Abstract: From the pre-Qin (21st Century BC-221 BC) legalists to the modern new legalists,nationalism has been an important theme of legalist thoughts in the two periods.The pre-Qin legalists did not set up a special theory of nationalism.However,through the extraction and integration of the pre-Qin legalists with the nationalism tendency,we can generalize the legalist view of nationalism.By combing and selecting the nationalism views of the modern new legalists,especially their representative figures,we can sum up the theoretic system of the new legalists named "nationalism".On the basis of introspection and criticism of the new and old legalist nationalism,we abstract the elements that can obviously benefit the construction of the rule of law and the construction of the nation-state in China.

Key words: pre-Qin legalists, modern new legalists, nationalism, contemporary value