The Western Han Dynasty Played A Role In The Study Of Confucian Classics

In the Western Han Dynasty,the Confucianism was accepted by mainstream society and became orthodox,then it had deep impact on society at that time.As an important way to deliver information to the high level officer,memorials frequently quoted from Confucian classics,the combination made the opinion of the memorials had more persuasion and authority,at the same time let Confucian classics had more important status and spread more widely.In a word,the study of memorials' quoting from Confucian classics could help people learn the spreading situation of classics and the interactive relationship between Confucianism and politics.Memorials were important ways to connect subordinate to superior,they could be divided into parts in the West Han dynasty:oral and written forms,Shangshu,Zoushu and Duice were written forms,the oral memorials need good response ability.Emperor were the primary target that memorials presented to,in some cases,the empress dowagers,kings of the vassal states could be the target too,because in the vassal states there had the same bureaucratic system to the central government.Dating back to the Pre-Qin Period,its elements relate to the memorials quoting from The Book of Songs and Shangshu,the research about quoting from The Book of Songs is a key point because of its huge quantity.There are many memorials that quoted Confucian classics in the The Commentary of Zuo,Guoyu and Records on the Warring States Period,they focus on the field of politics and military affairs,also the fashions of quoting are quite different,especially quoting The Book of Songs.This phenomenon is related to the non fixity of The Book of Songs' version in its spreading process.Because of the reconstruction of social values,the quantity of quoting decreased in the Warring States Period.According to the meaning of Confucian classics,the quoting can be divided into three parts:historic facts,maxim,system.In the Western Han Dynasty,the use of system about Confucianism and Confucius's words are quite different from The Pre-Qin Period,they had been the evidence that Han Dynasty could be built into a perfect world,which was described by the Confucian classics.In order to show the Confucian's influences on the Western Han Dynasty's politics,many kinds of memorials which quoted classics had been enumerated in the third section.On the basis of the development of Confucianism in the diverse period in the Western Han Dynasty,the al emperor to the emperor Xuan,the third period is the rest of Western Han Dynasty,and the reign from emperor Cheng to emperor Ai is the summit of the quoting history,governing country by the Confucian classics became general,due to the change of officials' selection criteria,the imperial officials' cultural quality had been improved,which bring the quantity of quoting Confucian classics increased,the argument between Guwenjing and Jinwenjing made a deep impression on the quoting.