Moralization, or civilizing and educating, is the essence of political thought of Confucianism. During the former Han period, moralization had been a very important ruling policy of the Empire. Thinkers of the Han Confucian school had inherited the humanism traditions——virtue and morality, which was shaped during the pre-Qin time. Furthermore, they discussed the issues of moralization systematically, and provided it with rich and profound ideological recognition for the later generations. In order to consolidate their ruling power, the monarchs of the Han Empire had learned the historical lessons in Qin's perdition. They strengthened the moralizing rule propagandas and the practices, for example, demonstration, public opinion, government administration, education, law, and so on. They had succeeded in this manner of the governing. By their efforts, moralization was regarded as the universal principle of governing. During the Feudal ages of Chinese history, this method had widely been approved and been established as the auxiliary and indispensable part of the legal system.We believe that the moralizing experience of the former Han would provided us with inspiration and reference. |