상앙 전쟁론의 기본입장과 주요 특징

Abstract

This writing plans to critically review Shang Yang's view on war in the age of civil wars. Shang Yang, who was one of representative figures in the School of Law, is famous for advocating a stronger defense of war than any other person. Because of this characteristic, he became criticized by Han Fei Tzu, a fellow scholar of the same School of Law, as well as Confucian scholars. This writing seeks to review the basic stance of Shang Yang's view on war and the characteristics of his thoughts on it. Shang Yang's basic stance on war is discussed as follows: First, war has a historic necessity which can't help but appear in the course of history. Second, because ordinary people are born with the basic nature of liking benefits, any war that gains benefits is seen to be welcome and defended aggressively. Third, any human being who has the will of power, has the desire to reign over other people by demonstrating his power through war. Shang Yang insisted that human beings can't avoid war for these reasons. Shang Yang viewed war as not different from the driving force of all things. Shang Yang's view on war has the following characteristics: First, it has a characteristic of militarism of absolute monarchy. Second, it has a characteristic of unifying the problem of economics and the military by emphasizing the unification of farming and war. Third, it has a characteristic of an immoral idea of victory and a characteristic of a practical view of war negating the view on war from academic discussion. These characteristics of Shang Yang's view on war are seen as resulting in the attitude that any war which cannot be avoided must be won. The evaluation of Shang Yang is divided into two parts. Shang Yang's view on war is unchanged. However, although Shang Yang's view on war which proclaimed an extreme view on war is acknowledged to have slight value and meaning, it is exposed as having the limit of revealing a crucial weakness in the protection of the right to one’s own property, etc. as well as the limit of restricting and infringing on basic human rights. With regard to these points, the main idea of this writing is that Shang Yang's view on war is an object which must be negated and overcome due to its values which can infringe on human rights.