page_title: Legalism (Chinese philosophy)
section_title: Shu or "Technique"
hierarchical_section_title: Legalism (Chinese philosophy) / Shen Buhai (400–c. 337 BC) / Shu or "Technique"
caption_attribution_description: 中文: 环形算盘。
context_page_description: Legalism or Fajia is one of Sima Tan's six classical schools of thought in Chinese philosophy. Literally meaning "house of administrative methods" or "standards/law", the Fa "school" represents several branches of what have been termed realist statesmen, or "men of methods", who played foundational roles in the construction of the bureaucratic Chinese empire, with their teachings coming to temporary overt power as an ideology with the ascension of the Qin Dynasty. In the Western world, the Fajia has often been compared to Machiavellianism, and considered akin to an ancient Chinese philosophy of Realpolitik, emphasizing a realist project of consolidating the wealth and power of the state and its autocrat, with the goal of achieving order, security and stability. With their close connections to the other schools, some Legalists would go on to be a major influence on Taoism and Confucianism, and legalism remains highly influential in administration, policy and legal practice in China today.
context_section_description: Apart from Shang Yang's doctrine of penalties and mutual spying and denouncement among ministers, Han Fei recommends the ruler should protect himself through careful employment of doctrines that had earlier been recommended by Shen Buhai. Because Fa has diverse meaning, for clarification Shen Buhai's successors often used the term Shu (technique) for his administrative method (Fa) and other techniques (such as "Wu-wei"), and thus 20th century philosopher Feng Youlan called Shen the leader of the group [in the Legalist school] emphasizing Shu, or techniques of government.
  Liu Xiang wrote that Shen Buhai advised the ruler of men use technique (shu) rather than punishment, relying on persuasion to supervise and hold responsible, though very strictly. Shu or Technique can easily be considered the most crucial element in controlling a bureaucracy. Shen's doctrines are described as concerned almost exclusively with the "ruler's role and the methods by which he may control a bureaucracy"; that is, its management and personnel control: the selection of capable ministers, their performance, the monopolization of power, and the control of and power relations between ruler and minister which he characterized as Wu Wei. The emphasis, however, is on "scrutinizing achievement and on that ground alone to give rewards, and to bestow office solely on the basis of ability." Sinologist John Makeham characterizes Shu as "the agency of several checking systems that together constituted Method (Fa)," whose central principle is accountability.
  Sinologist Herrlee G. Creel believed the term originally had the sense of numbers, with implicit roots in statistical or categorizing methods, using record-keeping in financial management as a numerical measure of accomplishment. He notes that command of finance was generally held by the head of government from the beginning of the Zhou dynasty; an example of auditing dates to 800 BC, and the practice of annual accounting solidified by the Warring States period and budgeting by the first century BC. In the Guanzi the artisan's Shu is explicitly compared to that of the good ruler. The History of the Han (Han Shu) lists texts for Shu as devoted to "calculation techniques" and "techniques of the mind," and describes the Warring States period as a time when the shu arose because the complete tao had disappeared. Hsu Kai (920–974 AD) calls Shu a branch in, or components of, the great Tao, likening it to the spokes on a wheel. He defines it as "that by which one regulates the world of things; the algorithms of movement and stillness." Mastery of techniques was a necessary element of sagehood.
  Another example of Shu is Chuan-shu, or "political maneuvering." The concept of Ch'uan, or "weighing" figures in Legalist writings from very early times. It also figures in Confucian writings as at the heart of moral action, including in the Mencius and the Doctrine of the Mean. Weighing is contrasted with "the standard." Life and history often necessitate adjustments in human behavior, which must suit what is called for at a particular time. It always involves human judgement. A judge that has to rely on his subjective wisdom, in the form of judicious weighing, relies on Ch'uan. The Confucian Zhu Xi, who was notably not a restorationist, emphasized expedients as making up for incomplete standards or methods.
caption: The earliest known written documentation for the Chinese abacus, the Suan Pan, dates to the 2nd century BC (its original design is unknown).
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