Han Confucianism Becomes State Orthodoxy

The event

Emperor Wu of Han, one of the longest-reigning and most consequential rulers in Chinese history, formally established Confucianism as the philosophical foundation of the state on the advice of the scholar Dong Zhongshu, who urged 'dismissing the hundred schools, revering only Confucian learning.' An Imperial Academy was founded to train officials in the Confucian classics, beginning the long tradition of a scholar-official class chosen, at least in principle, by learning and merit rather than birth alone.

This fusion of Confucian ethics with a strong, centralized Legalist-style state became the enduring formula of Chinese imperial government, later refined into the famous civil service examination system that would recruit China's officials for the next two thousand years, right up until 1905.

Emperor Wu's reign also greatly expanded Han territory through sustained military campaigns against the nomadic Xiongnu confederation to the north, pushing Chinese influence deep into Central Asia — and, in doing so, opening the way for the long-distance trade described in the next entry.

Dating

Emperor Wu's reign dates (141–87 BC) are secure. Within it, the key institutional steps are firmly dated: in 136 BC he established official Erudites for the Five Confucian Classics while dismissing those of rival schools, and in 124 BC he founded the Imperial Academy to train officials in the Confucian classics, on the proposals of Dong Zhongshu and Gongsun Hong. Some modern historians caution that Emperor Wu's court remained eclectic in practice (a blend often called 'outside Confucian, inside Legalist') and that thoroughgoing Confucian orthodoxy consolidated only under his successors later in the Han.