Laying Down the Sword, Embracing Peace In the year the victorious armies returned from Shu, Emperor Guangwu was forty-three. He had risen in rebellion at twenty-eight, and for fifteen years had lived almost entirely amid war camps and battlefields. Now, with the empire unified, he was determined to let the land rest and recover.…
Han Fei (c. 280–233 BCE), often revered as Han Feizi or Master Han Fei, stands as one of ancient China’s most influential philosophers and political theorists. Emerging during the tumultuous Warring States Period (475–221 BCE), he hailed from Xinzheng, the capital of the state of Han (in modern-day Henan Province). As a royal descendant…
From 501 to 497 BCE, Confucius held successive posts – Magistrate of Zhongdu, Minister of Works (Sikong), Minister of Justice (Da Sikou), and finally Chancellor-in-charge – marking the closest he ever came to realizing his political ideals.
4.11 The Master (Confucius) said, “Where gentlemen set their hearts upon virtue, the commoners set theirs upon the soil. Where gentlemen think only of punishments, the commoners think only of exemptions.”