Government Of Laos

government of laos="government of laos"

Confucianism and government recruitment

Although Emperor Gaozu did not ascribe to the philosophy and system of ethics attributed to Confucius (fl. 6th century BCE), he did enlist the aid of Confucians such as Lu Jia and Shusun Tong in 196 BCE he established the first Han regulation for recruiting men of merit into government service, which Robert P. Kramer calls the "first major impulse toward the famous examination system."  Emperors Wen and Jing appointed Confucian academicians to court, yet not all academicians at their courts specialized in what would later become orthodox Confucian texts.  For several years after Liu Che took the throne in 141 BCE (known posthumously as Emperor Wu), the Grand Empress Dowager Dou continued to dominate the court and did not accept any policy which she found unfavorable or contradicted Huang-Lao ideology.  After her death in 135 BCE, a major shift occurred in Chinese political history.

After Emperor Wu called for the submission of memorial essays on how to improve the government, he favored that of the official Dong Zhongshu (179–104 BCE), a philosopher who Kramers calls the first Confucian "theologian".  Dong's synthesis fused together the ethical ideas of Confucius with the cosmological  beliefs in yin and yang and Five Elements or Wuxing by fitting them into the same holistic, universal system which governed heaven, earth, and the world of man. 

Moreover, it justified the imperial system of government by providing it its place within the greater cosmos.  Reflecting the ideas of Dong Zhongshu, Emperor Wu issued an edict in 136 BCE that abolished academic chairs other than those focused on the Confucian Five Classics.  In 124 BCE Emperor Wu established the Imperial University, at which the academicians taught 50 students; this was the incipient beginning of the civil service examination system refined in later dynasties.  Although sons and relatives of officials were often privileged with nominations to office, those who did not come from a family of officials were not barred from entry into the bureaucracy.  Rather, education in the Five Classics became the paramount prerequisite for gaining office; as a result, the Imperial University was expanded dramatically by the 2nd century CE when it accommodated 30,000 students.  With Cai Lun's (d. 121 CE) invention of the papermaking process in 105 CE,  the spread of paper as a cheap writing medium from the Eastern Han period onwards increased the supply of books and hence the number of those who could be educated for civil service.

In 177 BCE, the Xiongnu Wise King of the Right raided the non-Chinese tribes living under Han protection in the northwest (modern Gansu).  In 176 BCE, Modu Chanyu sent a letter to Emperor Wen informing him that the Wise King, allegedly insulted by Han officials, acted without the Chanyu's permission and so he punished the Wise King by forcing him to conduct a military campaign against the nomadic Yuezhi.  Yet this event was merely part of a larger effort to recruit nomadic tribes north of Han China, during which the bulk of the Yuezhi were expelled from the Hexi Corridor (fleeing west into Central Asia) and the sedentary state of Loulan in the Lop Nur salt marsh, the nomadic Wusun of the Tian Shan range, and twenty-six other states east of Samarkand were subjugated to Xiongnu hegemony.  Modu Chanyu's implied threat that he would invade China if the heqin  agreement was not renewed sparked a debate in Chang'an; although officials such as Chao Cuo and Jia Yi (d. 169 BCE) wanted to reject the heqin policy, Emperor Wen favored renewal of the agreement.  Modu Chanyu died before the Han tribute reached him, but his successor Laoshang Chanyu  (174–160 BCE) renewed the heqin agreement and negotiated the opening of border markets.  Lifting the ban on trade significantly reduced the frequency and size of Xiongnu raids, which had necessitated tens of thousands of Han troops to be stationed at the border.  However, Laoshang Chanyu and his successor Junchen Chanyu (r. 160–126 BCE) continued to violate Han's territorial sovereignty by making incursions despite the treaty.  While Laoshang Chanyu continued the conquest of his father by driving the Yuezhi into the Ili River valley, the Han quietly built up its strength in cavalry forces to later challenge the Xiongnu.

About the Author

Charmy Ayu website's:
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.disney-vacationpackages.org/">Disney Vacation Packages </a>,
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.palaceresorts.org/">Palace Resorts</a>, And
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.italian-villas.org/">Italian Villas</a>.

Radio24


government of laos