Confucian Philosophy in the Han Dynasty Essay

This paper pull up stakes evaluate a brief evaluation of the derail of the Han Dynasty and how Confucian corresponds with it. With include references to authors, Tanner, Liang, Dubs, and Wang, will supply knowledge regarding to Sima Qians historical points, incorporation of Confucian principles at heart the Han Dynasty and the emperor, and within the social lives and families. I will highlight nigh of the major points of beneficial factors to Confucian thought as well as a brief opinion on how it isnt always severe to base a society of false contracts regarding to divinity and how the society originated.However, I hope to make clear a better understanding on why and how the Chinese people in general came to be in period day chinaware. Before the founding of the Han dynasty, thinkers of every stripe cited the vanadium Classics to legitimate their ideas, only the transmission of the Zhous cultural inheritance was not cl advance(prenominal) documented until Sima Qian (second c entury B. C. E. ) traced the study of the Five Classics endorse to Confucius. Sima Qian break offed an essay called The Collective Biographies of Confucians, which summarizes classical get winding from the beginning of the western Han to the end of the reign of Emperor Wu. He is considered the first owing(p) exercise of the Chinese historical tradition however, before he was able to finish his plumps and had angered the emperor, he took the option of being castrated oer controersial writings about a general that had been defeated and surrendered to the Xiongnu, to finish his writings. Sima Qian was a man dedicated to his work for which he chose castration over having to commit suicide. The style of Sima Qians work was didactic, its purpose to communicate the chaste lessons of the past. In both its organization and its approach to annals, the Records of the Grand Historian served as a model for all subsequent officially sanctioned Chinese historical writing. illegalise G u eventually took up Sima Qians work in 90 B. C. , although he was imprisoned at first for his unaccredited archives of the Han emperor, nevertheless was freed later due to the emperors appetite of his work. Regardless whether the historical contexts of both forbiddance Gu and Sima Qian, it shows that the histories were often dishonourable due to the preferences of the elite, but as.Ban Gu was pardoned, there might be more truth to what the Hans historical past entails. It was during the former Han period of time that Confucianism developed from being the teaching of a few pedants in a semi-retirement, at the end of the Chou period, to become the official philosophy of the government, which had to be adopted by anyone who hoped to enter public life. Although it was a gradual process, early Han emperors embraced Confucianism by incorporating its teachings in education and establishing a Confucian Imperial University, which last distributed literati among offices in the governm ent.As this concept became bigger and more popular among the elite, the training of the examination became prominent as there was a high grandeur of literary ability and Confucian training, to be able to obtain a position within a government entity. It was believed that with all of the claimed advantages of Confucianism, unifying the awkward knowingly by making one system of thought current among all amend men led to the elevation of Confucianism. In 141 B.C. , tung-oil tree Chung-shu, advocated a principle to Emperor Wu that all non-Confucian philosophies should be destroyed with intellectual unification of the countryEmperor Wu did act upon this by proscribing Legalism and elevating Confucians to be his highest officials. With the rise of Confucianism in the Han Dynasty, it not only effected the elites primary preferences for what should be within the government body, but it overly effected the view of the emperor himself.The universe of the central government of the Han Dynasty from a Confucian perspective was that the ruler moldiness be a man, be of noble origin, ordained by Heaven, having great wisdom and virtue, and must be a ruler that is all-under-Heaven. To strengthen the claim to the throne, all the rulers of China before Liu Pang were believed to have been of divine origin. However, the funding Han ruler, like the rulers of other dynasties, was not regarded as a god, nor was any righteousness instituted for him. It was common lend oneself, as in all histories, to have a great social distance between those who command and those who obey, often times finished rituals and ceremonies. The Confucian scholars introduced ceremonies in 201 B. C. which was considered necessary for a new ruler to parent to an unapproachable position. This of course resulted in the emperor or ruler to be catapulted into the highest authority. Much like in other empires, that due to this common practice of using divinity as the main aspect of the throne, that anyone who goes against, protests, or is considered disrespectful, near often paid the price through draconian laws and usually sentenced to death.The theology of Confucian belief as it was incorporated into the social lives of the common people, also included what the roles should be within the family. Ban Zhao (48? -116? CE), historian Ban Gus sister, was famous for her writings on the expected roles of women in Han society. Ban Zhao believed that it was the husbands duty to control while the wife serves him, but at the same time the wife would be allowed to be educated and literate.Ban Zhao throw out mentions that the husband and wife must play their roles, but men have the ultimate responsibility to control and to have authority. She further continues, If women are to understand and perform their expected roles, then they must learn to read so that they can learn from the same ritual texts as men do. This all of course is stemming and adding to the Confucian ideology. by ch ance, even though she was a remarkable matriarchal woman, she believed that this ideology is a cornerstone for maintaining a soused and healthy nuclear family environment.In conclusion, it is very apparent that Confucian ideology was the main stronghold for both the Eastern and Western Han Dynasty. Confucianism, with Sima Qian, Ban Gu, Ban Zhao, and a collaboration of other historians, had a major influence on how the elitists, the government, and the common people, were to go about their daily lives and follow what was considered a near social order at that time. The ideology of Confucianism built a glory around the emperor to catapult him to a position of higher order, causing the people to look up to him rather than revolt against him for being in a position undeserving.As with many empires, which all rise and surrender at some point, the elitists and the emperor always has a philosophical rehearsal which tries to explain where its origins came from, sometimes referring the emperor as a god himself. In essence, there is usually no ground proof what the true history was, mostly due to the perversion of some historians ideology relating to their religious affiliations. Perhaps too, with fear of draconian laws and punishment, especially with low self-esteem and high-ego type of authority, that history in itself will only boil down to his story. Regardless, despite whether or not the histories of Confucianism and the Han Dynasty are valid, there is strong evidence that the Confucian principles noneffervescent exist today as we see in the current-day Chinese ending regarding to the social lives and families of many. Bibliography Liang, Cai. 2011. Excavating the Genealogy of Classical Studies in the Western Han Dynasty (206 B. C. E. -8 C. E. ). diary of the American eastern Society 131, no. 3 371-394. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (Accessed February 25, 2013).Dubs, bulls eye H. 1938. The achievement of Han Confucianism. Journal of the American oriental Society, Vol. 58, No. 3 435-449. American Oriental Society. http//www. jstor. org/stable/594608. (Accessed February 25, 2013). Wang Yu-chuan. 1949. 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