ABSTRACT
Shang Yang was born of an impoverished a ris tocra tic fam ily in the state of W ei^í^. His fam ily background is unknown. We know only that he was a descendant of a ru le r of the state of Wei, and thus he once took "W ei” as his surname, calling him self Wei Yang. According to the custom of the aris tocra ts of that tim e, the youngest son of a ru le r was frequently given the t it le of prince [ kung-tzu 公 ^ - ] . The descendants of a kung-tzu were often in turn given the t it le of "kung-sun” 2 於 、, and the ir sons and grandsons frequently used Ttkung-sunTt as the ir surname. This was the reason why Shang Yang was also known as Kungsun Y an g .( 1 ) The name Shang Yang came into use after he had been granted the t it le of Lord Shang by Ch’ in.
