Dong Zhongshu and Wang Chong Qin, one of the seven big states of the Warring States Period, grew stronger and stronger by adopting Legalist measures. Finally in 221 BC it conquered all the other states and unified China.
Shihuangdi, or the First Emperor of the Qin, put an end to the 800-year-old system of feudal fiefs. He divided the whole country in- to a number of prefectures and counties. Their governors and magistrates were appointed by the central government. Land was no longer owned by the nobles; it could be sold and bought.
The emperor did many things to consolidate the unification. He unified weights and measures, the calendar, the currency, and the script. He builthighways across the country, dug canals, and built the Great Wall. He did bad things, too, such as burning books and killing scholars by burying them alive.
He and his son, the Second Emperor, oppressed and exploited the common people ruthlessly. They made harsh laws, used severe punishments, collected heavy taxes and forced the people to work for them. They made life so difficult that the people rose in revolt.
The armed revolt led by Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, which be- gan in 209 BC, was the first peasant uprising in Chinese history. It dealt a heavy blow to Qin rule. Then the armies led by Liu Bang and Xiang Yu overthrew the Qin, which had ruled China ot,ly for 15 years. Liu and Xiang fought against each other for four years for the throne. In the end Liu won, and he founded the Han dynasty (206 BC). This dynasty, also called the Western Hah, was to last for about 200 years, and collapsed in revolts and wars. Then Liu Xiu re- stored the Han dynasty, moved the capital from Chang'an to Luo- yang, and started the Eastern Han.
Under Emperor Wudi(140 - 87 BC), the Western Han reached the peak of its power. The Western Regions were opened. This made it possible for merchants to travel between China and Europe by way of West Asia. China's silk was the main commodity transported along this road, so it was called the Silk Road. It played an important part in promoting trade and cultural exchanges between the East and the West.
Having founded a unified, centralized and authoritarian empire, the Han rulers felt the need of a philosophy that could guide and strengthen their rule. They knew that political unification had to be supported by the unification of thought. Not long before them, the First Emperor of the Qin dynasty had made an attempt to unify thought. He had given orders that books be burnt and scholars tn buried alive, and that the people be prohibited from the study of any- thing but the laws then in force. However, he had failed to achieve his goal. Only fifteen years after he had unified the country, the dy.
nasty he had founded was toppled, and various schools of thought were active again. This made the Han rulers realize that they ought to unify thought along different lines. Seventy years after the found- lng of the dynasty, Emperor Wudi called on all scholars to present suggestions about effective government. He got valuable opinions from an outstanding scholar of the time.
His name was Dong Zhongshu(179 - 104 BC). He presented three memorials to the emperor, recommending a series of theori~ and policies. The emperor was impressed and used him as a high.
ranking official. But later he offended the emperor and was impris.
oned for some time. After he was released, he devoted his time to writing and teaching. It was said that he worked so hard that for three years he did not take a look at his own garden.
He suggested that Confucianism be made the orthodox philoso- phy, or official belief, and that all other schools of thought be discred- ited. Emperor Wudi accepted this suggestion. This decision had a tremendous influence on the development of Chinese culture, for it put Confucianism into a dominant position. From then on, in most dynasties, most scholars studied Confusianism, and only confucian scholars were qualified to be officials in the government. But the Han rulers did not ban the teaching and discussion of other schools of thought. This policy was also followed by later dynasties.
Dong Zhongshu was also known for the "three cardinal guides and five constant virtues" he advocated. The three cardinal guides were:the prince was the guide of his ministers, the father was the guide of his sons, and the husband was the guide of his wife. The five constant virtues were:humanity, rightness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness. These principles were to become an important part of the feudal ethical code and the theoretical basis of feudal rule.
According to Dong Zhongshu, Heaven had its will and purpose.
It was Heaven that made the sun, the moon, and the stars move, the four seasons change, and all animals and plants grow and die. Heaven was kindhearted, so it made things produce one another; Heaven was also severe, so it made things overcome one another. Moreover, Heaven created a ruler to rule over the people. This meant that Heav- en wanted the people to be ruled. When a ruler did something wrong, Heaven would be angry and would give the ruler warnings by causing strange natural phenomena to happen, such as eclipses, earthquakes, floods and droughts.
This theory--the interaction between Heaven and man--had a clear purpose. On the one hand, it was intended to show that the ruler's position and power were given him by Heaven, and should not be questioned; on the other hand, the ruler should be virtuous and benevolent, and govern well, so as not to incur Heaven's anger.
Dong had a well-known saying: "The Way is great because it origi- nates in Heaven. Heaven does not change; nor does the Way." Dong Zhongshu was no doubt the most important philosopher of the Western Han. During the Eastern Han that followed it, his theo- ries, especially that of the interaction between Heaven and man, were criticized and refuted by a brave scholar--Wang Chong (about 27 - 100 AD). Wang's grandfather was a merchant and his father a peasant. Born in Shangyu near the better-known city of Shaoxing, he studied at a private school, where he was taught some Confucian clas- sics in his childhood. As a young man he went to Luoyang, the capi- tal, and stayed there for some time. He was too poor to buy books, and had to go to bookstores to browse what books he could find.
Somehow he became a pupil of Ban Biao, a famous scholar and the fa- ther of Ban Gu, who edited the Book of Hah. Later, Wang was giv- en the post of a petty official in a local government. By far more learned than his superiors, he found it hard to obey their orders. So he resigned and returned to his home town, to teach students and write books for the rest of his life.
Only one of the books he wrote is now extant. It is called Bal- anced Discussions, on which he spent over 30 years. The book shows his remarkable scientific skepticism, and his courage in fighting the powerful influence of the ideas of Dong Zhongshu and his followers.
Wang Chong regarded Heaven and earth as part of nature. They were made of qi, or material force. It was material force that gave birth to all the things in the universe, and this process was sponta- neous and natural. No one or nothing controlled or directed the birth, growth and change of things in the universe. Heaven took no conscious or purposeful action. Man could not affect Heaven in any way, nor could Heaven react to man's behavior or action. Unusual natural phenomena like earthquakes occurred spontaneously; they had nothing to do with the policies or mistakes of rulers. There were co- incidences, which made some people think they were related. For in- stance, legend had it that Meng Jiangnii cried so sadly that as a result the Great Wall collapsed. In fact, it was when the Great Wall was collapsing that Meng Jiangnii happened to be crying near it. The two events were not connected at all.
According to Dong Zhongshu, Heaven was most humane, so it gave warnings to rulers when they made mistakes. Wang Chong said that this view was illogical. If Heaven was humane, it would in the first place give the people only good rulers. It would not consider it necessary to put a bad ruler on the throne and let him do wrong things, and then give him warnings.
Wang Chong stressed the importance of effect in testing the cor- rectness of a theory. He said, "However elaborate and high-sounding a theory may be, it should not be believed if it is different from what things really are and cannot produce the effect it is supposed to pro- duce." In other words, an action should be tested by its effect, and a theory should be proved by fact.
He also had his own ideas about human nature. He said most people had to be educated to be good. He was against the view that people of high position and wealth were all good and poor people were all evil. Whether one was rich or poor was not determined by his moral standard. The rich were rich only because they robbed the poor, and officials used their power for selfish purposes. Confucius, he said, did not get the treatment he deserved in his lifetime, and Yah Hui, a perfectly virtuous man, died young because he was poor.
He discu~ed many other questions in Balanced Discussions, and many of his views were original and critical. But his views, though sound and profound, did not exert a great influence on scholars, let alone common people, of later ages. The reason was obvious. The feudal rulers'of all later dynasties naturally liked Dong Zhongshu's ideas, which were helpful to them, and hated Wang Chong's, which would make people think independently. Emperor Qianlong of the Qing dynasty, for instance, called Wang Chong a man who wanted to "denounce the sages and destroy the Way."