Realism (fajia), human akrasia, and the Milieu for Ultimate Virtue

摘要

Arthur Waley perceptively cited "Three" of the major contrastive "Ways ofrnThought in Ancient China" (Waley 1982)--Zhuang Zi's ~ Daoism,rnMencius' Confucianism, and then Han Fei Zi's t~t~:~ Realism (Fajia ~g)rnor "School of Law" (ibid.: 151)) He gave no rationale for this arrangement.rnPerhaps he meant to go from trans-mundane Daoism, via the depths ofrnConfucian humanity, to reach the practical fajia ~ that finally worked inrnrough politics after other two "isms" failed. Yet Waley honestly admittedrnthat fajia ~g2 functioned for only 15 years (ibid.: 192).3rnThe whole matter is thus left dangling in midair, for nothing hasrnworked in China. We here take off from Waley to consider what we can dornabout this tragic situation. We think the solution is in humanly building arnhuman milieu for human growth. First, we will probe fajia ~ for its failure