During the period of Emperor Wendi and Emperor Jingdi in the Han Dynasty, the society tended to be stable, production also developed greatly, and people's lives gradually stabilized. Therefore, there is a saying in history that "the rule of culture and scenery". After the death of Emperor Jing of Han Dynasty, his son Liu Che succeeded to the throne as the ambitious Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty.
Several other emperors in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty practiced the policy of recuperation, with the ultimate goal of consolidating their feudal rule, but it was beneficial to the farmers at that time. Farmers got a chance to breathe, and they were able to engage in production with peace of mind and improve production technology, so agricultural production had a great development at that time. During the period of Emperor Liu Che, there was an official in charge of agriculture named Zhao Guo. On the basis of summing up farmers' production experience, he invented the method of substituting farmland for farming.
Substitution method is a method of ridge and furrow rotation in the field. When farming, first plow the land into ridges and ditches at regular intervals, and the ridges are one foot higher than the ditches, and sow seeds in the ditches. In the process of crop growth, gradually cultivate the soil on the ridge into the ditch, so that the roots of crops can be deeply rooted, wind and drought resistant, and a better harvest can be obtained. In the second year of cultivation, the positions of ridges and furrows are exchanged, so that the land is fallow in turn, soil fertility is restored, and crop yield can be improved.
Plow is an agricultural tool for sowing, which consists of bucket, leg, share and handle. Building barrels are used to hold seeds. There are two or three stirrup legs, slender and hollow, the upper part is communicated with the stirrup bucket, and the lower part is equipped with a small share. When sowing, the share is pulled forward by the animal, and the small share under the share leg is ditched on the ground. People hold the plough share handle and shake it back and forth, and the seeds are evenly scattered in the ground through the hollow plough share legs. In this way, the labor force is greatly saved, the sowing speed and quality are improved, the crop yield can be increased, and the development of agricultural production can be promoted.
The development of agricultural production has promoted the development of handicraft production. Silk weaving, copper smelting and lacquerware were relatively developed handicraft departments in the Western Han Dynasty. After liberation, archaeologists excavated some ancient tombs of the Western Han Dynasty and unearthed many cultural relics. Like the jade clothes and bronzes unearthed from the Han tombs in Mancheng, the production is very fine; Silk paintings and lacquerware unearthed from Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha have high artistic value. All these show that the development of handicraft industry and science and technology at that time has reached a quite high level.
Due to the long-term war, in the early Western Han Dynasty, the population was sparse, the production was greatly damaged, and the country was quite poor. After decades of sharing weal and woe with the people and developing production in the early Han Dynasty, the country gradually became rich. It is said that when Liu Che ascended the throne, the government's warehouses for storing money and grain were full. The money accumulated by the national treasury is countless, and the rope for stringing money is rotten. The grain in the granary has accumulated year after year, which has been exposed to the outside, and some of it has become moldy.
With such a prosperous economy, culture naturally develops accordingly. In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, literature and music appeared a relatively prosperous scene.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty liked a style called Ci Fu, which was between prose and poetry. He will give it to anyone who can talk about ci fu. Sima Xiangru's Fu, with beautiful words, delicate descriptions and novel ideas, was the most famous and widely circulated literary work at that time. It is said that Sima Xiangru is handsome and can play the piano, but because of his poor family, millionaire Zhuo Wangsun was unwilling to marry his daughter Zhuo Wenjun at first. Sima Xiangru and Zhuo Wenjun had to run away together in secret, and fled to other places to open a small hotel to maintain the survival of ancient stone tools. Wearing an apron to wash the dishes, Zhuo Wenjun sells wine next to the dragon (taxi stand with wine jars). This is the story of the famous "Wen Jun Danglu". On one occasion, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty saw the Fu written by Sima Xiangru and said with admiration, "It's really well written! Unfortunately, I don't have the fate of living in the same era as the author of this fu! " Yang Deyi, the dog owner of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, is a human being. He heard the praise of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and said to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, "Tell your Majesty that the author of this gift is not an ancient person. He is still here today, that is, my fellow countryman Sima Xiangru. " Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was very happy. He immediately ordered Sima Xiangru to be summoned and appointed him as a senior official. Zhuo Wangsun did not give money to his daughter-in-law. Now, as soon as he heard that his son-in-law has a bright future, he immediately gave part of his property to his daughter-in-law, making Sima Xiangru and Zhuo Wenjun rich.
Mei Cheng, Jia Yi, Yang Xiong and others were also famous poets in the Western Han Dynasty. The writers of ci and fu in the Western Han Dynasty wrote more than 1000 poems, which was a large number at that time.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty also liked poetry and music very much. He set up an organization in the government called Yuefu, which was responsible for collecting poems, preparing music scores, training musicians and singing songs. Yuefu poetry in Han Dynasty is a wonderful work in the history of China literature. The content of Yuefu poems reflects people's sufferings, exposes the luxurious life of the upper class, describes love and encourages people to make progress. There is a Yuefu poem called Long Songs, with ten sentences and fifty words. It uses natural phenomena as a metaphor to show that human life is limited, so we should work hard as early as possible and not delay our youth. The last four sentences of this poem are:
The river runs to the sea, and when will it return to the west?
Young people do not work hard. The boss is very sad.
These four poems are regarded by later generations as the motto to motivate themselves to make progress, which can be called famous sentences through the ages.
Han Jing put down the Seven-Country Rebellion, and the whole country was politically unified. In order to consolidate his rule, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty further unified his academic thoughts. He accepted Dong Zhongshu's suggestion: oust a hundred schools of thought and respect Confucianism alone, ending the situation that a hundred schools of thought contend since the Warring States Period.
Dong Zhongshu, a native of Guang Chuan (now Zaoqiang County, Hebei Province), was a great scholar, proficient in Confucianism, and worked as a doctor when Emperor Jing of Han Dynasty. He saw several kingdom rebellions since the establishment of the Han Dynasty, and thought that the idea of unification should be publicized to consolidate the centralized position of the emperor. According to his own understanding and the political needs at that time, he reformed Confucianism founded by Confucius and developed by Mencius, and integrated various theories with superstitious thoughts such as Yin-Yang and Five Elements, making Confucianism a theory with religious superstition and serving the feudal political system. When he recommended "sages" under the imperial edict of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, he put forward the suggestion of "three strategies for heaven and man" to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. What are the three policies of heaven and man? Dong Zhongshu said: Heaven has a will, and everything in the world exists and changes according to the will of Heaven. The emperor is the representative of God, and the power of the emperor is given by God. When people obey the emperor, they obey God and heaven. Under the world, between the monarch and the minister, between father and son, between husband and wife, and between brothers, we must strictly abide by the ceremony of respect and inferiority, and we must never violate this ceremony. Dong Zhongshu also said in his suggestion that the theory of a hundred schools of thought contended hindered the absolute authority of the emperor, and only Confucianism could maintain ideological unity. Therefore, the spread of a hundred schools of thought outside Confucianism should be prohibited. From then on, only Confucian classics such as Poem, Book, Rite, Book of Changes, Spring and Autumn Annals can be taught to readers, and it is not allowed to use works of a hundred schools of thought as teaching content.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty thought that Dong Zhongshu's suggestion was very suitable for consolidating feudal rule. While vigorously strengthening centralized politics, he ordered the establishment of a doctor of the Five Classics who taught Confucianism in the government, and deployed 50 disciples under the doctor of the Five Classics. These disciples are all studying Confucian classics under the guidance of Dr. Jason Wu, and they are required to take the exam once a year. Those who can learn the Five Classics can be officials, and those who have excellent grades can also be big officials. Later, the number of doctoral disciples continued to increase, and at the most, it increased to 3000. In this way, Confucian classics became the stepping stone of officialdom, Confucianism became the main way to be an official, and other hundred schools of thought were gradually excluded. People who rely on Confucianism to be officials naturally help Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to govern the world according to Dong Zhongshu's teachings and educate future generations with Confucianism. Since Dong Zhongshu's time, the thought of centralization has become the orthodox thought of China society, and Confucianism has almost completely ruled the whole ideological and cultural field of China feudal society.
At the suggestion of Dong Zhongshu, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty "deposed a hundred schools of thought and respected Confucianism alone". At that time, it played a positive role in strengthening centralized feudal politics, but it deified the monarchy, deprived hundred schools of thought of the right to freely publicize academic thoughts and political opinions since the Warring States Period, played a bad role in imprisoning people's thoughts and had a very serious bad influence. Later, the rulers of various dynasties constantly supplemented and developed Confucianism, making it more suitable for maintaining feudal rule. With the continuous development and progress of China society, Confucianism has become a stubborn and conservative theory. The long-term stagnation of feudal society in China, which lasted for more than two thousand years, is inseparable from the "exclusive respect for Confucianism" advocated by Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty and Dong Zhongshu.