Hanfeizi, also called Hanzi, is the work of Han Fei (c.280-233BC), who was a great master of the Legalists of the Warring States Period (475-221BC), and was the disciple of Xunzi (so did Li Si). In 234 BC, when Han Fei served Qin State as an envoy abroad, he was put to prison by Li Si and forced to suicide by taking poison afterward.

During the Western Han Dynasty (206BC-8AD), Liu Xiang appended several other articles when he compiled Hanfeizi that includes 55 articles at last. The Han Fei's theory was beyond any legalist. Integrating three representative legalists' theories, such as Shang Yang, Shen Buhai, and Shen Dao, he put forward a perfect nomocracy theory about the combination of rule, skill, and dominance. He thought that in order to ensure the performance of the edict, and consolidate the centralization of state power, the emperor should attach much importance to the power, the dominance, and the skill of reining the liegeman. Subsequently, Qin Emperor Shihuang and Li Si gave full play to that theory in unifying China and finally established the centralization of absolute monarchy.

Han Fei inherited the theory of his teacher Xunzi, which says human nature is evil, and proposed to govern a country with punishment and reward. He thought that with the development of the situation, the society and the politics must change correspondingly, and the Confucian idea of returning to the ancients and resuming the Zhou Ceremony could not adapt to the situation.