30 China in World History
Historian. He climbed the Mountain of Fame to a greater height than he
could have imagined, and he represents to this day the faith of Chinese
scholars that their honest writings can in fact outlive the monarchs and
power-holders they might criticize and condemn.
The most infl uential Han dynasty scholar in shaping the Confucian
philosophical tradition was Dong Zhongshu (ca. 175–105 bce) who
resigned his low offi cial position (because Han Wudi ignored him) and
devoted himself to teaching others. Dong Zhongshu saw the emperor
as the Son of Heaven and an intermediary between Heaven and Earth.
If the emperor was virtuous, he argued, the result would be harmony
between Heaven and Earth. Dong took earlier yin-yang theories (that
change occurs as a result of complementary opposites interacting) and
fi ve-phase theories (that all changes operate by sequential laws whereby
water gives way to earth, earth gives way to wood, wood gives way to
metal, metal gives way to fi re, and fi re gives way to water) and incor-
porated them into a comprehensive Confucian framework. He included
aspects of Daoism (the emperor rules from above by nonaction) and
Legalism (the emperor is a semidivine lawgiver on whom the harmony
and welfare of the whole world depends) in an overall Confucian impe-
rial ideology that would survive into the twentieth century.
Despite Emperor Han Wudi’s undisputed accomplishments, at the
time of his death he left the government hard pressed to pay for the
many initiatives he had begun. As large landholders found ways to avoid
paying taxes, Han dynasty society became increasingly divided between
rich aristocratic landholders and poor tenants, slaves, and landless vag-
abonds. In an attempt to address the problem of large nontaxed estates,
the imperial regent Wang Mang seized power and declared the Xin
(New) Dynasty in 9 ce. He rationalized his seizure of power with the
Zhou-dynasty concept of the Mandate of Heaven that justifi ed rebellion
against an unjust ruler. He tried to abolish slavery, seize the property
of large landholders, and redistribute land to the restless poor. But his
measures only roused the opposition of the most powerful elements in
society, and a tremendous Yellow River fl ood in 11 ce helped inspire
open and widespread revolt against Wang Mang’s rule.
Wang was killed in 23 ce, and forces loyal to the Liu ruling family
of the Han restored the dynasty two years later. The new emperor,
Guangwu, claimed Heaven’s Mandate for the Liu family, following the
precedent of Wang Mang, and established the cult of Heaven (tian) as
the primary imperial cult, which soon eclipsed in importance the impe-
rial ancestral cult of the early Han. The Mandate of Heaven was to
remain the moral and political rationale for all subsequent dynasties.