2
historical Lord Shang served as a high official in the state of Ch’in from 359 to 338 B.C.,
introducing laws and orders that enabled its rulers to subdue all of China and to found an empire
in 221 B.C.
4
However, it is unlikely that Lord Shang wrote the text associated with his name, for
he had to flee for his life after the death of his patron and was executed shortly thereafter and,
yet, the book contains his patron’s posthumous name, and other events mentioned make it
possible to date several sections to ten to seventy-eight years after Shang’s death (338 B.C.).
5
Thus, in likelihood, Shang’s followers wrote down his sayings and, over the course of time,
added thoughts of their own in order to reconstruct lost passages and expand existing ones—a
common practice in ancient China. Thus, this essay's italicized references to "Shang" in the sense
of an author need to be understood as convenient shorthand.
Shang's political thought is not only important in itself, revealing many of the intellectual
underpinnings of the centralized authority that made the Chinese empire the most stable and
enduring state in history (221 B.C.-1911 A.D.), but offers an major opportunity for an exercise in
comparative political theory. For Shang is not at all affected by Western ideas and yet shows
significant similarities with the Western tradition of raison d'etat, also known as political
realism. While the resemblances between Chinese legalism and political realism have often been
remarked upon, a thoroughgoing comparative analysis has yet to be undertaken. This article
seeks to make a start by comparing Shang with the political thought of Niccolo Machiavelli
(1469-1527), the founder of the modern doctrine of raison d'etat and, arguably, its most original
thinker. The following analysis seeks to give a comprehensive interpretation of Shang, to
compare Shang to Machiavelli's political thought, which, being fairly well known, is rendered in
4
In Chinese, Lord Shang is known under several names: Kung-sun Yang (his family was Kung-sun, his given name
was Yang), Wei Yang (Yang from the clan of Wei), and, after he was awarded fifteen cities in Shang as a fief,
Shang Chüng (Lord of Shang) and Shang Yang (Yang of Shang). As the reputed author of The Book of Lord Shang,
he was also called Shang-tzu (Master Shang).
Convention