Han Fei pays attention to the study of history and thinks that history is constantly developing and progressing. He believes that if today's world is still praising "the Tao of Yao, Shun, Tang and Wu", "it will be a smile of the new saints". Therefore, he advocated that "we should not take it by surprise to repair the ancient times", "things are different when the world is different" and "things are different when things are different" (everything is wrong), and policies should be formulated according to today's reality. His view of history provided a theoretical basis for the reform of the landlord class at that time.

Inherent vice.

For the people, he absorbed his teacher Xunzi's "inherent vice" theory, and thought that people's nature is "hate labor, love leisure and hate work". Only by binding the people with law and punishing them with punishment can we "prohibit rape and loveliness." Therefore, he believes that the implementation of the criminal law is precisely the performance of loving the people. ("everything is ready, mind"). Han Fei advocates reducing people's corvee and taxes, which is easily overlooked. He believes that severe corvee and taxes will only make the soldiers and crabs stronger, which is not conducive to the rule of the king.

Monarchical centralization

Han Fei inherited and summarized the thoughts and practices of legalists in the Warring States period, and put forward the theory of absolute monarchy and centralization. For the monarch, he advocated that "things are in the quartet, in the central; Sages insist on everything, and all directions will work "(everything is wrong, property rights are right). The power of the country should be concentrated in the hands of the monarch ("saint"), and the monarch must have the power and influence to govern the world. "The master of thousands of riders is the king of thousands of riders, so those who control the world and levy princes will also use their power" (everything goes wrong, the master of people). To this end, you mainly use various means to eliminate hereditary slave owners and nobles, "disperse their party" and "seize their auxiliary" (everything goes wrong, the main road); At the same time, select a group of feudal officials who have been trained by practice to replace them. "The prime minister must start from the state department, and the valiant soldier must be sent away" ("Han Fei Zi Xian Xue").

Reform and the rule of law

Politically, Han Fei advocated reform and the rule of law, demanding "abolishing the religion of the former king" (Han Feizi asked Tian) and "teaching by law" (Han Feizi's five mistakes). He stressed that a "law" must be strictly enforced, and no one can be an exception, so that "the law is not expensive", "don't avoid officials after punishment, be good and leave behind" ("everything is enough"). As for the liegeman, he thought he would go to "five evils" to prevent "eight traitors". ("Eight traitors did everything wrong" and "Five flaws did everything wrong") The so-called five flaws mean: 1, scholar (referring to Confucianism); 2. Speaker (referring to strategist); 3, with a sword (referring to the ranger); 4, suffering from royal (refers to people who are attached to the nobility and evade military service); 5. Business people. He believes that these people will disrupt the legal system and are "national worms" that are not conducive to agricultural warfare and must be eradicated. The so-called "eight traitors" are: 1 "sharing a bed", which refers to the wife and concubine of the monarch; "Side" refers to the attendants of the monarch, such as Xi You and the dwarf; 3 "Father and brother" refers to the uncle and brother of the monarch; 4. "Rehabilitation" refers to people who are interested in pleasing the monarch; 5 "Minmeng" refers to the courtiers who privately distribute public wealth to please the people; 6 "popularity" refers to courtiers who seek lobbyists to buy people's hearts and create public opinion; 7 "Wei Qiang" refers to the courtiers catching fugitives and showing off their prestige with swordsmen; "Sifang" refers to courtiers who use the financial resources of the national treasury to make friends with big countries and cultivate personal power. These people have good conditions to threaten national security, and we should guard against them like thieves.

naive dialectic

Han Fei's simple dialectical thought is also outstanding. He first put forward the theory of contradiction, using the fable story of spear and shield to illustrate the truth that "indestructible shield and indestructible spear cannot coexist" It is worth mentioning that the book Han Feizi records a large number of fables, among which the most famous ones are Contradictions, Waiting for the Rabbit, Medical Taboos, Cramming, and Old Horse Knowing the Way. These vivid fables contain profound philosophies, which give people wisdom and enlightenment with their perfect combination of ideology and artistry, and have high literary value. Han Fei's article is rigorous in reasoning, sharp in writing, thorough in discussion, well-founded and to the point. For example, in the article Zheng Wu, there are as many as 47 ways to analyze the demise of a country, which is really rare. The two articles "Difficult to Speak" and "Difficult to Speak" try to figure out the speaker's psychology and how to avoid congenial feelings and nuance.

Legalist school is one of the most important people in pre-Qin philosophers. They are famous for advocating the "rule of law" of "ruling the country according to law" and put forward a set of theories and methods. This provided an effective theoretical basis for the later establishment of the centralized Qin Dynasty. The later Han Dynasty inherited the centralization of authority and legal system of the Qin Dynasty and was the political and legal subject of the ancient feudal society in China.