IOverview
Han Confucianism is Confucian learning under the Han dynasty, from 206 BCE to 220 CE. This is when the court chose Confucianism as its orthodox doctrine, with officials dedicated to teaching the classics and an Imperial Academy to train future officials. Its emblematic figure is Dong Zhongshu (179 to 104 BCE).
Han Confucianism was not an organisation or a church. It was the scholarship and exegesis of Han-era scholars, tightly bound to the state. What sets it apart from classical Confucianism is the fusion of Confucian ethics with yin-yang and five-phase cosmology, used to explain why rulers must be virtuous and why heaven sends omens when they err.
IIHistory
The Qin burned the books in 213 BCE. The early Han court favoured Huang-Lao, a Daoist approach to government that prized non-interference. Confucian scholars had to reconstruct the classics from memory and from surviving copies. Under Emperor Wu, the situation changed completely.
- c. 140 to 134 BCEThree memorialsDong Zhongshu submitted three policy answers urging the court to set aside the other schools and honour Confucianism alone. Sources differ on the exact year.
- 136 BCEErudites of the Five ClassicsThe court created posts for scholars of the Five Classics, making Confucianism state doctrine.
- 124 BCEImperial AcademyThe Taixue in the capital taught the Five Classics and trained men for office.
- 79 CEWhite Tiger Hall conferenceEmperor Zhang convened scholars to settle discrepancies between versions of the classics. The results, recorded in the Baihu tong, set out the Three Bonds as a system.
- 127 to 200 CEZheng XuanWrote commentaries on almost the whole canon, reconciling the New Text and Old Text schools.
- 220 CEFall of the HanIn the turmoil of the Three Kingdoms, Xuanxue and Buddhism rose, and Han Confucianism lost its central place.
IIITeachings and Distinctive Ideas
Dong Zhongshu's central theory is the resonance between heaven and humankind (tianren ganying 天人感應). Heaven and people share one pattern and act on each other. The ruler is the Son of Heaven, holding heaven's mandate to govern. When he errs, heaven sends portents such as floods, droughts or eclipses as warnings. If he does not reform, heaven may withdraw the mandate. His main work, the Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals, reads that classic in this light.
Han Confucianism also produced sets of concepts that Vietnamese people still hear today. The Five Constants are humaneness, righteousness, ritual, wisdom and trustworthiness. The Three Bonds are ruler and minister, father and son, husband and wife, which Dong read through yin-yang, with the superior as yang and the subordinate as yin.
Han scholarship split into two camps over the texts of the classics. The New Text school used copies written in Han script and favoured grand interpretations, sometimes mixed with apocryphal prophecy. The Old Text school used rediscovered copies in archaic script, including one said to have come from a wall of Confucius's old house, and favoured textual commentary. Qing evidential scholars and Kang Youwei in the late 19th century revived this debate.
The Three Bonds and Five Constants are often taken as Confucius's own words. In fact neither set appears in the Analects. Both were systematised in the Han. The distinction explains how the New Culture Movement of the early 20th century could attack the Three Bonds while some New Confucians still defended Confucius.
IVClassical Studies, Ritual and Recruitment
Han Confucian life revolved around classical studies. Each classic had its own lines of transmission, and students were expected to keep their teacher's interpretation, known as keeping the house method. The state recruited men through recommendation as filial and incorrupt, then examined their learning. The court also had the classics carved in stone, the Xiping Stone Classics of 175 to 183 CE, to provide a common standard text.
VPlace in Confucian History
Han Confucianism left two lasting legacies. One is the model of a state that takes Confucianism as orthodox doctrine and staffs itself with Confucian-trained officials, a model later followed by Vietnam and Korea. The other is the habit of explaining politics through yin-yang and the five phases. Song Neo-Confucians rejected the omens and apocrypha but kept the Confucian state the Han had built.
VIIn Vietnam
Han Confucianism was the first layer of Confucian learning to reach Vietnamese soil. The chronicles record that Xi Guang, governor of Jiaozhi, and Ren Yan, governor of Jiuzhen, taught ritual and marriage customs in the early first century CE. Late in the Han, Shi Xie (Sĩ Nhiếp, 137 to 226) governed Jiaozhi and was later honoured as the founding teacher of the southern land.
Many scholars think its influence was still narrow, limited mainly to officials and those who dealt with the colonial administration. Only under the Lý, with the Temple of Literature in 1070 and the first examination in 1075, did Confucian learning become a system in Vietnam. No community today identifies itself as following Han Confucianism.
VIISymbol of the Branch
No symbol of its own is recorded with a source for this branch, so the library uses the common symbol of the path.
VIIIOther Branches of Confucianism
Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism宋明理學 程朱學派, School of PrincipleThe school that built a full cosmology on principle and qi, with the investigation of things as its path.
Classical Confucianism先秦儒家, pre-Qin ConfuciansThe Confucianism of Confucius, Mencius and Xunzi, concerned with ethics and government rather than metaphysics.Lu-Wang School of Mind陸王心學, 陽明心學 (Xinxue)Holds that principle lies in the mind rather than in external things.Uses the common symbol of the pathHan Confucianism漢儒, Han-era Confucian learningDong Zhongshu urged setting aside other schools and making Confucianism the sole state orthodoxy.Uses the common symbol of the pathQing Evidential Learning考證學 kaozhengxue, 樸學, Han learning 漢學In the Qing, scholars turned to philological research to recover the sages' words, called Han learning in contrast to the moral philosophy of Song learning.Uses the common symbol of the pathNew Confucianism新儒家, 當代新儒學A 20th-century current answering the May Fourth critique, accepting Western science and democracy while keeping the learning of mind and nature.Uses the common symbol of the path
Vietnamese ConfucianismNho học, Hội Tư văn, Văn MiếuConfucianism became a system in Vietnam under the Lý, with the Temple of Literature in 1070, the first examination in 1075 and the Imperial Academy in 1076.Korean Confucianism, Sungkyunkwan성균관 成均館 Seonggyungwan, 유교 YugyoSungkyunkwan was founded in Hanyang on 25 September 1398 and is today Korea's Confucian body.Uses the common symbol of the path
Confucian Religion in IndonesiaAgama Khonghucu, MATAKIN (Majelis Tinggi Agama Khonghucu Indonesia)Confucianism organised as a religion with a council, houses of worship and rites, one of Indonesia's six officially recognised religions.IXSources
The library cross-checks the sources below. Where they disagree, the page gives both.
?Quick Questions
What did Dong Zhongshu contribute?
He urged Emperor Wu to honour Confucianism alone, opening the way for it to become state doctrine. He also fused it with yin-yang and five-phase thought through the theory of heaven-human resonance, a framework for political explanation used throughout the Han.
What were the New Text and Old Text schools?
Two Han schools of classical studies based on two kinds of texts. The New Text school used copies in Han script and favoured broad meanings. The Old Text school used rediscovered archaic-script copies and favoured close textual commentary.
When did the Three Bonds appear?
The bonds of ruler and minister, father and son, husband and wife were interpreted by Dong Zhongshu and set out as a system in the Baihu tong of 79 CE. They are not in the Analects.