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Shen Dao () was a mid Warring states period Chinese philosopher and writer. Noteworthy as a predecessor influencing both Han Fei and Daoism, his remaining fragments are the most substantial of any Jixia Academy scholar, and may have been well known. Later classified as Chinese Legalism with Han Fei, Sima Qian discusses him with Jixia academy scholars, taking him as rooted in Huang-Lao (Daoism).
Early remembered modernly for his influence on the Han Feizi with regards the concept of shi (, circumstantial advantage or authority), most of his work would appear to have concerned the concept of fa (administrative methods and standards, including laws) commonly shared by others that the Han dynasty Confucian archivists classified as Chinese Legalism, and does share some early administrative features with them.
Though Han Fei discusses him in relation to power, Xun Kuang took Shen Buhai as more focused on power, and Shen Dao more focused on fa. Making some discussion of law, In his time, Shen Dao was more concerned with having laws. He argued the value of bad laws over no laws for the sake of stability, but does prefer good laws, advocating that punishment and reward be proportionate rather than extreme.
Although discussing reward and punishment like the more legalistic Shang Yang, he was otherwise more focused on administration, advocating their distribution more through impartial administrative mechanisms. In some ways, this makes him him more comparable with administrator Shen Buhai. With Shen Dao early more well known, it is possible one might have known of or even influenced the other, but less likely either were familiar with Shang Yang, with the Han Feizi Shang Yang's first reference.
In 2007, the Shanghai Museum published a collection of texts written on bamboo slips from the state of Chu dating to the Warring States period, including six bamboo slips with sayings of Shenzi. These are the only known examples of the text of Shenzi that are contemporaneous with its composition.
Xun Kuang considered Shen's style grandiose.
Although Shen Dao would be younger than Shen Buhai by these datings, Ban Gu argued that Shen Dao influenced both Shen Buhai and Han Fei. Although this could just be an example of later Han dynasty glossing, it is not without theoretical merit. Saying that Shen Dao is worth discussing at least "for mediocre rulers", the Han Feizi also discusses Shen Dao before Shang Yang and Shen Buhai in the outer chapters, which is at least relevant for theoretical interpretations of the Han Feizi. On a technical level, Shen Dao's administrative ideas are arguably less complex than Shen Buhai's, and could be representative of an earlier strain of thought. Although it is doubtful that Shen Dao's current goes back to the Spring and Autumn period, the possibility that his ideas predate him is reinforced by the discovery of the Mawangdui silk texts, with content from Shen Dao contained in the Huangdi Sijing.
Less metaphysical in practice, and more concerned with the practical human world than the "inner workings of heaven and earth", translator Harris took Shen Dao's 'naturalism' as developing in the direction of the Tao te Ching and Huang-Lao typified texts. Not focusing on the idea of Dao in a cosmic sense in his fragments, Shen Dao nonetheless espouses a "Way (Dao) of Heaven."
Whichever came first, Shen Dao and Laozi are at least comparable, including concepts of rule by a wu wei semi-inactive ruler, as illustrated by translator Emerson. Xun Kuang also later "stresses the indifference of Heaven and Earth to human concerns."
Although the Han Feizi would generally be considered authoritarian, figures like Shen Dao were not necessarily more authoritarian for their time. Advocating that the ruler rely on administrative machinery (fa) to impartially determine rewards and punishments, rather than decide them himself, Shen Dao otherwise advocates that the realm be literally modeled off the natural world. Compared with the "mature Daoism" of the Zhuangzi, Hansen considered Shen Dao more fatalist. But it is a fatalism more in the sense of believing that things cannot necessarily be changed before their time. Not that the way things are is necessarily "right."
Making use of the term "Dao" without cosmological or metaphysical reference, the Shenzi serves as noteworthy precursor to both Taoism and Han Fei. Posthumously, he is also sometimes classified as Taoist. The Zhuangzi uses the term "the Great Clod" as a term for the "sum total of reality", but appears to quote Shen Dao when it says: "A clod of earth does not err with regard to the Tao." The Zhuangzi takes his "fundamental" principle as the "equality of all things", and Wang Fuzhi speculated that its chapter on "Seeing Things as Equal" was actually written by Shen Dao. As opposed to the egoist Yang Zhu, the Zhuangzi characterizes Shen Dao as impartial and lacking selfishness, his great way embracing all things.
Benjamin I. Schwartz characterized Shen Dao's convictions as Daoisticly indifferent. Likening him to the 'inert passive clod' described in the last chapters of the Zhuangzi, Schwartz takes him as seeing the impersonal structures of political authority and human society as expressions of the spontaneous Dao in human civilization. Shen Dao rejects individual judgment, moral agents, sages, and, like other figures of the Fajia, the "subjective intentionality of noble men." By contrast, Han Fei does not completely disregard the role of great men.
Schwarz speculated that Shen Dao's philosophy similarly involves a ruler free from the turbulence of emotion or moral responsibility. However, Shen Dao has still modernly been argued to be at least "not fully untethered from a moral grounding", and does still seem to have some moral grounding. The concept of Dao itself typically implies a morally grounded Way, even if Shen Dao's fragments do not fill in all the blanks. Shen Dao does not argue that a ruler should always take actions which benefit the state order or people. But he does argue that goods like an orderly state will benefit the people, if the ruler desires such things.
Yuri Pines (Stanford Encyclopedia) does not consider the Han Feizi's discussion of Shen Dao (chapter 40) itself amoral; catering to average rulers, Han Fei's system does not cater to "moral paragons", but it does not cater to "monstrous tyrants" either. Quoting from the Guanzi:
In contrast to Han Fei and the Later Mohists, Sinologist Hansen views the earlier Shen Dao as having only just begun to move away from an emphasis on heaven, or nature, towards a concept of Dao, or the Way. As opposed to Han Fei, Shen Dao's fragments approve relying on nature, including illustrations of relying on water, which translator Harris takes as "reminding us" that the natural world has recognizable "qualities and patterns", whose actions can be predicted once understood.
Although Han Fei discusses Shen Dao in relation to power, Shen Dao's earlier conception of shi was not a naked concept of power. In contrast to Han Fei's "power founded by men", Shen Dao's power was still one based in "relying on circumstances", such as nature, which corresponds with the Zhuangzi's discussion of him. Both discussions of him use the same kind of imagery of being "tossed" or "driven" by the wind.
First quoted in Chapter 36, Chapter 40's discussion of Shen Dao also quotes a halberd-and-shield parable from the Zhuangzi.
Shen Dao might have influenced a later chapter of the Book of Lord Shang, though there is not enough evidence to demonstrate its discussion of shi came from him.
Taking his opponents as "beclouded" by particular aspects of the Way, Xun Kuang criticizes Shen Dao in particular as obsessed with the emulation of models (fa) rather than the employment of worthy men, and that he does not necessarily decide on one model as correct. Shen Dao was more concerned that there be laws than with their particulars. Xun Kuang is of the opinion that his laws (or models) lack 'proper foundations', and will not be successful in ordering the state. But Xun Kuang doesn't oppose him just for advocating fa models or laws. Xun Kuang also discusses fa. Rather than law itself, Xun Kuang opposes litigation and paradoxes, as found in the school of names.
Where there is a scale, people cannot deceive others about weight; where there is a ruler, people cannot deceive others about length; and where there is Fa, people cannot deceive others about one's words and deeds. Shen Dao]]
A.C. Graham characterized Shen Dao as a theoretician of centralized power. He espouses an impersonal administration in much the same sense as Shen Buhai, and in contrast with Shang Yang emphasizes the use of talent and the promotion of ministers, saying that order and chaos are "not the product of one man's efforts." He also argued for Wu wei, or the non action of the ruler, along the same lines as Shen Buhai, saying
However he challenges the Confucian and Mohist esteem and appointment of worthies as a basis of order, pointing out that talented ministers existed in every age. Taking it upon himself to attempt a new, analytical solution, Shen advocated fairness as a new virtue. Scholar Sugamoto Hirotsugu attributes the concept of Fen, or social resources, later used by the Guanzi and Xunzi, to Shen, given a "dimensional" difference through Fa (measurement, standards, law, protocol, administrative method), social relationships ("yin") and division. Shen Dao eschews appointment by interview in favour of a mechanical distribution ("the basis of fairness") with the invariable Fa apportioning every person according to their achievement.
The greatest function of Fa ("the principle of objective judgement") is the prevention of selfish deeds and argument. However, doubting its long-term viability Shen did not exclude moral values and accepted (qualified) Confucian Li's supplementation of Fa and social relationships, though he frames Li in terms of (impersonal) rules.
For this reason he is said to "laugh at men of worth" and "reject sages", his order relying not on them but on the Fa.
Linking Fa to the notion of impartial objectivity associated with universal interest, and reframing the language of the old ritual order to fit a universal, imperial and highly bureaucratized state, Shen cautions the ruler against relying on his own personal judgment, contrasting personal opinions with the merit of the objective standard, or fa, as preventing personal judgements or opinions from being exercised. Personal opinions destroy Fa, and Shen Dao's ruler therefore "does not show favoritism toward a single person."
Creel believed that Shen had the same sort of administrative idea denoted by Shen Buhai's Xing-Ming, he notes that he does not use the term.; ;
On the shi of The Art of War, relatable to Shen Dao's, Henry Kissinger says: "Chinese statesmanship exhibits a tendency to view the entire strategic landscape as part of a single whole... Strategy and statecraft become means of 'combative coexistence' with opponents. The goal is to maneuver them into weakness while building up one's own shi, or strategic position." Kissinger considers the "maneuvering" approach an ideal, but one that ran in contrast to the conflicts of the Qin dynasty.Henry Kissinger 2012 p.31. On China
The older works of Jacques Gernet and A.C. Graham in particular took the Legalists as understanding that the power of the state resides in social and political institutions, innovative in their aim to subject the state to them.; ; Like Shen Buhai, Shen Dao largely focused on statecraft (Fa), and Confucian Xun Kuang discusses him in this capacity, never referencing Shen Dao in relation to power. Shen Dao was early remembered for his theories on shi (lit. "situational advantage", but also "power" or "charisma") because Han Fei references him in this capacity.
For Shen Dao, "Power" (Shih) refers to the ability to compel compliance requiring no support from its subjects, though it does not preclude this. (Shih's) merit is that it prevents people from fighting each other; political authority is justified and essential on this basis. Shen Dao says: "When All under Heaven lacks the single esteemed [person], then there is no way to carry out the principles [of orderly government, li 理].... Hence the Son of Heaven is established for the sake of All under Heaven... All under Heaven is not established for the sake of the Son of Heaven..."
Talent cannot be displayed without power. Shen Dao says: "The flying dragon rides on the clouds and the rising serpent wanders in the mists. But when the clouds disperse and the mists clear up, the dragon and the serpent become the same as the earthworm and the large winged black ant because they have lost what they ride." Leadership is not a function of ability or merit, but is given by some a process, such as giving a leader to a group. "The ruler of a state is enthroned for the sake of the state; the state is not established for the sake of the prince. Officials are installed for the sake of their offices; offices are not established for the sake of officials...
Usually disregarded by the other figures, Shen Dao considers moral capability useful in terms of authority. If the ruler is inferior but his command is practised, it is because he is able to get support from people. But his ideas otherwise constitute a "direct challenge" to Confucian Virtue. Virtue is unreliable because people have different capacities. Both morality together with intellectual capability are insufficient to rule, while position of authority is enough to attain influence and subdue the worthy, making virtue "not worth going after."
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