ABSTRACT
The first Emperor, Ch'in Shih Huang-ti, belonged to a great seigniorial house, that of Ch'in. On the other hand, Kao-chu, who established again for the benefit of the Han the imperial unity, which was in danger after the death of its founder, was a man of the people.—In the overlordship of Ch'in, with the regulations (859 b.c.) attributed to Wei-yang, the legal adviser of Duke Hiao, a new conception of the Prince and his rights had appeared. Ch'in Shih Huang-ti, like Duke Hiao and some potentates of the same period, was regarded as a tyrant. He is reproached with having governed by the help of punishments, that is to say by the abuse of prosecutions for treason. In fact, at the base of the new order which he wished to establish, was the idea of the Majesty peculiar to the imperial person.—The Han presented themselves as the restorers of an ancient order. They claimed to put an end to the age of tyranny, A new dynasty, rediscovering the old sources of privilege, they wished people to see in them the continuers of the three royal dynasties, and the true successors of the Chou. They founded their power on the Prestige peculiar to the Sons of Heaven. But if they pretend to preserve for the Chief of State the outward signs which mark a simple suzerain, they bear the imperial title which Shih Huang-ti created. Like him, they sustain, with the help of more or less new practices, the majesty of the Emperor. Anxious, however, to appear as restorers and not as innovators, they endeavour to incorporate into the notion of the Son of Heaven the constituent elements of the idea of majesty. They mean to profit by a double heritage, and do not despise the principles of authority designed in the age of tyranny. Helped by the learned effort of the mandarins, who, in their reign and for their benefit, reconstructed the antiquities of China, they succeed in getting acceptance of the new idea of the imperial majesty, by presenting it as an ancient attribute of the Sons of Heaven, the wise authors of the national civilization.
