Concept
Fa (philosophy)
Overview
Fa is a concept in Chinese philosophy that concerns aspects of ethics, logic, and law. Although it can be accurately translated as 'law' in some contexts, especially modern Chinese, it refers to a 'model' or 'standard' for the performance of behavior in most ancient texts, namely the Mozi, with a prominent example including the performance of carpentry. Although theoretically earlier, Fa comes to prominence in the Mohist school of thought. An administrative use of fa standards is prominently elaborated in Legalism, but the school of names also used fa (models) for litigation. Given its broadness, the term fa even included medical models (theories).
Fa was still considered important by Warring States period Confucians. Xunzi, whose work would ultimately be foundational to Confucian philosophy during the Han dynasty, took up fa, suggesting that standards could only be properly assessed by the Confucian sage (聖; shèng), and that the most important fa were the very rituals that Mozi had ridiculed for their ostentatious waste and lack of benefit for the people at large.
In Han Fei's philosophy, the king is the sole source of fa (including 'law'), taught to the common people so that there would be a harmonious society free of chance occurrences, disorder, and "appeal to privilege". High officials were not to be held above the fa, nor were they allowed to independently create their own fa, uniting both executive fiat and rule of law.
Despite a usage by Shang Yang including penal law, in Imperial China fa more commonly referred to government institutions, such as for agricultural loans, than to law per se. The Qin dynasty differentiated the body of statues under the term lu 律, though lu does include a similar root meaning of measurement (like Metre). Originally meaning pitch pipe, it referred to a chromatic scale subdividing four solar seasons as twelve, with much of Qin law being administrative.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
The third and fourth images, where Yin constitutes the basis, are imperfect matter, which has again the two determinations of youth and age, strength and weakness. These lines are further united in sets of three, and thus eight figures result, which are called Kua, ☰, ☱, ☲, ☳, ☴, ☵, ☶, ☷.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy
States what Fa is.
The Duke, and all that know me in the City, Can witnesse with me that it is not so. I ne're saw Siracusa in my life Duke. I tell thee Siracusian, twentie yeares Haue I bin Patron to Antipholus, During which time, he ne're saw Siracusa: I see thy age and dangers make thee dote. Enter the Abbesse with Antipholus Siracusa, and Dromio Sir.
William Shakespeare, Shakespeare's First Folio
Names Fa twice; opens on Fa.
"The Chinese Government based its action in granting the contract on the clause of the 1898 contract for the construction of the Chung-hon-so to Hsin-min-Tung line, under which China specifically reserved the right to build the Fa-ku-Men line with the aid of the same contractors. Further, although by the Russo-British Note of 1898 British subjects were specificially excluded from participation in railway…
Bertrand Russell, The Problem of China
Names Fa twice; opens on Fa.
Philosophers who discussed Fa (philosophy)
Related ideas
- Empiricism
- Analogy
- Liu Xiang (scholar)
- Shiji
- Warring States period
- Mozi
- Mencius
- School of Names
- Mohism
- Chinese Buddhism
- Rule of law
- I Ching
- Philosophical logic
- Shen Buhai
- Utilitarianism
- Shang Yang
- Han dynasty
- Qin dynasty
- Syllogism
- Mozi (book)
- Consequentialism
- Confucianism
- Chinese philosophy
- Xunzi (philosopher)
Place in the tradition
Part of Legalism (Chinese philosophy).