Vol. 2024 No. 4 (2024)
Articles

A tyrant or a hero: a study of emperor Wu of Han ’s historical images in song dynasty

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  • Xing Liu,
  • Lihua Luo,
  • Chu Zhou
Xing Liu
East China Normal University, No. 3663 Zhongshan North Road, Shanghai, 200062, China
Lihua Luo
East China Normal University, No. 3663 Zhongshan North Road, Shanghai, 200062, China
Chu Zhou
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, No. 535 Fa Hua Zhen Road, Changning District, Shanghai, 200052, China

Published 24-09-2024

Keywords

  • Emperor Wu of Han,
  • Song Dynasty,
  • historical images,
  • benevolent governance,
  • domineering rules

Copyright (c) 2024 Cambridge Arts and Humanities Research

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Emperor Wu of Han had two images-a tyrant and a hero-in Song Dynasty, which are connected not only with his own complex personalities, but also the revival of Confucianism and military confrontations among several nationalities at the time. Since Song scholars idealize those times of the Three Generations and monarchs of Yao and Shun, mainstream ideology regarded Emperor Wu of Han as a tyrant like the First Emperor of Qin. Nevertheless, Song monarchs and Xin dang and Nandu officers, from the view of political consideration and for the purpose of overcoming crisis, highlighted his image of a hero in a biased and utilitarian manner. The mainstream ideology which looks upon Emperor of Han, a monarch of significant achievement, as a tyrant, is a manifestation of the traditional Chinese mentality of honoring benevolent governance and denouncing domineering rules. This also historically reveals why China adheres to the idea of peaceful development.

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