Re-discussing Prince Li's "Personal Reference to and Improvement of Gu Liang Zhuan"

Prince Li(128 B.C.-91 B.C.) opposed the aggressive policy toward other countries and the bloody tyranny within the Empire of Han,which were pursued and practiced by Emperor Han Wudi(157 B.C.-87 B.C.),his father,and his legislators,based on Gong Yang Zhuan,one of the Confucian classics popular at that time.From his personal reference to and improvement of Gu Liang Zhuan,we know that the prince based his opposition to his father's political greediness on the humanistic consciousness and the placatory way advocated in Gu Liang Zhuan.Simultaneously,he accepted the adherence to the rites,another important idea of the Confucian classic,and behaved,for most of the time,properly as a subordinate of his father.It was owing to his father's appreciation of his thoughts and moral standing that he was not dethroned until the last moment.Influenced by his ideas and astonished by his tragic end,his father was finally determined to turn his ruling from military to civil.