I. Dong Zhongshu (179–104 BCE)

Dong Zhongshu (179–104 BCE) was a native of Guangchuan (present-day Jing County, Hengshui area, Hebei). He was born sixty years after the death of Xunzi. A thinker and statesman of the Western Han dynasty, Dong Zhongshu was consulted by Emperor Wu of Han on strategies for governing the state. He presented the Policy Responses for the Recommendation of the Worthy and the Good, establishing an ideological system centered on Confucianism, which won Emperor Wu’s admiration. He systematically articulated the doctrines of “Grand Unification” and “Resonance between Heaven and Humanity,” and proposed the policy of “rejecting the hundred schools and honoring Confucianism alone.” This proposal was adopted by Emperor Wu, making Confucianism the state orthodoxy.

Dong Zhongshu integrated the theories of Heaven–human resonance, the Three Bonds and Five Constants, Yin–Yang and the Five Phases, and the Mandate of Heaven, weaving divine authority and imperial authority together into a unified theological framework of imperial Confucianism. From then on, this system influenced Chinese dynasties for more than two thousand years from the Han dynasty onward.

In 134 BCE, Emperor Wu summoned Dong Zhongshu three times for what became known as the “Three Inquiries on Heaven and Humanity.” In the first inquiry, the emperor asked about the fundamental means of consolidating rule; in the second, about techniques of governance; and in the third, about the doctrine of Heaven–human resonance. In his “Three Policy Responses,” Dong Zhongshu proposed the principle of “Grand Unification,” advocating the exclusive adoption of Confucius’s Six Arts (rites, music, archery, charioteering, writing, and mathematics), while excluding all miscellaneous schools outside Confucianism so as to prevent them from confusing the people. By unifying ideology and standards of conduct, the state could achieve long-term stability and peace. Dong Zhongshu repeatedly emphasized using Confucianism to unify thought throughout the realm. He advanced the theory of Heaven–human resonance in an attempt to restrain the emperor’s supreme power through “Heaven,” invoking divine authority to ensure lasting order and peace under Heaven.

Drawing lessons from the fall of the Qin dynasty due to tyrannical rule, Dong Zhongshu advocated governance primarily through moral virtue, emphasizing education and moral transformation, replacing harsh punishments with benevolence. He proposed moral governance as the foundation, with legal governance as a supplement, thereby stabilizing social order.

Born into a scholarly gentry family with an extensive library, Dong Zhongshu was diligent in his studies and famously “did not look into the garden for three years.” He became renowned for his study of the Gongyang Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals and served as a Gongyang erudite during the reign of Emperor Jing. Under Emperor Wu, he served for ten years as chancellor to Liu Fei, Prince Yi of Jiangdu, and for four years as chancellor to Liu Duan, Prince of Jiaoxi. Afterward, he resigned and devoted himself to scholarship and writing at home. Whenever major state affairs arose, the court invariably sent envoys to consult him, and he continued to receive Emperor Wu’s respect. On his deathbed, Dong Zhongshu even submitted a memorial opposing the state monopoly on salt and iron.

While serving as chancellor to Liu Fei, Dong Zhongshu courageously admonished him according to orthodox principles. Liu Fei, the elder brother of Emperor Wu, was rough and overbearing, and sought Dong Zhongshu’s assistance in plotting to seize imperial power. Dong Zhongshu admonished him through historical analogy, urging him to “rectify the Way rather than seek profit, cultivate principle rather than rush for achievement,” firmly preventing Liu Fei from pursuing hegemonic ambitions.

In the sixth year of the Jianyuan era, fires broke out at the Gaoyuan Hall of Changling, where the emperor worshipped his ancestors, and at the Gao Temple in Liaodong. Dong Zhongshu interpreted these two fires as signs of Heaven’s anger toward the court and drafted a memorial based on the theory of Heaven–human resonance. Before the memorial was completed and submitted, it was stolen and presented to Emperor Wu. Upon reading it, the emperor was displeased and enraged, intending to punish Dong Zhongshu. However, valuing his talent, he ultimately issued a pardon and merely dismissed him from the post of chancellor of Jiangdu.

From the age of thirty, Dong Zhongshu recruited large numbers of students and lectured behind hanging curtains—a teaching method known as “lecturing behind the screen.” The teacher spoke from behind the curtain while students listened outside. He instructed only outstanding students, while ordinary students were taught by his accomplished disciples. Dong Zhongshu’s conduct strictly adhered to ritual propriety, and he devoted himself entirely to teaching, sometimes not returning home for three years. Through long-term instruction, he trained many talented individuals, though many of his disciples never even saw him in person.

In 104 BCE, Dong Zhongshu died of illness at home and was buried in the western suburbs of Chang’an. On one occasion, Emperor Wu happened to ride past his grave, dismounted his horse, and paid his respects. Thereafter, Dong Zhongshu’s tomb came to be known as “Dismounting Mausoleum.”

In many places across Hebei Province, memorial sites have been established in his honor, including Dongzi Shrines, Dongzi Cultural Parks, stone statues of Dong Zhongshu, and Dongzi Temples.

Sayings of Dong Zhongshu

Names arise from truth.

By accumulating the small, one reaches the great; the sage reveals the manifest through the subtle.

Goodness is like rice; rice comes from grain.

Order and disorder, rise and decline, lie within oneself.

Nature is the uncarved substance bestowed by Heaven; goodness is the transformation brought about by royal teaching.

When success brings joy, one must remain vigilant.

The boundary between Heaven and humanity merges into one.

When education is established, deviant paths cease, and the dikes are intact; when education is abandoned, corrupt paths emerge, and the dikes collapse. The wise ruler understands this and makes education the foremost task.

The purity of vital energy becomes essence; governing the body means treasuring the accumulation of essence.

The Way of Heaven is orderly and timely, measured and regulated. Follow the Way of Heaven to nurture the body.

The great source of the Way comes from Heaven; Heaven does not change, and neither does the Way.

Substance is called nature; nature cannot be fulfilled without education.

Heaven and humanity are united as one; imperial authority is divinely bestowed.

Jade, if not carved, does not become an ornament; a person, if not educated, does not become virtuous.

The sage brings benefit to the world.

Lighten taxes, reduce corvée labor, and ease the people’s burden.

Be strict with oneself and lenient in blaming others.

Human nature and emotions are like Heaven’s yin and yang.

Mandate is Heaven’s command; nature is the substance of life; emotion is human desire.

The ruler is the guiding bond of ministers; the father of sons; the husband of the wife.

Righteousness lies in rectifying oneself; benevolence lies in loving others.

No good deed is too small to promote; no evil is too small to eliminate.

Undertake affairs in accordance with Heaven’s will.

One who can cause all the people to follow him will be unrivaled under Heaven.

If the father is not fatherly, the son will not be filial; if the ruler is not rulerly, the minister will not be ministerial.

Ultimate integrity carries authority.

II Sima Qian (c. 145 BCE – date unknown)

Sima Qian (c. 145 BCE – date unknown), courtesy name Zichang, was born in present-day Hancheng, Shaanxi. He was a Western Han historian and thinker. His father, Sima Tan, served as Grand Historian (Taishi Ling). Sima Qian inherited his father’s unfulfilled aspiration and devoted his entire life to the compilation of the Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji), which narrates more than three thousand years of Chinese history and became the foremost model of Chinese historiography.

From an early age, Sima Qian received guidance from his father. By the age of ten, he was already able to read and recite historical classics such as the Book of Documents, the Zuo Commentary, and the Discourses of the States. In his youth, he was influenced by great Western Han Confucian scholars such as Dong Zhongshu and Kong Anguo. At the age of nineteen, following his father’s instructions, he set out from Chang’an and over several years traveled widely through Bashu, Kunming, western Hunan, Changsha, Jiujiang, Mount Lu, Qiantang, Huaiyin, Zibo, Qufu, Kaifeng, and many other major cities. He visited Confucian scholars and learned men, collecting ancient accounts and lost traditions, and gathering scattered historical materials.

After returning to Chang’an, Sima Qian was appointed a Palace Gentleman (Langzhong) and was ordered to travel to the southwest to pacify non-Han tribes, participating in the planning of new commanderies south of Bashu.

In 110 BCE, Emperor Wu of Han made an eastern inspection tour to the Bohai region and planned to hold the Feng and Shan sacrifices at Mount Tai. Sima Tan went to take part in drafting the ceremonial rites but fell gravely ill on the journey. Upon hearing the news, Sima Qian rushed to Luoyang to see him. On his deathbed, his father exhorted him: “Our ancestors served as Grand Historians of the Zhou dynasty. After my death, you will certainly assume the post of Grand Historian. Never forget the historical treatise I wished to compile. The world praises the Duke of Zhou; Confucius revived the royal way and ritual music and composed the Spring and Autumn Annals. Yet more than four hundred years have passed since Confucius, historical records have been scattered, and the narrative has been interrupted, with no one to judge and comment upon them. This deeply troubles me.” With tears, Sima Qian vowed to inherit his father’s will and fulfill his long-cherished wish.

Sima Qian was also a renowned astronomer of the Han dynasty. In 104 BCE, together with Tang Du and others, he established the “Taichu Calendar,” changing the Qin-era practice of beginning the year in the tenth month and instead adopting the first month (the lunar new year) as the year’s start. This laid the foundation of the calendar system honored in China for the next two thousand years. Summarizing the social upheavals from the Warring States through the Qin and Han periods, Sima Qian proposed a theory of cyclical change in the movement of Heaven: “thirty years make a minor change, one hundred years a medium change, five hundred years a major change; three major changes constitute one epoch.” He expressed this as “to comprehend the changes from antiquity to the present and to probe the relationship between Heaven and humanity.”

In 99 BCE, the famed general Li Guang’s grandson, Li Ling, volunteered to attack the Xiongnu. Leading five thousand troops against overwhelming odds, he fought bravely, but with reinforcements failing to arrive and supplies exhausted, he was defeated and captured. The entire court accused Li Ling of surrender and treason, calling for the execution of his entire family. Only Sima Qian spoke in Li Ling’s defense, arguing that his defeat resulted from “arrows exhausted and the road cut off, with no relief forces arriving,” and that Li Ling had acted out of loyalty to repay the Han. Sima Qian noted that Li Ling, though outnumbered, had killed more than ten thousand enemies, and that his merit could offset his fault. Shortly thereafter, however, Gongsun Ao, sent to rescue Li Ling, returned unsuccessfully and falsely reported that Li Ling was training Xiongnu troops to attack the Han. Emperor Wu then ordered the execution of Li Ling’s entire family. For defending Li Ling, Sima Qian was convicted of the crime of “deceiving the emperor” and sentenced to death, later commuted to the punishment of castration.

Enduring the immense humiliation of castration, Sima Qian resolutely devoted the remainder of his life to fulfilling his father’s final wish. Over ten years, he completed the 530,000-character Records of the Grand Historian. The work consists of 130 chapters, covering three thousand years of history from antiquity onward, and revives the spirit of Confucius’s Spring and Autumn Annals. As he wrote in the “Postface of the Grand Historian”: “Above, to elucidate the way of the Three Kings; below, to examine the patterns of human affairs; to distinguish doubts, clarify right and wrong, settle hesitations, praise the good and condemn the evil, honor the worthy and belittle the unworthy; to preserve fallen states, continue extinct lineages, remedy decay and restore what has been abandoned—this is the great meaning of the kingly way. The Spring and Autumn Annals uses moral judgment to rectify a chaotic age and return it to correctness; nothing comes closer to this than the Spring and Autumn Annals.” This shows that Sima Qian followed the “principles of the Spring and Autumn Annals” and its distinctive historiographical style of praise and blame, bearing a strong sense of responsibility to “record the past for the sake of those who come after,” transmitting the true intent of Confucius and fulfilling the duty of a historian.

In the “Basic Annals of Emperors” of the Records of the Grand Historian, Sima Qian for the first time constructed a genealogical lineage centered on the Yellow Emperor, establishing the Yellow Emperor’s “way of the former kings,” uniting divine authority and political authority in a single figure. For the subsequent two thousand years of Chinese civilization, this framework established by Sima Qian was followed.

From the outset of writing the Records of the Grand Historian, Sima Qian upheld a fearless spirit of writing truthfully and without taboos, including implicit criticism of Emperor Wu of Han himself. Through a transformed mode of “straight writing,” namely “indirect writing,” he took the Qin dynasty as a mirror to subtly criticize contemporary abuses. Upholding the Spring and Autumn principle of “satirizing the Son of Heaven” and its method of “demeaning the emperor,” he sought to correct Emperor Wu’s failings and leave moral instruction for later generations. When Emperor Wu discovered this upon reading the work, he believed Sima Qian had intentionally disparaged him, angrily ordered characters scraped from the bamboo slips and had them discarded. This shows that even before the Li Ling affair, Emperor Wu had already harbored deep resentment toward Sima Qian.

After completing the Records of the Grand Historian, Sima Qian withdrew into seclusion. His ultimate fate is unknown and cannot be verified by later generations.

The post of Grand Historian in the Han dynasty was in fact a minor office, responsible for managing documents, astronomy and calendrical matters, and recording past and present political affairs; it carried no obligation to write historical works. Sima Qian’s compilation of the Records of the Grand Historian was undertaken solely to fulfill his father’s last wish and to carry out Confucius’s mission in composing the Spring and Autumn Annals. Sima Qian praised Confucius with the words: “I look up to him as to a high mountain; I follow him as one follows a great road. Though I may not reach him, my heart yearns toward him.”

The renowned British historian Jonathan Spence bears the Chinese name “Shi Jingqian,” meaning “one who reveres the Grand Historian Sima Qian.”

The Japanese historical novelist Fukuda Teiichi (1923–1996) adopted the pen name “Shiba Ryōtarō,” meaning “far inferior to Sima Qian.”

The Ming dynasty historian Ke Weiqi took Sima Qian as his model and devoted himself to compiling a New History of the Song. In an extreme act of resolve, he even castrated himself.

In later commemorations, Sima Qian’s tomb and shrine were established in Hancheng, Shaanxi. During festivals, people come to pay respects, and folk tradition holds that the site offers special blessings for scholars traveling afar, ensuring safety and success in gaining distinction.

Sayings of Sima Qian

(Confucius) “I look up to him as to a high mountain; I follow him as one follows a great road. Though I may not reach him, my heart yearns toward him.”

In ancient times, those who were wealthy and noble yet whose names were erased cannot be counted.

Ornate words concern appearance; true words concern substance. Bitter words are medicine; sweet words are illness.

Bathing need not be in rivers or seas—what matters is removing the grime; a horse need not be a thoroughbred—what matters is that it runs well.

The best way is to follow people’s inclinations; next, to guide them through advantage; next, to instruct them; the worst is to contend with them.

If one’s own conduct is upright, others will act without orders; if one’s conduct is not upright, even orders will not be obeyed.

Those united by power and profit will drift apart once power and profit are exhausted.

The enlightened foresee what has not yet sprouted; the wise avoid danger before it takes form.

Though Chu has but three households, it will surely be Chu that destroys Qin.

A thousand men who merely agree are not worth one man who speaks frankly.

A tiny deviation can lead to an error of a thousand miles.

How can sparrows understand the ambition of swans and geese?

All men must die, but some deaths are heavier than Mount Tai, others lighter than a feather.

When food and clothing are sufficient, people know honor and disgrace.

His words are trustworthy, his actions resolute; once he gives his word, he is sincere.

To know a man, look at his friends.

Those who gain people prosper; those who lose people collapse.

Always think of throwing oneself forward without regard for personal safety in times of national crisis.

Self-cultivation is the repository of wisdom; loving generosity is the beginning of benevolence; giving and taking is the sign of righteousness; knowing shame is the decision of courage.

Music stirs the blood and veins, circulates the spirit, and harmonizes and rectifies the heart.

Farming diligently is not as good as encountering a good year; serving well is not as good as meeting the right opportunity.

When two tigers fight, one should put the state’s urgent needs before private enmity.

Those who share evil help one another; those who share good stay together; those who share feelings support one another; those who share desires pursue them together; those who share利益 die together.

In great undertakings one does not fuss over minor details; in great rites one does not refuse small concessions.

III Yang Xiong (53 BCE – 18 BCE)

Yang Xiong (53–18 BCE), courtesy name Ziyun, was a great Confucian scholar, thinker, and writer of the late Western Han dynasty. A native of Shu Commandery (present-day Chengdu), he was born fifty years after the death of Dong Zhongshu.

Yang Xiong regarded himself as the successor to Confucius after Mencius and was known to others as “Master Yang,” the Confucius of the Han dynasty. His lifelong writings lived up to this self-appointed mission, and the works that have been preserved include The Canon of the Supreme Mystery (Taixuan Jing) and Model Sayings (Fayan).

Yang Xiong was the fifth-generation descendant of Yang Ji, Governor of Lujiang. His family made a living by farming and silkworm cultivation. Fond of learning from a young age, he was well read despite having a speech impediment. He devoted himself to deep reflection, was plain and gentle in temperament, had no extravagant tastes, remained content in poverty, possessed a broad and generous mind, read only the writings of sages, and had a particular fondness for rhapsodies (fu). Shu was home to the gifted writer Sima Xiangru, whose rhapsodies were magnificent and elegant, and whom Yang Xiong greatly admired. Yang Xiong was astonished by Qu Yuan’s Li Sao, yet he did not approve of Qu Yuan’s drowning himself, believing that when circumstances are adverse one should lie low like a snake in hibernation. He therefore composed Refuting the Li Sao and Expanding the Sao.

During the Western Han, the master Yan Junping lived in seclusion on Pingle Mountain (Mount Heng) and established the “Mount Heng Reading Terrace.” In his early years, Yang Xiong went up the mountain to become his disciple and, following Confucian tradition, presented ten strips of dried meat. Yan Junping repeatedly declined, saying, “No need, let it be.” Yang Xiong lived on Mount Heng for eight years.

Yang Xiong later traveled to Chang’an, where the Grand Marshal and General of the Eastern Cavalry, Wang Yin, invited him to serve as a secretary among his retainers. He was later recommended to the court, and Emperor Cheng of Han ordered him to attend at his side.

In 11 BCE, Yang Xiong accompanied Emperor Cheng to the Ganquan Palace. Dissatisfied with the emperor’s extravagance and waste, he composed the Rhapsody on Ganquan to satirize him. In December of the same year, he wrote the Rhapsody on the Feathered Hunt, again centered on admonition, and was appointed Gentleman of the Yellow Gates. He served alongside Wang Mang and Liu Xin. The following year, Yang Xiong composed the Rhapsody on Changyang, continuing his criticism of Emperor Cheng’s lavish excess.

Yang Xiong later came to regard rhapsody writing as mere “carving insects and engraving patterns,” something “unworthy of a strong man,” and turned instead to the study of philosophy. Centering on Confucianism, he modeled The Canon of the Supreme Mystery on the Book of Changes, and Model Sayings on the style of the Analects. He proposed “Mystery” (xuan) as the fundamental source of all things in the universe. By “model sayings,” he meant that he dared not speak unless it accorded with the authoritative words of the ancient kings, and that judgments of affairs must have standards. Model Sayings consists of thirteen chapters, extensively discussing politics, philosophy, ethics, economics, literature, art, military affairs, science, as well as evaluations of historical figures, events, and schools of thought, all with distinctive insight. Yang Xiong saw himself as defending orthodox Confucianism, just as Mencius had criticized the heterodox schools, and as inheriting Confucius’s true lineage.

Yang Xiong collated texts and wrote at the Tianlu Pavilion. He later resigned due to illness. Although he was summoned as a court gentleman, his family circumstances remained poor, and Marquis Ba of Julu invited him to reside with him. Yang Xiong died of illness in 18 BCE at the age of sixty-five. Marquis Ba built his tomb and observed mourning for him for three years.

Yang Xiong’s former residence in Chengdu once featured the famous “Ziyun Pavilion” in his memory. However, all three historical sites known as “Ziyun Pavilion” have since disappeared. In 1987, the Mianyang municipal government built a new, grand Ziyun Pavilion on Phoenix Mountain, covering ten mu of land. In the garden stands a massive granite statue of Yang Xiong, and the exhibition hall displays his works, including The Canon of the Supreme Mystery and Model Sayings. At the pavilion’s entrance are engraved the words of Liu Yuxi’s Inscription of the Humble Room. The Tang dynasty writer Liu Yuxi lavishly praised Yang Xiong in this famous piece.

Sayings of Yang Xiong

The vast Way of Heaven—when it goes too far, it loses the mean; in moving and transforming the world, nothing surpasses balance and harmony.

Learning and practicing it is highest; speaking of it comes next; teaching others is next again.

Learning is used to govern it, reflection to refine it, friends to broaden it, and perseverance to bring it to completion.

A teacher indeed! A teacher indeed! A teacher is the model for humanity; striving to find a teacher surpasses striving merely to learn.

The learning of the great person is for the Way; the learning of the petty person is for profit.

Learning leads to correctness; without it, to deviance. By looking up to the sage, one knows the smallness of the many doctrines.

Through teaching, the Way is established; none surpasses Confucius. All rivers learn from the sea and ultimately flow into it.

Cultivate the self as the bow, establish righteousness as the target; once set, release—one will surely hit the mark.

Human nature is a mixture of good and evil; cultivate the good and one becomes good, cultivate the evil and one becomes evil.

The sage delights in Heaven and knows destiny; delighting in Heaven, he is not anxious; knowing destiny, he is not troubled.

The gentleman strengthens learning and puts it into action, perfects his plans, and only then acts to accomplish the Way.

The gentleman values four things: speech, conduct, appearance, and preferences.

Valued speech has standards; valued conduct has virtue; valued appearance has authority; valued preferences have discernment.

There are three kinds of approval under Heaven: common people like one who conforms to them; the worthy like one who corrects them; sages like one who takes them as teachers.

The Way is that which connects—there is nothing it does not connect. Like roads and rivers, carts and boats flow without cease, day and night.

The Way guides, virtue gains, benevolence humanizes, righteousness appropriates, ritual embodies—this is Heaven.

Great indeed is the sage: his words reach their utmost, opening broadly to reveal the four seas.

The words of the sage are like water and fire: the more water is measured, the deeper it proves; the more fire is used, the brighter it becomes.

That which stands at the center of Heaven and Earth is called China.

To subdue others without fighting is the way of Yao and Shun; following Yao, Shun, and King Wen is the correct Way.

The gentleman is upright and not divided.

Only Heaven is truly hearing; only Heaven is truly seeing. Without hearing, there are in truth no ears; without seeing, in truth no eyes.

Heaven delights in Heaven; the sage delights in the sage.

The gentleman acts by ritual and stops by righteousness; if fitting, he advances; if not, he withdraws.

One who devotes his entire heart to the Way of the sages is a gentleman.

One who learns much and understands the ultimate Way has supreme knowledge; one who learns much yet understands deviant ways has deluded knowledge.

The gentleman listens only to what is correct; what is excessive, licentious, opposed to correctness, or sinks into pleasure, the gentleman does not heed.

The sage values the Way and makes light of emolument; the more dull the sage appears, the greater the benefit.

When the gentleman serves in office, he practices righteousness and makes the Way manifest; he is never weary of affairs nor tired of teaching.

The words of the sage are distant like Heaven; the words of the worthy are near like Earth.

Governing the state lies in establishing policy; the root of policy lies in the self—when the self is established, governance is established.

To govern oneself before governing others is called a great vessel.

That which stirs all things is thunder and wind; that which stirs the people is command and decree. Thunder does not strike once; wind does not blow only once.

Confucius was the great sage: his outer form lay in dignified bearing and refined speech; his inner substance lay in virtue, loyalty, and trustworthiness.

Not failing one’s words is called trust; handling affairs appropriately is called righteousness.

Do not look at what is not correct; do not listen to what is not correct; do not speak what is not correct; do not act on what is not correct.

When the gentleman speaks, it becomes refined expression; when he acts, it becomes virtue. His words must hit the mean; his actions must be fitting.

The gentleman is like jade: pure, deep, warm, and lustrous—soft yet firm, pleasing yet incorruptible.

It must be Confucianism! The Way of Confucius orders China and in the end enters the great sea.

Water avoids obstacles and thus reaches the sea; the gentleman avoids obstacles and thus reaches principle. He delights in what others delight in and forgets his own delight.

To connect Heaven and Earth is called Confucianism. The books, words, and actions of the sages are Heaven itself.

Self-love is the utmost of benevolence; self-respect is the utmost of ritual.