Shen Buhai (; ) was a Chinese statesman, reformer and diplomat. According to the Shiji, Shen Buhai served as Chancellor of the Han state under Marquis Zhao of Han, for around fifteen years to his natural death in office in 337 BC, ordering its government and doctrines emphasizing Shu 术 (administrative) technique, though the term is Han Fei's and likely posthumous.Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies XII, An Outline of the Former Han Dynasty
According to Sima Qian, Shen Buhai was born in the central State of Zheng, serving as a minor official there. A contemporary of Shang Yang and syncretist Shi Jiao, after Han completed the conquest and division of Zheng and Wei in 376 BC, he rose up in the ranks of the Han officialdom, reforming its administrative practices, military defenses, and to a lesser extent issuing new laws, only about a half century after its founding.
While it is not evident Shen Buhai was earlier as well known as another of the Han Feizi's predecessors, Shen Dao, his administrative ideas were influential enough to become one of Xun Kuang's critiqued "Twelve Masters" by the later Warring States period, and might have been renowned by the time of the Han Feizi. Shen Buhai seemed to play an influence on Han dynasty reformers, and likely even the establishment of the civil service examination. With the imperial examination extending in influence to the European civil service, Shen Buhai could perhaps be considered a founder in world bureaucracy, and even the first political scientist.; ;
Though differing from Daoism as later understood, Shen Buhai was said to be a Daoist in the Shiji, (citing Shiji 63.13) (Daojia is used synonymous with Huang-Lao in the Shiji) with Sima Qian attesting Shen Buhai, Shen Dao and Han Fei to be "rooted" in Huang-Lao, or "Yellow Emperor and Laozi (Daoism). The Han Feizi recalls him alongside the Tao te Ching; with concepts of wu wei "non-action", but a Dao or Way referring more to (administrative) methods (fa) of governance, he might have preceded it, but if so does bear a "striking" resemblance to it. (Creel's opinion); (citing ); (citing Jin 1962) Together they form an influence for the Daoistic Han dynasty Huainanzi.
Despite his later influence, though reforming the law, according to the Han Feizi, Shen Buhai had disorganized law in the early Han state. No Han or earlier text individually connects him with penal law, but only with control of bureaucracy. The Huainanzi and Hanshu only gloss him as a penal figure (or Legalist) when discussing him alongside Shang Yang. In contrast to Shang Yang, Shen Buhai appears to have opposed punishment, in hopes that a strict and efficient administration would abolish the need for it in the bureaucracy. As quoted by Pei Yin, Liu Xiang recalls him recommending the ruler "grasp (administrative) technique (shu)" in-order to "do away" with the punishment of subordinates, relying on supervision and accountability.
Dating Sima Qian likely had few details of Shen Buhai's life outside what could be gathered from the Han Feizi. His given name Buhai 不害 means "does not harm"; according to Liu Xiang, Shen Buhai's writings recommend the ruler "do away" with punishment, relying on supervisory technique (shu).
Only the questionable death date of Shen Buhai in 337 B.C. is correlated between multiple sources. He was supposed by Ch'ien Mu to have lived sixty or seventy years. The birth date of 400 B.C. is a compromise between 397 and 407 that was believed to be "safe" by German Sinologist Alfred Forke. Sinologist Tao Jiang still used 400 in his 2021 work, the "Origins of moral-political philosophy in early China." Sometimes the birth date is simply left out.
Although Shen Buhai is recorded in Sima Qian's Historical Records as becoming Chancellor in Marquis Chao's eight year, traditionally 351 BC, Ch'ien Mu and Herrlee Creel suggested it more probable to date Shen Buhai's appointment as Chancellor, and the Marquis eighth year, earlier, around 354/355 BC, after the state of Wei sieged the state of Chao. The Stratagems of the Warring States state that Shen Buhai had just found favor with the Marquis at the time of that event, making his time as chancellor a little over Sima Qian's fifteen years. Despite the comparatively minor disagreement, Shen Buhai's appointment is likely the most accurate dating that can be determined for his life in general.
Chinese scholar Tang Lan preferred to date Shen Buhai slightly older, at 405; Tang prefers to make him a contemporary follower of a presumed 400 b.c. Huang-Lao school along the lines of the Huangdi Sijing (which can be debated). With extant evidence not able to suggest Huang-Lao much earlier, Tang placed its emergence in the same time period, presumably preferring Shen Buhai be old enough for its influence to reach him and become acquainted with the new school.; ;
Speculative early influences
Creel argued that the traditions of Shen Buhai, or at least the Han state, might earlier have been influenced by the prominent Chu state to the south, which had its own heydey of reform, or older neighboring law reformers like the significantly influential Zichan. Creel takes Zichan as an older point of comparison for bureaucratic reform in the introduction of his 1974 opus, prior arguing that Shen Buhai's Confucian influence may be understated versus that of Laozi Daoism (with which later scholarship has generally agreed).
While the Han Feizi later opposes Zichan with Shen Buhai, and there is no direct evidence Zichan influences Shen Buhai, his influential, much older current is still a plausible influence for the Han state preceding Shang Yang. Arguably, the Huangdi Sijing would have ideas going back to Zichan and Guan Zhong as well.
The Han Feizi reacts against Zichan. Opposing him with Shen Buhai's doctrine Han Fei termed Shu technique, and a purported reliance by Zichan on his own wisdom and senses as a detective, the Han Feizi advocates legal officials, manageable populace divisions, and clarifications of rules and measures, followed after using standardized administrative technique (fa-shu) as developed from Shen Buhai.
Li Kui & Wu Qi The much later Han Feizi is the first preserved reference for writings associated with Shang Yang outside Qin. It will be easier to suggest that Shen Buhai might have been familiar with the older neighboring Wei state's Li Kui instead, who is said to have influenced Shang Yang. While the Han Feizi more evidently integrates "traditions associated with" Li Kui, Shaughnessy believes that Shen Buhai would at least be familiar Li Kui and his Canon of Laws as to initiate similar reforms, but more in the broad sense that they all sought more meritocratic governance. Li Kui was also more focused on education than Shang Yang.
While Creel didn't specifically take Wu Qi as example of Chu influence, the Han Feizi pairs Shang Yang with Wu Qi as a model reformer; Wu Qi's reforms were just not as successful as Shang Yang. Léon Vandermeersch believed that Shang Yang at least must have been familiar with Wu Qi. The Han Feizi also quotes Zhao Yang from the earlier Jin state.
Laozi 17 Scholar Wang Pei primarily treats the similarities and differences of Laozi, the Huangdi Sijing and Han Feizi. While contrasting Laozi's "avowed minimalism" with the "state activism" in "fa texts", at least in review with Wang Pei, Yuri Pines Dao Companion to China's fa tradition (2024) expresses openness to the idea that early thinkers like Shen Buhai were "indebted" to Laozi. Or, at least potential intermediary "Huang-Lao" texts, taking the Sijing as a recovered base of comparison (albeit much of its particular text would seem compiled later in the period, more comparable to the late Guanzi).
Taken as rooted in Huang-Lao (Yellow Emperor-Laozi (Daoism)) in the Shiji, Shen Buhai was unanimously accepted as Daoist-rooted in early modern scholarship based on comparison. As with earlier Chinese scholarship, Creel admits that he bears a "striking" resemblance to Laozi. But Creel comes from an early era of scholarship arguing a late dating for the Tao te Ching, and so questioned their chronology. Arguing against a Daoist interpretation of Shen Buhai, he translated of Dao "the way" as (administrative) method (as one meaning of Dao).
While Creel considered the term Legalist more accurate for Shang Yang, by his account Legalist ideas can be derived from the Tao te Ching's chapters 17-18 as interpreted by the Wenzi and J. J. L. Duyvendak, which is then carried over to the Han Feizi and Huainanzi. At basic, it simply requires that a less involved ruler place more direct value on people's literal words, rather than for instance a quiet ruler simply valuing their faithfulness.
If Shen Buhai was directly influenced by Laozi, he is significantly more administrative. While the ruler could be expected to engage in self-cultivation, reliable systems of government appear, at least for Shen Buhai, as legitimate a supplement to a calm mind. While emphasizing the internal tranquility of the ruler, he advocates a system of tallies with reliable ministers as its aid, and "inactivity" as "holding the levers of power" while delegating routine managerial functions.
Used as a method of administration in Chapter 5 of the Han Feizi (which includes ideas syncretized from Laozi and Shen Buhai), A.C. Graham considered the tally a metaphor which "shows up sharply (Han Fei's) difference from Laozi", as an "instrument for precise unimpugnable decisions" similar to other instruments of fa standards; classically, scales, compasses and the L-square.
"Acting" inactive Laozi is not considered to favor law as with Han Fei or other "fa thinkers", as termed by Yuri Pines, even viewing it negatively. Viewing Shen Buhai as a member of the fa school, favoring interpretations centering on fa standards, laws and methods, Shen Buhai might "absorb Daoist ideas" or even influenced by Laozi, but would still be "in essence a representative example of fa thought", Including later-termed "techniques" of "practical politics".
Shen Buhai's ruler is differentiated from Laozi to the degree he only "acts" inactive in front of guests. "Acting" inactive, the ruler refrains from revealing himself and gets others to reveal themselves. Parts of the Han Feizi express doubt he can actually accomplish inactivity and maintain the state. But "acting" is a good way of learning. The Han Feizi's milieu would more commonly believe that "acting" inactive would help accomplish inactivity, even if some of its authors 'lack faith' or think they are just practicing realpolitk.
While Shen Buhai does emphasize relying on law, Han Fei (ch.43) does not consider him to favor it as strongly as Shang Yang, contrasting the two. While Zhuangzi is generally inactive, Laozi and Shen Buhai share a similar idea of wu-wei (non-action) in the sense of a governmental technique. Sima Qian pairs him with Laozi and Zhuangzi, saying his teachings “were rooted in Huang-Lao and prioritized xingming.” Han Fei's chapter 5 pairs ideas adapted from Shen Buhai with that of Laozi.
Legal conservativism While Chinese scholarship argues that Han Fei may understate Shen Buhai's legal reform in issuing laws, the Han Feizi also emphasizes he did not consolidate or repeal the old laws in comparison to Shang Yang. A fragment in the Yiwen Leiju emphasizes relying on fa standards that can include law, but also not altering them, referring to scales and the ancient Emperor Yao.
If the Huangdi Sijing is taken as a point of comparison, then the Han Feizi's Chapter 29 may be poignant, as "arguably the most sophisticated blend of Han Fei’s and Laozi-related ideas".
Shenzi bibliography