Shen Buhai

Part of a series on
Chinese legalism
Figures Guan Zhong Marquess Wen of Wei Li Kui Duke Xiao of Qin Shang Yang Shen Buhai Wu Qi Shen Dao Zhang Yi Han Fei Li Si Qin Shi Huang
Han figures Jia Yi Emperor Wen of Han Emperor Wu of Han Chao Cuo Gongsun Hong Zhang Tang Huan Tan Wang Fu Zhuge Liang
Later figures Emperor Wen of Sui Du You Wang Anshi Li Shanchang Zhang Juzheng Xu Guangqi
Relevant texts Guanzi The Book of Lord Shang Shenzi (both books) Han Feizi Wuzi Wei Liaozi Annals of Lü Buwei Huang-Lao
Relevant articles Rectification of names Wu wei Discourses on Salt and Iron Criticize Lin, Criticize Confucius
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Shen Buhai (Chinese: 申不害; c. 400 BC – c. 337 BC)^[1] was a Chinese essayist, philosopher, and politician. The Shiji records that he served as Chancellor of the Han state under Marquis Zhao of Han for fifteen years, from 351 BC or 354 to his supposed death in 337 BC. He died of natural causes while in office.^[2] A contemporary of syncretist Shi Jiao and "Legalist" Shang Yang, he was born in the State of Zheng, and was likely a minor official there. After Han conquered Zheng in 375 BC, he rose up in the ranks of the Han officialdom, dividing up its territories and successfully reforming it.

Though the origins of the Chinese administrative system cannot be traced to any one person, prime minister Shen Buhai may have had more influence than any other in the construction of the merit system, and might be considered its founder, if not valuable as a rare pre-modern example of abstract theory of administration. Sinologist Herrlee G. Creel saw in Shen Buhai the "seeds of the civil service examination," and perhaps even the first political scientist.^[3][4]: 94

Though more conciliatory, Shen Buhai's fragments most resemble the much later Han Feizi, which recalls him and Shang Yang. Both works concerning "methods" (fa) of administration. But Shen Buhai was not necessarily familiar with Shang Yang's doctrine of reward and punishment in his own time. A work as late as the fifth century still recalls him as having opposed punishment. With a mutual concern for fa methods of administration, relevant for penal records and practice by the Han, and often recalled together with Shang Yang by the Han dynasty, he was likely incorporated into the Fa or "Legalist" school through the Han Feizi's syncretic association.

Although Sinologists Benjamin Schwartz and Hansen would take Shen Dao as a more relevant Daoist forebear, Creel believed that Shen Buhai's correlation between an inactive (Wu-wei) ruler, and a handling of claims and titles may have informed the Daoist conception of the formless Dao (name that cannot be named) that "gives rise to the ten thousand things." He is credited with the dictum: The Sage ruler relies on measures and not on wisdom; he relies on technique, not on persuasions.^[5]