A comparative study of the body and power between Han Feizi and Michel Foucault

The body has increasingly become a research hotspot, with a focus being the relationship between the body and power. Michel Foucault's Discipline and punish explores the topic of corporeality in relation to the pervasive disciplinary power of modern society. The Chinese counterpart of Foucault is Han Feizi (280 BCE- 233 BCE) and his discussion of the control of the body by the power of the monarch. A comparative study of the two shows their different views on the relation between the body and power and also, more importantly, brings us back to the very issue of what extent or limits there should be to disciplinary power. Based on the analysis of their differences in terms of the subject, object, characteristics, and purpose of bodily discipline, this paper argues that Han Feizi focuses on the unity, wholeness, continuity, and inheritance of power in disciplining the body. It is a singular power that promotes only the interests of the monarchy. In contrast, power in Foucault's discussion is plural and focuses on the individuality, margins, and differences, but only in more invisible and subtle ways in disciplining and punishing people in modern society.