Suppose Qin Shi Huangdi had successfully destroyed the Confucian and Daoist texts to such an extent that even after the Han Dynasty was established, they are unable to piece them back together in any meaningful way; also suppose that anybody who had memorised them were successfully killed. What would be the implications on Chinese society?
WI: (Near-)Complete Destruction of Daoist and Confucian Texts
- Thread starter Midnight-Blue766
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This is impossible because the Qin state wasn't so powerful as to literally destroy all copies. This isn't a modern state we're talking about.
They don't have to destroy all copies, just as many to make reconstruction of them in the Han Dynasty and immediate successors impossible.
China is a big place, Confucianism and Daoism were popular schools of thought with texts owned by scholars across the nation. Unlike smaller schools of thought, which have been erased from history following the Qin Dynasty, it is nigh impossible for Confucianism or Daoism to be forgotten. However, it is possible for Confucianism to lose many of its classics, and thus reduce the influence and popularity of Confucianism in later times. Daoism meanwhile is a religon popular with the lower class, especially in the southern, formerly Chu lands. It is significantly harder to remove Daoism than to remove Confucianism.
Daoism to my understanding is more of a political school than a religion at this point in time.
No, they were made up of hermits and shamans who didn't care about politics. Their decentralized nature prevented them from forming a coherent political order.
The politicians from the early years of Western Han Dynasty were largely Daoists.Zhang Liang for example is a Daoist.Empress Dou(the wife of Emperor Wen) was also a Daoist and she tried to suppress the Confucians at her grandson's court.Daoism was actually the dominant political ideology in the Han Dynasty before Emperor Wu's reign.