Kuan Tzu also called Kuan Chung (d.645 B.C.), Chinese statesman who was prime minister of Ch’i and considered a forefather of Legalism. He was traditionally albeit spuriously associated with the Kuan Tzu, an eclectic work containing Legalist, Confucian, Taoist, five phases, and Huang–Lao ideas from the fourth to the second centuries B.C. As minister, Kuan Tzu achieved peace and social order through the hegemonic system (pa), wherein the ruling Chou king ratified a collective power-sharing arrangement with the most powerful feudal lords. R.P.P. & R.T.A.