HAN FEI ZI (c. 280–233 BCE), or Master Han Fei, a Chinese philosopher of the late Warring States period (403–221 BCE), was important as the main consolidator and most forceful advocate of a set of earlier ideas later to be given the label of "legalism" (fajia). Historical accounts tell us that he was a noble scion of the relatively weak state of Han, and that he created his writings in response to the ineptitude of Han's governance after failing to gain the ear of its ruler. He would later be sent as an envoy to the powerful western state of Qin, where he would eventually succumb to political intrigue and be forced to commit suicide just twelve years prior to the Qin's unification of the Chinese world. The book of Han Fei Zi is comprised of fifty-five individual essays and anecdotal collections, most of which were...