Shang Yang, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
They are justified, and the justification is arithmetic. Where a penalty is fitted to the offence, the offender keeps a margin to weigh. Where a light offence is punished heavily, he has none. Therefore it is said: if light offences do not appear, heavy offences will not come. That is abolishing penalties by means of penalties. The other course, light penalties for heavy crimes, brings penalties into being by means of penalties, and such a state will surely be dismembered.1
Look at what the heavy penalty does once it is clear. If punishments are heavy and rigorously applied, the people will not dare to try how far they can go, and so no one in the state is punished. One who understands punishments needs no capital punishment.2 Duke Wen of Chin sawed through his own favourite, Tien Hsieh, for arriving late. The scholars of Chin were afraid, his three armies marched like flowing water, and none dared transgress his prohibitions.
One light offence severely punished gave the state order.3 The Duke of Chou did the same with his own brothers, and the empire knew that sword and saw reached even the court.4 The law that spares the high is no law. In my own state the crown prince broke the law and his tutors bore the penalty in his place. On denunciation: punishments are applied at the intent to sin, so that great depravity cannot be bred, and rewards are bestowed on denouncing villainy, so that minor sins do not escape unnoticed.5
A state in which great depravity cannot be bred and small offences cannot hide will be orderly, and being orderly it is certain to be strong. The mutual responsibility of households is the same method carried down to the hamlet. It makes every man the watcher of his neighbour and every family the pressure on its own youth to obey. The innocent kinsman suffers, and that suffering is the mechanism.
It is meant to be needed less each year. Call this cruelty if you will, but see the end it serves. People once lived densely together in disorder and wanted a ruler for one reason: he would create order. A ruler with no law, or with laws unequal to the disorder, is the same as no ruler. For the people there is no greater benefit than order, none firmer than a prince, none more embracing than making law supreme, none more urgent than banishing villainy, and no deeper basis for that than severe punishments.
Those who attain supremacy rely on punishments in order to abolish punishments.6 If one country applies this method there is order within its borders; if two, the armies rest; if the whole world, the highest virtue is restored. That is my way of reverting to virtue by death-penalties and making righteousness a corollary to violence.5
If light offences are punished heavily, light offences will not appear and heavy ones will not come; this is abolishing penalties by penalties. Punishments should know no degree or grade: minister, general or commoner, whoever breaks the king's law dies, past merit buys no remission, and those who know of an offence and report it escape.7 The aim is not cruelty but the end of punishment.
Where people dare not try the law, no punishments are needed; war abolishes war, killing abolishes killing, and in a unified world clear laws will leave no one to execute.891011
In applying punishments, light offences should be punished heavily; if light offences do not appear, heavy offences will not come. This is said to be abolishing penalties by means of penalties... If crimes are serious and penalties light, penalties will appear and trouble will arise.The Book of Lord Shang
If punishments are heavy and rigorously applied, then people will not dare to try (how far they can go), with the result that, in the state, there will be no people punished.The Book of Lord Shang
by basing himself on this one affair of Tien Hsieh, where a light offence was severely punished, Duke Wen caused the state of Chin to enjoy order.The Book of Lord Shang
If, when (the ruler's) own brothers commit a fault, he does not deviate from the law, how will it fare then with those who are distant and far off!The Book of Lord Shang
punishments are applied at the intent to sin, so that great depravity cannot be bred; and rewards are bestowed on the denouncement of villainy, so that minor sins do not escape unnoticed... This is my way of reverting to virtue by death-penalties, and of making righteousness a corollary to violence.The Book of Lord Shang
there is no deeper basis than severe punishments. Therefore those, who attain supremacy, restrain by rewards and encourage by punishments, seek offences and not virtue, rely on punishments in order to abolish punishments.The Book of Lord Shang
Rewards and emoluments were not bestowed and yet the people were orderly. Therefore I say: " The climax in the understanding of rewards is to bring about a condition where there are no longer rewards." "What I mean by the unification of punishments is that punishments should know no degree or grade, but that from ministers of state and generals down to great officers and ordinary folk, whosoever does not obey the…The Book of Lord Shang
If punishments are heavy and rigorously applied, then people will not dare to try (how far they can go), with the result that, in the state, there will be no people punished. Because there are no people punished in the state, I say that, if one understands punishments, there is no capital punishment. Duke Wen of Chin wished to make clear the system of punishments, in order to gain the affection of the people.The Book of Lord Shang
In the former case the people will be stronger than the law; in the latter, the law will be stronger than the people. If the people are stronger than the law, there is lawlessness in the state, but if the law is stronger than the people, the army will be strong.The Book of Lord Shang
One, who has prestige, captures ten by means of one, and grasps concrete things by means of the very sound of his name. Therefore he who succeeds in having prestige, attains supremacy.The Book of Lord Shang
In attacking with force, ten points are gained for every one point undertaken, but in attacking with words, a hundred are lost for every one marched out. If a state loves force, it is said to attack with what is difficult; if a state loves words, it is said to attack with what is easy.The Book of Lord Shang
The doctrine for which his name became a byword and for which, in the histories, he paid with his own life; defended in the book itself as harsh means toward a world without punishment.