Integrity, meritocracy, level playing field and English are the four core values that drive Singapore as reported by My Paper, 16 August 2010. The report is about a speech given by MM Lee in his constituency’s National Day dinner.
These values might have some similarities of Legalism - Fa Jia (法家) in the spring-autumn and warring states period in Chinese history. And true enough Fa Jia is the most pragmatic school of thoughts that translated Qin into a superpower and conquering other warring states. It also gives the best short term return in a political reform. Hence, Fa Jia becomes the best practice and the most successful philosophy among the Hundred schools of thoughts that helped to unify China with the establishment of Qin Dynasty. It led to the creation of the first Emperor in China, Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇).
Fa Jia believes in practices, reality and usefulness. It exercises fairness in law. Even the relatives of royal family and senior officials will be punished if they commit crimes. They also promote people who make contributions to the states regardless of their social status. Even a slave can be a General or top official if he is capable. They use rules and regulations to govern the country and when Qin united China, they also introduced several common standards such as standard writing language, measuring method, and transportation system etc.
Fa Jia also practiced strong economic policy and focused on agricultural development. But they restrict the movement of businessmen and give less priority to commercial activities. Nevertheless, they want to build up a strong (agricultural) economy so that they can support a strong army. The strong army finally destroyed the armies of the other 6 warring states and made Qin the first united imperial state of China. It was an example of a strongly Legalist government that governed harshly. That is why revolts broke out all over the country as soon as the First Emperor (Qin Shi Huang) died.
Qin Dynasty lasted only a short period from 221 to 201 BC. The subsequent dynasty, Han (as well other followed Chinese dynasties) realized that they could no longer use the same Legalist way to govern the people. A combination of Confucianism, Taoism (lesser extent) and Legalism thoughts was selected as a way of government and this lasted until now. Although the Chinese Communists’ Party may not acknowledge this combination, one can clearly see this in the daily life of Chinese people today. Another example is the setting up of Confucius Institutes, Traditional Chinese Thoughts Institutes (国学院Guoxue yuan), etc. Besides the purpose of using traditional values and thoughts to counter the influence of western ideas, it also serves as a continuity of the traditional way of government.
In Wikipedia, you can find the explanation of legalism as follows:
Legalism is a pragmatic political philosophy synthesized by Shang Yang and Han Fei. With an essential principle like "when the epoch changed, the ways changed", it upholds the rule of law and is thus a theory of jurisprudence.
A ruler should govern his subjects by the following trinity:
Fa (法 fa3): law or principle.
Shu (術 shù): method, tactic, art, or statecraft.
Shi (勢 shì): legitimacy, power, or charisma.
Legalism was the chosen philosophy of the Qin Dynasty. It was blamed for creating a totalitarian
society and thereby experienced decline. Its main motto is: "Set clear strict laws, or deliver harsh punishment".
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