Essence of ChinaB8

Emperor Wu of Han

By DaViD WuEpoch TimEs sTaff

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (漢朝) (206BC-AD220), also known as Han Wudi, (漢武帝), ruled from 141-87BC as a brave and energetic campaigner.

Of all Han Dynasty notables, he earned the highest regard from tra-ditional Chinese historians due to his role in vastly expanding Chi-na’s territory and creating a prosper-ous, centralised state that is remem-bered today as one of the greatest periods in Chinese history. Born in 157BC, the future Emperor Wu was the grandson of Emperor Wen and the 10th child of Emperor Jing. When his father died in 141BC, the 16-year-old crown prince assumed the throne as the Han Dynasty’s sev-enth emperor.

Emperor Wu introduced the cus-tom of naming the emperor’s cor-onation year with a blessed title, or nian hao, as reference for Chinese historical records and then chang-ing the title every year or every few years, either during auspicious times or to commemorate an event. The first year of Emperor Wu’s reign was named Jian Yuan, meaning “establishing the first”.

Consolidating central powerAfter ascending the throne, Emperor Wu implemented a series of measures to consolidate the strength of the central govern-ment. From the beginning of the Han Dynasty, many kinsmen of the previous emperors were delegated large areas to govern. Soon, their power posed a potential threat to the emperor.

Emperor Wu diluted their power by passing a law that allowed regional kings and dukes to pass their land on to any of their children rather than only their first sons. This led to the large areas being divided into many smaller units.

Then, the central government

gradually assimilated these smaller units into a province controlled by the emperor, replacing the old concept of individual states or kingdoms loyal to the emperor, but each with its own king. Emperor Wu also took fiscal reform measures to increase state revenue. He raised taxes and imposed new taxes, to include business, and implemented harsh measures against unethical merchants. The iron, salt and alcohol industries became nationalised monopolies.

Wu also improved hydraulic engi-neering technology to boost agricul-tural production and adopted the first Chinese agricultural calendar.

Facing a much expanded empire, Emperor Wu appointed 13 regional inspectors to supervise the work of the provincial governors to improve the empire’s administration system.

These officials’ responsibilities were to report to the chief inspec-tor on the performance of the local governors and nobles, including any abuse of power or corruption, and on the people’s feedback about their governance.

The chief inspector would then report directly to the emperor. It was regarded as the first independ-ent and systematic oversight in Chi-nese history.

A ‘Confucian State’In order to select the social elite into the civil service, Emperor Wu established a recruitment system that allowed officials at all levels to recommend outstanding individ-uals for apprenticeships or scholar-ships to serve government.

Such an approach provided opportunities for capable schol-ars with less privileged statuses to enter the administrative system. Even people from very poor or lower backgrounds, like slaves and pris-oners of war, were able to become important officials and generals.

In addition, Emperor Wu made Confucianism the state ortho-doxy and made training in Confu-

cian studies a requirement for civil service candidates. This ended the dominance of a blended Legalist and Daoist philosophy during the early Han years.

Emperor Wu established an “Imperial College” in the capital, Chang’an (長安), which was the first national college in Chinese his-tory. The majority of lectures in this college were based on Confucian-ism and graduates who passed the government examinations went directly into civil service.

When the Imperial College proved to be a success, more Confucian col-leges and schools were established around the empire. This combi-nation of recommendations and examinations in the civil service recruitment structure became an important part of the Emperor Wu’s legacy.

Making Confucian philosophy the state orthodoxy had a profound impact on the politics, society and culture of China and East Asia.

Confucian ideals centre on advancing ethical conduct and moral principles, such as benevo-lence, righteousness, propriety, wis-dom and faithfulness, built on the models of the ancient sage kings.

Military campaigns and the Silk RoadRecognised as a great military cam-paigner, Emperor Wu led Han China through its greatest expansion in all directions. He abandoned the pre-vious emperors’ defensive policies, regained control over Korea in the northeast and had troops march into southern China and what is now Vietnam.

Most importantly, the emperor was determined to win the war against the powerful Xiongnu (or Hsiung Nu), an alliance of nomadic tribes that lived in the region of modern-day Mongolia and who posed a major threat on China’s northern frontier.

A series of vigorous attacks were launched that led to the

defeat of most Xiongnu kingdoms. Han troops drove the Xiongnu from the north away from China’s bor-ders and then expanded further west into what is now Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Meanwhile, begin-ning in 138BC, the emperor dis-patched his envoy Zhang Qian (張騫) to the far western regions to seek long-lasting allies and to foster cul-ture exchanges. This resulted in fur-ther connections between the Han territories, the western region of China and central Asia.

This expedition later enabled Chi-nese silks and other goods to be transported from Chang’an to as far as today’s Iran and then further

west to Europe, creating the route known as the “Silk Road”.

China made its name in the world during the Han Dynasty and that is why the Chinese people are com-monly referred to as Han Chinese.

‘Edicts of Repentance’Emperor Wu was in power for 54 years and died at the age of 70. Under his reign, Han China saw its greatest expansion, surpassing the size of the Roman Empire during the same period.

However, the enormous costs associated with his military cam-paigns, territorial expansions and luxurious palaces eventually

exhausted the state treasury, the country and its people.

Near the end of his reign, Emperor Wu regretted his past policy mis-takes and publicly criticised him-self, and apologised to his subjects by issuing an “edict of repentance”.

He rejected a proposal for military expansion in the west and instead supported a recommendation to promote agriculture. And warfare and territorial expansion generally ended.

Although he sought to atone for his misdeeds, his military achieve-ments still won him the posthu-mous title of “Wu (武)”, which means “martial”.

Deemed greatest emperor of the Han Dynasty

Pulling up seedlings to help them grow By LiLLy chooEpoch TimEs sTaff

The idiom “pulling up seedlings to help them grow” originated from Gong Sun Chou Shang (公孫丑上), an article by Meng Zi(1) (also known as Mencius) who was one of the great philoso-phers in Chinese history.

In the article, while address-ing questions from Gong Sun Chou, the young disciple, Meng Zi told of an impatient farmer who once lived in the Song state during the Warring States period (475-221BC).

The farmer wanted his seed-lings to grow fast. For an entire week, he watched the seedlings expectantly. He became very disappointed when he saw there was little difference day after day. The farmer was puzzled by the slow progress and tried to find ways to get quicker results.

One day, he came up with the idea to pull the seedlings up a little to help them grow. He was very excited about this plan and ran out to the field early the next morning.

The farmer pulled the seed-lings out of the ground, one by one. He worked very diligently and was quite happy when he saw that, with this help, they were indeed taller.

At nightfall, when he arrived home, he said to his wife and

son: “I’m exhausted today, but it was worth it! I helped all the seedlings grow taller today.”

Hearing this, his surprised son immediately ran to the field to see for himself. What he saw was seedlings all withered and dying.

Meng Zi used this story to illustrate that cultivating a noble spirit is a long-term, step-by-step process and that noble spirits cannot be achieved by conscious and transient efforts.

The idiom “pulling up seed-lings to help them grow” is now used to refer to someone who is impatient for success and destroys the very conditions upon which success depends.

Sometimes, it is also used to describe someone who hastens the pace hoping for quick results.

Meng Zi (about 372-289BC) has

been recognised as the most

famous Confucian after Kong Zi

(Confucius).

Talent and ability: (才) Cái

才The Chinese character 才

(cái) is a pictogram that depicts a sprouting plant. As a noun and an adjective, the character refers to ability, tal-ent or endowment.

Terms combining 才 with other characters include 才能

(cái néng) and 才幹 (cái gàn), talent, capacity or ability; 天才 (tiān cái), genius or gift; 口才 (kǒu cái), eloquence; 才望(cái wàng), noted ability or ability and reputation; and 才智 (cái zhì), ability along with wisdom or intelligence.才子 (cái zǐ) refers to a geni-

us, a man of talent or a gifted scholar, while 才女 (cái nǚ) is a talented woman.德才兼備 (dé cái jiān bèi),

where 德 (dé) indicates virtue, means possessing both high moral character and ability. 才貌雙全 (cái mào shuāng quán), where 貌 (mào) indi-cates appearance, describes a person endowed with both talent and beauty.真才實學 (zhēn cái shí xué),

in which 學 (xué) means studying or learning, conveys the idea of having genuine ability combined with solid

learning.棟樑之才 (dòng liáng zhī cái)

refers to an individual of tre-mendous promise or a pillar of society.愛才若渴 (ài cái ruò kě),

literally “love for talent as if thirsty”, describes a per-son who admires and cher-ishes talent, and is as eager to obtain talent as a thirsty person is eager for water.

As an adverb, 才 means only, just or merely. The character can also serve as a conjunc-tion, conveying the idea of only if, not until or not unless.

Chinese character:

emperor wu is regarded as the most outstanding of all Han emperors due to his role in vastly expanding China’s territory and creating a flourishing, centralised state.

ZhichinG chen/epoch tiMes

The Chinese character 才 (cái) is a pictogram that depicts a sprouting plant.

The impatient farmer is pulling up the seedlings hoping to help them grow, yet will only succeed in destroying his crop.

ocToBER 10 – 16, 2013