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A temporary rectification of high official titles, following
classical models

The most interesting effect of Confucianism was the change of official
titles—a phenomenon that became pronounced under Wang Mang. A
cardinal Confucian principle was the imitation of ancient practises.

About 8 B.C., Ho Wu, who was then Grandee Secretary, memorialized
that in ancient times, when life was simple, government business was
divided among the three highest ministers (San-kung), whereas now,
when there were not available officials who had as great ability as those
of ancient times, the duties of the three ancient highest ministers were
concentrated in the hands of the Lieutenant Chancellor. He suggested
the appointment of the three highest ministers as in ancient times (83:
13b). Emperor Ch'eng asked Chang Yü3a, a retired Lieutenant Chancellor
and Confucian, about the matter; the latter agreed, whereupon the
title of Grandee Secretary was changed to Grand Minister of Works, and
he was given the same salary and rank as the Lieutenant Chancellor and
Commander-in-chief. There probably was at the same time also a division
of responsibility, so that some of the Lieutenant Chancellor's duties
were given to the Grand Minister of Works.

But many who discussed the matter said that ancient and present times
required different institutions and that the Han official titles, from that
of the Emperor down to that of the Accessory Officials, were different
from those of ancient times, so that a change in merely the titles and
duties of the three highest officials would make no difference in the quality
of the government (83: 14a). After the Confucian Ho Wu had been dismissed
for lack of filial piety, and Chu Po, an adherent of the Fu clan,
became Grand Minister of Works, he memorialized that dynasties do not
need to imitate one another, that when Emperor Kao received the Mandate
of Heaven to found the Han dynasty, he had established a Grandee
Secretary as second in rank to the Lieutenant Chancellor and had given
him the duty of correcting the laws and institutes, with the result that
the empire had now been calm for two centuries. Hence the change of
Grandee Secretary to Grand Minister of Works would not secure the
blessing of Heaven. So he recommended that titles be changed back
again (83: 14b). Emperor Ai accordingly made the change, and in 5 B.C.
installed Chu Po as Grandee Secretary.

The Han dynasty had adopted the practise of the Ch'in dynasty in
dividing the country into counties (hsien) and grouping these into commanderies
(chün), each containing about a dozen prefectures or more,
over which there was set a Commandery Administrator to act as satrap
of the region, usually with the rank of two thousand piculs. In 106 B.C.,
Emperor Wu had grouped these commanderies into thirteen divisions or
provinces (chou), and appointed to each province an Inspector of a
Regional Division (Pu-tz'u-shih), with the rank of six hundred piculs,
whose business it was to make the circuit of his commanderies and report
any irregularities. Feudal kingdoms (which later became smaller than

commanderies) were governed by a Chancellor (Hsiang), who was appointed
by the imperial court, so that there had come to be little difference,
outside of titles, between the government of commanderies and of
kingdoms. Both were supervised by the same Inspectors.

In 8 B.C., Ho Wu memorialized that this Han practise was contrary
to Confucian classical principles, according to which the superior should
govern the inferior, not the reverse. So he had Emperor Ch'eng change
the Inspectors to Provincial Shepherds (Chou-mu), a title taken from the
Book of History, and rank them at fully two thousand piculs, so that
their rank should be higher than that of Administrators.

Two years later (6 B.C.), Chu Po however pointed out that when
Inspectors ranked lower than Administrators, the former had been stimulated
to activity by the hope of being promoted to be one of the 103
Administrators or Chancellors, so that an efficient Inspector had had
lively hopes of promotion. But when these officials became Shepherds
and were given a high rank, they had available for promotion only the
dozen ministerial positions at the imperial court. Consequently they lost
their incentive to activity; the better ones merely guarded themselves
for fear of committing a fault and sullying their record, while the wicked
ones were unrestrained, since there was no one to watch them. Local
administrations were consequently left without supervision and government
degenerated. So Chu Po recommended the abolition of Shepherds
and the restoration of the Inspectors. This change was made in
5 B.C. Thus the practical bureaucrat showed more wisdom than the
Confucian. One of the reasons for the inefficiency of Wang Mang's
provincial administration was undoubtedly that he reestablished Provincial
Shepherds in order to accord with classical Confucian ideas.

When an eclipse of the sun happened on a New Year's day (Feb. 5,
2 B.C.), followed within a month by the death of the Empress Dowager
nee Fu, Emperor Ai was deeply impressed, and in that very month summoned
K'ung Kuang back to court, asking him to explain the portent.
The latter said that government matters had not been right and should
be reformed (81: 19a-20a). Since the Emperor's grandmother was no
longer alive and the Emperor had broken with his maternal clans, while
the Tung clan showed no disposition to interfere in government policies,
Emperor Ai turned to the Confucians again, recalling those whom he had
dismissed at the beginning of his reign. When, a year later, a second
solar eclipse occurred, Emperor Ai interpreted it as a warning and,
through Confucian influence, restored the arrangement under which
government control was divided among the three ancient highest ministers.
In the scholastic interest of uniformity, a new title was also given

to the Lieutenant Chancellor, and these three officials were now entitled
Ta-szu-t'u (Grand Minister Over the Masses), Ta-szu-ma (Commander-in-chief),
and Ta-szu-k'ung (Grand Minister of Works). This arrangement
did not last long, for Emperor Ai died within a month and in the
next year Wang Mang changed these titles again. The change is however
interesting as showing that the tendency to change titles and to adopt
ancient phraseology and ancient governmental arrangements was inherent
in Han Confucianism, and that Wang Mang merely took it from
that powerful current of influence.