From Teachers to Texts: Confucian Collaborationism and Qin Encyclopaedism

Abstract

This working paper outlines a revisionist portrait of the role of Confucians duing the Qin and very early Han Dynasties. Its principal thesis is that Confucianism was patronized by the Qin court, rather than persecuted, resulting in the compilation of a number a canonical anothologies traditionally viewed as pre-Qin works. The destruction of the Qin palace archives during the civil war transition to the Han, along with anti-Confucian policies at the court of the initial Han emperors, accounts for the loss of many "classical era" texts that is usually attributed to Qin tyranny.