 The endorsement of Legalism peaked under Mao Zedong 毛澤東 (1893–1976). Mao’s intellectual activism started, incidentally, with a high-school essay written in praise of Shang Yang (Schram 1992–2004, Vol. 1: 5–6), and his positive view of Shang Yang and of the Qin dynasty strengthened as time passed. In the last years of Mao’s life, under the infamous “anti-Confucian” campaign, Legalism was openly endorsed and hailed as “progressive” intellectual current both in its outlook and its historical role (Li Yu-ning 1977); attempts were even made to position it as a direct predecessor of Mao Zedong’s Thought (see, e.g., Liu Zehua 2012).