The Public Opinion Of The Qin And Han Dynasty And Its Social Impact

This dissertation focuses on the public opinion during Qin and Han Empires. Qin and Han were in typical agricultural society. It can be called acquaintance society in many ways, which contributed to the formation of the public opinion and making its social functions work well. Since central government of autocratic monarchy state controlled the public opinion very strictly, and the conditions of spreading public opinion is limited, the public opinion in the Qin and Han had the following characters: it usually only can be spread in limited space; it's spreading can last long time. One of the outstanding characteristics of the public opinion is unreasonable during those periods because of limited knowledge. Qin and Han government applied different policies of public opinion that lead to different political consequences, that is, Qin empire was overthrown only after establishment fifteen years, but Han dynasties lasted for over four hundred years. This difference shows that the policy of public opinion is related with the development of state. This dissertation includes five chapters.Chapter 1 treats the academic value of this dissertation. This chapter summarizes the definition of public opinion, analyses the concept of public opinion in traditional society, and examines two misunderstandings in the research history of public opinion. This chapter also traces the concept of public opinion and its political practice during Pre-Qin periods since Qin and Han inherited knowledge of public opinion from those periods. Public opinion reflects the will of the people. It keeps reasonable and unreasonable at the same time. This chapter argues that unreasonable characteristic of public opinion in ancient China is more noticeable than in modern China through inspecting the beginning of unreasonable characteristic of public opinion. Chapter 2 analyses the types of public opinion during Qin and Han periods. The public opinion can be classified into two types: one is typical type that includes folk rhymes, nick names, and so on; the other is non-typical type that includes children's folk rhymes, prophecies and rumors. Chapter 3 inspects the spreading of public opinion during Qin and Han periods. Oral communication is the main spreading approach of public opinion. This chapter includes two sections. First section analyses the basic conditions of public opinion spreading during Qin and Han periods. Second section argues that public opinion distribution is unbalance among capital, cities and rural areas. Chapter 4 discusses the social functions of public opinion during Qin and Han periods. As collective consciousness of social groups, public opinion not only reflects social reality negatively but also influences society positively. This chapter examines the functions of public opinion during Qin and Han periods from two aspects: Firstly,public opinion was used as political instrument for against government by political groups, who covet for throne during the decline times of dynasties, thereby, public opinion acts as a boost motor for dynasties changes. Secondly, in the acquaintance society of Qin and Han, people are more sensitive to public opinion than modern times. Public opinion influences every day life and political fate of every body, thus, public opinion acts as another supervise strength which is helpful for keeping social order. Chapter 5 treats the ways to deal with public opinion of Qin and Han governments from perspectives of collecting, leading and controlling. Qin and Han governments applied the following approaches to collect public opinion: issue edicts for choosing capable persons who can criticize emperor, officials rise different opinion, resemble meeting, ordinary people submit written statements to central government, dispatch messengers to collect folk rhymes. Qin and Han governments also tried to create favorable conditions for gaining public opinion support through unifying ideas and custom, and refuting rumors. In order to keep the benefit of govern groups, Qin and Han governments applied co...