The Scholar-Officials Of Han Dynasty And Sima Qian

One of the outstanding characteristics of the class china ancient scholar-officials is that they have strong consciousness of historical mission. At the beginning of Han Dynasty, scholar-officials engaged the construction of their empire with eagerness. They looked it as their duty that made their empire steadily and let the people had a happy life. The deeper historical thoughts and the tendency of realistic usage composed the characteristic of their theory exploration. The era atmosphere of the scholar-officials' discussing politics had excited the ambition of Sima Qian. He made up his mind to be Kongtse of his stage, and researched the arts of governance on the basis of the national lesson and the experience of the history courses. In their political thoughts, the scholar-officials of Han Dynasty had unanimous slogan, They advocated to rule the people with moral and not with strict punishment. They required in fulfilling their function of admonishment and instruction in the new government. With the king's power was getting firm and rising, The scholar-officials couldn't play their political roles effectively and their ideal of contribution had been destroyed by the cruel politics. Under such hard circumstances, Sima Qian uncovered the true color of the cruel and ferocious government which ruled by the emperor Wu of Western Han Dynasty, and undertook bravely the historical mission of correcting folkways and recovering public morals by his frank criticisms in The Historical Memoirs. Meanwhile, Sima Qian highly praised man's independent moral quality and the idea of improving oneself. He encouraged people to make contribution in their lives. Under the background of dictatorial society, He had defended the value and freedom of human being. Finally Sima Qian's humanism solicitude had expanded his research field from politics to humanism.