Fa-Jia, usually (although inaccurately) translated as
Legalism is a classical school of Chinese philosophy. Its reformers focused on the centralized management of personnel through protocol and political technique. The developments representative of the term were important in Chinese history, forming guiding principles for the
First Emperor. Sometimes compared with modern social sciences, they rejected their
Confucian contemporaries espousal of a rule based solely on the charisma of the aristocrats as private interest undermining to their ruling patrons. Highly effective in the short run, their dismissiveness of traditional culture, morality and "anti-ministerial" approach earned them enmity, and with the fall of the
Qin dynasty the imperial administration would often be overlaid with
Confucian ideology and customs.