Works
The Book of Lord Shang
Also Known As Shangjunshu
Citation Formats
General Reference
APA Style
BibTeX
A foundational Legalist text traditionally attributed to Shang Yang, setting out the case for agriculture and warfare as the twin foundations of state strength, uniform law applied without exception, and the deliberate weakening of private virtue, learning, and commerce in favor of total loyalty to the ranking system of the state. Most scholars now regard it as a composite work, built up by later Legalist compilers around a core of ideas and possibly some material genuinely traceable to Shang Yang, rather than written by him alone.
Authorship is debated among sinologists; treated here as traditionally attributed rather than certainly authored.
Facts
Original Language Cross-Tradition Connections
Authored By
Why this is disputed. Traditional attribution; modern scholarship treats the text as a later composite.
In Branch
Sources
1. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and InformationQuote
The system of 20 (initially fewer) ranks of merit introduced by Shang Yang was one of the most daring acts of social engineering in human history.
Open Questions (1 open question)
Who Actually Wrote The Book of Lord Shang?
The text as it survives shows layered composition, differing terminology and doctrine across chapters, and references to events after the death of Shang Yang in 338 BCE, so it cannot be a single work set down by his own hand even if some chapters preserve genuine early material.
What would resolve this A securely dated early manuscript or a chapter-by-chapter philological study establishing which sections predate later Legalist compilers would let scholars separate any genuine Shang Yang material from later additions.
Classical Chinese philology and textual historyStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.