Let me tell you something about Shang Yang and Han Feizi! Shang Yang is a person who really set legalist thoughts and Confucianism against each other. I am Shang Yang, a patriotic man, formerly known as Weiyang, also known as Gongsun Yang. He is a merchant army in the north, so he is called Shang Yang. Influenced by Confucianism in his early years, Shang Yang was not valued in Wei State, and later came to Qin State. At this time, Qin Xiaogong made great efforts to seek talents, and Shang Yang's "hegemony" and "skill of strengthening the country" were reused. After that, two political reforms were carried out, involving economic, military, political, cultural and educational, social customs and other important aspects, establishing the rule of law, rewarding meritorious military service, encouraging land reclamation, unifying measurement, establishing county system and so on. I have to say that he is really an excellent talent.
Han Feizi was a student of Xun Kuang with Li Si in his early years, but he studied legalists. He lashed out at Confucianism, Mohism and Taoism, but accepted them more or less clearly. Han Fei completed the systematization of legalist theory.
Both Shang Yang and Han Feizi agree that, first, the theory of evil nature is absolute, and it is human nature for Shang Yang to insist on seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages. Han Fei has a conclusion that you can't expect people to do good things consciously, but you can only try to make people do wrong things. Second, "two-minded private school" is prohibited. Shang Yang and Han Fei advocate prohibiting private school, and the existence of private school means disturbing the rule of law. Shang Yang put forward "burning poems to make clear the law", while Han Feizi put forward "teaching by law and taking officials as teachers" in the latter.
So what kind of influence did legalist thought have on that time? Although many legalists advocate adapting to the needs of complete unity, they hold a negative attitude towards the education of general understanding. Therefore, the educational measures taken also deny the value of human beings, the accumulation of human cultural knowledge, and the legalist education thought in school education. If used in practice, it will not only destroy education itself, but also stifle the development of ideology and culture, which is proved by historical development. Legalists only talk about the rule of law and deny the value of education.