Author ｜
Takushi Kudo
Abstract ｜
In B.C. 221, the Qin Lord destroyed the other six Influential Lords of the Zhanguo period, and founded the first dominate empire in Chinse history; although the Qin dynasty fell into ruin only 15 years later. In the Han period, many intellectuals argued the reasons for the Qin dynasty to rise and fall in these short years. This article offers Lu Jia, Jia Yi, Jia Shan, Han Ying, Chao Cuo, and Zhan Shizhi as examples, sorts the discourses regarding the Qin dynasty in the early Former Han period, and discusses the relationship between these discourses, their thoughts and social backgrounds. In conclusion, this article points out three issues: 1. The intellectuals in the early Former Han period similarly criticized the Qin dynasty, although their points of view were not similar. 2. When the intellectuals in the early Former Han criticized the Qin dynasty, their discourse focused on “historical judgement;” however, most placed emphasis on “political judgement.” Then, when they took the warnings of the Qin dynasty for the Han dynasty, they had two visual angles: (1) Contrasted Qin and Han; (2) Overlapped Qin and Han. 3. Most previous researches only emphasized Xun zi’s effect on the intellectuals of the Former Han period; however, this paper thinks that Jia Yi and Han Ying were also influenced by Guanzi. In studies on Li of the Han period, we cannot minimize this point.
keywords ｜
the Qin dynasty, the early Former Han, intellectuals, political thought, the study of Li 禮