From "Burning Books and Burying Confucian Scholars Alive" to "Espousing Confucianism as the Orthodox State Ideology"——Reflections on Qin Shi Huang's and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's Attempts of Ideology Unification

After the dynastic change at the end of Zhou Dynasty and the beginning of Qin Dynasty,the violence-oriented new orthodox and the old confucian orthodoxy which emphasized the moral basis of power were incompatible but at the same time must be cooperative.Burning books and burying confucian scholars alive declared the failure of incorporation between Confucianism,i.e.the representative of old orthodoxy,and the new dynasty.Dong Zhongshu's Three Strategies on Heaven and Man generally answered Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's questions about how to rein the empire.From the notion of Resonance between Heaven and Man,Dong established systematic and fundamental theoretic foundation for implementation of Confucianism.Solely espousing of Confucianism in ideology was reflected in three fields: education,official selection and Confucianization of judicial system.The attempts by Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to unify ideology bear significant meaning for later generations that ideology construction is indispensable for long-term stability of a country,and construction of ideology must be rooted in the accepted value system rather than over-advocating wealth and position.