What are the characteristics of legislation in the Western Han Dynasty?

In the Western Han Dynasty, a historic transformation was realized from the legalist thought of "taking law as the foundation and combining punishment with foot" to Huang Lao's thought of "practicing law outside", and then from Huang Lao's thought to the Confucian orthodox thought of "focusing punishment on morality and combining etiquette with law".

(1) At the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty, the rulers summed up the lessons of Qin's death, changed Qin's legislative thought, and established the legislative guiding ideology based on Huang Lao's thought and supplemented by Legalist thought.

The core of Huang Lao's thought is "governing by doing nothing", which is embodied in legislative policies such as "obeying the law and saving punishment", "light tax" and people's interest. Emperor Gaozu first abolished the complicated laws of the Qin Dynasty and formulated nine laws and regulations, which laid the foundation of the legal system of the Western Han Dynasty. Implement fifteen taxes and one tax to reduce the tax burden of the people. Wendi and Jingdi continued to reduce taxes, reformed the execution system and abolished some corporal punishment. Huang Lao's thought conformed to the social needs in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty and promoted the recovery and development of social production.

(2) Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the feudal orthodox legislative thought led by Confucianism has been established, the core of which is "Morality dominates punishment" and "the unity of etiquette and law".

After more than 70 years of rest and recuperation in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, the country accumulated a great deal of material wealth. However, the kings who were enfeoffed in the early Han dynasty gradually became stronger, and the resistance of the people of the whole country also broke out. The previous "inaction" and "saving punishment by law" are difficult to continue, and the rulers have to change their legislative ideas.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty adopted Dong Zhongshu's suggestion, and established the exclusive position of Confucianism, taking the orthodox legal thought of "morality as the mainstay and punishment as the official". Its main contents include: to govern the country, it is necessary to combine morality with punishment, but morality is the main one, supplemented by punishment; In the application order of moral punishment, moral courtesy should be used for education first, and punishment should be applied after education is invalid. The Confucian legal thought of "ruling by virtue and assisting by punishment" became the legislative guiding ideology of the Han Dynasty after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.