The Integration And Evolution Of Confucian Rite And Law In Western Han Dynasty

Han dynasty served a very important position in Chinese history, whose ideology culture and social institution had profound influence on the later generations. On the part of ideology culture, Emperor Wu Di adopted Dong zhongshu's suggestion of proscribing non-Confucian schools of thought and espousing Confucianism as the orthodox state ideology. From then on, Confucianism became official ideology and integrated other schools of thought in its history of development, finally it served dominant ruling thought in China's two thousand years of feudalism. On the part of social institution, Han followed Qin's example, and continue to perfect the centralized feudal autocratic monarchy, which was adopted by the later dynasties. If Chinese feudal autocratic monarchy was formed in Qin dynasty, then its core essence was initiated in Han dynasty.Undoubtedly, the integration of rite and law is the main feature of traditional Chinese legal culture. This feature followed the development of Chinese legal culture. However, there are other factors that affecting the integration of rite and law: some scholars analyzed from the perspective of economic bases; others had a view from cultural change; still some interpreted from the perspective of the integration of political culture. The truth is that only a few scholars studied the integration of rite and law from the perspective of Nature. In ancient China, people hold different views and understandings about Nature. Nature can be understood as a conscious and eternal Heaven. It also may be interpreted as a natural law. Whatever the understanding is, Nature is understood by thinkers and emperors as the ultimate foundation to rule a country. Therefore it is very important to differentiate the role of Nature in the integration of rite and law in order to fully understand the contents of Chinese traditional legal thought.The author tries to argue the process from the period of Taoism in Early Han Dynasty to the period when Emperor Wu di adopted the idea of proscribing non-Confucian schools of thought and espousing Confucianism as the orthodox state ideology from the perspective of Nature.This paper is composed of introduction, body and conclusion. The introduction deals with the purpose of this research, its current situation, the materials used, and the research approaches. The conclusion implies the role of Nature in the integration of rite and law and the influence on the ruling thought in later dynasties.The body is comprised of three parts.The first is the formation of Confucian perspective of Nature in Western Han dynasty and the assimilation of rite and law. It tries to solve two issues. One is Nature in Taoism. The other is perspective of morality and punishment in Taoism.The second is the perspective of Nature in Western Han dynasty and the rite and law thought and three problems are analyzed here. One is Lujia's perspective of Nature and the rite and law thought. The other is Jiayi's perspective of Nature and the rite and law thought. Another is Dong zhongshu's perspective of Nature and the rite and law thought.The third is the integration of law and rite under the influence of Confucian Nature. It tries to espouse the laws of Western Han dynasty reflected in the integration of rite and law, including judging cases by Chunqiu, execution in autumn and winter, kin concealment system and Mercy for the elderly.In early Han dynasty, Taoism was adopted as the thought for ruling a country. Its perspective of Nature and the perspective of morality and punishment will affect Confucian Nature and the integration of rite and law. But Confucian thinkers actively participated in politics and strived to seek the approaches for the survival and development of Confucianism. After painstaking effort of Lujia, Jiayi and Dong Zhongshu, Confucianism became the orthodox thought in the reign of Emperor Wu Di and the integration of rite and law began to proceed. In the beginning, the integration of rite and law did not reflect in political practice. The integration of rite and law became close and was put into practice in Middle Han. Therefore, the integration of rite and law together with the legal principle it formed had a very profound influence in Chinese Feudal society.