The Victory of Han Confucianism

Abstract

IT WAS DURING the Former Han period that Confucianism developed from being the teaching of a few pedants in 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. This victory set Confucianism on its way to become the dominating feature of Chinese culture and to affect profoundly a large portion of humanity. It is consequently interesting to determine just how and why this victory came about. Professor Fung Yu-lan declares that this victory came about at the beginning of Emperor Wu's reign. In the Memoir of Tung Chung-shu, the History of the Former Han Dynasty says, When Emperor Wu had newly ascended [the throne], the Marquises of Wei-ch'i, [Tou Ying], and of Wu-an, [T'ien Fen], became his [Lieutenant] Chancellors, and Confucians flourished. When moreover [Tung] Chung-shu made [his famous] replies to the [examination] questions [set by Emperor Wu, he advocated] promoting and making known [the teachings of] Confucius and of repressing and degrading [the advocates of] other philosophies. The establishment of a government university and schools and the recommendation of [persons with] Abundant Talents and of Filially Pious and Incorrupt [persons to the imperial government] by the provinces and commanderies all arose from the proposals of [Tung] Chung-shu. 1 The Confucian victory can not however be fixed at any one particular date, nor did it occur in the reign of Emperor Wu. Rather it was a slow process of increasing completeness, which began with the Emperor Kao-tsu and was not complete until the time of the Emperor Yuan, more than a century and a half later. The History of the Former Han Dynasty, with its detailed reports concerning the intellectual and political life of the period, gives us a fairly complete account of the way this victory was achieved.