The Confucianism And The Establishing Of Ideology Of Qin And Han Dynasty

This paper delineates the development path that Confucianism outgrows as the state ideology in Han Dynasty, exploring into the selecting, changing and constructing process of ideology in Qin and Han dynasties. The two dynasties are in the period of great change in Chinese history, particularly the ideological and cultural change brought about by the political unity. Before the establishment of Qin Dynasty Lvshichunqiu is an important attempt to unify the ideology, aiming at providing theoretic and cultural preparation for Qin to conquer the other states and the new dynasty's long-term stability. But,the attempt of Lvshichunqiu wasn't adopted by Qinshihuang.Having annexed the other six states, Qin became the first centralized feudal dynasty in Chinese history. With reference to using what kind of state ideology to rule and manage the newly-established dynasty, Qin Dynasty was short of consciousness.Qin Empire failed in the attempt to integrate various schools of thoughts in order to establish a unified ideology because of the difference and conflicts between the East cultural system and the West cultural system. Qin quickly took to cultural tyranny. Legalism is dominated in Qin but only as a practical political strategy rather than an ideology.Han rulers regarded reflecting Qin's tyranny as the starting point for the construction of ideology. After many years of war and reflecting Qin's tyranny, the rulers of earlier Han Dynasty uphold Huang-Lao as the guiding philosophy of state ideology. Inactionism matched well with people's needs for peace and production, so the prosperity arose during the periods of Wen Emperor and Jing Emperor. However, Huang-Lao began to show its shortcomings and the social crisis was becoming increasingly severe. On the other hand, the status of Confucianism is rising. Thus, the contradiction between Confucianism and Huang-Lao has become a reflection of the ideological transformation requirement. Huai Nan Zi clearly recorded the ideological transformation from Taoism to Confucianism in Han Dynasty. "the Confucianism only" has finally become a historical reality. However, " the Confucianism only" is substantially legalism with an appearance of Confucianism because Han inherited legalism in Qin's system. With such a political model Emperor Wu tended to pay more attention to legalism than Confucianism. Then all sorts of political crisis appeared in Emperor Wu period. The effectiveness of Emperor Wu's policies were questioned and reviewed. Naturally, it is inevitable for people to evaluate Confucian ideology. Salt and iron meeting reflected the conflicts between Confucianism and legalism with regard to the effectiveness of Confucian ideology. On the surface, it is a theoretical debate on the specific rules like the policy of salt and iron. However, the focus of the debate has a strong practical realistic character, that is, the effectiveness of Confucianism as the ideology. Xianliangwenxue defended the effectiveness of Confucian ideology, but the Yushidaifu held the opposite position. After the salt and iron meeting, the relationship between Confucianism and Legalism has changed and the status of Confucian ideology has indisputably increased. Confucianism further dominated the society in fact, enhancing the effectiveness of Confucian ideology. Thus, "the balance of Confucianism and Legalism under the rule of Huang-lao"has become the inevitable realistic structure of political development. From "the lesson of Qin's perish" proposed by Emperor Wu in his later years to the Renaissance during the period of Emperors Zhao and Xuan, it has been proved that the state policy of" the balance of Confucianism and Legalism under the rule of Huang-lao " is a political model in which Confucian ideology functions effectively. It is the establishment of this model that facilitates Confucianism to be the dominant ideology in traditional Chinese society.