Personality And Destiny Of Intellects Engaged In Politics Described In Shih-chi In The Reign Of Emperor Hanwu

By merging literature and history, this thesis paper analyzed, in the reign of Emperor Hanwu, the collective image of those intellects engaged in politics under the description of Ssu-ma Ch'ien, attempted fictively from the viewpoint of Emperor Hanwu to collate individual experiences of those intellects engaged in politics, categorize and understand their ideas and survival circumstances at the reforming period of Han dynasty, so as to find out the true underlying reasons leading to their failure both in politics and in life.This thesis paper consists of three parts.Part one discussed the occurred changes in circumstance, duty, social ranking, psychological status, and spirit, etc. of intellects in dictatorial reign of the early Han dynasty from those in Qin dynasty. Our points are, since Western Han dynasty intellects engaged in politics had segregated from the community of intellects existing as a single ranking in Qin dynasty, and had successfully transformed in their identities in the reign of Emperor Hanwu and found their brand-new roles on the historical stage; Because of their capability to create new ideas and their good control of social ideology, they were thought highly and appointed by the emperors during the reign of Emperor Hanwu. However, because of the deviation between the mission of intellects bestowed by traditional culture and the need of political unification, the intellects engaged in politics as a whole suffered from pressure and depression.Part two, taking Emperor Hanwu as reference, attempted to categorize the intellects engaged in politics and accordingly analyze the correlation between survival circumstances, destiny and personality of each category. According to the fate of intellects engaged in politics in the reign of Emperor Hanwu, they were generally divided into four types: obsequious minion (such as Gongsun Hong, Mi Kuang, Sima Xiangru), upright intellectuals (such as Ji An, Dongfang Shuo), innocent writers of advanced thoughts (like Dong Zhongshu, Ssu-ma Ch'ien) and obscurely born and hardworking scholars (such as Zhu Maichen, Zhufu Yan). Our points are: during the reign of Emperor Hanwu, there was no VIP charged with heavy responsibility. All officials in the reign of Emperor Hanwu were cautious as if walking on the thin ice, enough to prove that Emperor Hanwu was an ironhanded politician. However, we have to admit that the times of Emperor Hanwu is indeed a unique unified time period.Part three takes two aspects into consideration as influence factors on the fate of intellects engaged in politics, era background in the reign of Emperor Hanwu and Emperor Hanwu as an individual; and takes Ssu-ma Ch'ien's tragic fate as a typical representative to further elucidate the reasons leading to the destiny of intellects engaged in politics there hence. Our points are, in the reign of Emperor Hanwu, being used is the doomed fate of the intellects engaged in politics as a whole. Two factors determining the destiny of intellects engaged in politics in the reign of Emperor Hanwu are era background and intellects'personality, both of which are complementary and interrelated. However, unfortunately, individual personality of those intellects is too obscure as well as too powerless under the dictatorial and powerful command of Emperor Hanwu.