The
Han Dynasty (206 BC - AD 220)
WUDI, CONFUCIANISM, and SILK
ROAD
China: An
Illustrated History
Yong Ho, Hippocrene Books
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Bronze horse from a Han emperor's
tomb
Click
for a larger picture.
…..
the Han dynasty turned out to
be a glorious and prosperous period in Chinese history. For this
reason, the dynasty was often referred to as the Great
Han, and this term eventually came to be used to refer
to both the ethnic
Chinese (Hanren "Han people") and the Chinese
language
(Hanyu
"Han language"). Contemporary with the
Roman
Empire
in its height, the golden age of the Han witnessed
the flourishing of art, literature, philosophy, music,
and statecraft, which shaped
a unified mainstream
Chinese culture.
…..
Liu Che (namely, “Wudi”, note by Editor of this website)
did
everything within his power to liberate the minds of
people.
Under his direction, a rudimentary national university
was created
to train civil servants, and students entered the
university
through recommendation by local officials. Confucianism.
out of
favor during Shi Huang's era, became the dominant creed
of
the Han dynasty. ft was declared a state religion in 124
H.C.
Liu
Che made the Confucian Five Classics requisite
readings for his
ministers and other subordinates. It was very difficult
for anyone at that time to be considered for an important public office if
he was not versed in
Confucian classics. Confucianism grew to
he the cornerstone of
Chinese thought and
China was converted
into a truly Confucian state. For this very reason,
Confucian
ethics/morality became the single most important
criterion in
selecting public
officials. Consideration of one's moral fitness
overrode other credentials.
Liu Che's contribution to the Han was not limited to rejuvenating
scholarly studies. For one, he greatly expanded the Han
territory. In 127 B.C.,
121 B.C.,
and 119 B.C., Liu Che launched
major
expeditions against the nomadic tribe of the Huns on the
Mongolian steppe; the
Huns were resoundingly routed and posed
no further threat to the empire. During this time, the Han also
extended Chinese
control to present-day Xinjiang and much of
Central Asia
in the west, Korea in the east, and
Vietnam
in the
south. The confrontation with the Huns was a protracted
one,
lasting for generations. In the search for a solution,
the Han tried
both to contain them and appease them. One of the
appeasement
or bribery efforts in the early days of the Western Han
was to offer
princesses and noblewomen to the Huns in marriage, in
exchange for
peace; but this had little success. When military
solutions
became inevitable, the Han sent envoys abroad to form a
common front
with a number of allies in
Central Asia by offering them gifts
in the form of Chinese products, particularly the most
coveted:
silk. Such diplomatic missions not
only won allies, but also spread the influence of the
empire and opened up new trade
routes to Central Asia. The trade relations at the time
extended as far as the
Persian Gulf.
Some Chinese products, particularly
silk products, even found their way to the
Roman
Empire via
Persian
merchants.
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