Trenchant, sophisticated and cynical Han Feizi has been read in every age and is still of interest today when people are more than ever concerned with the nature and use of power. Han Feizi (280?-233BC), a prince of Han, was a representative of the Fa-chia, or legalist, school of philosophy and produced the final and most readable exposition of its theories. His handbook for the ruler deals with the problems of strengthening and preserving the state, the way of the ruler, the use of power, and punishment and favour. Ironically, the ruler most influenced by Han Feizi, the King of Qin, eventually sent Han Feizi to prison, where he later committed suicide.
Author Biography
Burton Watson is one of the world's best-known translators from the Chinese and Japanese. He received the PEN translation prize in 1981. His translations include The Lotus Sutra, The Vimalakirti Sutra, Ryokan: Zen Monk-Poet of Japan, Saigyo: Poems of a Mountain Home, and The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry: From Early Times to the Thirteenth Century, all published by Columbia. This book presents Watson's renowned translation of a Chinese philosophy classic in pinyin romanization for the first time.
