ABSTRACT
The historical developments of China during the Western Han dynasty (202BC-AD9) can best be understood in terms of two attitudes or convictions which characterised intellectual, religious and political change alike. The one attitude, which is denoted in these pages by the term ‘Modernist5, struck the keynote for the first of the two centuries in question. It informed the policies which were being promoted with growing intensity and vigour during the reign of Wu ti (141-87BC), and its most successful point was symbolised by certain acts of state during 104. The reigns of Chao ti (87-74), an<i more particularly Hsiian ti (74-49), formed a transitional stage until the second attitude, which is known here as ‘Reformist’, took root. This came to characterise the second of the two centuries, and from about 70 b c onwards it gathered sufficient strength to form a dominant influence at court. The Reformist attitude may be dis cerned conspicuously in the policies adopted under Yuan ti (49-33) and Ch'eng ti (33-7), and it formed the ideological support on which Wang Mang relied and by which he claimed the right to rule the empire.
