Wei was the earliest and most successful country in the Warring States Period. It is also the hometown of legalist thoughts and figures. A good academic atmosphere, coupled with Shang Yang's "less study of criminal names", made him a superior legalist figure in his youth.
In 359 BC, Shang Yang, who was 365,438+0 years old, sought audience with Qin Xiaogong, saying that he wanted to be a powerful country, showing filial piety and great joy, and "never tired of talking for days".
After being appreciated by filial piety, Shang Yang was appointed as the elder statesman to preside over the political reform.
His political reform involves politics, economy, thought and other fields.
In the practice of political reform, the theory of pre-Qin legalists was developed and the basic requirements of "rule of law" were put forward.
Shang Yang's political reform made Qin increasingly powerful and laid a solid political, economic and military foundation for unifying the six countries.
1. Main contents
1 "A wise ruler should not forget the law for a moment"
Shang Yang believes that the establishment of the legal system is a major event related to social chaos, the rise and fall of the country and political gains and losses. Only by establishing the legal system can we establish a monarch and the world.
And the purpose of legislation is nothing else. The so-called "good governance" means ruling the people by law.
In order to make the law a standard for judging merits and demerits, exercising rewards and punishments, and a code of conduct that all subjects must abide by, Shang Yang advocated: "If you are a law, you should make it clear and easy to understand", that is, you should strive to be a household name.
Warring States policy? Qin Ce 1: "Women and children all talk about the law of business.
"He asked" collectors of the main law, thinking that the world is a teacher, so that the people are not in danger ".
When the official who stipulates the main decree asks him about the law, he will not give the correct answer. If this official commits a crime in the future, he will be the "chief judge of all crimes".
There are two purposes for Shang Yang to demand legal clarity: one is to "make the law clear and not afraid of punishment", thus playing the role of "everyone knows what to avoid".
Secondly, make officials dare not do evil and ensure the implementation of the law.
Punishment must be unified.
Developing the landlord economy as soon as possible needs political guarantee, that is, depriving the old nobles of their privileges, redistributing their rights and establishing a new legal order.
For this reason, Shang Yang put forward the idea of "punishment without hierarchy" and demanded "one punishment", that is, unified punishment.
He advocated that the punishment should go to a doctor and that the prince should be brought to justice for breaking the law.
In particular, Shang Yang put forward that "meritorious service in the former, defeat in the latter, not for the loss of punishment; It's no loss to learn from evil before and after.
Loyal ministers and dutiful sons have had them, and they must be tried for their crimes. "
In other words, if you have made meritorious service before and then committed a crime, you can't reduce your punishment; I did good deeds before, and then I made mistakes, so I can't break the law. I demand to maintain the authority and unity of the law, which embodies the extremely distinct spirit of "rule of law".
Pay attention to the word "faith" in Shang Yang's political reform.
Do "reward must be punished", that is, according to the law, the reward must be rewarded and the punishment must be punished.
He believes that "if people believe in their returns, they will succeed;" If you believe in its punishment, you will rape for no reason.
"At that time, this practice hit the power of the old aristocracy and greatly strengthened the monarchy.
"If rape is forbidden, there will be severe punishment."
The difference between Shang Yang and the previous legalists lies in his emphasis on "heavy punishment" and "no rape, so no heavy punishment".
The contents of heavy punishment include: (1) heavy punishment and light reward, heavy punishment and light reward; Punish more and reward less, "punish more and reward less", even worse than "punish one and punish nine"; Punish first, then reward.
His reasons are: heavy punishment and light reward, the superior will love the people, and will not use the punishment easily, "die if you fall in love with the superior" and "die if you don't fall in love with the superior".
(2) Require heavier punishment for misdemeanors.
The reason is: as far as things are concerned, misdemeanors cannot be banned, and felonies come from misdemeanors, so felonies cannot be banned.
On the other hand, if a misdemeanor is also a severe punishment, then the punishment for committing a felony is even heavier, and those who are light dare not commit it, and those who are heavy dare not commit it.
In this way, the purpose of "replacing punishment with punishment" has been achieved.
(3) The punishment for official crimes is very heavy.
4 "Respect for the monarch will do."
Shang Yang emphasized that the rule of law must be backed by state power.
He believes that to implement the law, it is necessary to respect the monarch, "respect the monarch and make the line", and to "respect and make the line", it is necessary to hold power and centralize power.
The law is important, but the state power is the guarantee of the law.
Therefore, only by "standing with power" can we "rule by law".
Starting from the relationship between law and power, this paper demonstrates the necessity of implementing the monarchical centralization system.
Second, the internal revelation.
The success of Shang Yang's political reform made Qin develop rapidly. Shang Yang was chopped by a car, but his method was not defeated. His thought of "rule of law" adapted to the needs of the situation at that time.
His main contents and basic requirements on "ruling the country according to law" are also of reference significance to our reform legislation today.
First of all, Shang Yang liked the theory of human nature of advantages and disadvantages, and found a shortcut for rule and management.
As an outstanding politician, Shang Yang knows this well.
Shang Yang believes that people's interests are innate, "a monarch has likes and dislikes". He inherited Xunzi's view of "evil nature" and thought that people were born with likes and dislikes. He believes that as long as given proper education, people can abandon evil and be good, which is the theoretical basis of Shang Yang's legal education thought.
This thought of Shang Yang tells us that the original motive force for the existence and development of human society is the persistent pursuit of profit.
"People's livelihood, death is about fame.
Even those hermits who live in seclusion in the deep mountains, "clothes don't warm their skin, food doesn't fill their intestines, they struggle with their aspirations, work their limbs and hurt their five internal organs", in fact, they are just gaining fame and fortune in a more subtle way.
"People's desire for wealth will stop at the end of their lives", that is, people's desire for fame and fortune will only stop at the end of their lives.
Shang Yang revealed that the natural attribute of people seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages has its realistic rationality.
It is precisely because of "human kindness, punishment is evil" that the responsibility of politicians is not to transform human nature, nor can human nature be transformed, but to conform to human nature, give play to the leverage of interests, use and guide human nature, and make people's pursuit of fame and fortune converge into a joint force for the monarch to use.
Secondly, Shang Yang put forward a set of thoughts of governing officials according to law, which made us realize the importance of official management and the defects of supervision system.
Officials at all levels are in a special position in the organs of state power. They are the bridge and intermediary between the monarch and the people. On the one hand, they are responsible for implementing national policies and decrees, on the other hand, they feed back the opinions of the people to the monarch.
They are not only executors of national policies and decrees, but also managers of the people.
Officials at all levels failed to fulfill their duties, national policies could not be conveyed and implemented, and the monarch did not know the reaction of the people.
It is precisely because of the special status of officials at all levels that they have the opportunity to use their power to undermine the implementation of national policies and decrees, to enter and leave foreign countries, to abuse power for personal gain, to seize state property, and to extort money from ordinary people, leading to official corruption and even national political corruption, which is far more harmful to society than ordinary people.
Shang Yang's political reform made people pay attention to the actions of officials at all levels and played a guiding role for ordinary people.
At the same time, Shang Yang also realized that there were big loopholes in the supervision system.
It is an effective measure to set up full-time officials to supervise the behavior of officials. But in fact, if the supervisor colludes with the supervised object for the benefit, shields each other, protects each other, and commits a crime together, the supervisor's supervisory responsibility will fail, so he has to set up a supervisor above the supervisor, and there will always be some people who are outside the supervision system.
Once power is not supervised, it will inevitably breed corruption.
Third, Shang Yang pursues the principle of no penalty grade difference.
Shang Yang believes that the law is a symbol of state power, and "the life of the people is also the foundation of governance", and everyone should abide by it.
He realized that "the law is not enough, it is top-down", and the harm of official crime is far greater than that of ordinary people. Therefore, officials at all levels should not bend the law, but should legislate for the public, and everyone is equal before the law.
In addition, Shang Yang also insisted on "severe punishment in troubled times" and severe punishment doctrine.
He believes that heavy punishment for misdemeanors is originally a misdemeanor, which is not harmful to society, but it increases the illegal cost. However, the price paid by criminals is very high, which makes people feel scared and makes everyone self-disciplined, and they dare not try their own laws, let alone commit felony. Naturally, the goal of "punishment with punishment, punishment without success" was achieved.
Shang Yang was well aware that the nature of officials is to like and hate, and to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, so heavy punishment is not only aimed at ordinary people, but also treats officials equally.
Moreover, in order to let people know and abide by the law, a harsh system of sitting together is also implemented. If a person breaks the law, neighbors and families will be implicated, and the enforcement of the law will be guaranteed by the state's coercive power.
Finally, Shang Yang's rule of law is systematic. The implementation and effect of this system make us understand the importance of establishing a reasonable and complete legal system and make the law itself authoritative and unified within the legal scope.
Shang Yang emphasized that the law must be "easy to understand", attached importance to setting up special posts to explain and publicize laws and regulations, and sought people familiar with the provisions of laws and regulations to serve as judges in charge of laws and regulations.
"The son of heaven has three judges, the temple has judges, the suggestion has judges and collectors, and the prime minister has judges.
Governors, counties and counties all have a judge and an official, all of whom are judges of the Qin Dynasty.
"There is a decree in the Temple of the Son of Heaven. In the temple, a' forbidden room' is built for the decree, and a seal is written to seal it up.
Once a year, according to the provisions of the law hidden in the "forbidden room", the law is issued to officials.
As soon as the county governors, judges and judges receive the government decrees, they should study them carefully and then explain and publicize them to officials at all levels and ordinary people.
In this way, there is a set of specialized institutions and personnel from the central government to the local government to be responsible for popularizing the law, making it a long-term national policy.
Third, reference significance.
There are many extreme practices in Shang Yang's thought of popularizing law, which we should abandon.
There are also many essences, which, as the precious cultural heritage of the Chinese nation, still have guiding significance for us to build a country ruled by law today.
China has also carried out several large-scale legal popularization campaigns, and achieved some remarkable results, and the concept of legal system has been improved. However, in judicial practice, there are still some leading cadres who have a weak legal consciousness, know the law and break the law, and ignore the authority of the law.
In the process of law enforcement, there are still some phenomena, such as disobeying the law, substituting power for law, bending the law, and IOUs, which seriously desecrate the dignity of the law, reduce the credibility of the party and * * *, harm the interests of ordinary people, and seriously damage the relationship between the party and the masses.
First of all, we should take the work of popularizing the law as a system, make it stable for a long time, establish the authority of the law, and let the concept of "everyone is equal before the law" really take root in people's hearts.
In real life, those illegal and criminal phenomena have been repeatedly banned, and even crimes that are extremely harmful to society and people have appeared.
In particular, some senior party cadres neglect their duties, knowing the law and breaking the law. One of the reasons behind this is that the illegal cost is not high, officials protect each other, the punishment is not enough, or they cannot get the punishment they deserve, which leads some leading cadres to ignore the law and take risks.
Therefore, according to Shang Yang's thought of "never forgetting the law", in the process of building a China ruled by law, we should make full use of people's nature of seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages, reward and punish severely, raise the cost of illegal crimes, and make everyone equal before the law. Anyone who breaks the law should pay for his illegal and criminal behavior.
In this way, there are laws to follow and law enforcement must be strict, so as to truly realize the goal of prosecuting offenders.
Secondly, leading cadres should study law and have basic legal literacy.
In the state of Qin, the publicity and education of law has become a household name. Not only ordinary people know the law, but also judges and officials at all levels are familiar with it.
Therefore, the party's leading cadres should first know the law, abide by the law and enforce the law, and should also take local legal education as one of the work contents of * * *.
Although China has carried out several large-scale publicity activities to popularize the law, they are often a mere formality.
It is necessary to regard the work of popularizing the law as a long-term basic policy of the party and the state, institutionalize the education of popularizing the law, and strive to be a household name, known to all women and children.
This requires leading cadres to consciously study the law and safeguard the majesty of the law; On the other hand, we should make clear the responsibilities and obligations of the law popularization work, and take the actual effect of the law popularization work in this area as the objective standard for the evaluation of cadres' political achievements.
If leading cadres commit crimes or neglect their duties, they should pay a heavy price for their actions and be punished by corresponding laws.
Finally, vigorously cultivate citizens' legal awareness, and legal education should start from young children.
In China, we should make full use of schools as the main battlefield for popularizing the law. On the one hand, we should incorporate legal education into students' textbooks to enhance their legal knowledge; On the other hand, the use of mass media, such as setting up a legal education channel for teenagers, can improve students' legal awareness.
Conditional areas can organize students' extracurricular activities, such as visiting prisons and mock trials, so that students can participate in judicial practice and enhance their legal knowledge in practice.
Strengthen the work of popularizing law in rural and backward areas.
In rural and backward areas, legal knowledge is very scarce, and many people know nothing about the law, which makes the situation very good.
Many people break the law, but they don't know they are breaking the law.
Some people don't know how to protect themselves and safeguard their legitimate rights and interests with legal weapons when their legitimate rights and interests are violated.
All localities * * * should attach great importance to the work of popularizing the law among the masses and adopt easy-to-understand and easy-to-understand methods, such as movies, radio, posters and blackboard newspapers. To publicize the basic legal knowledge of our country, let the masses understand the significance of popularizing the law, enhance the consciousness of knowing the law, obeying the law and using it, and let the legal concept enter the ear, the brain and the heart.