What if the State of Qin never adopted legalism as its guiding philosophy? How would things change?
WI: State of Qin never adopts legalism
- Thread starter Mort the Reaper
- Start date
I don’t think it would’ve been able to unify the warring states in the first place. Qin, before the reforms of Shang Yang, was an isolated backwater that had rarely played an important part in the conflicts of the warring states. Even afterwards, it took a century of massive projects, brutal warfare, shrewd foreign policy, and luck for Qin to conquer the other states. I think you would have a far different conclusion to the warring states period if Qin didn’t adopt legalism.
Some background about legalism: it never considered itself a religion, worldview, or even philosophy. Indeed, almost all legalists never identified themselves as such, and the label was bestowed upon them by later historians. It was generally just a grouping of philosophers and policy makers who often took the Hobbesian view of human nature (strict controls, human nature is bad).
Also, Qin was not the only state to adopt Legalist ideas, policies, and structures. Indeed, it was preceded in this by Wei, which implemented legalist laws and projects to become a dominant force in the early warring states period despite its exposed position and small size. Indeed, it took a coalition of Qi, Zhao, Qin, and Chu (if memory serves) to finally break its power. Even states that didn’t adopt legalist policies, such as Qi and Chu, nevertheless initiated radical reforms unseen in the spring and autumn period. The development of all the warring states and the scale of warfare was unprecedented and cannot be underestimated.
So who do you think could unify China then? Or at least the best chance to.
There is a chance that no one would. There was a three-state balance between Qin, Qi, and Chu that collapsed with the temporary Yan occupation of Qi which was aided by a coalition of other states. The states of Zhao, Qi, Yan, Chu, Qin, and Wei has grown very resilient and tough to defeat, and the shifting network of alliances made the situation even more complex and difficult.
In my mind there are three other candidates:
Chu: the elephant in the room. Chu had, under master Wuzi, implemented reforms to strengthen the state and military, allowing it to absorb the states of Yue and Lu. It was rich and large. It was still, however, expansive and corrupt, which hindered it against Qin. Even after repeated defeats by Qin, it took an army of 600000 Qin soldiers to finally crush it.
Qi: a powerful and rich state, it nevertheless failed to conquer any of its neighbors. It managed to essentially clientelize Yan, but this proved its undoing when Yan brought a coalition of states against Qi, allowing Yan to occupy all but two of Qi’s cities. Though Qi recovered its independence, it never regained its former power and lost all influence over the central plains, and could not prevent the annexation of Lu by Chu.
Zhao: initially weak and exposed to barbarian attacks, Zhao used the barbarians as an example militarily while copying the reforms of Wei. This allowed its power to grow greatly, and even against the Qin juggernaut, it held its own at the Battle of Changping, where both sides lost a large portion of their manpower of that generation. It was only through Qin’s ability to recover demographically before Zhao and its ability to sow discord between the ruler and leading general that Qin finally defeated Zhao.
The Zhao seem the best option to me. Thanks for the massive info on Warring States China.