The rule of Confucianism in China

Author: Liu Xuyi, translated by Ye Wei et al
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: Since the Western Han Emperor Wu abolished the Hundred Schools of Thought and upheld Confucianism in a single instance, the Chinese imperial court increasingly relied on, valued, and rewarded Confucian scholars, expanding the Confucian scholar class. In turn, the scholars defended the imperial power through studying, teaching, and interpreting Confucianism, thereby expanding and strengthening imperial authority and sanctifying it. Gradually, both the imperial court and the Confucian scholar class derived increasingly profound vested interests from Confucianism. To protect and expand their vested interests, the imperial court and the Confucian scholar class cooperated since the Western Han Dynasty to suppress and persecute other doctrines and social groups (such as merchants, technologists, and wandering knights), keeping Chinese society in a subsistence economy state maintained by imperial power and patriarchal systems. This social stratification model, where the vested interests of all components of the ruling class are aligned, made the ruling class's vested interests a very powerful force resisting social change. This is the reason why Confucianism ruled China for over two thousand years and also a very important reason why Chinese society struggled to achieve industrialization and modernization.