Legalists believed that all humans, no exceptions, are evil. They believed that the best possible way to create both an effective and efficient society was to compile as many rules as possible, none integrating human rights or morals. Legalists believed that when people were given an inch of freedom, their interest was to destroy that freedom and not utilize it or respect it. The legalists referred to fa and xing where fa were the written laws and xing were the punishments. In other words fa were the official rules that people were demanded to follow and xing were the consequences if those were not followed or executed. We have similar principles today that even existed before legalism. Today we have things similar to fa and xing because we have a written set of laws and warnings along with each of those laws. An example of a law (fa) would be no murder and the punishment to that law "xing" would be go to trial or go to jail. However something that is different now than legalism is that we do not lived under such a finite world like people did under legalism. Why did people believe that every one was evil and was looking to make things worse? It makes little sense to me why people would place as many laws as possible on a society just to keep things in order and make sure nothing goes wrong. To live like that seems hard and assuming every single person is cruel is inaccurate. Another thing that is different today and even pre-legalism, is the inclusion of collective morality and human rights. Not only would society be extremely strict and almost boring, but it wouldn't run as smoothly as one with the people's opinions and giving them more leeway. Legalists did not even trust or lend power to rulers because they were considered evil. So who was above the rulers and who decided everyone was evil and that laws were the best and only way to go? I think legalism is not effective or efficient because when people have to unwillingly follow laws, it makes them not want to follow it and makes things more hectic, I think. Although legalists argued that their ways would make everyone equal, their values were non existent and their execution was senseless and clearly did not last until today.