The
Book of Lord Shang is an ancient Chinese text from the 3rd century BC, regarded as a foundational work of "
Chinese Legalism". The earliest surviving of such texts (the second being the
Han Feizi), it is named for and to some extent attributed to major
Qin (state) reformer
Shang Yang, who served as minister to
Duke Xiao of Qin (r. 361338) from 359 until his death in 338 and is generally considered to be the father of that state's "legalism". Highly composite, it nonetheless forms a "relatively coherent ideological vision", likely reflecting the evolution of "what Zheng Liangshu (1989) dubbed Shang Yang’s 'intellectual current' (xuepai 學派)."