The early Chinese legalist Shang Yang proposes "Ming" (明) as a quality that Fa (法, the law) must obtain. This term is usually translated as "clarity," but this translation cannot capture Shang Yang's concept of Ming. This paper understands it as a kind of umbrella term that covers the following three elements: openness to the public, comprehensibility, and determinacy. Thus understood, Ming is comparable to the modern concept, "transparency" as a value pursued by many kinds of modern organizations, such as government. This paper examines this commonality between the two early Chinese and modern concepts. In addition, this paper also explores the intellectual background of Shang Yang by focusing on how his conception of Ming differs from that of other thinkers in early China.