We have seen how Chinese politics became more corrupt, cynical,
and violent
in the Spring and
Autumn era and especially in the Period
of Warring States.
While many philosophers of the schools
of Confucius and Mo-zi
called for
ethical reforms and Daoists
let nature take its course or retreated into seclusion,
others
experimented with stricter laws and practical administration.
One of the first of these was Guan Zhong,
who advised Duke Huan
of Qi in the early 7th century BC.
His life and the fourth-century
administrative reforms of the realists Shang Yang
and Shen Buhai
were discussed in Chapter 13 on the Zhou dynasty.
About 302 BC King Xuan of Qi founded a scholarly academy known
as Chi-Xia.
An influential book named after Guan Zhong called
the Guan-zi was probably written
around the middle of the
third century BC, supplemented over time,
and edited into its
final version by about 26 BC.
Though still often recommending
the same virtues the Confucians emphasized,
this work is considered
a forerunner of Legalism
because of its practical political philosophy.
In the Guan-zi agriculture and wealth are considered
the basis of good behavior.
The spirits and ancestors are to be
venerated,
and the four cardinal virtues are propriety, justice,
integrity, and conscience.
Successful government depends on following
the hearts of the people.
If the ruler can provide the people
with prosperity and leisure,
they will make sacrifices for their
state.
Punishment alone is not sufficient, because if it becomes
excessive,
orders will not be carried out.
Trusting those with
virtue puts the state on a firm foundation.
Cultivating grain,
mulberry, hemp, and domestic animals supplies the storehouses.
Employing those with skill, giving orders that accord with the
will of the people,
using stern punishments and consistent rewards,
and not cheating the people lead to good government.
Those who
govern should be impartial like heaven and earth, the sun and
the moon.
Walls and armed forces are not enough to meet the enemy,
and vast territory
and abundant wealth will not hold the masses,
unless the way is followed.
These scholars recommended that anyone who would question the
present
should investigate the past, and one can understand
what
is to come by studying what has gone before.
To control the state
one must be careful how one uses the people.
The sovereign can
instruct the people with wisdom and propriety
but must also set
an example and see that
expenditures are proper while excesses
are avoided.
Laws establish the authority of the government
and
make use of the people's strength and ability.
Serious attention
must be paid to the granting of offices,
their rewards, and to
punishments.
Collective responsibility for crime extends from
the members to the head of the family,
from them to group leaders,
then to clan elders, the village commandant,
subdistrict prefects,
the district governor, and finally to the chief justice.
Rewards
were similarly applied, giving authority figures
strong incentives to influence those under them.
The Guan-zi criticized such Moist ideas as abolishing
the use of arms
and universal love out of fear that the troops
would not fight.
The art of warfare is discussed, commending speed,
lightness of equipment,
well organized troops, destruction of
enemy fields, well paid spies,
and prohibition of unorthodox doctrines.
As usual, military morality violates universal ethical principles.
Yet in the model guidelines the prince is urged to conform to
the will of heaven in initiating affairs of state.
This is interpreted
as not bestowing favors on those close to him
nor disdaining those
far away.
The prince is warned not to reward just because he is
pleased
nor to kill because he is angry; for if his orders are
capricious,
they will not be carried out, and the people will
turn to outsiders.
Pragmatically this work suggests examining
the results when promoting
what one thinks is good and counting
the cost when one rejects what one dislikes.
The prince should
encourage those he respects, provide salaries for those with merit,
and honor those who achieve success.
Here spreading universal
love is considered spreading the princely mind.
The people can be influenced in a moral way by caring for them
with kindness, humanity, justice, goodness, faithfulness, and
propriety.
They can be harmonized with music, limited with time,
tested with words,
sent forth with strength, and overawed with
sincerity.
However, one who is incompetent in government has barren
fields, empty towns,
offices in disarray, laws ignored, empty
granaries, and full jails.
The worthy withdraw, while the wicked
advance;
officials esteem flattery and look down on honesty.
Citizens
honor profit-seeking and despise martial courage;
they love drinking
and eating but abhor agricultural labor.
The result will be exhaustion
of fiscal resources and lack of food.
Such a ruler is extremely
severe and demanding,
while the officials are disobedient and
destructive, resulting in discord.
Benevolent government opens up fields, regulates shops, cultivates
horticulture,
exhorts the citizenry, encourages farming, repairs
the walls and buildings,
and circulates wealth by developing hidden
resources, building roads,
making markets convenient, and providing
travel lodgings.
Government is liberalized by easing exactions,
lightening levies, relaxing punishments,
pardoning crimes, and
forgiving minor errors.
The people are assisted by being compassionate
to orphans,
the widowed, the sick, and the unfortunate.
They are
further aided in distress by clothing the freezing, feeding the
starving,
assisting the poor, and comforting the upset.
Benevolent
government can then lead to just conduct and propriety, resulting
in respect.
Heaven serves with its seasons, earth with its natural resources,
spirits with their omens,
and animals with their strength; but
humans serve with their virtue.
The Guan-zi notes that
nothing destroys goods, impoverishes the people,
endangers the
country, or causes the ruler concern more than the armed forces;
but from the ancient times no one has been able to dispense with
them.
Violent and reckless princes cannot avoid external disorders,
but weak and irresolute princes cannot avoid internal disorders.
Finally Guan-zi advises us that the enlightened kings governed
by being cautious and making the people happy.
The best thing is to criticize oneself.
Then the people will not have to criticize.
The people will criticize those who are unable to criticize themselves.
Therefore, being able to judge one's own mistakes represents strength.
Cultivating one's moral integrity represents wisdom.
Not blaming evil on others represents goodness.
Therefore, when the enlightened kings made mistakes,
they took the blame themselves.
When they did well, they gave credit to the people.
When there are mistakes and one takes the blame oneself,
one becomes cautious.
When things are done well and credit is given to the people,
they are happy.1
At the same time the book named after Guan Zhong was circulating
in the third century,
there was another legalist tract going around
attributed to the fourth-century
chancellor of Qin, Shang Yang,
called the Book of Lord Shang.
It begins with a discussion
led by Duke Xiao with three great officers on the world's affairs.
The Duke wants to alter the laws but is afraid of being criticized
by the people.
Believing that the people's thoughts do not matter
at the beginning,
but they may rejoice in the completion, Shang
Yang says,
"The law is an expression of love for the people."2
He believes the wise do not model themselves on antiquity
nor
adhere to established rites if they can benefit the people.
The
wise create laws, but the foolish are controlled by them.
The
great emperors and kings of the past did not copy one another
but acted according to practical requirements.
Thus according
to Shang Yang's advice,
the Duke decided to bring the waste lands
under cultivation.
In order to strengthen the country Shang Yang believed that
everyone's efforts should be devoted to agriculture and war.
A
strict legalist, Shang Yang's book is definitely anti-Confucian,
as seen by the beginning of the section on "Discussion About
the People."
Sophistry and cleverness are an aid to lawlessness;
rites and music are symptoms of dissipations and license;
kindness and benevolence are the foster-mother of transgressions;
employment and promotion are opportunities for the rapacity of the wicked.3
These eight things would make the people stronger than the
government and the state weak.
Shang Yang wanted the government
to be stronger than the people
so that the army will be strong,
and the state can attain supremacy.
If the officials are virtuous,
the people will love their relatives;
but if officials are wicked,
people will love the statutes and spy on others
so that crimes
will be punished.
Thus this book actually argues against virtue
and the strength of the people
but for a strong government and
army.
The poor should be urged to work by rewards, and the rich
should be punished
so that they will not be parasites.
Private
rewards to those below should be forbidden
so that the people
will fight forcibly against the enemy.
In the best ordered state the laws are clear, and the judgments
are made by the families;
in a merely strong state judgments are
made by the officials;
and in a weak and disordered state judgments
are made by the prince.
Shang Yang's book recommends statistical
methods
in cultivating the grass lands and making uniform rewards
for soldiers.
Orderly government is to be brought about by law,
good faith, and correct standards.
When rights and duties are
clearly established by law, self-interest will not do harm.
The Book of Lord Shang criticizes contemporary states
that are disorderly
because of private benefits going to those
in office.
Bad ministers let their standards be influenced by
money in order to obtain emoluments.
When the ministers compete
with each other in selfishness and neglect the people,
inferiors
are estranged from superiors, dividing the state.
States are in
disorder, because the law is not applied.
Crimes are committed,
because their perpetrators are not caught.
This book argues that
if punishments are too light, crime cannot be eradicated;
but
when punishments are heavy, people will not dare to do wrong.
Then everyone will be virtuous without rewarding the virtuous.
Rewarding the virtuous is not permissible, because it is like
giving rewards for not stealing.
The good may be good toward others
but cannot cause others to be good;
they may love others but cannot
cause others to love.
Thus goodness is not sufficient for governing
the empire.
The wise insist on good faith and have a method (law)
by which the whole empire can be compelled to have good faith.
Thus when law is correctly administered, the result will be virtue.
The legalist argues that if a condition can be brought about
where there is
no other standard than the law, then the clever
will be unable to do wrong.
If people are controlled by law and
if promotions are awarded
by following systematic rules, then
they will not be able to benefit each other
with praise nor harm
each other with slander.
Then they will become accustomed to loving
each other without flattery
and hating each other without injuring
each other, thus purifying love and hatred
and producing the highest
degree of order.
Some of these principles of law are commendable,
in my opinion,
but the accompanying ideas of control by harsh
punishments
and that people should not be allowed to exert their
capabilities
in anything other than farming or war are abominable.
Unlike the other great Chinese philosophers of this era
(Lao-zi, Confucius,
Mo-zi, Mencius,
Zhuang-zi, and Xun-zi)
who were impoverished noblemen,
Han Fei-zi was a prince of the
royal family in the state of Han.
He was born around 280 BC and
studied under the Confucian realist Xun-zi
at the Chi-Xia academy
along with Li Si, who considered Han the better student,
according
to Sima Qian's biography.
Since he was not a good speaker, Han
Fei submitted his writings to the rulers of Han.
The king of Han,
however, did not apply them;
but Han Fei continued to complain
that ambitious scholars and militarists
were given prominence
over honest gentlemen.
Eventually the writings of Han Fei came to the attention of
the young king of Qin,
who began ruling in 246 BC and went on
to become
the founding Emperor of the Qin dynasty, Shi Huang Di.
His prime minister was Han Fei's old friend Li Si,
who informed
his sovereign these writings were Han Fei's.
In 234 BC Qin attacked
the state of Han,
and their king An sent Han Fei as his envoy
to Qin.
The king of Qin was delighted to meet the philosopher,
but Li Si warned the king that Han Fei was of the royal family
of Han
and likely to remain loyal to that state and therefore
be against Qin.
Charges were brought against Han Fei,
who wanted
to plead his case before the king,
but he was not allowed an audience.
So Han Fei sent a written memorial in which he acknowledged
the perpendicular alliance
formed from a north-south line of countries
against the western power of Qin;
but he argued that they were
weak and likely to run away in a confrontation,
because they have
no faith in rewards and punishments.
In contrast the people of
Qin respect courageous death,
and it is a much more powerful country.
Nevertheless Qin has not yet gained hegemony, because its counselors
are not loyal.
Han Fei suggested that Qin could conquer the powerful
Chu in the south
and Qi and Yan in the east as well as the three
states of Zhao, Han, and Wei,
which had formed out of Jin.
He
recounted several times in history when Qin lost its opportunity
to gain this hegemony.
Han Fei declared that if his advice was
followed and Qin did not gain hegemony,
then the king could behead
him as a warning to others.
In another memorial Han Fei urged the king of Qin to treat
Han as a loyal ally
rather than an enemy so that the perpendicular
alliance
would not be mobilized against him.
However, Li Si argued
against this theory to the king and sent poison to Han Fei in
prison.
Han Fei, unable to communicate with the king, drank it
and died in 233 BC.
Although the king regretted his decision and
pardoned Han Fei, it was too late.
Han Fei-zi is the main representative of the school of philosophy
called Fa-jia, the legalists or realists.
He drew the concept
of law (fa) from the Book of Lord Shang
and the
idea of administration (shu) from the writings of Shen
Buhai.
From the logicians he borrowed the theory of forms and
names (xing-ming),
which he applied to politics as the
correspondence between administrators' words
and job descriptions
and their actual functioning in practice.
Han Fei-zi was also very much influenced by Daoism,
making a strange combination of legalistic authoritarianism and
passive acceptance.
His essay on the "Way of the Ruler"
shows this relationship.
It begins,
The way is the beginning of all beings and the measure of right and wrong.
Therefore the enlightened ruler holds fast to the beginning in order to
understand the wellspring of all beings, and minds the measure in order
to know the source of good and bad.
He waits, empty and still, letting names define themselves and affairs
reach their own settlement.
Being empty, he can comprehend the true aspect of fullness;
being still, he can correct the mover.
Those whose duty it is to speak will come forward to name themselves;
those whose duty it is to act will produce results.
When names and realities match, the ruler need do nothing more
and the true aspect of all things will be revealed.
Hence it is said: The ruler must not reveal his desires
for if he reveals his desires his ministers
will put on the mask that pleases him.4
Han Fei-zi did not want the ruler to be manipulated by his
ministers,
which is why he advised the sovereign not to reveal
his will
or express his likes and dislikes.
The wise ruler does
not expose his wisdom but has everyone know their place,
does
not display his worth but observes the motives of the ministers,
and does not flaunt bravery in shows of indignation
but allows
subordinates to demonstrate their valor.
The officials have their
regular duties, and each is employed according to specific ability.
The ruler practices inaction, but the ministers below tremble
in fear.
The inferior ruler uses his own ability; the average
ruler uses the people's strength;
and the best ruler uses the
people's wisdom.
The ruler takes credit for accomplishments but holds ministers
responsible for their errors.
The ministers labor and display
wisdom,
but the ruler is their corrector and maintains an untarnished
reputation.
The ruler should know but not let it be known that
he knows.
Each person's words are to be compared with their results.
Officials should not know what others are doing.
No one must be
allowed to covet his power in this authoritarian regime.
The ruler
uses the two handles of rewards and punishments
to control others
and examines results to see how they match his objectives.
The
ruler is to be immeasurably great and unfathomably deep,
while
any attempt of ministers to form cliques is to be smashed.
Thus ministers should not be allowed to shut out the ruler
nor control the wealth
of the state nor issue their own orders
nor do good deeds in their own name
nor build up cliques so that
the ruler will not lose effectiveness,
the means of dispensing
bounties and command,
his reputation for enlightenment,
and his
support.
The way of the ruler is to observe calmly
what others
say and do without speaking or doing himself.
He notes proposals
and examines their results.
He assigns tasks to ministers according
to what they say
and the accomplishments that result.
Those whose
deeds match their words are rewarded;
when things do not match,
they are punished.
These rewards and punishments must be dispensed
objectively so that
even those close to the ruler may be punished
and those far away can be sure of reward.
Thus all will have to
make effort, and none can be too proud.
Nevertheless for Han Fei-zi what transcends even the ruler
is the law.
"On Having Standards" explains that an enlightened
ruler uses the law to select officials
by weighing their merits
without attempting to judge them himself.
True worth will not
remain hidden, and faults will not be glossed over.
Praise will
not help some advance, nor will calumny drive others from the
court.
Ministers are to be like the hands and feet of the ruler,
not presuming to use their mouths to speak for private advantage
or their eyes to look for private gain.
Even the ruler must never
use wise ministers and able servants for selfish ends
so that
the government can be consistent and good.
Han Fei-zi disdained those who leave their posts to search
for another sovereign,
controvert the law with false doctrines,
censure their sovereign,
try to gain a name for themselves by
doling out charity,
or even those who withdraw from the world
and criticize their superiors or seek
favorable relations with
other states in order to make themselves indispensable in a crisis.
If the ruler tries to monitor the government with his own eyes,
ears, and mind,
he can be manipulated by what is presented to
him.
Thus the ancient kings relied on law and policy to make sure
that rewards and punishments were correctly implemented.
Then
even clever speakers could not deceive them.
Authority and power
should never be in more than one place
or else abuse will become
rife.
If law is not respected, all the ruler's actions will be
endangered.
If penalties are not enforced, evil cannot be overcome.
Even the highest minister must not be allowed to escape punishment,
nor should the lowest peasant's reward be skipped.
Thus those
in high positions will not abuse the humble.
f laws are clearly
defined, superiors will be honored, and rights will not be invaded.
Han Fei-zi warned the ruler against eight villainies.
Though
a ruler may share his bed with beauties,
he should not listen
to their special pleas.
He should hold attendants personally responsible
for their words
and not allow them to speak out of turn.
He should
not allow kin and elder statesmen to escape
appropriate punishment
nor advance them arbitrarily.
Buildings may be constructed to
delight the ruler,
but officials should not be allowed to use
them to ingratiate themselves.
Orders for doling out charity in
time of need must
never come from ministers but from the ruler.
The true abilities of those who are flattered must be determined,
likewise the faults of those who are denounced.
Military heroes
should not be given unduly large rewards,
and those who take up
arms in a private quarrel must never be pardoned.
Officials must
not be allowed to have their own soldiers, and requests of feudal
lords
should be granted if they are lawful, but rejected if they
are not.
In the essay "Ten Faults" Han Fei-zi listed them
briefly
and then gives numerous historical examples of each one.
The list is as follows:
1. To practice petty loyalty and thereby betray a larger loyalty.
2. To fix your eye on a petty gain and thereby lose a larger one.
3. To behave in a base and willful manner and show no courtesy to
the other feudal lords, thereby bringing about your own downfall.
4. To give no ear to government affairs but long only for the sound of music,
thereby plunging yourself into distress.
5. To be greedy, perverse, and too fond of profit, thereby opening the
way to the destruction of the state and your own demise.
6. To become infatuated with women musicians and disregard state affairs,
thereby inviting the disaster of national destruction.
7. To leave the palace for distant travels, despising the remonstrance
of your ministers, which leads to grave peril for yourself.
8. To fail to heed your loyal ministers when you are at fault, insisting
upon having your own way, which will in time destroy your good
reputation and make you a laughing stock of others.
9. To take no account of internal strength but rely solely upon your
allies abroad, which places the state in grave danger of dismemberment.
10. To insult big powers even though your state is small,
and fail to learn from the remonstrances of your ministers
acts which lead to the downfall of your line.5
Han Fei-zi also wrote on the difficulties of persuading a ruler.
This requires more than general knowledge and the ability to express
oneself well.
The most difficult part is to know the mind of the
person one is trying to persuade
so that fitting words can be
used.
One does not talk about profit to one who is seeking a reputation
for virtue;
and if one is talking to someone who wants profit,
it is useless to talk about virtue.
If the person secretly wants
gain but claims to be virtuous, and you talk about virtue,
he
will pretend to listen but ignore you.
If you talk about profit,
he will appear to reject your advice but secretly follow it.
Han
Fei-zi also discussed many other complicated situations,
many
of them quite dangerous for the advisor because of the insecurity
of the sovereign.
He concluded that it is not difficult to know
something;
the difficulty is in knowing how to use what one knows.
For Han Fei-zi the wise governs by rectifying laws clearly
and establishing severe penalties
in order to prevent the strong
from exploiting the weak and the many from oppressing the few,
to enable the old and infirm to die in peace and the young and
orphans to grow freely,
to make sure frontiers are not invaded,
the ruler and minister are on intimate terms,
fathers and sons
support each other, and people do not worry
about being killed
in war or taken prisoner.
He believed that stupid people want
order but dislike the true path to order,
which he considered
to be the severe penalties, even though they are hated by people.
Mercy and pity are welcomed by the people,
but Han Fei-zi believed
they endanger the state.
Although he acknowledged that the legalist
who makes laws in the state acts
contrary to prevailing public
opinion, he nevertheless believed
that this is in accord with
the way, virtue, and justice.
In "Precautions within the Palace" Han Fei-zi wrote
that
it is dangerous for the ruler to trust others,
for whoever
trusts others will be controlled by them.
Ministers have no blood
bonds with their ruler,
and they never stop trying to spy into
the sovereign's mind.
Thus many rulers are intimidated, and some
are even murdered.
If the ruler trusts his son or his consort,
evil ministers may find ways to use them
for their private schemes.
The ruler must make sure that no one receives unearned rewards
nor oversteps their authority.
Death penalties must be executed,
and no crime must go unpunished.
However, if too much compulsory
labor is demanded of people,
they will feel afflicted and join
local power groups.
Local power groups then work to exempt people
from labor service
which enables their leaders to grow rich on
bribes.
Thus the ruler should keep labor services minimal so that
the power groups will disappear,
and all favors will come from
the sovereign.
Han Fei-zi was afraid that if the ruler lends even
a little of his power to others,
the superior and inferior will
change places.
Thus no ministers should be allowed to borrow the
power and authority of the ruler.
According to Han Fei-zi the ruler should be so strict that
if what a minister says beforehand
does not tally with what he
says or does later,
he must be punished even though he may have
fulfilled his task with distinction.
This, he believed, will keep
the subordinates responsible.
Han Fei-zi held that the ruler must
be strict enough to put these theories into practice
even though
it means going against the will of the people.
He noted how Lord
Shang had to be guarded with iron spears and heavy shields,
and
eventually the people of Qin tore apart his body with two chariots.
When Guan Zhong first instituted his reforms in Qi,
Duke Huan
had to ride in an armored carriage.
Writing on "Pretensions and Heresies," Han Fei-zi
argued that it is the duty of the sovereign
to establish the laws
and standards of right and distinguish these from private interests.
Most ministers want to exalt their private wisdom; but if they
condemn the law as wrong,
their creeds must be regarded as heresy
and suppressed.
The ruler must forbid private favors and enforce
what is ordered.
Yet the private virtue of ministers is to practice
personal faith with friends
and not be encouraged by reward or
discouraged by punishment.
This, Han Fei-zi believed, leads to
disorder;
but where public virtue is practiced, there is order.
Though ministers have selfish motives,
their public duty is to
obey orders and behave unselfishly in office.
Thus ministers must
use their calculating minds
to put aside selfish motives and serve
the ruler.
The ruler also calculates how to protect the state
from injury
by private interests and uses rewards and penalties
to overawe them.
The commentaries on the teachings of Lao-zi in the Han Fei-zi
may have been
by his followers in an era when legalism was trying
to survive by merging with Daoism.
Some of the interpretations
become rather absurd,
as when compassion is extended to military
victory and defense in order to be
compassionate to one's soldiers
(What about the enemy's?)
and even more absurdly to the weapons
themselves.
What could be more perverted than that?
When Han Fei-zi's sage-king makes laws, the rewards must be
enough
to encourage the good, and his authority strong enough
to subjugate the violent;
his preparation must be sufficient to
accomplish his task.
In this system the good live on and flourish,
while the bad fade away and die.
If the pronouncements of the
sovereign are clear and easy to understand,
his promises can be
kept.
If the laws are easy to be observed, his orders will be
effective.
If the superiors are not self-seeking, the inferiors
will obey the law.
Han Fei-zi also recommended seven tactics to the sovereign
and then gave historical examples of how they work.
The first
is to compare and inspect all available and different theories.
Second, punishments must be definite and authority clear.
Third,
rewards are to be bestowed faithfully, and everyone is to exercise
their abilities.
Fourth, the ruler should listen to all sides
of every story
and hold speakers responsible for their words.
So far these are clear and straightforward, but the last three
use deception and manipulation to enhance the power of the ruler.
The fifth is to issue spurious edicts and pretend to make certain
appointments.
Sixth, one may inquire into cases by manipulating
different information,
and seventh, words may be inverted and
tasks reversed.
Ostensibly the purpose of the last three is to
help the ruler find out the truth
by using indirect methods, but
the lack of integrity and damage to credibility
certainly makes
them questionable for the long term.
Han Fei-zi argued that people can be deterred from even small
crimes by serious penalties,
and then they will not commit major
crimes at all.
Thus he hoped that a strong government will not
allow any serious crimes.
Yet the problem is that criminals are
not always caught
no matter how vigilant the government may be.
He noted that the gold-diggers in the south could not be stopped
from stealing gold-dust
even though some were caught and stoned
to death in the marketplace,
and there is no chastisement more
severe than that.
Duke Jing once asked a poor man about the prices in the market.
Yen-zi replied that ordinary shoes are cheap, but shoes for the
footless are expensive.
Duke Jing, who had been busy inflicting
many
punishments (cutting off feet), was embarrassed.
Thinking
he was too cruel, he abolished five laws of the criminal code.
Yet he was criticized by Han Fei-zi, who argued that loosening
censure and giving pardons
benefit the crooks and injure the good
and thus do not lead to political order.
Han Fei-zi did not consider personnel administration easy,
but the ruler must regulate officials with rules and measures,
and then compare their actions with their words.
Projects that
are lawful should be carried out; those that are not should be
stopped.
Results matching proposals should be rewarded;
those
not producing corresponding results should be punished.
Han Fei-zi
believed that only about one person out of a hundred
would act
correctly simply out of virtue,
but everyone loves profit and
dislikes injury.
Thus effective government cannot rely on virtue.
He believed that if the punishment for desertion is heavy,
no
one will run away from the enemy.
Han Fei-zi criticized those who believed that heavy penalties
injure the people
and are unnecessary, because light penalties
can be used.
He argued that heavy penalties are more likely to
deter than light ones,
and therefore they can prevent all crime.
I believe the error in his logic is that he incorrectly generalizes
that heavy penalties
will stop all crimes, which is not the case.
He noted that people often trip on ant-hills, but no one stumbles
over a mountain.
He argued that people will either ignore light
penalties or trip on them like traps.
This may be true, but may
not using heavy penalties
like mountains lead to a monstrous society?
Han Fei-zi described five kinds of customs as vermin,
which
he felt caused a disordered state.
Scholars, who praise ancient
kings for their virtue, put on a fair appearance
but cast doubt
on the laws of the time and confuse the ruler.
Persuaders present
false schemes and borrow influence from abroad to further
their
private interests but injure the welfare of the state's land and
grain.
Heroic swordsmen gather bands of followers and violate
the government's prohibitions.
Courtiers gather in private homes
and bribe influential men to get out of military service.
Finally,
artisans and merchants make and collect useless articles and luxuries,
accumulating wealth, cornering markets, and exploiting farmers.
Han Fei-zi pointed out that even the wise Confucius
was subordinate to Duke Ai of Lu
because of his authority.
He
realistically argued that the people and even kings are not able
to rise
to the goodness and justice of a Confucius,
who could convince only seventy followers.
Rather the enlightened
ruler should make punishments certain as well as severe
so that
people will fear them.
Rewards should be generous and consistent
so that people will seek them.
The best laws are uniform and inflexible
so that people understand them.
Rewards must not be delayed nor
should mercy deflect the administering of punishment.
Praise accompanying
the reward and censure following the punishment
both stimulate
people to do their best.
The wise ruler takes into consideration
the scarcity or plenty of the time.
Punishments may need to be
light but not because of compassion,
while severe penalties are
not imposed because the ruler is cruel.
Circumstances change,
and the ways of dealing with them must also change.
Here Han Fei-zi
showed some flexibility but still did not waver from his calculated
policy.
One method Han Fei-zi recommended for making rewards and punishments
more effective was to have people watch each other and be responsible
for reporting crimes in their community.
By rewarding those who
denounce criminals and punishing those who refuse
to do so as
complicit, he hoped that all kinds of culprits would be detected.
However, this innovation, which was actually a regression to primitive
times,
was implemented by Lord Shang in Qin in the fourth century
BC;
it was one of the reasons he was so unpopular and led to his
death.
Han Fei-zi coldly and calculatingly suggested methods of behavioral
modification
as political theory under an authoritarian system
of monarchy.
He brought these to the attention of the leaders
in the powerful state of Qin,
where he became the first casualty
of a policy that allows no one to challenge
the authority of the
ruler.
Next we shall examine what happened
when Qin implemented
these ideas in its conquest of China.
In 221 BC when Qin took over Qi, the last of the other six
states,
King Zheng's first official act was to declare himself
First August Emperor (Shih Huang Di)
of what we still call China
from the name of his state of Qin.
He abolished the traditional
practice of having posthumous names assigned
by one's successor
and expected his successors to be called August Emperor
of the
second generation and third on down to one thousand and ten thousand
generations,
but ironically his dynasty was to end about four
years after his own death.
According to current cosmology the element water was to succeed
the fire of the
Zhou dynasty,
and so the First Emperor adopted the corresponding characteristics
of water such as the color black, the number six, and the harsh
punishments
of strict laws as indicated by the season winter.
For this reason he refused to pardon any crimes.
The chancellor
suggested that feudal kings be set up in each region
as the Zhou dynasty had done, but
the commandant of justice, Li Si, argued that
the son of heaven
had been unable to control feudal rulers.
Since the power of the
new Emperor had united all the civilized areas between the seas,
they should be made into provinces and districts in the usual
Qin administration.
The Emperor agreed with this, hoping that
the unending warfare
of the kings and marquises could thus be
pacified by his sole rule.
So the empire was divided into 36 provinces, each with a governor,
military commandant, and superintendent.
Weapons from all over
the empire were confiscated and brought to the capital at Xian-yang,
where they were melted down and cast into bells and statues
of
twelve giants weighing 29 tons each.
All weights and measures
were standardized as was the writing system.
According to the
historian Sima Qian, 120,000 rich and powerful families
from all
over the empire were moved to the capital.
Replicas of the palaces
of the conquered states were reconstructed near Xianyang.
Extensive
mansions with elevated walks and fenced pavilions were filled
with beautiful women and treasure taken from the feudal states.
Broad highways were built and lined with trees.
The Emperor
traveled and erected stone markers with inscriptions praising
his accomplishments and claiming that "all is gauged by law
and pattern."6
He exalted agriculture and abolished "lesser
occupations."
The edicts proclaimed that evil and wrongdoing
were no longer permitted;
so everyone was to practice goodness
and integrity.
When the Emperor had difficulty crossing a river
because of winds,
he ordered 3,000 convict laborers to cut down
all the trees on the mountain of the offending goddess.
In 218
BC when an attempted assassination failed,
he ordered a search
of the entire empire for ten days.
Further inscriptions claim
that he captured the kings of the six states,
united all under
heaven, ended harm and disaster, and then laid aside his arms
for all time;
he ordered the whole universe and had established
justice,
and his honored office holders so understood their duties
that everything proceeded without ill feeling or doubt.
The Emperor had local walls and fortifications torn down,
waterways
improved, and canals built.
He claimed that when the land was
fixed, the masses were freed from their forced labor;
but in fact
for ten years an army of 300,000 under General Meng Tian was not
only
fighting the barbarians in the north but also building the
Great Wall to defend the empire.
In 214 BC 500,000 men, who had
run away from conscription or evaded taxes,
were sent to invade
Luliang.
Convicts were sent to populate newly conquered territories.
One day in 213 BC when the Emperor was entertaining seventy
scholars with wine,
one of them complained that the sons and brothers
of the Emperor
were commoners and that if anyone threatened him
he would not be able to respond,
because the Emperor had gone
against the ancient tradition.
The Emperor asked for discussion,
and the chancellor Li Si replied that
the greatest emperors did
not imitate each other.
He criticized past feudal strife and praised
the Emperor's unified rule.
Li Si then complained that scholars
study antiquity and criticize their own age
to mislead and confuse
people.
This discussion of the Emperor's laws causes problems
and should be prohibited.
Li Si therefore recommended that all
historical records other than Qin's be burned.
Anyone other than
approved academicians with literature or writings of the philosophers
must turn them in to be burned within thirty days
or be subjected
to tattoo and "wall dawn" labor.
Books on medicine,
divination, agriculture, and forestry were exempt,
apparently
because they were considered of practical value;
but they could
only be studied under the tutelage of a law official.
Furthermore
anyone who used antiquity to criticize the present
was to be executed
along with his family.
The next year the Emperor felt his palace at Xianyang was too
small;
so he ordered the building of an immense palace at Epang
that
was
connected to the Xianyang palace by an elevated walk
across the Wei River.
700,000 people condemned to castration and
convict labor were called up
for this project and to build the
Emperor's secret mausoleum at Mount Li,
where 30,000 households
were transported.
All 270 palaces in the Xianyang area were connected
by elevated walks and walled roads.
Anyone revealing where the
Emperor was visiting at the moment was put to death.
Once the Emperor happened to notice the large number
of carriages
and attendants of the chancellor.
A eunuch reported this to Li
Si, who reduced the number of his carriages;
but the Emperor was
so outraged by the leak of information that he had all those eunuchs
who attended him that day executed, since none confessed.
Two
advisors, noting the increasing arrogance of the Emperor and the
futility of anyone
trying to give him advice on pain of death,
fled in secret.
This led to an investigation of all the scholars
in the capital and the execution of 460.
Meanwhile increasing
numbers of convicts were being transported to the border regions.
When the oldest son Fusu tried to remonstrate with the Emperor,
he was sent to supervise the activities of General Meng Tian in
the north.
In 211 BC a meteor landed, and someone inscribed on the stone,
"The First Emperor will die, and his land will be divided."7
Failing to find the author, the Emperor had everyone
in the area
put to death and the stone pulverized.
The next year the Emperor
went on tour with Li Si
and his youngest son Huhai accompanying
him.
The magicians put off the Emperor, who was intent on finding
the herb of immortality,
by saying a large fish prevented them
from getting to the island of immortality.
The Emperor dreamed
that he was struggling with an ocean god and later
shot a huge
fish himself with his crossbow.
Shortly after that he fell ill;
when his condition became grave,
he wrote a letter under the imperial
seal to his son Fusu,
telling him to carry out the burial in the
capital.
The letter was sealed and given to Zhao Gao, the eunuch
in charge of the seals,
but it had not yet been entrusted to a
messenger when the Emperor died at Sand Hill.
Only Prince Huhai, chancellor Li Si, Zhao Gao, and five or
six trusted eunuchs
knew of the First Emperor's death.
Since they
were far from the capital and no heir had been designated,
Li
Si kept it a secret and put the body in a closed carriage
where
imperial government continued.
Zhao Gao, who had kept the letter
to Fusu and was Huhai's tutor,
went to the latter and persuaded
him to go along with what he knew was not virtuous.
Huhai reluctantly
agreed to let Zhao Gao consult with chancellor Li Si,
and after
a long discussion of Li Si's opposing prospects,
he too agreed
to Zhao Gao's proposal.
Thus the three plotted together.
Pretending
they received an edict from the First Emperor making Huhai the
successor,
they forged a letter to the elder son Fusu accusing
him and General Meng Tian
of many things and suggesting that they
commit suicide.
Receiving the letter, Fusu wept and prepared to take his life,
but Meng Tian recommended waiting for confirmation.
At the messenger's
insistent urging the prince committed suicide, and Meng Tian,
who refused to do so, was imprisoned.
As the Emperor's corpse
was being returned to the capital,
surrounding carriages were
loaded with fish to disguise the smell.
The body of the First
Emperor was interred in the immense mausoleum at Mount Li
along
with the women in his harem who bore no sons
and the artisans
who knew about the secret tomb.
The Second Emperor was 21 years old and entrusted the handling
of state affairs
to Zhao Gao, who urged him to make the laws sterner
and the penalties more severe
and extended to accomplices and
families so that the chief ministers, who sow dissension,
could
be wiped out and the former Emperor's officials be replaced by
those
who could be trusted by the new Emperor.
Meng Tian was forced
to take poison, and his younger brother,
some of the chief ministers,
and six (or twelve) princes were executed
in the marketplace of
Xianyang; all their wealth was confiscated by the state.
Construction work on the Epang palace and roads resumed,
making
taxes and levies on labor increasingly heavy.
50,000 crossbowmen
were brought to the capital from all over the empire,
and for
them and their dogs, horses, and other animals food
had to be
shipped in from surrounding areas, increasing hardships.
In the late summer of 209 BC a former laborer named Chen She,
who was in charge of transporting 900 convicts to a penitentiary
settlement,
was delayed by rain from arriving on time.
Knowing
that his penalty for tardiness would be death,
he started a rebellion
and declared himself king of Chu.
Using plow handles and sticks
they rampaged over the empire.
Numerous young men, calling themselves
the magnifiers of Chu,
murdered provincial Qin officials and set
themselves up as marquises and kings,
joined forces, and planned
to attack Qin.
When an official returning from the area reported the rebellion,
the enraged Emperor ordered him punished.
After that, envoys when
questioned replied that it was just a bunch of bandits,
who would
soon be captured; this pleased the Emperor.
Li Si tried to remonstrate
with the Emperor, but he would not listen to him.
The Emperor
said that to work hard all the time like past emperors mentioned
in Han Fei-zi's "Five Vermin" was to be a slave
when
his sole concern should be to gratify himself.
Li Si's son was
governor of a province the rebels had invaded,
and he had not
been able to stop them.
By winter a rebel army of several hundred
thousand was approaching the capital,
but General Zhang Han, using
a force of convicts pardoned and released from working
on the
Emperor's monument, forced the rebels to retreat to the east,
where Chen She
was assassinated by his charioteer.
However, by
now the rebellion was widespread.
Li Si was reprimanded for allowing such outbreaks of bandits;
so he wrote a scholarly reply to the Emperor in which he quoted
from Shen Buhai
and Han Fei-zi, arguing that if the techniques
of supervision and reprimand
are correctly applied, one cannot
fail.
Pleased, the Emperor increased the severity of the supervising
and reprimanding activities.
Those officials who squeezed the
most taxes out of people were admired,
as were those who put the
largest numbers of people to death.
Zhao Gao convinced the Emperor
that he should not expose his shortcomings
before the chief ministers
in court but rather make decisions
in the inner recesses of the
palace, where he himself
and a few other attendants could wait
upon him.
Soon all decisions were being made by Zhao Gao.
This powerful
eunuch then went to Li Si and asked him to remonstrate with the
Emperor.
Li Si said he would but could not see the Emperor, because
he was hidden away.
Zhao Gao offered to tell Li Si when was a
good time to request an interview;
but instead he told him the
times when the Emperor
was relaxing and did not want to be disturbed.
Already perturbed, the Emperor was easily persuaded
that Li Si
and his son should be investigated.
Unable to see the Emperor,
Li Si wrote a memorial warning that
Zhao Gao's power was dangerous.
However, the young Emperor trusted his long-time tutor and
had Li Si arrested instead.
Zhao Gao had Li Si beaten until he
confessed.
In a letter to the Emperor Li Si listed his crimes
as helping his king to annex all six states
and become Emperor,
driving out barbarians, honoring loyal ministers,
standardizing
measures and ordinances, constructing roads and pleasure parks,
and relaxing penalties and lessening taxes.
When the Emperor sent
someone to question him, Li Si refused to speak,
because he thought
he was like the others who had examined him.
Li Si's son had been
killed by the rebels, but Zhao Gao falsified the report to make
it
look like he was a traitor.
Finally Li Si underwent the most
severe punishment of the five mutilations,
and his body was cut
in two in the marketplace.
All his relatives were also executed.
Zhao Gao was made chancellor. Zhang Han, losing battles against
the fighters of Chu,
sent the chief official to the capital for
instructions,
but Zhao Gao refused to see him or believe him.
Learning that Zhao Gao was controlling the government and that
he would be executed
whether he won in battle or not, Zhang Han
and others surrendered their armies
to the leaders of the states.
To test the ministers Zhao Gao had a deer presented to the Emperor
but said it was a horse.
The Emperor laughed at his chancellor
calling a deer a horse and then asked his courtiers.
Some who
wanted to please Zhao Gao said it was a horse,
and Zhao Gao secretly
made sure that
those who said it was a deer were charged with
crimes.
When Zhao Gao realized that the former states had set up kings
and were defeating
the Qin forces, he was afraid he would be punished
for misleading the Emperor
about the seriousness of the problem.
So with his son-in-law he staged a fake rebel attack on the palace,
killed thirty or forty guards, and forced the Second Emperor to
commit suicide.
When the one eunuch, who had remained loyal to
the Emperor,
was asked by the Emperor why he did not warn him
sooner,
he replied that if he had dared to speak
he would have
been put to death long before.
Zhao Gao summoned all the officials and the royal family to
inform them
he had punished the Second Emperor.
Then he set up
Ziying, son of an older brother of the Second Emperor, as king
of Qin,
since the six independent states would have made the title
Emperor a mockery.
Afraid he would be put to death in the temple,
Ziying waited for Zhao Gao
to come get him where he was fasting.
Then Ziying stabbed and killed Zhao Gao and had his relatives
executed.
After 46 days the Qin armies were defeated,
and Ziying
surrendered with a rope around his neck.
Liu Bang, the governor of Pei, entered the capital without
destroying it;
but Xiang Yu came and burned the city, probably
destroying more literature
than the recent official burning of
books.
Ziying and the rest of the royal family were executed;
the Qin empire was dead in 206 BC.
Xiang Yu declared himself protector
king of Western Chu and divided the empire
among various kings
and marquises, making Liu Bang king of Han.
A Confucian scholar named
Jia I (201-169 BC) wrote the "Faults of Qin."
He observed
that Qin's long military dominance was primarily due to its strategic
geographical position in the fertile Wei River valley surrounded
by mountains
and the Yellow River with only a narrow pass to defend.
Although the people hoped for peace under the unified empire,
he criticized the First Emperor for being greedy and short-sighted
and never trusting his officials nor getting to know the people.
He cast aside the royal way by relying on private procedures,
outlawing writings,
making laws and penalties harsh, putting deceit
first and humanity and justice last,
and leading the whole world
in violence and cruelty.
These methods may have worked temporarily
in seizing an empire,
but they did not work in preserving it.
Similarly Jia I argued that the Second Emperor might have been
able to answer
the people's hopes if he had cared for the nation's
ills,
corrected the First Emperor's errors, apportioned the land
to the people,
enfeoffed worthy ministers, set up states to order
the empire with propriety,
emptied the prisons, pardoned those
condemned to death,
abolished slavery and humiliating punishments,
allowed people to return to their villages,
opened the granaries
and dispersed funds to help orphans and the poor,
lightened taxes
and labor requirements, simplified laws and reduced penalties,
and allowed people to make a new beginning and practice integrity,
presiding over the empire with authority and virtue;
then the
people would have flocked to him.
However, the Second Emperor
did not adopt these policies but rather multiplied laws
and made
punishments harsher with unjust rewards
and penalties and unlimited
taxes and levies.
Officials could not supervise all the tasks
assigned,
and people sank into poverty and destitution.
Then villainy
and deceit sprang up all around, as superiors and inferiors turned
on each other.
The numbers of those accused of crimes grew, and
everyone feared for their safety.
Thus people were easily aroused
to violent rebellion.
After Qin commander Zhang Han defeated the first rebel attack
inside the Hangu Pass,
Wu Chen went to Zhao, where he set himself
up as king of Zhao, Chen Yu as general,
and Zhang Er and Shao
Sao as prime ministers.
Rebel leader Chen She wanted to have all
their families executed,
but his chief minister, Cai Ci, convinced
him that this would be plaguing the people
with a second Qin;
so he confirmed their positions.
Chen She, calling himself king
of Chu, asked them for troops to attack the Hangu Pass again,
but they decided it was safer to seize Yan.
Zhang Han attacked
the city of Chen and killed Cai Ci;
Chen She retreated and was
murdered by his carriage driver.
Chen She had ruthlessly executed
an old peasant friend of his for embarrassing him
and had appointed
two men, who severely punished generals
for not carrying out orders
exactly.
Two officials in Pei, Xiao He and Cao Can, urged the magistrate
there to revolt,
but he changed his mind.
Liu Bang shot a message
over the wall which convinced the people of Pei
to execute the
magistrate, which they did;
they then insisted that Liu Bang be
their new governor,
and his following quickly grew to 3,000 men.
Meanwhile members of the royal Tian family in Qi had set themselves
up as sovereigns there,
and the martial family of Xiang Liang
and his nephew Xiang Yu arose in Wu.
Xiang Liang gave the new
governor of Pei five thousand infantry to attack Fang.
Hearing
that Chen She was dead, Xiang Liang and the governor of Pei
set
up the grandson of former King Huai as king of Chu.
The governor
of Pei and Xiang Yu defeated Qin forces
at Chengyang and massacred
its inhabitants.
Xiang Liang boasted of his victories over Qin
but was defeated and killed by Zhang Han.
Afraid, King Huai of Chu moved his capital to Pengcheng.
He
appointed the governor of Pei a marquis and Xiang Yu duke of Lu
and second general under Song Yi, both of whom
he sent north to
rescue Zhao from Zhang Han's attacks.
The governor of Pei he sent
west to enter the Hangu Pass, promising that whoever
should enter
the Pass first and conquer the Qin region should be king there.
The bold Xiang Yu wanted to attempt the Pass,
but King Huai's
elder generals advised him that Xiang Yu,
who had butchered the
inhabitants of Xiangcheng, was too impetuous and cruel;
they argued
that the tolerance and moral stature of the governor of Pei would
be
more likely to win over the suffering people of Qin.
So Xiang
Yu went north with Song Yi, whose head he personally cut off for
refusing
to attack in spite of hunger and cold, though he said
that Song Yi was plotting with Qi.
Confirmed as supreme general,
Xiang Yu led his Chu armies across the Yellow River,
sunk his
own boats and smashed the cooking pots,
and after nine battles
defeated the Qin army.
It was at this time that Zhang Han sent
for instructions from the Qin Emperor
and decided to ally himself
with the revolt.
Meanwhile the governor of Pei gained the advisor Li Yiji,
who
told him how to capture Qin's stores of grain.
Another advisor,
Zhang Liang, told him not to pass by the city of Yuan,
where he
was persuaded to enfeoff its surrendering governor.
Then Zhang
Liang sent Li Yiji and Lu Jia to bribe Qin's generals.
The governor
of Pei ordered his men not to plunder or seize prisoners,
and
the Qin armies were easily defeated. Soon Ziying, the king of
Qin,
surrendered with a rope around his neck.
When the governor
of Pei entered the capital at Xianyang,
he ordered Qin's treasures
sealed up; then he abolished all of Qin's irksome laws
except
for murder and reasonable punishments for assault and theft.
The
people of Qin rejoiced and brought gifts to the governor of Pei,
but he declined them.
Xiao Ho collected Qin's important charts,
registers, and documents,
which later proved of strategic value.
The governor of Pei claimed to have a force of 200,000, which
was actually 100,000,
while Xiang Yu came through the Pass claiming
one million men, which was really 400,000.
The governor of Pei
apologized to general Xiang Yu for guarding the Pass at first
and explained that he had preserved Qin's treasures while waiting
for him.
After killing Qin king Ziying and burning the capital,
Xiang Yu declared King Huai the Just Emperor and himself protector
king of Western Chu;
but going back on the promise to the general
who first entered the Pass,
he assigned the Qin area to Zhang
Han and two other former Qin generals,
while the governor of Pei
was only made the king of Han.
Various generals and nobles were
set up as eighteen local kings.
Angry at the broken promise, the
king of Han wanted to attack Xiang Yu
but was restrained by Xiao
Ho.
In 206 BC they all went to their own sovereignties.
Han Xin persuaded the king of Han that his new position was
really an exile
and that this was the time he could re-unify Qin
and then march east.
That summer the king of Han made a surprise
attack and defeated Zhang Han
and the other Qin generals.
He proclaimed
an amnesty for criminals, allowed the people to use
the parks
and orchards that had been imperial Qin reserves,
and granted
two years' exemption from taxes and service.
He appointed a local
leader in each district from those
over age fifty with cultivated
personalities.
In the east Xiang Yu had the Just Emperor moved and then assassinated.
In Qi he tried to replace king Tian Rong with Tian Du,
and he
sent Peng Yue to lead a revolt in Liang.
Chen Yu, resenting that
he had not been made a king,
asked Tian Rong to join him in attacking
Chen's friend Zhang Er, king of Changshan,
who fled to join the
king of Han.
Xiang Yu attacked and defeated Tian Rong and made
all of Qi submit to Chu,
but by burning its cities and enslaving
the women and children
the people of Qi were aroused to revolt
again.
In 205 BC the king of Han headed east and got the support
of
the king of Wei and subdued the king of Yin.
As he crossed the
Yellow River, a local leader told him that the Just Emperor was
dead.
The king of Han proclaimed mourning and vowed vengeance
against Xiang Yu.
With Xiang Yu busy in Qi, the king of Han was
able to enter his capital at Pengcheng;
but Xiang Yu marched back
and inflicted a bloody defeat on the king of Han,
capturing his
parents, wife, and children.
The king of Han escaped to the west,
but many abandoned his cause.
However, by establishing his base
at Xingyang near the Ao Granary
he was able to rebuild and supply
his army.
Xiang Yu attacked and cut off the Han supply road and then
surrounded the Han army.
The king of Han suggested they divide
the empire in two,
but Xiang Yu refused.
Using the subterfuge
of women dressed in armor and a general impersonating the king,
once again the king of Han managed to escape with a few horsemen,
this time to within the Pass.
Eventually Xiang Yu and the king
of Han personally
faced each other across the ravine at Guangwu.
Xiang Yu, the invincible warrior, challenged the king of Han to
a single combat;
but the latter accused the former of breaking
his promise, murdering Song Yi,
burning the palaces of Qin and
killing its king, slaughtering 200,000 men
he had tricked into
surrendering, replacing local kings with his generals,
and driving
out and assassinating the Just Emperor.
The king of Han intended
to punish him for these crimes,
but Xiang Yu shot an arrow, wounding
him in the chest,
though the king of Han pretended it was his
foot.
Han Xin was winning victories in the east,
and the king of
Han reluctantly appointed him king of Qi.
The king of Han had
to levy a poll tax for the first time
but magnanimously ordered
coffins so that killed soldiers' bodies could be returned home.
After suffering repeated attacks by Peng Yue and Han Xin,
Xiang
Yu's army had little food.
So he agreed to divide the empire with
the king of Han and released his family.
The king of Han was going
to return to his western domain,
but his advisors persuaded him
that this was the opportunity to pursue Xiang Yu.
At first he
suffered a grave defeat from Chu,
but with the help of Han Xin
and Peng Yue he gathered
a force of 300,000 to Xiang Yu's 100,000.
The Han soldiers sang the songs of Chu, which convinced
the soldiers
of Xiang Yu that Han had conquered Chu.
Xiang Yu fled in despair,
pursued by Han cavalry who killed 80,000.
After killing many enemies
himself Xiang Yu eventually cut his own throat.
Xiang Yu died
believing he was destroyed by heaven,
but the historian Sima Qian
criticized him for not accepting responsibility for his errors.
Finally in 202 BC the king of Han assumed the position of supreme
Emperor
and was renamed Gaozu meaning "Exalted Ancestor."
Han Xin was transfered to be king of Chu; Peng Yue was made king
of Liang
and Wu Rui king of Changsha.
Confirmed in their positions
were Xin as king of a different Han,
Qing Bu as king of Huainan,
Zang Tu as king of Yan, and Zhang Ao as king of Zhao.
Armies were
disbanded, and Gaozu made his capital at Luoyang,
giving credit
to advisor Zhang Liang, chancellor Xiao Ho, and general Han Xin.
Although Luoyang was considered the center of the world, Liu Jing
persuaded
the Emperor that in these circumstances it would be
more strategic
to locate his capital inside the Hangu Pass.
Accordingly
Gaozu established the imperial capital near Xianyang at Chang'an
and declared a general amnesty.
All slaves were freed, and refugees
and exiles had their civil rights restored.
During Gaozu's seven-year reign most of the kings were suspected
of revolting and were replaced by members of Gaozu's family.
Zang Tu
was replaced in Yan by Gaozu's boyhood friend Lu Wan.
Han Xin
was arrested and demoted.
The other Han Xin joined the Xiongnu
threatening his Han kingdom.
The Emperor's son-in-law, Zhang Ao
of Zhao,
conspired to assassinate Gaozu and was demoted.
General
Peng Yue was arrested, sent into exile, and then executed.
Qing
Bu's rebellion was defeated, and he was killed.
Lu Wan came under
suspicion and moved his family and troops outside the Great Wall.
When Gaozu died in 195 BC, nine of his sons and relatives ruled
kingdoms,
and only the small realm of Changsha was outside the
imperial house.
Gradually Emperor Gaozu became more receptive to Confucian
influences.
Once he angrily declared to Lu Jia that he had won
everything on horseback
and asked him why he should bother with
the Odes and Documents.
Master Lu asked
whether he could rule the empire on horseback.
He noted rulers
who failed, because they paid too much attention to military affairs.
If Qin had practiced goodness and justice, this Emperor would
never have arisen.
To the Emperor's delight Lu Jia wrote a book
called New Discourses,
explaining why Qin lost the empire
and Gaozu won it.
An edict in 196 BC proclaimed that those with
reputations for virtue
were to be sent to the chancellor so that
they could be given appropriate positions.
The heir apparent was Ying, the son of Empress Lu, but Gaozu
felt that his son,
Ruyi, by the concubine Lady Qi was more like
him.
However, his advisors were able to dissuade him from changing
the heir apparent,
which could cause conflict and turmoil.
When
Gaozu died in 195 BC, the Empress Lu was persuaded
to proclaim
mourning and a general amnesty.
Her son succeeded as Emperor Hui
in his sixteenth year.
Empress Lu imprisoned Lady Qi and sent
for her son Ruyi, who was king of Zhao.
The kind Emperor Hui kept
Ruyi with him to protect him but returned from hunting
one morning
to find he had been poisoned.
The Empress Lu also had Lady Qi
mutilated so horribly that the Emperor,
when he found out, sent
a message to his mother
that no human being could have done such
a thing.
As her son, he reasoned that he was not fit to rule the
empire
and gave himself up to drinking.
Empress Lu also tried
to poison his brother Liu Fei, king of Qi.
When Emperor Hui died in 188 BC, the Empress Lu set up his
three-year-old son
by a consort as Emperor.
She established four
of her nephews as kings and passed six Lu babies off as children
of Hui.
Empress Lü had the Emperor's real mother killed;
but when he was old enough to discover that Empress Lu's daughter
was not his real mother,
he declared he would change things when
he grew up.
So Empress Lu had him declared insane and replaced
with an even younger child.
She had three kings of Zhao killed
in succession,
wiped out the royal families of Liang and Yan as
well and divided Qi into four kingdoms.
When she was bitten by
a mysterious dog, the diviner declared it the evil spirit of Ruyi;
she died of it in 180 BC.
Although Lu family members were strategically placed as prime
minister
and commanding general, other officials, who had sworn
to Emperor Gaozu
that his family line should not be replaced,
managed to oust them, kill the Lu family,
and make the king of
Dai Emperor Wen.
Although not the oldest of Gaozu's living sons,
he was selected both for his own ability
and because his mother's
family was of better character than the king of Qi's,
who had
someone they said was rebellious and no better than a tiger with
a hat on.
In spite of the macabre palace intrigues, the Daoist
inactive rulership of Emperor Hui
and his mother actually allowed
the people a time of peace and prosperity,
according to Daoist
historian Sima Qian.
In Qi the prime minister from 194-185 BC,
Cao Can, was so won over to Daoism
that he gave his authority
in the main hall to his teacher, master Gai,
and the state enjoyed
such peace that he was known as a worthy minister.
The Xiongnu
invaded Henan in 177, and their founder Mao Dun died in 174 BC.
This peace and prosperity was continued by the benevolent policies
of Emperor Wen.
In his first year he questioned the laws that
punished the relatives of criminals as unjust
and had these joint
accusations and punishments abolished.
At first he wanted to search
for a virtuous person to be his heir
but later gave in to the
tradition of appointing the oldest son as a stabilizing practice.
He made sure that the elderly and orphans were treated well.
Emperor
Wen abolished the cruel punishments of mutilation.
He limited
his own expenditures, sent women home from the palace
so that
they could marry, began civil service examinations,
and eventually
was able to eliminate taxes on land and produce
as well as customs
barriers and passports.
In 162 BC he made peace with the Shanyu
or king of the Xiongnu,
who often had challenged the border regions,
declaring,
"We have bound ourselves together in the relationship
of brotherhood
in order to conserve the good people of the world."8
The next year Emperor Wen proclaimed another general amnesty
and
freed all slaves held by the government.
When Liu Pi, the king of Wu, pleaded illness and refused to
come to court,
because his son had been killed by the prince in
a fight over a board game,
Emperor Wen did not insist, sending
him a stool and a cane as a sign he need not come.
When Yuan Ang
and other officials remonstrated with cutting words,
he pardoned
them and often put their advice into practice.
Relationships throughout
the empire improved,
and the number of executions was greatly
reduced.
His successor Emperor Jing declared Wen the great exemplar
of emperors
and ordered that he should be worshipped along with
Gaozu,
the great founder of emperors.
Emperor Jing ruled from 157-141 BC.
Emperor Wen had heeded
Jia Yi's advice to weaken the vassal kings by dividing Qi
into
seven kingdoms but avoided taking territory from the feudal kingdoms.
However, Chao Cuo urged Emperor Jing to weaken the power of the
vassal kings
and began chipping away at their territories.
Wu's
recalcitrant King Liu Pi meanwhile had built up his power through
state-owned
copper and salt industries such that he even eliminated
taxes.
When he learned that the Emperor was going to move against
him,
he organized a coalition with Chu and five other kingdoms,
which resented their losses of territory, to march on the capital
and rid the world of Chao Cuo.
Liu An, king of Huainan, decided
to join the rebellion also;
but he turned the soldiers over to
the prime minister,
who ignored him and remained loyal to the
Han government.
Emperor Jing summoned Yuan Ang, who had been prime minister
in Wu, and he,
once he was alone with the Emperor, suggested the
whole rebellion could be easily
defeated if he would execute Chao
Cuo for
wrongfully seizing territories from the feudal lords.
Chao Cuo was beheaded in 154 BC, and Yuan Ang was sent to Wu as
master of rites,
where the king of Wu tried to enlist him as a
general in the rebellion.
Yuan Ang refused and would have been
executed, but he was saved by a marshal
he had previously pardoned
for having a relationship with his maid.
The Han commander Zhou
Yafu craftily refused to battle the rebels
until they were weakened
by hunger.
All the rebel kings were either killed or committed
suicide; everyone else was pardoned.
After this, vassal kingdoms
were usually divided among the heirs
so that the power of feudal
lords faded away within two centuries.
Wu Di (meaning "Martial Emperor") became emperor
in 141 BC in his sixteenth year,
and having been tutored by Confucian
Wang Zang he requested that
capable and good people with integrity,
who will speak frankly, be recommended.
However, those who followed
the Legalist philosophies of Shen Buhai, Shang Yang,
and Han Fei-zi
were dismissed along with those
guided by the diplomatic machinations of Su Qin and Zhang Yi.
Wu Di appointed Dou Ying, Tian Fen, and
Zhao Wan to the top three positions,
all of whom were sympathetic
to Confucian philosophy.
Thus
Confucians became influential and tried to reform the capital
by establishing
a ceremonial building for court receptions and
sending the marquises back
to their territories; but many marquises
were married to royal princesses
and did not want to leave the
luxury of Chang'an.
When the Confucians tried to bypass consulting
with the Empress Dowager Dou
(Wu Di's grandmother), this Daoist
became enraged and had several Confucians
secretly investigated;
Wang Zang and Zhao Wan were compelled to commit suicide in jail,
and Dou Ying and Tian Fen were dismissed.
When the Empress Dowager Dou died in 135 BC, Tian Fen became
chancellor
and promoted Confucians like scholar Gongsun Hong while
downgrading all others.
At the urging of Confucian
Dong Zhongshu an imperial university was established,
and the
five traditional classics of Documents,
Odes, Changes,
Rites,
and The Spring and Autumn Annals became the
basis of examinations for officials.
Fifty students were sent
to be trained academically,
but by 110 BC Emperor Wu broke with
the Confucians over the Feng and Shan sacrifices,
and his later
policies came to resemble the harsh punishments of Legalism.
After
chancellor Tian Fen died in 131 BC,
Wu Di took greater control
over his government.
He ruled for more than half a century, and
in the last 33 years
Wu Di had seven chancellors, only one of
whom died a natural death;
the others were condemned for crimes.
The Emperor's master of writing became more powerful than the
chancellor,
and attempts by relatives and confidants (including
eunuchs) to influence
the Emperor personally led to numerous court
intrigues
that weakened the Former and Later Han dynasties.
Irritated by barbarian raids, in 133 BC Wu Di replaced diplomatic
gift-giving
with a military campaign against the Xiongnu in the
northwest,
but Chinese victory in Mongolia was not achieved until
119 BC
when a cavalry general returned with 40,000 enemy heads.
General Li Guang, who had fought the Xiongnu in 166 BC,
led many
of these campaigns but never was made a marquis.
He once asked
a diviner why not.
The diviner asked him if he had ever done anything
he regretted,
and General Li Guang had to admit that he had once
persuaded eight hundred men
to surrender and then went back on
his word and killed them.
In 119 BC he ended up disobeying orders,
losing his way,
and facing charges, cut his own throat.
While Gongsun Hong was recommending Confucian
principles, Zhang Tang,
the commandant of justice, was conducting
wider investigations
and applying stricter punishments.
When the
rebellious plans of the kings of Huainan, Hengshan, and Qiangdu
were discovered in 122 BC, more than 20,000 people were tried
and executed.
Liu An, the king of Huainan was a grandson of Emperor
Gaozu, and his father,
after quarreling with the court and killing
a man, had starved himself to death.
When Liu An had presented
the Daoist book Huainan-zi
to Emperor Wu in 139 BC,
he had been led by Tian Fen to believe
that he might succeed to the throne.
For years he made plans and
preparations for a revolt,
while his minister Wei Pei tried to
persuade him it was inappropriate.
Finally when King Liu An was
about to revolt, Wu Bei went to the authorities;
an imperial prosecutor
was sent, but before his arrival Liu An cut his throat and died.
Chinese military campaigns went into Manchuria and Korea in
128 BC
and advanced well into Mongolia in 121 BC.
Floods east
of the mountains caused starvation in Shandong,
and 700,000 people
were ordered to migrate to lands west of the Pass in Shanxi.
Daoist
advisor Ji An was sent to observe what a fire had done in Henei,
but on his way found such starvation and cannibalism in Henan
that he ordered the imperial granaries opened to relieve the distress,
showing that Daoism was not a do-nothing
philosophy when the natural way was to act.
Knowing he had overstepped
his authority, he returned for punishment.
Wu Di was impressed
by his wisdom and tried to promote him.
Ji An declined a governorship
but occasionally would criticize the Emperor sharply,
especially
for attacking the Xiongnu.
He berated Zhang Tang for excelling
in evil and cruelty in tampering with the old laws.
He argued
for general principles in contrast to
Zhang Tang's strict adherence
to petty details.
Ji An also criticized Gongsun Hong and Confucians
for flattering the Emperor
with hearts full of deceit and the
facade of learning.
Costs of the victory over the Xiongnu in 119 BC were enormous,
resulting in new taxes.
Merchants who were becoming rich forced
the poor to work for them
as they bought up and hoarded goods
for profit.
As the wealthy declined to help the poor in their
misery,
Wu Di was moved to issue a new currency and punish numerous
counterfeiters.
When Emperor Wu traveled east in 114 BC, two governors
were so unprepared
to provide for all the imperial attendants
that they committed suicide.
In the expedition to Nanyue in 112
BC criminals were pardoned to fight in the army,
which became
standard practice;
convict workers were also used in imperial
construction projects.
The forces sent against the Yue kingdoms
went as far south as Vietnam,
and Dian was crushed by 109 BC.
The next year four commanderies were established in northern and
central Korea.
Envoys were sent to western lands, lured by the
incentive of making money in trade,
and reached Seleucia on the
Tigris in 105 BC.
These profit-makers became so lawless that they
took to quarreling and attacking
each other, but eventually a
series of defense stations was established.
When Di Shan urged Wu Di to make peace with the Xiongnu,
he
was challenged by Zhang Tang as a stupid Confucian.
Criticizing the severity of Zhang Tang's prosecutions of the kings
of Huainan and Jiangdu,
the Emperor was embarrassed as well and
asked Di Shan if he were given a position
in a province, could
he keep the barbarians from plundering the region?
Sensing that
if he refused he would face a criminal trial,
Di Shan agreed to
command one of the border posts, where a few weeks later
the Xiongnu
raided and cut off his head.
After that, officials were too terrified
to criticize the military policies.
Sima Qian described how officials became increasingly harsh,
especially after Wang Wenshu rose from a grave-robber to become
a corrupt official,
who offered rewards to help catch thieves,
conscripted more men into the army,
condemned thousands to provide
slaves for the government monopolies of salt, iron,
and liquor,
and freed tens of thousands who were accused
so that they could
work on imperial building.
He did little to prevent corruption,
and his whole family
was executed for his crimes after he committed
suicide.
From his example lower officials went into lawbreaking,
and the number of bandits increased until some had bands of several
thousand men,
assumed a title, attacked cities, seized weapons,
freed convicts, humiliated governors,
killed officials, and demanded
they be supplied with food.
Smaller bands of several hundred plundered
numerous villages and hamlets.
Wu Di sent high officials to call out troops and attack the
bandits,
cutting off as many as ten thousand heads at a time.
They arrested even more people for aiding the bandits with food.
In a few years most of the robber bands had been caught, but others
went into hiding.
Then a concealment law, specifying the execution
of officials
for not arresting reported bandits, led officials
to avoid investigations.
Thus the number of bandits increased
again
as officials sent in false reports to escape being involved.
Du Zhou learned how to please Wu Di by trapping people
he wanted
removed into being arrested.
When Du Zhou became commandant of
justice, the number of officials in prison
never fell below a
hundred men.
A hundred or more might be arrested on a case to
be tried or to be witnesses.
Prison officials would beat the accused
until they confessed.
Many fled into hiding to avoid arrest and
later would be charged
with more serious crimes even though an
amnesty may have been issued.
Eventually 60,000 people had been
arrested, and officials had found grounds
for charging another
hundred thousand.
Du Zhou rose from a poor secretary to one of
the top three ministers
with sons and grandsons in high offices
and several hundred million in cash.
In 99 BC Du Zhou was transferred to military command of the
capital
and prosecuted thieves, high officials, and even brothers
of Empress Wei.
This was the year historian Sima Qian was arrested
for pleading on behalf
of condemned general Li Ling.
The historian
was arrested and convicted but refused to commit suicide,
because
he wanted to finish writing his history.
Not having sufficient
funds to buy a commutation of the sentence,
he suffered the humiliating
punishment of castration, served as a eunuch palace writer,
and
continued the work that has given us so much knowledge of ancient
China.
He took the long view as indicated by the following proverb
which he quoted:
If you are going to be in a place for one year, then seed it with grain.
If you are going to be there ten years, plant trees.
And if you are going to be there a hundred years,
provide for the future by means of virtue.9
Sima Qian recounted how the harsh officials degenerated from
those
who decided right and wrong honestly to corrupted ones to
the sycophants,
who followed laws and regulations involving harsh
penalties
just to stay out of trouble themselves.
Some of the
governors in the provinces were even more cruel.
In discussing
the money-makers he noted that the desire for wealth
does not
need to be taught, because it is part of human nature.
He felt
that those who spend all their knowledge and abilities accumulating
money
never have strength left over to consider giving some of
it away.
Because of all its expenses, the government monopolized
the sale of alcohol
and controlled the salt and iron works.
Levies
were extended to wagons and boats and taxes to stock animals.
In battles with the Xiongnu between 103 and 90 BC several times
the Chinese commanders lost most of their men, numbering in the
tens of thousands.
In 91 BC tens of thousands were arbitrarily
executed for witchcraft and black magic.
Sima Qian also passed on the life and work of the Daoist poet
Sima Xiangru,
whose satires of royal ways were nonetheless appreciated
by Wu Di.
"Sir Fantasy" makes fun of the imperial hunt
and is a phantasmagoria of rich language.
In merriment the son
of heaven becomes lost in contemplation and decides
to implement
the traditional reforms of cultivating land, stocking lakes with
fish
for the people, caring for those in need, lessening punishments,
and opening the classics.
Everyone shares in the joys of this
new hunt, and they are transformed to goodness.
The poem concludes
with criticism of those lords whose domains are almost all taken
up
with the hunting parks so that the people have no space to
grow food.
Emperor Wu accepted the poem but objected to and removed
the extravagant language describing the hunting parks.
Xiangru served Wu Di by justifying the Chinese civilizing of
barbarian lands
with its virtuous ways while condemning those
who abused their foreign missions
by robbing and killing.
He suggested
that the western expeditions proved that Wu Di had the mandate
of heaven,
and he hoped that all could enjoy good fortune.
He
further glorified Wu Di in his poem on "The Mighty One"
and in a poem
he left after his death in which he encouraged the
Emperor to carry out
the auspicious Feng Sacrifice at Mount Tai.
Before he died in 87 BC, Emperor Wu appointed his youngest
son as his successor and,
since Emperor Zhao was only in his eighth
year, Ho Guang to run the government.
Ho Guang managed to put
down an attempted take-over by Wu Di's oldest living son,
Liu
Dan, who committed suicide.
Ho Guang came from the common people
and implemented reforms to revitalize the exhausted empire.
Loans
were made to the poor; payments and taxes were remitted in bad
years
or could be made in kind when grain prices were low.
Horses
were no longer demanded.
Government was reduced, and imperial
lands were distributed to the people.
Japanese emperor Sujin ordered
shipbuilding in 81 BC.
A public debate on the state monopolies was held in 81 BC,
an account of which
was published in the next reign by Huan Kuan
as the dialog Discourses on Salt and Iron.
Imperial monopolies
of the salt and iron industries had been instituted in 119 BC
when Wu Di needed to raise money because of the Xiongnu war expenses.
Four years later officers were appointed to equalize distribution
by purchasing
cheap commodities and selling when prices were high,
thus preventing prices
from being too low or too high and maximizing
profit for the government.
Four years after that in 110 BC a bureau
of equalization and standardization
was established by Sang Hongyang.
Although treasury deficits were eliminated and adequate stores
supplied the armies
on the frontiers, the people, forced to eat
without salt because of its high cost
or use inferior iron tools
to farm, became discontent.
Thus sixty scholars were summoned
from around the empire to debate the issues.
In the dialog proponents of the government's current policies
argued that
they successfully provided iron tools to the peasants
and increased trade and wealth.
Criticizing this profiteering, Confucian reformers, emphasizing
agriculture,
wanted the use of money reduced with taxes collected
in kind (grain or cloth).
They found government harsh and oppressive,
complaining of the disparitiesbetween the rich and poor.
Critics
also felt that expansion and foreign adventures
had weakened China
without maintaining safety.
They argued the ancients had honored
virtue and discredited the use of arms.
Now these virtuous principles are discarded and reliance put on military force;
troops are raised to attack the enemy
and garrisons are stationed to make ready for him.
It is the long drawn-out service of our troops in the field
and the ceaseless transportation for the needs of the commissariat
that cause our soldiers on the marches to suffer from hunger
and cold abroad, while the common people are burdened with labor at home.
The establishment of the salt and iron monopoly and the institution of finance
officials to supply the army needs were not permanent schemes;
it is therefore desirable that they now be abolished.10
Government realists disagreed and, relying on laws and punishments,
pointed to the success of Shang Yang; but critics countered that
it was short-lived
and that Qin policies were unscrupulous.
The
reformers emphasized moral principles and complained that government
officials
were using their positions to increase their incomes
to incalculable levels,
a practice Confucius
disapproved.
Sang Hongyang's family fortune was estimated at tens
of thousands of gold.
Those in power criticized the scholars for
talking but not acting and asked them
if they could devise a means
to bring peace to the country and subdue foreign lands
so that
they would not raid and attack the frontiers.
Both sides complained
that people now had little honesty and that morals were decaying.
The wealth of some led common people to try to imitate their luxurious
ways.
The debate revealed the clear divisions between the realistic
legalists in power
and the principled scholars who wanted reforms.
The monopolies on salt and iron were retained by the government,
but the one on alcohol was ended and replaced with taxation.
Relations with the Xiongnu had improved; but when Fan Mingyu
was sent out
to aid the Wuhuan against them and found that the
Xiongnu had withdrawn,
he decided his orders must be carried out
by attacking the Wuhuan.
He took 6,200 heads and was made a marquis.
Thereafter the Wuhuan raided China's northeast border.
On the
northwest border Ho Guang sent an envoy to assassinate the Loulan
king.
When Emperor Zhao died in 74 BC, one possible heir, Liu Ho,
raced to the capital
and was made Emperor, but forgetting about
mourning while enjoying insatiable pleasures,
he was removed from
office after 27 days.
Ho Guang and the ministers arranged for
Xuan to become Emperor in his eighteenth year,
arguing that he
had been taught the Odes,
Analects, and Filial Piety
and that he was kind,
benevolent, and loving to others.
Ho Guang offered to resign,
but he was retained
and ran the government until his death in
68 BC.
In the next two years the dangerous Ho clan was methodically
and completely
removed from power, and Emperor Xuan began to rule
for himself.
Brought up as a commoner and having observed the people's sufferings,
Emperor Xuan rewarded kind officials and demoted the harsh ones.
Instead of punishing corrupt officials, he allowed them to resign.
His consent was required for capital punishment, and he implemented
numerous other legal reforms such as appointing special judges
for difficult cases,
pardoning those hiding relatives, investigating
deaths in prison, exempting the elderly
from punishment in most
cases, and searching for and reporting unjust trials.
An official
who had used capital punishment so much
that he was called "Uncle
Butcher" was publicly executed for his cruel tyranny.
Emperor Xuan gave grants to the heirs of capable officials
who died poor,
exempted those in mourning from required services,
abolished laws banning gatherings
of people even at weddings,
and increased salaries of lower officials to prevent extortion.
During drought he reduced his own table and officials' salaries
temporarily,
while remitting taxes.
Military garrisons were reduced;
government land was loaned to the poor;
royal preserves were opened
to cultivation; and the price of salt was lowered.
Heaven shone
on these beneficent policies with abundant harvests.
The Xiongnu
struggled with civil wars, and one of their leaders, vying for
support,
visited the Chinese court; instead of resenting his imperial
title
Emperor Xuan honored him as a guest and sent him back
with
such rich presents that the other Xiongnu rival moved to the west.
For several years the Confucian
classics were studied and clarified with the Emperor
having the
final word in 51 BC.
Near the end of his reign Emperor Xuan issued
an edict declaring that not prohibiting evil
is not clemency nor
is dismissing criminals the absence of tyranny,
while those who
consider tyranny and wrong capability have missed the mean as
well.
Noting that military service and forced labor have been
reduced,
he found that there was still poverty and corrupt officials,
because they took the extra money given them to use in place of
soldiers.
This Emperor seems to have done his best to harmonize
the virtues of legalistic discipline and Confucian benevolence.
Even when he was still only heir apparent Yuan criticized his
father
for applying laws too severely and suggested that he employ
more Confucian masters.
In
48 BC Emperor Xuan died, and 27-year-old
Emperor Yuan selected
Confucians to run his government.
Modest reforms reduced expenditures
and lightened punishments.
The civil service examination system
was expanded to include a moral component
as well as the literary
test.
Emperor Yuan's adoption of Confucian
rituals and principles led also to the favoring
of relatives in
the name of filial piety.
Unfortunately the resulting nepotism
and matriarchal influences contributed
to the eventual fall of
the Former Han dynasty in the next two generations.
Under Yuan
anyone who passed the examinations could become a student
of a Confucian scholar, but soon
the number was limited to one thousand persons.
Confucian influence was
checked somewhat by the eunuch Shi Xien,
the chief palace writer,
who had many Confucians arrested
and executed because they criticized
him.
Rather than go to jail, the most prominent Confucian committed
suicide.
Shi Xien outlived Emperor Yuan; but he was exiled
after
Emperor Cheng came into power in 33 BC.
The office of palace writer
was abolished so that eunuchs would not have such power.
Like
his father, Emperor Cheng put his maternal relatives into the
prominent positions.
While he enjoyed drinking, banqueting, and
music,
the Wang clan controlled the government.
Through education
and patient application Confucianism had gradually triumphed in
China,
although it was tempered by realist Legalists and subtle
Daoists.
Yet the Former Han dynasty was in decline,
and would
be replaced in the next generation.
Economic expansion during the Earlier Han dynasty
led to prosperity for some
but a concentration of land ownership
employing convicts and debtors,
mostly in large workshops as virtual
slaves.
Since the privileged landowners did not have to pay tax,
this meant higher taxes for the peasants.
Revolts by slaves in
the government iron works and others began in 22 BC.
Four years
later Emperor Cheng (r. 33-7 BC) had to lower the price of court
ranks,
and he turned to omens and superstitions.
His favorite
wives, Zhao Feiyen and her sister,
got the empress Xu deposed
for black magic.
Zhao Feiyen was declared empress in 16 BC; but
she and her sister were childless,
and their jealousy caused two
of his sons by other women to be murdered,
leaving no direct heir.
Peasants revolted again in 14 BC, and they were soon joined by
government slaves
from the Shanyang iron works.
During Cheng's
reign the Wang family dominated the court in rivalry
with three
other families, but Wang Mang was dismissed from court in 7 BC.
After Cheng Di died, Ai Di and Ping Di ruled for about six years
each;
but both emperors died young, making their deaths suspicious.
Emperor Ai made his homosexual lover Dong Xian marshal
and even
talked of abdicating to him before his death.
When Ai Di died,
Dong Xian was degraded and committed suicide,
as Wang Mang became
marshal.
1. Guanzi 11:32, tr. W. Allyn Rickett, p. 426.
2. The Book of Lord Shang 1, tr. J. J. L. Duyvendak, p.
169.
3. Ibid., p. 206.
4. Han Fei Tzu 5 tr. Burton Watson, p. 16.
5. Ibid. 10, p. 49-50.
6. Qin Dynasty by Sima Qian (Ssu-ma Ch'ien), tr. Burton
Watson, p. 46.
7. Ibid. p. 59.
8. The History of the Former Han Dynasty 4:17 by Pan Ku,
tr. Homer H. Dubs,
Vol. 1, p. 264.
9. Shih chi 129 by Ss-ma Ch'ien, tr. Burton Watson, The
Age of Emperor Wu
140 to circa 100 BC, p. 492.
10. Discourses on Salt and Iron tr. Esson M. Gale, p. 6.
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