Although Emperor Gaozu didn't ascribe towards the philosophy and system of ethics credited to Confucius (fl. sixth century BCE), he did enlist the assistance of Confucians for example Lu Jia and Shusun Tong in 196 BCE he established the very first Han regulation for prospecting males of merit into government service, which Robert P. Kramer calls the "initial impulse toward the famous examination system." Emperors Wen and Jing hired Confucian academicians to the court, though not all academicians at their courts focused on an amount later become orthodox Confucian texts. For quite some time after Liu Che required the throne in 141 BCE (known posthumously as Emperor Wu), the Grand Empress Dowager Dou ongoing to dominate a legal court and didn't accept any policy which she found unfavorable or contradicted Huang-Lao ideology. After her dying in 135 BCE, a significant change happened in Chinese political history.
After Emperor Wu known as for that submission of memorial essays regarding how to enhance the government, he preferred those of the state Dong Zhongshu (179104 BCE), a philosopher who Kramers calls the very first Confucian "theologian". Dong's synthesis fused together the ethical ideas of Confucius using the cosmological values in yin and yang and Five Elements or Wuxing by fitting them in to the same holistic, universal system which governed paradise, earth, and the field of guy.
Furthermore, it justified the imperial system of government by supplying it its place inside the greater cosmos. Reflecting the minds of Dong Zhongshu, Emperor Wu released an edict in 136 BCE that eliminated academic chairs apart from individuals centered on the Confucian Five Classics. In 124 BCE Emperor Wu established the Imperial College, where the academicians trained 50 students it was the incipient start of the civil service examination system refined in later dynasties. Although sons and relatives of authorities were frequently fortunate with nominations to office, individuals who didn't originate from a household of authorities weren't barred from entry in to the paperwork. Rather, education within the Five Classics grew to become the vital prerequisite for attaining office consequently, the Imperial College was broadened significantly through the second century CE if this covered 30,000 students. With Cai Lun's (d. 121 CE) invention from the papermaking process in 105 CE, multiplication of paper like a cheap writing medium in the Eastern Han period let's start elevated the availability of books and therefore the amount of individuals who might be educated for civil service.
In 177 BCE, the Xiongnu Smart King from the Right raided the non-Chinese tribes living under Han protection within the northwest (modern Gansu). In 176 BCE, Modu Chanyu sent instructions to Emperor Wen telling him the Smart King, allegedly insulted by Han authorities, behaved with no Chanyu's permission and thus he punished the Smart King by forcing him to conduct a military campaign from the nomadic Yuezhi. Yet the wedding was basically a part of a bigger effort to recruit nomadic tribes north of Han China, throughout which the majority of the Yuezhi were eliminated in the Hexi Corridor (running west into Central Asia) and also the sedentary condition of Loulan within the Lop Nur salt marsh, the nomadic Wusun from the Tian Shan range, and twenty-six other states east of Samarkand were subjugated to Xiongnu hegemony. Modu Chanyu's implied threat he would invade China when the heqin agreement wasn't restored sparked a debate in Chang'an although authorities for example Chao Cuo and Jia Yi (d. 169 BCE) desired to reject the heqin policy, Emperor Wen preferred renewal from the agreement. Modu Chanyu died prior to the Han tribute arrived at him, but his successor Laoshang Chanyu (174160 BCE) restored the heqin agreement and discussed the outlet of border marketplaces. Lifting the prohibit on trade considerably reduced the regularity and size Xiongnu raids, which in fact had required hundreds of 1000's of Han troops to become positioned in the border. However, Laoshang Chanyu and the successor Junchen Chanyu (r. 160126 BCE) ongoing to violate Han's territorial sovereignty by looking into making incursions regardless of the treaty. While Laoshang Chanyu ongoing the conquest of his father by driving the Yuezhi in to the Ili River valley, the Han silently developed its strength in cavalry forces to later challenge the Xiongnu.