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Emperor Wu of Han

Original nameLiu Che

Emperor of the Western Han, Who Opened the Silk Road and Established Confucian Orthodoxy

Those Who First Drew the Borders on the Map · Founders of Civilizations

The Western Han EmpireThe Silk RoadHonoring Confucianism Alone

Who they are

Emperor Wu of Han (reigned 156–87 BC) was the longest-reigning emperor of the Western Han, who during his reign vigorously expanded the frontiers, sending Wei Qing and Huo Qubing on repeated campaigns against the Xiongnu who long threatened the Central Plains, and sending Zhang Qian twice as envoy to the Western Regions, accidentally opening a trade route connecting China with Central Asia and, further, the Mediterranean world — the "Silk Road" — profoundly changing the pattern of East–West trade and cultural exchange across Eurasia for the nearly two thousand years after. He adopted Dong Zhongshu’s advice to "dismiss the hundred schools and honor Confucianism alone," establishing Confucian teaching as the state orthodox ideology, and Confucian thought thereafter long remained the core theoretical basis by which the Chinese imperial bureaucracy selected talent and governed the state, its influence lasting until the abolition of the examination system in the early twentieth century.

Primary sourcesSima Qian, Records of the Grand HistorianBan Gu, Book of Han

Key stories

Zhang Qian’s Mission to the Western Regions, Opening the Silk Road

To ally with the Yuezhi against the Xiongnu, Emperor Wu of Han sent Zhang Qian as envoy to the Western Regions; Zhang Qian was twice detained by the Xiongnu for more than a decade on the way, and, after many hardships, at last completed his mission — though he failed to achieve the original aim of a military alliance, he brought back a wealth of first-hand geographical and political intelligence about the states of Central Asia, accidentally opening the East–West trade route later called the "Silk Road," a feat Sima Qian called "the piercing through."

Dismissing the Hundred Schools, Honoring Confucianism Alone

Emperor Wu of Han adopted the advice of the Confucian scholar Dong Zhongshu to establish Confucian teaching as the sole state orthodox ideology, setting up the Imperial Academy to teach the Confucian classics; the examination system by which later dynasties selected officials also took the Confucian classics as its core content, and Confucian thought thereby turned from one school among the pre-Qin hundred schools into the official orthodoxy shaping Chinese political and social ethics for the two thousand years after.

Relationships

Mentor

🐉Qin Shi Huang

Echoes today

Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.

"Dismiss the hundred schools, honor Confucianism alone"The policy by which Emperor Wu of Han, adopting Dong Zhongshu’s advice, established Confucian orthodoxy thereafter profoundly shaped Chinese political and educational institutions for over two thousand years, and this phrase has become a common historical allusion for a policy of "fixing a single orthodoxy" in the realm of thought.

Appears in

The Empires and Thought of the Axial AgeQin and Han: China’s Grand Unification

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