| Before the establishment of the Western Han Dynasty,Chinese society was in a state of war for a long time.After the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States,which were "fought over wisdom and strategy" and "fought over strength" for more than 500 years,the Qin Dynasty was ruled by tyranny for more than 10 years,followed by the peasant revolts launched by Chen Sheng and Wu Guang and the five-year It took several years of turmoil to usher in the establishment of a unified dynasty in the Han Dynasty.Although the country was unified at the beginning of the Han Dynasty,the kingdom of Liu was still threatened by the existence of different kings and the invasion of Xiongnu on the border.Therefore,it was necessary to choose a suitable ideology as the guiding ideology of the Han dynasty and position it on the design of the ideology of the unified empire,so as to help the Han dynasty realize the change of state policy from "getting it on the horse" to "ruling it under the horse" and solve the internal and external problems.This was the first task for the new Han dynasty.By summing up the experience of "the reason for the fall of Qin",the early Han dynasty realized that it was not the principle of "law" that led to the fall of the Qin dynasty,but the fact that the Qin rulers were only paranoid about "authority" and"punishment" and "abuse"."On the basis of this,he began to look for new ruling ideas and strategies,taking into account the socio-economic environment of the early Han Dynasty and the preferences of the ruling class.In this process,the quiet and inactive Huanglao school of thought had to contend with the revived Confucianism.This battle for the status of mainstream ideology was not only a battle for political power,but also a battle for ideas.The dispute between Confucianism and Huanglao-Daoism in the early Han Dynasty should first be traced back to the differences between the two schools of thought in terms of their formal constructs.One of the manifestations of the dispute between Confucianism and Taoism in the early Han Dynasty is the dispute over the connotation of "Tao" at the level of the conceptual system of political philosophy.In essence,the difference between the two Confucians and Taoists in the early Han dynasty lies in the fact that the "Tao" of the early Han Confucians is often logical,meaning that everything is the essence of what it is,rather than the ultimate reality of creation in terms of time,while the "Tao" of Huanglao "This makes the origin of Confucianism and Taoism in the early Han Dynasty different from each other in terms of root and sociality.Secondly,both Confucianism and Taoism in the early Han Dynasty were based on the "Way of Heaven" at the same time.However,the early Han Confucians basically inherited the traditional Confucian idea of "Heavenly Mandate" and repositioned "Heaven" as the highest origin.By establishing a cosmological system with "heaven" as the core,everything in nature and human beings is put under the rule of "heaven",emphasizing that heaven and human beings are connected and corresponding.On the other hand,Huanglao Daoism tries to replace the original "Heavenly Mandate" discourse system by advocating the"Heavenly Way" discourse,treating human beings and all things as the same as the Tao,and "pushing the Heavenly Way to understand human beings ",further constructing a new political order based on the Tao or the Way of Heaven.Although Huanglao Daoism and early Han Confucianism were consistent in their political ideals-both ultimately aimed to build a state of inaction,i.e.,to realize the Tao-different perceptions of the real world,i.e.,different starting points,led to very different ways of achieving the Tao "However,due to different perceptions of the real world,i.e.,different starting points,the ways to achieve the Tao differ greatly:one is to use passive "inaction" means such as law,punishment,and virtue to remove unnatural things and restore the world to its original natural inaction state.The other is to take active means,such as rituals and systems,to realize the Way.When this difference is combined with political issues,it inevitably reinforces the confrontation between the two.As a result of the dispute between Confucianism and Taoism in the early Han Dynasty,the Taoist theoretical system created by Taoism with the Tao as its core failed to replace the Confucian theoretical system with the Heaven as its core,but was instead absorbed by it and became the core of the later Confucianism with the Heaven,Tao,nature and mind as its core.It became an important part of the later Confucian system of thought centered on Heaven,Tao,nature and mind.As a result of the dispute between Confucianism and Taoism in the early Han Dynasty,Confucianism’s rule of "virtue and propriety" became the official ruling ideology after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty "dismissed the hundred schools and revered only Confucianism".Confucianism eventually became the mainstream thought in the Western Han Dynasty,while Huanglao-Daoism fell into decline.The discussion of the dispute between Confucianism and Taoism in the early Han Dynasty is useful for an in-depth analysis of the reasons for the change of official ideology in the Western Han Dynasty and the establishment of Confucianism as the sole revered ideology,as well as for the construction of political theories by thinkers and the selection of ideologies by rulers in the Han Dynasty and afterwards. |
