Unified Or Divided Rule

It is universally acknowledged that Centralization, as a kind of political systemestablished in the Qin dynasty, has set up a basic political framework for the latterChinese traditional society. However, in the early Han dynasty, Balkanization hadbeen resumed to some degree. What would be the cause to this phenomenon? And asfor the Han dynasty, which one, Centralization which represents unification orBalkanization which represents divisive administration, should be the best choice?This has been the central political issue in that period, the discussion about which isthe main content of the political ideology at that time.In. this essay, I have chosen the perspective of making a choice between thetwo——Centralization or Balkanization——to analyze the political, economical andcultural situation of that period and reveal the choice made by the monarch in order toprobe into the characteristics and the historical influence of the political ideology ofthe early Han dynasty. This essay is well worked out to prove that the delegating ofthe power to the lower levels was a kind of makeshift for the reason thatBalkanization here didn't mean the feudatories were equal with the suzerain that wasstill in domination and Han dynasty will be unified both in politics and in ideologywithout any doubt. I hope all the analysis above could help us obtain a betterunderstanding of the political ideology of the early Han dynasty.