, but had yet to obtain a high position in[1]) to become the chief adviser in Qin at Duke Xiao's behest. There his changes to the state's legal system (which were said to have built upon Li Kui's Canon of Laws) propelled the Qin to prosperity. His policies built the foundation that enabled Qin to conquer all of China, uniting the country for the first time and ushering in the Qin dynasty.

He is credited by Han Feizi with the creation of two theories;

  1. Ding Fa (定法; fixing the standards)
  2. Yi Min (一民; treating the people as one)

Philosophy

Shang Yang believed in the rule of law and considered loyalty to the state to be above that of the family.

Shang introduced two sets of changes to the State of Qin. The first, in 356 BC, were:

  1. Li Kui's Book of Law was implemented, with the important addition of a rule providing punishment equal to that of the perpetrator for those aware of a crime but failing to inform the government; codified reforms into enforceable laws.
  2. Assigning land to soldiers based upon their military successes and stripping unfighting nobility of land rights. The army was separated into twenty military ranks, based upon battlefield achievements.
  3. As manpower was short in Qin, Shang encouraged the cultivation of unsettled lands and wastelands and immigration, favouring agriculture over luxury commerce (though also paying more recognition to especially successful merchants).

Shang introduced his second set of changes in 350 BC, which included a new standardized system of land allocation and reforms to taxation.

Domestic policies

Shang introduced land reforms, privatized land, rewarded farmers who exceeded harvest quotas, enslaved farmers who failed to meet quotas, and used enslaved subjects as rewards for those who met government policies.

As manpower was short in Qin relative to the other states at the time, Shang enacted policies to increase its manpower. As Qin peasants were recruited into the military, he encouraged active immigration of peasants from other states into Qin as a replacement workforce; this policy simultaneously increased the manpower of Qin and weakened the manpower of Qin's rivals. Shang made laws forcing citizens to marry at a young age and passed tax laws to encourage raising multiple children. He also enacted policies to free convicts who worked in opening wastelands for agriculture.

Shang partly abolished primogeniture (depending on the performance of the son) and created a double tax on households that had more than one son living in the household, to break up large clans into nuclear families.

Shang moved the capital to reduce the influence of nobles on the administration.

Shang Yang's death

Deeply despised by the Qin nobility,[2] Shang Yang could not survive Duke Xiao of Qin's death. The next ruler, King Huiwen, ordered the nine familial exterminations against Shang and his family, on the grounds of fermenting rebellion. Yang had previously humiliated the new Duke "by causing him to be punished for an offense as though he were an ordinary citizen."[3] Yang went into hiding and tried to stay at an inn. The innkeeper refused because it was against Yang's laws to admit a guest without proper identification, a law Yang himself had implemented.

Yang was executed by chelie (車裂, dismemberment, being fastened to five chariots or cattle and torn to pieces);[4][5] his whole family was also executed.[2] Despite his death, King Huiwen kept the reforms enacted by Shang. A number of alternate versions of Shang Yang's death have survived. According to Sima Qian in his Records of the Grand Historian, Shang Yang fled to his fiefdom, where he raised a rebel army but was killed in battle. After the battle, King Hui of Qin had Yang's corpse torn apart by chariots as a warning to others.

Confucian scholars were highly opposed to Shang Yang's legalist approach.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ pg 79 of Classical China
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 商君列传 (vol. 68), Records of the Grand Historian, Sima Qian
  3. ↑ pg 80 of Classical China, ed. William H. McNeill and Jean W. Sedlar, Oxford University Press, 1970. LCCN: 68-8409
  4. ↑ 和氏, Han Feizi, Han Feizi
  5. ↑ 东周列国志, 蔡元放

References

Further reading

External links