Dong Zhongshu and the Rise of Confucianism as Han State Ideology

Dong Zhongshu was a Han dynasty scholar who, according to tradition, persuaded Emperor Wu to make Confucian learning the official ideology of the Chinese state. Between 136 and 124 BC the court appointed scholars of the Five Classics and founded an Imperial Academy to train officials in them. The decisions made Confucian texts the core of Chinese education and government for some two thousand years.

Background

The Han dynasty, founded in 202 BC, inherited much of the harsh legal system of the Qin, which had drawn on the ideas of Han Feizi and the legalists. Early Han rulers also favoured Huang-Lao thought, a form of Daoist-inspired statecraft that advised light taxes and minimal interference. Confucians, followers of Confucius and Mencius, were present at court but held no privileged position.

When Emperor Wu of Han came to the throne in 141 BC, he showed interest in Confucian ideas, but his grandmother, Grand Empress Dowager Dou, a strong supporter of Huang-Lao, blocked his first Confucian ministers in 139 BC. Only after her death in 135 BC could the emperor change course.

Dong Zhongshu and his ideas

Dong Zhongshu was born around 179 BC in Guangchuan, in modern Hebei. He was an expert on the Gongyang commentary to the Spring and Autumn Annals, a chronicle traditionally linked to Confucius, and served as an erudite under Emperor Jing. The Book of Han says he studied so intently that for three years he never glanced at his own garden.

When Emperor Wu asked scholars for advice on government, Dong Zhongshu submitted three answers, known as the “Three Responses on Heaven and Man”. Their date is debated, with 140 BC and 134 BC both proposed. He argued that Heaven and humanity are linked, so that a ruler’s good or bad conduct produces harmony or disaster, and that floods, eclipses and strange events were Heaven’s warnings. He urged the emperor to unify thought around the Confucian classics, set up an academy and recommend virtuous men for office.

Dong’s teaching blended Confucian ethics with cosmology based on yin and yang and the five phases (wood, fire, earth, metal and water). He stressed the hierarchical relationships between ruler and minister, father and son, and husband and wife, later known as the Three Bonds. A collection of essays called the Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals is attributed to him, though scholars agree that parts were written by others.

Founding the Confucian state institutions

In 136 BC Emperor Wu appointed official erudites for each of the Five Classics: the Book of Songs, the Book of Documents, the Rites, the Book of Changes and the Spring and Autumn Annals. Erudites for other texts were reportedly dropped. In 134 BC commanderies were ordered to recommend men known for filial piety and integrity for office, a system that rewarded Confucian virtues.

In 124 BC, on the proposal of the chancellor Gongsun Hong, himself a scholar of the Spring and Autumn Annals, 50 students were attached to the erudites. This was the beginning of the Imperial Academy, or Taixue. Students who passed annual tests could enter government service. The academy grew to around 3,000 students in the late 1st century BC and was said to have tens of thousands in the 2nd century AD.

Dong Zhongshu’s career

Dong Zhongshu himself never reached high office. He served as chancellor to two difficult princes, the Kings of Jiangdu and Jiaoxi. He was nearly executed when a memorial he had written interpreting a fire at an imperial shrine as a heavenly warning was shown at court; even his own student, not recognising the author, condemned it as foolish. He was pardoned and later retired, though the court still consulted him on difficult legal questions. He died around 104 BC.

Myths and facts

Myth: Emperor Wu banned all schools except Confucianism. The famous phrase “dismiss the hundred schools and honour only Confucianism” is a later summary of the policy, not an edict. Daoist, legalist and other ideas continued to influence the court.

Fact: Dong’s role may have been magnified. Our main account of him comes from the Book of Han, written about two centuries later. Some modern historians, including Michael Loewe, argue that its author Ban Gu exaggerated Dong’s influence, and that other figures such as Gongsun Hong did more to shape the actual institutions.

Timeline

• c. 179 BC: Birth of Dong Zhongshu.
• 141 BC: Emperor Wu comes to the throne.
• 139 BC: Grand Empress Dowager Dou blocks the first Confucian reforms.
• c. 140 or 134 BC: Dong Zhongshu submits his three responses to the emperor.
• 136 BC: Erudites appointed for the Five Classics.
• 134 BC: Recommendation of men of filial piety and integrity introduced.
• 124 BC: Imperial Academy founded with 50 students.
• c. 104 BC: Death of Dong Zhongshu.

Why it matters

The reforms of Emperor Wu’s reign tied scholarship to government service. Confucian classics became the curriculum of the educated elite, later the basis of the imperial examination system, and remained central to Chinese statecraft until the examinations were abolished in 1905.