以刑去刑 – Chinese philosophy and culture

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yǐ xíng qù xíng 以刑去刑

Abolishing Punishment with Punishment

以刑罚去除刑罚。这是法家的“法治”思想的具体表现。与儒家的“刑期于无刑”貌合神离。儒家崇礼,重在以德去刑;法家尚刑,意在使用重刑,使百姓心生畏惧,不敢犯法,从而达到不必再用刑罚的境地。从追求天下大治的理想状态来看,法家的“去刑”与儒家的“无刑”相接近,但缺少儒家所具有的人文关怀。

Abolishing punishment with punishment is a concrete manifestation of the Legalist school’s “rule of law.” Seemingly the same as the Confucian notion that punishment is meted out for the purpose of eliminating punishment, it is in fact quite different. Confucians esteemed rites, wanting to get rid of punishments by means of virtue, while Legalists valued punishments, applying severe penalties to inflict fear in the hearts of the common people so that they would not dare commit crimes. Thus there would be no need for punishment. From the point of view of achieving the ideal of “great order under heaven,” Legalist “abolition of punishment” is very close to Confucian “elimination of punishment” but lacks the human concern of Confucianism.

引例 Citations:

◎行罚,重其轻者……轻者不至,重者不来,此谓以刑去刑。刑去事成。(《商君书·靳令》)

(实行刑罚,对罪轻者也用重刑……那么轻罪就不会发生了,重罪更不会有了,这就叫用刑罚去除刑罚。刑罚去掉了,国家的政事就达到理想境地了)

In applying punishments, if severe ones are used for minor crimes, minor crimes will not occur, and serious crimes even less so. This is called abolishing punishment with punishment. When punishments are gone, state governance will be successful. (The Book of Lord Shang)

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