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ABSTRACT
The concept of legitimacy is at the heart of the theory of power. It is essential to
understand how a political power is built and how obedience is obtained among the population. We examine here the legitimacy of power for two of the most important political philosophies of classical China: Confucianism and Legalism. We show how a specific group of the population, the scholar-officials, play a specialised role in the two systems, acting as a legitimisation group. We further compare rites and laws as a way to obtain social order, and morality vs punishments as a way to obtain obedience. We conclude that the Confucianist system is less fragile than the Legalist, but also more oppressive, since it allows fewer personal choices to individuals.
Confucianism and Legalism are among the most important of the `hundred schools' of philosophy of classical China. These two schools are mainly political philosophies, proposing a certain organisation of society and government. Both Confucianism and Legalism were put into practice in Chinese history: Legalism inspired Qin Shi Huangdi (221-210 BC) known as the First Emperor because he was the first to have unified China. This experience did not last long, however, and later it is mainly Confucianism (or a variant also influenced by Buddhism: Neo-Confucianism) that became the official ideology of Chinese Dynasties for many centuries.
We propose to compare the power constructed by these two philosophies, focusing mainly on the notion of legitimacy. We shall first review the foundation of power, however, and then address the importance of legitimacy, the role of legitimisation groups, and the methods to obtain obedience. Legitimacy is at the basis of power, and its study provides an overall coherence to the foundation and organisation of power. The comparative study of the legitimacy of Confucianism and Legalism thus sheds new light on these political philosophies, clearly demonstrating how they function and the extent to which they are conflicting.
The Foundation of Power: the common good and the institutions
It is generally considered that society in its natural state is disorganised, disorderly: each individual reacts according to his own interests, and as soon as a group has diverging views or objectives, which happens often,...