Confucianism In Chin The Fall Of The Qin Dynasty

The earliest Emperor of the Qin dynasty was Qin Shi Huang, who was born in 259BCE and ultimately came into power at the age of 21. Despite accomplishing many significant achievements, he attained this in a brutal and callous way. Arguments that will be clearly discussed and explained in this assignment to emphasize the negative aspects of Qin Shi Huang are: the severe punishments he enforced for criminals, his fierce and deceitful war strategies and the prohibiting and burning of Confucius teachings.

Qin Shi Huang was born in 259 BC and eventually ascended to the throne of the kingdom of Qin at the age of 21 creating a war and declaring himself China’s first emperor (Source 1). Although he did bring unification to China, Qin Shi Huang was a forbidding and brutal dictator who abused his power and dishonoured his people and country. This assignment will clearly highlight the negative aspects of Qin Shi Huang, including: the banning of Confucius, how he enforced of unnecessarily strict laws and how his arrogance and ignorance eventually took over.

Han China (206 B.C.E. – 220 C.E.), and Imperial Rome (31 B.C.E. – 476 C.E.), were powerful and influential civilizations whose fall had an everlasting impact on society. The inability to protect borders and corrupt officials led to the fall of Han China and Imperial Rome. Unlike the Han, Christianity tore Rome apart while Confucianism united China.

Overall, the Qin and Han were what impacted China the most in terms of great improvements and great disasters near the end of their imperial power. The Qin built this strong foundation of a military to help protect their people and to also conquer any invaders that may try to break their peace. This correlation between military and family is shown much in Lewis’s book, where military is most emphasized when legalism starts to emerge within the Qin Dynasty. And although, legalism was not present much of late China, the idea of having an abundant and strong military was still intact up until the end of their empire, and also soon became their demise. The Han did not count on a rebellion brewing with each small military division they made, nonetheless

Qin Shi Huang had many faults and unattractive features during his reign, he punished those who opposed him and destroyed much knowledgable literature. One of his most well-known traits is harshness. He ruled by force and violence maintaining strict order over his kingdom, and valued obedience above all. As the first ruler to have united the Warring States, and subsequently impose a central government with astonishing alacrity, this trait may seem expected in some ways. Hou and Lu, Scholars of the Qin court in 221BC highlighted the emperor’s wrong doings by saying ‘The emperor, never hearing his faults condemned, is growing prouder and prouder while those below cringe in fear and try to please him with flattery and lies.’ This tell us tat man were afraid to even think about disobeying him, let alone suggesting an idea, many just did as they were told without going their opinion. Qin Shi Huang was a a barbaric ruler, millions died through slavery or face brutal punishments if they disobeyed any of his rules or orders. He did indeed invent and build many projects but it was all at the expense of thousands of lives.Qin Shi Huang is most frequently faulted for the Burning of the Books and burying of scholars. The treasured literature of

Before Emperor Wu of Han decided “oust others doctrines, the overwhelming Confucianism”[ Baisha Yi，易白沙 Kongzi pingyi shang 孔子评议上[Kritische Beurteilung von Kongzi, Teil 1], Qingnian zazhi 青年杂志,1916a, 571-576], which means use Confucianism as the only religion in China, Taoism was one of the most popular religions in China. In the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty, Taoism was the most important religion and philosophy, and it influenced political theory. What is Taoism? How had Taoism changed politics and activities of people who lived in Han dynasty? This essay seeks to answer these questions by examining the background and few important points of Wu-wei, one of the most famous Taoist thoughts.

The Han Dynasty of Ancient China was one of the most prominent and long lasting societies of the time. However, they were not untouched by the ravages of the world, and despite their Confucius roots, there was a war to be fought. The Salt and Iron debate is an example of how the Confucianism of the time affected the strategy of the war. Should the government stick to their principles, or protect their empire? When is the time to say “enough is enough”?

For example, the Analects of government, sage, virtue, and manners give a sense of teachings and positive philosophies to follow in order to become a good ruler and obtaining and giving respect. While the Classics and ideals of popper conduct, political peace, moral power, love and ideal humanity help to reinforce the Analects by giving an ideology of a humanism. As Confucian gives words of wisdom of establish a community who should act only when necessary, use knowledge for the benefit of all, and to live in peace in order to developed a stronger culture. Confucius gives the Chinese people a focus on the cultivation of virtue and maintenance of ethics, creating a community of righteousness and moral disposition to do good and how one should act in a community. Overall, Confucianism is a source of values, the social code of the Chinese, and a substance of

The Qin dynasty was perhaps one of the most revolutionary governments in the ancient world, but not in the modern progressive connotation of that concept. The Qin Emperor, Shi Huangdi, and his court executed an unprecedented departure from the Confucian ideals of the Benevolent and unobtrusive ruler and established a much more autocratic and centralized government. This new method of rule and philosophic thought was known as Legalism, which surfaced as a response to a time of great political instability. Therefore, Legalism promoted values that opposed those championed by Confucian thought, such as decisiveness, a lack of trust, and severe punishment, qualities that are reflected in The Legalist Teachings. "Changing the Laws" in one such passage in this document that stresses the importance of acting with confidence stating how "those who hesitate to act accomplish nothing" ¨ (Ebrey, Legalist Teachings, pg. 32).

In china there has been no central rule in China for 70 years until the Song Dynasty created in 960. Things started to change in China, for example, the government started to aid the poor a lot more than what they have in the past. They were getting this money from the newly introduced income tax. This made a lot of people happy and everyone started to have more patriotism and pride. This pride gave the government a feel of legitimacy. Some of the major things the government is paying for is the roads, food, and education. Pottery at this time helps out the economy in China, because the pottery is so advanced that it was being exported for good money and it also led more people to come to China. Even though China was number one in the world for many things like technology and a sophisticated culture they were weak military wise (Holcombe p.127).

Confucianism is one of the main influential ideologies on the Chinese culture. The founder of this religion is Confucius; he was a Chinese teacher. He taught traditional disciplines at that time, and believed that he could change the order of the Chinese society. He has different principals in life. First, Li: “It is the medium within which to talk about the entire body of the mores, or more precisely, have the authentic tradition and reasonable conversations of society” . In other words, li is the social rituals between people and they are divided into different categorized relationships like father and son, filial piety, between brothers, husband and wife; Ruler and subjects, and between friends. The Second principal was Jen, which is humaneness; it describes the inner personality of a person and that people should practice respect to one another. Li and Jen are values that complete each other to create the superior man, according to the Confucius. Also, Confucius believed in the spirits but keeping them at a distance. There are Five Classics and the Four Books are regarded as a reference for Confucianism.

during the Zhou Dynasty, China was experiencing a great deal of political turmoil. A major part of this era was called the Period of the Warring States. It was a time when there were numerous wars that occurred due to the conflict that existed between seven states. (Watkins, 2013) These warring states were the Han, Wu, Zhao, Chu, Qi, Yan and Jin. According to Jerry H. Bentley and Herbert F. Ziegler of the book Traditions and Encounters, “This period forced some people to reflect on the nature of society, and the roles of humans beings within society.” The authors continued saying that it forced others to “identify principles that would restore political and social order.” (Bentley & Ziegler, 2011) The principles of Confucianism were established and followed in order to help the citizens of China to live and govern their communities more efficiently. Through Confucianism, Confucius helped legitimize China’s rule and bring about order in the mist of turmoil. The effects of Confucius’ principles are still seen and felt today in many aspects of modern day Chinese society. Veritably, there were points throughout Chinese history where Confucianism affected almost every aspect of life in China. Confucius has impacted the development of Chinese thought and culture in various ways from education to politics, to familial relationships.

Even though the Qin Dynasty deprived the civilization of education, it created a strong bureaucratic system that limited feudal power and developed a cooperative population. Each Warring state followed a different political system, before it was conquered by Qin. The First Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, felt it was necessary to legitimize his power to unify the city states and for a cooperative population. In the Qin Dynasty, “the institution of emperor had a special meaning in China as the repository of imperial legitimacy” (Feng 2013, 249). In other words, the first emperor was given the title of being a “mythical ruler” that had godly powers and is the righteous leader of the empire based on the Mandate of Heaven

Confucianism is a time enduring philosophy that has stood up to invading clans, war, resentment, enforcement and infringement of new philosophies, and eventually, revival. For almost 80 years, up until the late 1970’s, Confucianism and its ideas and values have been all but wiped away from China. Though effort was made to remove Confucianism for good from China by the Communist leader Mao Zedong in 1949, the ideas and values were so deeply embedded into peoples mind and the culture that even suppression could not keep it out of the culture and practices. The main factor that has brought Confucianism back into the limelight in China and other East Asian countries is the recent

When Western people think of Confucianism, they often think of it in a past sense- as something only relevant to ancient China that cannot be applied to modern day society. However, what these people fail to realize is that Confucianism’s roots have been so integrated into China’s society that the values have become a part of every day life. Without having to explicitly state that they are following specifics aspects of Confucianism, most Chinese people submit to them, often times unknowingly. However, Confucian values not only exist in the Chinese society, but also permeate into other areas of Chinese culture such as architecture and aspects of Feng-Shui.