Critically examine the major factors that contributed to the establishment of Confucianism as the state orthodox
· The willingness of the Han to appoint Confucians to top government posts was probably based on a number of factors, including the Confucians’ deeply held belief that public officials should serve their leaders (if virtuous) with utmost loyalty and devotion. ... · By the reign of the sixth Han ruler, Wu Di, Confucian advisers and administrators has achieved such deep influence within the imperial government that they managed to persuade the emperor to make Confucianism China’s official ideology. · Confucianism becomes the state Doctrine · Wu Di’s decision to make Confucianism the official doctrine of the Chinese empire was probably linked to the influence of his close adviser, the Confucian scholar and philosopher Dong Zhongshu. Before Wu Di formally announced Confucianism’s new position as the official orthodoxy, he received a written recommendation from Dong Zhongshu advising him to appoint only Confucians to government posts and make Confucianism the basis of the state educational system. ... Theodore de Bary’s Sources of Chinese Tradition, Dong Zhongshu supported his case for Confucianism by arguing that if the Chinese empire was ever to achieve lasting order and stability, its thought had to be unified. ... In order that ‘unity be achieved, the laws be made clear, and the people know what to follow, he therefore asserted that all philosophies other than Confucianism “should be suppressed and not allowed to continue further.” · The Establishment of Confucianism · In 136 B. ... Emperor Wu formally announced that Confucianism alone of all China’s numerous schools of thought would receive state sponsorship. ... · Han Confucianism: The continuing evolution of Confucian thought · More than just the political fortunes of Confucianism were changing as the philosophy was in the process of attaining its privileged place within the bureaucracy and state-sponsored educational system of Han China. ... In large part because of the influence of the Confucian scholar-official Dong Zhongshu, Confucianism became tinged with ideas from other Chinese schools of thought during the Han era, particularly the yin/yang and Five Elements philosophies. · By borrowing concepts from these popular belief systems, Dong Zhongshu and other Han philosophers were able to broaden Confucianism’s appeal for their contemporaries, thereby helping to ensure that the philosophy would endure in changing times. ... · The Victory of Confucianism and its syncretism · Confucianism suffered greatly during the short-lived Qin Dynasty.