Lead by virtue, not by punishment.
Govern by law and penalty and people will avoid punishment without shame; govern by virtue and ritual and they will develop a sense of shame and correct themselves. The whole argument with the Legalists is in that sentence, and the Legalists ran the state that unified China.
Analects 2.3 sets out the whole quarrel with Legalism in two sentences: lead the people with administrative measures and regulate them with penalties, and they will avoid punishment but have no sense of shame; lead them with virtue and regulate them with ritual, and they will have a sense of shame and moreover correct themselves. The distinction is between compliance and self-regulation, and the Confucian bet is that internalised standards are cheaper and more durable than enforcement. The awkwardness is historical: the state that actually unified China in 221 BCE was Legalist, run on published law, standardised weights, mutual surveillance and severe punishment, and it worked. Imperial China from the Han onward ran on a compound of both — Confucian rhetoric and personnel over a Legalist apparatus of codes and penalties — which Chinese historians have described as Confucian outside and Legalist inside. The tension has never gone away and is legible in contemporary Chinese governance debates about rule of law versus rule by virtue.
Lead them with administrative measures and regulate them by punishments, and the people will avoid trouble but have no sense of shame. Lead them by virtue and regulate them by ritual, and they will have a sense of shame and moreover correct themselves.
Analects 2.3 (rendered)The entire quarrel with Legalism, in two sentences.
The same ground, other faiths
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