Han Dynasty was a strong and united empire established by Gaozu Liu bang in 202 B.C. The empire prior to Han, also the first empire in the history of China, Qin Dynasty was established and governed based on the ideology of legalists. Under the reign of Qin Shi Huang, legalists’ ideology was spread and executed across the entire empire. Without any doubt, legalists ideology made Qin a very powerful empire, as legalists ideology gave Qin a very disciplined army and a very centralized bureaucratic system, but legalists ideology was also a major factor that contributed to the fall of Qin Dynasty, as this ideology was rigid and harsh, bringing strong discontent from both government officials and ordinary citizens to the ruler. Therefore, Han Gaozu Liu Bang, learned the lesson from Qin Dynasty, founded the Han on the basis of Confucianism. Hence, in my point of view, Han Dynasty, especially early Han dynasty, was dominated by the Confucianism. I have two points to demonstrate my argument.
First and foremost, Ren (benevolence) is one of five fundamental concepts of Confucianism, and Ren zheng (a benevolent government), brought up by Mencius, is a concept of government that is benevolent to the people. “Ren Zheng” advocates that a ruler should treat his officials and his people with benevolence and tolerance. Mencius believes that a great emperor should regard its people as priority, then the state, and last the emperor himself. Mencius states that an emperor should often implement benevolent policies that benefit his people in order to ensure the prosperity and the stability of his empire.
“Ren Zheng” was the Confucian concept that Han Gao Zu Liu Bang adopted to rule his people and run his newly established empire. Liu Bang learned the important lesson from Qin Shi Huang that the harsh and rigid legalist government system would not promise his empire a bright future,