ABSTRACT
How was it possible that Shang Yang, who was born in the state of Wei, was able to implement re form s in the state of Ch’ in and to achieve such great success in a short tim e ? The main reason was that he lived in a period of great socia l change in which the feudal system was taking the place of the slave sys tem, and as a re fo rm er of the ris ing landlord class，he im ple mented and developed the Legalist policy which represented the interests of the landlord class. He adopted a series of mea sures that were designed，on the one hand, to destroy the econ omy of the slave system, and on the other, to promote a land lo rd economy. He not only s truck effectively at the power of the declining slave ow ner-aristocrats, but also established a centralized and unified landlord regime in the state of Ch’in. The measures and policy adopted by Shang Yang were in ac cordance w ith the demands of h is to rica l development, and thus they perform ed a certain progressive function in this process of change.
