提 要：诚信危机，是中国公德系统的刺目现象。危机的原因，在于人们对契约诚信的观念和行为缺乏制度的坚守、法律的保障和公德的护持。与儒家的心性命理派和道德理想主义不同，中国传统的实学事功派和儒家现实主义，曾创生过“不信而信”的契约原理，这一原理曾一度在法家“循名责实”、“刑名参同”的理论体系中获得了法律的体现和制度的落实。通过对比发现，中国主要形成于法家思想中的契约式诚信体系与近代西方的相关体系之间，无论在政治前提、人情基础，还是手段方法上，都具有很大的相似性。本文在证明法家诚信说具有近代转化之本土潜力和可能性的同时，也对何以步入近代的中国人每每拿管、商、申、韩对西方的法律契约原则作连类格义，以及许多日本学者习惯于把中国的荀子和韩非比作西方近代自由主义创始人的真正原因进行了解释。

关键词：法家 契约诚信论 现代中国 道德体系

Title: The Legalist “Contract-Trust” Theory and its Significance in Modern China

Author: Han Dong-yu，Faculty of History and Culture, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China.

Abstract:The crisis of honesty and trust, which stemmed from the inadequate institutionalization of social values and behavior and the lack of legal support of social morality, has been an evident phenomenon in the Chinese system of social morality. Based on legalist's theory of seeking facts in accordance with previous agreement, traditional Chinese functionalism and Confucian realism, which were different from Confucian psychological and moral idealism, established a contract theory of “from no trust to trust”. This theory found its way into legal and institutional systems. From comparative perspectives, legalist's theory of honesty and trust is quite different from contract theory in the modern West. However, both share similarities in political requisites, basis of human feelings, as well as methodologies. This paper argues that the legalist theory contains elements which are potentially possible to become reality in modern China. This argument may help to further understand the reason and approaches of the modern Chinese scholars in making comparisons between the Chinese legalists, such as Guan Zhong(管仲), Shang Yang（商鞅） , Shen Bu-hai（申不害）， and Han Fei（韩非）, with the thinkers of modern Western contract theories. It may partially explain why many Japanese scholars regard Xun Zi(荀子) and Han Fei as the creators of modern liberalism.

Key words:Legalists; “Contract-Trust” Theory; modern China; moral system