HANFEI: HISTORY AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

HENRY SCHNEIDER

ABSTRACT

The Chinese philosopher Hanfei (c. 280 – 233 BC) had an ambiguous relationship with 
history. On the one hand, against Confucianism, he denied any moral-normative role of 
the past. On the other hand, he used facts of history – often facts he himself would alter 
to support his narrative – as empirical basis for his claims in political philosophy. This 
paper develops Hanfei’s consequentialist view of history and ground for “social-scientific” 
examination. It identifies four drivers Hanfei saw in history, the system or government as 
such, or, the architecture of that system; the satisfaction of human needs; technological 
developments; and exogenous factors. Finally, this paper discusses if Hanfei considered 
his own state-philosophy to be the culmination of history. This is unlikely, since the 
Legalist believed that human existence was embedded in an ever changing context – the 
Dao. His philosophy wanted to address problems of his time; not of all times.