16 Facts About Han Fei

1.

Han Fei's ideas are sometimes compared with those of Niccolo Machiavelli, author of The Prince.

2.

Sima Qian recounts that Qin Shi Huang even went to war with the neighboring state of Han to obtain an audience with Han Fei, but was ultimately convinced to imprison him, whereupon he commits suicide.

3.

Han Fei borrowed Shang Yang's emphasis on laws, Shen Buhai's emphasis on administrative technique, and Shen Dao's ideas on authority and prophecy, emphasizing that the autocrat will be able to achieve firm control over the state with the mastering of his predecessors' methodologies: his position of power, technique, and law.

4.

Han Fei stressed the importance of the concept of Xing-Ming, coupled with the system of the "Two Handles", as well as Wu wei.

5.

Han Fei is written as in traditional Chinese characters and as in simplified ones.

6.

The exact year of Han Fei's birth remains unknown scholars have placed it at around 280 BCE.

7.

Unlike the other famed philosophers of the time, Han Fei was a member of the ruling aristocracy, having been born into the ruling family of the State of Han during the end phase of the Warring States period.

8.

Sima Qian's Shi Ji says that Han Fei studied together with future Qin chancellor Li Si under the Confucian philosopher Xunzi.

9.

Han Fei was born a stutterer and was not able to dispute well, but he was good at writing papers.

10.

At this, Han Fei was frustrated with the reality that, in governing a state, the king did not endeavor to refine and clarify the juridical system of the state, to control his subjects by taking over power, to enhance state property and defense, or to call and employ the wise by enhancing the state.

11.

Han Fei regarded the intellectuals as a disturbance to the law by employing their literature and thought that knights violate the prohibition of the state by using armed forces.

12.

However, while Han Fei himself knew well of the difficulty of persuasion for his work on the difficulties in the way of persuasion was very comprehensive, he eventually met an untimely death in Qin.

13.

Han Fei presented the essay "Preserving the Han" to ask the king not to attack his homeland, but his ex-friend and rival Li Si used that essay to have Han Fei imprisoned on account of his likely loyalty to Han.

14.

Han Fei responded by writing another essay named "In the first time of meeting Qin king", hoping to use his writing talent to win the king's heart.

15.

Han Fei did win the king's heart, but not before Li Si forced him to commit suicide by drinking poison.

16.

Han Fei agreed with his teacher's theory of "virtueless by birth", but as in previous "Legalist" philosophy, pragmatically proposed to steer people by their own interest-driven nature.