ABSTRACT

This chapter summarizes the scattered gems of Chinese thought into a more systematic framework for the contemporary reader. Some ancient Chinese scholars regard economic and social conditions as important factors relating to crime. Criminology is generally seen as an imported foreign knowledge. Within the general framework of Confucianism, there are three views on human agency. The first argues that human beings are born with a good tendency, the second proposes that human beings are born with an evil tendency, while the third posits that there are three classes of innate human nature. Scholars of the Legalist School, a leading school among more than a hundred competing schools during the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period in Chinese history, believe that humans are rational and utilitarian actors: people commonly possess the instinct of desiring benefit and hating harm. This is a radical departure from Confucian thinking on human nature.