An Assessment of Han Wudi

Emperor Han Wudi, namely Liuche, was the sixth emperor of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC - 24 AD). He ruled from 141 BC to 87 BC and his reign is one of the most celebrated in Chinese history. After his death, he was given a posthumous title of Emperor Shizong. Han Wudi came to the throne at the age of sixteen. He carried out a series of reforms, devoted himself to military conquests and territorial expansion and that's why people call him Emperor Wu.

"Gold can't be pure and man can't be perfect."(Chinese Proverb) As one of the ancient Chinese emperor, Han Wudi had a lot of greatly achievements; he also had some mistakes, just like many of other ancient Chinese emperors did. However, I think that Han Wudi is a great intelligent and capable emperor. He had made many more achievements than mistakes because of its unprecedented political、economic、military and cultural development achievements, the Western Han Dynasty was at its zenith in the reign of Han Wudi. As a historical figure, the most valuable character in him is his political initiative and positive governing attitude. We should give a balanced assessment of this great emperor in term of historical development.

Han Wudi made a lot of great achievements because he was in compliance with many very right policies. I think that they are mainly six policies which are encourage the free airing of views, like to meet all celebrated scholars, weakening all vassals, make military more stronger, be dare to resist Xiongnu, and expand more territories. I want to talk about Han Wudi specific from above six important points.

First of all, nothing can be compared with encourage the free airing of views because a person who can listen to other's suggestion, will make him improve; instead, a person who cannot listen to other's suggestion, must be get failure. This point is absolutely important for a emperor who rule a great country. There is an example to Han Wudi to listen to other's suggestion that reinforce and strengthen his control. Dong Zhongshu, the leading philosophical spokesman of the Confucianism revived under the Han, included this statement in his "discourses."(W.T.deBary)He advises a policy which is "abandon other religion, only Confucianism" to Han Wudi and Wudi adopts this suggestion, and then strengthen the unity of country and centralization. This policy is also impact number of years for after China society.

Second, there is no denying that talented person is the most important for the development of country and dynasty. According to Wudi's opinion, talented person has two categories which are cultural talent and military talent. We have to talk about two talents; one is Zhang Qian, other one is Wei Qing. Zhang Qian is cultural talent and somebody says that he is the first man who speaks foreign language.(just unofficial history) In 138 BC, Zhang Qian takes more than 100 attendants starts