The core of the book was written around the 340s BCE, though parts of the text were added in the next century. The book advances a legalist argument for a new form of state in which governmental power penetrates right to the base of social order, creating a society wherein every peasant is a diligent tiller of the soil, every soldier a brave and loyal supporter of the state, and every official an unswerving enforcer of a harsh code of retributive law.
