A Study Of The Qin And Han Dynasties In The Six Dynasties

Qin and Han Dynasties is one of the most important periods in Chinese history. The development of all aspects during the period have laid the foundation of the progress of Chinese nation and Chinese civilization. So Chinese scholars always pay great attention to the study of the history of the Qin and Han Dynasties and have achieved abundant research results.The Six Dynasties is a connecting link between Qin and Han Dynasties and Sui and Tang Dynasties. In this period, wars had never stopped and regimes changed frequently. People in this period focused a lot on thinking and researching the history of Qin and Han Dynasties in purpose of exploring legitimacy status for emperors, establishing political legitimacy and provide lessons for the present specific affairs. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to present the rethinking of people in Six Dynasties about the history of Qin and Han Dynasties.This paper utilizes the classification of traditional method which divides Six Dynasties people’s rethinking of the Qin and Han Dynasties into four aspects: politics, economy, culture and historical figures. Political aspect is about the discussion of political legitimacy in Qin and Han Dynasties, system of enfeoffment and counties,Election and Bureaucracy, military and criminal law and several other aspects. They all believed in the legitimacy of their country. Most people were against the implement of the system of enfeoffment and advocated the implement of the election system in Han Dynasty. Economical reflection mainly includes several aspects of land system, agriculture, currency, industry and commerce, and taxation. The people praised the policies of paying great attention to agricultural development in Han Dynasty. They recommended to lower the taxes, to cherish their people and to use the five baht money which is Han Dynasty’s legal currency. Cultural aspect is primarily concerned with the understanding of Qin and Han Dynasties’ academic acticities and Zheng Xuan as well as the reflection of history. People in Six dynasties criticized the burning of books in Qin Dynasty and praised the development of Confucianism in Han Dynasty. Their understanding of the characters in Qin and Han Dynasties is very profound, especially for the consorts authoritarian and Han Dynasty eunuch politics.Although they had paid extensive attention to Qin and Han dynasties, their findings were not a system. Therefore, this paper selects their common points of historical rethinking to study.