 Each of the competing “schools of thought” sought ways to improve the functioning of the state, to attain sociopolitical stability, and to bring about peace under Heaven; yet among a variety of answers those provided by the Legalists appear to be most practical. This is not incidental: after all, some of the major Legalist thinkers, most notably Shang Yang, were the leading reformers of their age. Legalist thinkers were at the forefront of administrative and sociopolitical innovation; they were the most ready to dispense with bygone norms and paradigms; and they were more pragmatic and result-oriented than most of their ideological rivals. On the other hand, their dismissive attitude toward traditional culture and toward moralizing discourse, as well as their highly critical stance toward other members of educated elite, and their pronounced anti-ministerial approach, earned them considerable enmity. In the long term, Sima Tan’s observation seems correct: the Legalists’ recipes were highly effective in the short run but were much less attractive in the long term.