“The evil life of Confucius”

In 513 B.C.E., revolutionaries in the state of Jin carried out “rule by law,” taking the text of laws that would restrict the interests of the slave owners and casting them on caldrons, thereby making them public to everyone. In a great rage, Confucius said, “The punishments do not extend upward to the grandees, and the rituals do not extend downward to the common people. If the state of Jin casts these punishment caldrons, then it will suffer from losing the distinctions between the worthy and the unworthy, and the state won’t resemble a state anymore!” He vehemently opposed the Legalist advocacy of “rule by law.”