| 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. |
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| Publication Title | Asian Philosophy |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| Publication Date | 03/2000 |
| URIs | http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09552360050001761 http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcAuth=SerialsSolutions&SrcApp=Summon&KeyUT=000086736900004&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=WOS http://search.proquest.com/docview/203537189 |
| Keywords | ASIAN STUDIES Beliefs, opinions and attitudes China Chinese Comparative studies Confucianism Legitimacy of governments PHILOSOPHY Philosophy Philosophy, Chinese Political aspects Political theory Power Power (Social sciences) |