In 479 BC, Confucius, was 73 and was approaching the end of his days.
During his final days, he often sang a sad elegy: “Taishan will crumble. Girders and struts will break. The sage will wither like grass and trees.”
His most faithful, young disciple Zi Gong sang a mournful reply: “If Taishan crumbles, what shall we look up to? If girders and struts break, what can we lean against? If the sage is to wither, whom else can we learn from?” It really did appear, as Confucius neared the end of his life, that a very special world would die with him. When Confucius eventually passed away, Zi Gong
mourned at his graveside for a full six years. Over 200 years later, the powerful Qin State in the north, much admired by Confucius, became powerful enough to establish a united centralized empire. Qin Shihuang, the first emperor of the empire, believed in cruel laws and punishment rather than humanity and benevolence. Some 460 loyal followers of Confucius were buried alive by the heartless emperor. This was the notorious time of “Burning books and Burying Scholars.” Most of the ancient books so meticulously compiled by Confucius also disappeared during this great calamity.
It seemed that the thoughts and ideals of the departed Confucius would be extinguished forever in the fires of the Qin Empire. Seven years later, however, the empire of Qin perished. Surviving Confucians rewrote the theoretic classics and Confucian teachings were orally passed on from teacher to pupil. A ninth-generation grandson of Confucius secretly hid such books as Shang Shu, Book of Rites, Analects of To prevent books of Confucius from being burned by Qin Shihuang, the lineal grandson of the 9th generation of Confucius managed to preserve them by hiding these classics in the wall. People of later generation had the Lubi Wall built for memorial purpose.
Confucius, and Book of Filial Piety, in a hollow wall and ultimately managed to ensure their survival. Some intellectuals also risked their lives by hiding and preserving the Book of Poetry. In this way, the complete Liu Jing— “Six Classics” organized by Confucius’s disciples have managed to survive today against all odds.
In the book On Faults of Qin, the author Jia Yi, a famous scholar and ancient prose writer of the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), painstakingly investigated the blunders of the Qin Dynasty (221 BC-206 BC) and the reasons why the dynasty lasted for such a short period of time. He held that it was because the empire proved incapable of recognizing the necessity to implement humane and righteous policies: an inability to recognize that the political imperative had shifted from attacking other states to defending the regime. The empire could gain territory by the sword but it could not rule that territory with the sword. Humanity and righteousness had to be promoted if a sustainable and ordered society was to be brought about. This, the Qin singularly failed to do.
Nine years after the collapse of the Qin Dynasty, another unified centralized state was founded in the land of China. This was the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD).
In the middle of the second century, the Han Dynasty entered a golden age and its rulers began to devote themselves to establishing a stable social order. The fifth emperor, acting on the suggestion of one of his most able ministers, eventually agreed to impose Confucianism as the exclusive state ideology of the empire. Centuries after the death of Confucius, his ideals, thoughts and beliefs had finally been adopted by the rulers of China as the rules that would govern society and social relations. All other schools of thought were either abolished or marginalized.
The Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) was Dong Zhongshu, a famous figure who pushed Confucianism onto the political stage for the first time in Chinese history.
From Dong Zhongshu on, the Confucian doctrine of “cultivating one’s moral character, regulating one’s family, running the state and bringing peace and stability to the country” gradually became the uncontested dogma of the ruling class and scholars. Because Confucianism stressed loyalty to the emperor and filial piety to parents, the promotion of Confucianism further consolidated state centralism with the emperor as the very centre of society. It also allowed people to live and work in peace and contentment. Thus dawned the preeminent period of Confucianism and an entire social order governed by the tenets of Confucianism came into being.