Philosophies Of The Han Dynasty Essay

The Han dynasty collapsed in 220 CE bringing with it a great deal of destruction. Buddhism, which was founded in India in the 6th century BCE, made its way to China in the first century. As it traveled it gained many followers and popularity, especially with the lower classes of the Chinese Dynasties because they were greatly disrespected. Buddhism rejected the idea of the social classes thus appealing to the impoverished. Many people accepted Buddhism, however some used it as the basis for many political and social injustices. Furthermore, a group of people remained indifferent and tried to unite the two groups.

During the Warring Sates Period there were three main philosophies in china, that influenced their actions and way of thinking. The three perspectives were Confucianism, Daoism and Legalism. For each there was a social thoughts, political thoughts, ethical teachings, and a way of public life. These three philosophies where created because of the political fragmentation. (McKay,Pg.70)

During the Han Dynasty and later at the end of the Tang Dynasty during the classical/post-classical periods, the Chinese bureaucrat was the one came into power. Those bureaucrats who rose to power during the Han Dynasty, brought with them the philosophy of Confucianism. Although Confucianism was an ethical set of beliefs based on mutual respect, it was ultimately not very tolerant of anything that may challenge the authority and power of a Confucian bureaucrat. Confucianists had a tolerable relationship with Daoism, despite hostilities occurring from time to time. This happened because Confucian Scholars were against these views of Daoist thinking, especially as it pertained to Daoism’s support of mysteries and magic, however, they saw no real reason to challenge the influence it had.

In China during 406-221 BCE, the battling states between the Zhou and the Han Dynasties? were in a state of governmental disorder. Although the era was in a disruptive state, it ushered in a cultural opening that left a long lasting imprint on the Chinese history. As a result, three major belief systems surfaced Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism in an attempt to achieve a sense of political order in a disorder period. There are distinctions in the way each of the belief systems approached the many problems that plagued the Chinese society. First, all of the founders were contemporaries in China. As well as considered philosophies, who studied the future, and sat out to focus on the present rather than the past. In contrast, Confucianism, Daoism and Legalism established various paths in search of an optimistic future for the success of China. Second, both Legalism and Confucianism developed a social belief system, but are considered a religion. However, both Legalism and Confucianism purpose was to create an orderly society in the hopes of prosperity. In contrast, Daoism does

The idea of ruling a powerful government based on the principle of using two conflicting ideologies at the same time appeared foreign to most dynasties of early China. In early Chinese times, after the Period of the Warring States, two ideologies emerged: Legalism and Confucianism. Legalism stressed a strong central government that expressed harsh laws while Confucianism had a decentralized government, placing trust in conscientious and learned individuals to work together to solve political issues. These two schools of thought were in stark contrast to each other and, up until the Han dynasty, had never been combined with each other through government policy. The Qin dynasty, for example implemented a strict Legalist government while the

The Next piece is an image form Guo Xi who was a master from the Northern

Ancient China has three philosophies: Confucianism, Legalism, and Daoism. These three philosophies explain how people should behave and how the government should rule the people. The philosophies were guidelines to the people. Confucianism, Legalism, and Daoism have different values, beliefs, and ideas of what is important and expected, but the main goal is to work towards peace and harmony. These cultures are the same way in being rewarded due to their actions, but different in government regulation because of the people in command.

They want to emphasize individual virtuous behavior, both by the ruler and the ruled as well as highly recommending obedience and respect, “people should know their place, even under bad rulers.” Even the Han emperors decided to implement Confucius ideas after looking at their doctrine called The Analects. The book shows Confucian political value and social order which states that the aristocrats and the educated are of the highest degree, and then comes farmers, and finally, the merchants. Although both Confucianism and Legalism call for governmental hierarchy, Confucianism possessed an optimistic view of human potential while Legalists believe that a powerful government is necessary along with a carefully devised law rewarding for good deeds and punishing for bad

The transition from the Qin Dynasty to the Han Dynasty brought about many changes in ideology. The Han Dynasty’s rise to power brought with it the rise of Confucianism, and this gave the people of China more rights and freedom compared to their life under the Qin Dynasty. Confucian principles emphasized loyalty, respect for superiority, education, and the welfare of a group over the individual. Comparing Han China to Qin China, Lu Jia said, “When the people only feared the laws, they could not know rites and rightness.” The emphasis of Confucianism in Han China led to the construction of schools to offer more widespread education. This embedded a philosophy within the Chinese people that revolved around Ren and Yi, ideas

Chinese philosophies, like Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism, were brought in by the Chinese to help implement a strong and fair governing system in order to keep the citizens of China. They would use the different ideologies and find a similarity in all of them in order to keep together the empire. With Daoism, the government would put their trust in the people to self govern themselves and thought that political involvement and education were not needed. Confucianism would revolve around family values and order in the empire. Finally, Legalism would use fear to keep the people in check with harsh laws.

Even though the Qin dynasty was seen as barbaric and brutal, the Han did implement some of the old Qin institutions into their new government. One of these institutions were the Commanderies. These were administrative divisions of land in which a governor would be appointed by the government and run it as the government or emperor wants it to be ran. This is institution is very useful for knowing how many people you have. When war comes and you need to draft able bodied men to go fight, you will know just how many you will be able to get. Another reason would be for tax purposes. It is also very useful to regulate the trade and growing of certain crops. Even more in depth than that the government can control what the children in the commanderies are taught and what propaganda they are seeing. Qin law is another thing that the Han used from the former dynasty. One example of this practice was the fact that women could bring up cases against men even though the women did not have the same rights as men. Punishments were also

The Rise and Decline of Han China The Han dynasty of China has been one of the longest and most prosperous of the major dyansties with only a few minor interruptions. The Han dynasty is known for its technological advancements, art, politics, and a competent bureaucratic goverment system which led to its many years of flourishing vigor and imperial structure. These accomplishments of the dynasty started with a peasant uprising and an influencal ruler that refined the goverment and established a stable system which eventually ended with internal conflicts and nomadic invasions.

Emperor Wu took great interest in Zhongshu’s preposition and established Confucianism as the official state philosophy while prohibiting all other ideologies. Study of Confucianism and its five classic texts, became a necessity in education and a requirement for becoming a bureaucrat, hence becoming deeply ingrained in Han society. The teachings of this philosophy taught filial piety, obedience and loyalty to the Emperor. In Sima Qian’s recount of his father’s parting words, he writes “filial love begins with the serving of one’s parents, next…. of one’s lord….”

For this paper, I will be discussing two opposing ideologies, Confucianism and Legalism. Towards the later part of ancient China (e.g Han dynasty), states started to adopt a mixture of Confucianism and Legalistic ideology. Why did Legalism and Confucianism fall off?

The unification of China was under the dynasties Qin and Han. There were formed schools of thought called Confucians, Daoists, and Legalists. These school of thoughts worked to bring political and social stability to China during the rule of the late Zhou dynasty which were chaotic years. Legalist principles and imposed centralized imperial rule were adopted by rulers of the Qin and Han dynasties. Political stability was the foundation of economic prosperity for the Han dynasty. There was a search of political and social order, unification of China, and a transition from economic prosperity to social disorder.