ABSTRACT
Imperial edicts of western Han often link the implicit purposes of government with practical decisions, but with the development of a reformist attitude a concern for the care of mankind enters in. In the Roman empire coins were used as an instrument of propaganda, advertising the achievements of government or the qualities professed by an emperor. Imperial edicts of western Han often link the implicit purposes of government with practical decisions, but with the development of a reformist attitude a concern for the care of mankind enters in. The chapter explores the existence of two major attitudes to the purposes of government. First, that which sought to strengthen the state, and which corresponds to 'Legalist' theory; and secondly, that which saw the duty of the state as lying in the protection and ennoblement of individual man, and which shared some of the ethical ideals of the 'Confucian' school of philosophers.
