Though Chinese administration had no single origin, with a major influence by the Han dynasty, grand chancellor Shen Buhai likely played a key role in the development of the merit system, and could be seen as its founder.

The latter he terms (shu 术) administrative Method or Technique,[35] defined as examining the abilities of ministers, appointing candidates in accordance with their capabilities, and holding ministerial achievements (Xing "forms") accountable to their proposals (ming "names").

[57] While Sima Qian considered Han Fei harsh, he still discusses him and Shen Buhai alongside Laozi and Zhuang Zhou, espousing their origination in dao ("Way") and de (power,virtue).

[66] While the term Legalism has still seen some conventional usage in recent years, such as in Adventures in Chinese Realism, apart from its anachronism academia has avoided it for reasons which date back to Sinologist Herrlee G. Creel's 1961 Legalists or Administrators?

[70][71] Recalling Shen Buhai and Laozi, Han Fei's chapter 5 on Xing-Ming administration does include specific practical recommendations, such that the Waseda University edition divides it in half.

Translator Yuri Pines takes Shang Yang's primary doctrine to be that of connecting people's inborn nature or dispositions (xing 性) with names (ming 名).

[83] Although Xun Kuang is probably accurate in considering Shen Dao to be focused on fa administrative standards,[84] as introduced by Feng Youlan he was remembered in early scholarship for his secondary subject of shi or "situational authority", of which he is spoken in Chapter 40 of the Han Feizi and incorporated into The Art of War.

[88] Although It remains a question how much of it might have been extant in Shen Buhai's time,[89] the Mawangdui and Guanzi regard fa administrative standards as generated by the Dao, theoretically placing it, and some of those the Confucians later called Legalists, within a "loosely Daoist" context.

In contrast to its modern representation, the Laozi of the early Mawangdui Silk Texts, and two of the three earlier Guodian Chu Slips, place political commentaries, or "ruling the state", first.

Although the Han Feizi has Daoistic conceptions of objective viewpoints ("mystical states"), if his sources had them, he lacks a conclusive belief in universal moralities or natural laws,[100] sharing with Shang Yang and Shen Dao a view of man as self-interested.

[101] Advocating against manipulation of the mechanisms of government, despite an advocacy of passive mindfulness, noninterference, and quiescence, the ability to prescribe and command is still built into the Han Feizi's Xing-ming administrative method.

[102] The early work of Feng Youlan took the statesmen as fully understanding that needs change with the times and material circumstances; admitting that people may have been more virtuous anciently, Han Fei believes that new problems require new solutions.

[107] Stressing timeliness, Sima Tan says: "It (the dao or way) shifts with the times and changes in response to things", a view earlier found in Han Fei and Xun Kuang.

Gongsun attempts to persuade the Duke to change with the times, with the Shangjunshu citing him as saying: "Orderly generations did not [follow] a single way; to benefit the state, one need not imitate antiquity."

Graham compares Han Fei in particular with the Malthusians, as "unique in seeking a historical cause of changing conditions", namely population growth, acknowledging that an underpopulated society only need moral ties.

[113][15] As a counterpoint, the Han Feizi and Shen Dao do still employ argumentative reference to 'sage kings'; the Han Feizi claims the distinction between the ruler's interests and private interests as said to date back to Cangjie, while government by Fa (standards) is said to date back to time immemorial, considering the demarcation between public and private a "key element" in the "enlightened governance" of the purported former kings.

Despite a potential contribution of such ideas to the founding of the Imperial Examination, the meaning of the term itself would ultimately be confused and lost in conflation with punishment (Xing 刑) by the time of the Western Qin, sometimes as early as the third century's Eastern Han.

[90] Shen Buhai, Han Fei, and Sima Tan's preferably 'inactive' ruler contracts an assembly of ministers, with Xing-Ming correlating job proposals as Ming ("names", or verbal claims) with the Xing "forms" or "shapes" that they take.

With early examples in Shen Buhai (Shenzi), several of the Mawangdui's texts bare resemblance to Han Fei's Chapter 5 discussion of Xing-Ming and its "brilliant (or intelligent) ruler", as do other eclectic Huang-Lao typified works, like the Guanzi, Huainanzi, and Sima Qian's Shiji.

"Creel takes particular note of passage 17 of the Daodejing (Laozi) as interpreted by J. J. L. Duyvendak, "arousing wide interest" but "quite old in Chinese literature" as that of a form of Daoism "leaning heavily toward Legalism".

Nonetheless, with a narrow bureaucratic focus, together with the earlier Shen Buhai and Xun Kuang, Han Fei can still be compared with the early social, Confucian rectification of names.

While recalling Shang Yang, Han Fei places a more equal emphasis on reward to encourage people and produce good results; punishment for him was still secondary to simply controlling ministers through techniques.

Meanwhile the high ministers band together and work as one man to cloud the vision of the ruler.Jia Yi criticized Shang Yang In the reign of Emperor Wen, but along with propriety and righteousness himself advocates fa laws (models), ranks and the execution of usurpers.

[168] Advocating law, punishment and meritocratic appointment, Dong Zhongshu simply associates Shang Yang, Shen Buhai and Han Fei with the Qin dynasty again.

Despite advocating wuwei inaction by the ruler, and writing the Ten Crimes of Qin in opposition to harsh punishments, figures like Jia Yi were opposed for attempting to regulate the bureaucracy, leading to his banishment under ministerial pressure.

[170] Sinologists Herrlee G. Creel and Yuri Pines cite the Huainanzi, associated with Liu An (179–122 bce), as the earliest combinational gloss of Shen Buhai with Shang Yang, comparing them as one person with harsh punishments to their own doctrine.

With ideas of wuwei nonaction, the Huainanzi recommends that the ruler put aside trivial matters, and follow the ways of Fuxi and Nüwa, abiding in Empty Nothingness and Pure Unity.

Placing ritual specialists lower than heavenly prognosticators, and aiming to demonstrate how every text that came before it is now part of its own integral unity, the Huainanzi posed a threat to the Han court.

In ancient times, King Wu of Zhou... distributed the grain in the Juqiao granary, disbursed the wealth in the Deer Pavilion, destroyed the war drums and drumsticks, unbent his bows and cut their strings.

Contrasting with Confucius and the Zhou dynasty, Dong Zhongshu (179–104 BC) simply associates Shen Buhai and Shang Yang with the Qin again as reportedly implementing the ideas of Han Fei.