HISTORY
CIVILIZATIONS OF ASIA
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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People need rules to force them to behave morally
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Legalism:people obey their rulers out of fear
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Achieving enlightenment ends the cycle of suffering
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practicing nonviolence and giving up worldly desires
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Detailed explanation-1: -Shi Huangdi relied on fear to rule. His way of governing, called Legalism, gave absolute power to one ruler, who governed under strict laws. Legalism allowed Shi Huangdi to create an efficient government, but it was cruel. The government strictly enforced its laws.
Detailed explanation-2: -The Legalists advocated government by a system of laws that rigidly prescribed punishments and rewards for specific behaviours. They stressed the direction of all human activity toward the goal of increasing the power of the ruler and the state.
Detailed explanation-3: -Legalism became particularly important in the period that followed the Warring States period. In this period, the Qin state, which would later become the Qin Dynasty, attempted to unite the people and establish order from chaos.
Detailed explanation-4: -Legalism promotes the notion of strict law and order and harsh, collective punishments, ideas that influenced Qin Shi Huangdi’s despotism and centralized rule. If we want to understand Legalism, we have to go back to Shang Yang, a reformist statesman from the state of Qin.
Detailed explanation-5: -The Legalists believed that government could only become a science if rulers were not deceived by pious, impossible ideals such as “tradition” and “humanity.” In the view of the Legalists, attempts to improve the human situation by noble example, education, and ethical precepts were useless.