Social Transition:Historical Position of the Han Dynasty

The Zhou Dynasty's replacement of the Shang Dynasty realized the establishment of real feudal society in China's history in the aspects of politics,economy,and culture on the basis of enfeoffment,which was the first social transition in the process of China's history,that is,the establishment of new systems and culture after the abolishment of former ones.However,the huge change during the period of the Qin and Han Dynasties,namely,the centralism's replacement of previous feudal system originated in the Qin Dynasty and completed in the Han Dynasty,which was the second social transition in China's history.Because of the Qin Dynasty's short rule,it was the Han Dynasty that mainly completed the social transition full of struggle and pain.While this kind of transition's intensity and complexity was fully manifested in the process of the Han Dynasty's establishment and unification,in which the Han Dynasty perfected and established the centralism system.Specifically,it included the following aspects.First,the farmland's privatization of making the farmers possess the replaced feudal farmland ownership of lords' possession of all farmlands.Second,in the power system,new official system replaced feudal aristocracy politics.Third,on the basis of the thought of propriety and music developed in the Pre-qin Dynasty,the Han Dynasty launched the policy of honoring Confucianism and discarding other schools,which laid the foundation for China's traditional culture emphasizing Confucianism.In a word,the above-mentioned social transition guaranteed the Han Dynasty's historical position.