The Recluse Culture Of Qin And Han Dynasties

Recluse culture is an important part of the traditional culture of China. Qin and Han Dynasty is a time connecting the spring and autumn period and Wei-Jin period, which is the key stage where the ancient recluse culture gradually matured. It is the period that has symbolic significance and unique research value. This paper is to make a systematic study about the recluse culture in this period, in order to explore its social basis, ideological origins, infiltration effects on the society, and the potential impacts on political trends at that time.Confucianism and Taoism, which made the biggest influence on ancient scholars, opened Chinese recluse culture. As the origin of hermit culture of Qin and Han Dynasty, due to differences in their starting points and their points of attention, Confucianism and Taoism have completely different essence. Confucianism emphasizes the active political participation, as a result, those Confucians put forward the "timely hidden" proposition whose starting point and focus is to retreat at the proper time while waiting for a further advance by using the ethics "Tao" as a principle of political advance and retreat; whereas Taoism stresses the emphasis on individual life, emphasizes the natural adaptation, indifference to fame and tranquilly inaction, therefore they propose "to recluse as one like", that is to say, they view natural things as the principle of judgment. The hermit views of Confucianism and Taoism, with their own unique charm, attracted numerous scholars of Qin and Han Dynasties, which greatly enhanced the appreciation of those typical hermits in the pre-Qin period and the development of recluse culture during the Qin and Han dynasties. In the early and middle period of the Western Han Dynasty, as the new Taoism and Confucianism successively established their political dominance, the aggressive political culture pervaded the whole society. As a consequence, Recluse culture gradually lost its power. The "filial piety" and "loyalty" thinking also influenced the hermit who kept on pursuing the perfection of morality and ethics, thus boosting the recluse culture to some extent. The period, ranging from the late Western Han Dynasty to the Eastern Han Dynasty, witnessed the political upheavals and the change of the power. At first, as the rulers highly promoted the importance of the reputation, the hermit’s consciousness of independent personality was increasingly intense; therefore, the hermit began to use the recluse action to express their moral will. Latter Confucian idealism came into being, thereafter; the thinking of "being worldly-wise and play safe" became gradually popular among the hermit. On such an occasion, the recluse action turned into the choice which could help the individual to fight against the moral oppression. The combination of these two thinking, in the end, led to the culmination of the development of the recluse culture in the Qin and Han dynasties. The study on the relationship between the interaction of the social and political background and the hermit’s mentality and action and the influence of the recluse culture is one of the key points of this paper.Under the joint influence of a variety of cultures,such as the recluse tradition, the enterprising spirit, the idealism thinking, the ethic and moral code of the society, as well as the philosophy of being worldly-wise and play safe", and the social graciousness, the recluse culture in the Qin and Han Dynasties experienced a complicated development process This paper is to make a detailed study of the Qin and Han Dynasties by dividing this period into three stages:one is the Qin and the Western Han period, the two is the early Eastern Han Dynasty, the three is the late Eastern Han Dynasty. The different characteristics of period led to the varied features of the recluse culture. Finally, I would put the focus on the study which is about the influence made by the recluse culture on the political development at that time. For the scholars who cares deeply about his their country, seclusion is a kind of helpless choice, no matter what reason finally push them to make such a decision, but their heart is filled with a strong sense of social responsibility and morality. In a word, they are dying to take their social responsibility whenever and wherever. It is such potential energy that finally becomes the intangible force of the political process at that time.