A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF HAN FEI ZI AND NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI

Abstract

This thesis is concerned with the comparison and contrast between the political ideas of two political thinkers -- Han Fei and Niccolo Machiavelli. The central question of this thesis is: Is Han Fei more "machiavellian" in his thinking than Machiavelli? This thesis seeks to explore the possibility that Han Fei's ideas could be more "machiavellian" than Machiavelli's. Chapter One gives a short introduction about the topic and the rationale for choosing this topic. It also explain why this thesis seeks to focus on the above question. Next, it provides brief background information about the lives, times and works of the two political thinkers. Chapter Two discusses what it means to be termed "machiavellian". It focuses on the various meanings underlying the contemporary uses of the term. The chapter lists ten of these. The compilation is based on the writer's own intuition after researching into this topic. This list is then used as criteria to evaluate the political ideas of Han Fei and Machiavelli, in order to find out whether Han Fei's ideas are more "machiavellian"? Chapter Three compares and contrasts the political ideas of Han Fei and Machiavelli by using the list compiled in Chapter Two as the criteria for measuring whose ideas are more "machiavellian". It concludes by saying that three aspects of Han Fei's political ideas are more "machiavellian" than Machiavelli's, but that on the whole, Han Fei's ideas are only just as "machiavellian" than Machiavelli and not more. Chapter Four explains the conclusion arrived at in Chapter Three. Out of the ten criteria, Machiavelli is measured to be more "machiavellian" than Han Fei in three. Han Fei similarly is more "machiavellian" than Machiavelli in three criteria. They are as "machiavellian" in another three, and not "machiavellian" at all in one. From this result, the answer to the central question is no, for Han Fei's ideas on the whole are only just as "machiavellian" as Machiavelli's. However, since three aspects of Han Fei's ideas are more "machiavellian" than Machiavelli's, the answer to the central question can be yes too.