First, rest and recuperation: The most important reason for the rapid demise of the Qin Dynasty was corvee and heavy taxes, which intensified social contradictions. In terms of corvee, Dong Zhongshu said that in the Qin Dynasty, "the corvee was thirty times as powerful as in ancient times". Men began to perform military service at the age of fifteen, and they didn't get away with it until they were sixty. After the reunification of the Qin Dynasty, the Great Wall was built in the north, Wuling Mountain was guarded in the south, Epang Palace was built, the tomb of Mount Li was built, the road to Chibi was ruled, and other palaces were built, so that defense, transportation, work and affairs flourished. In the heavy labor, many people are gone forever. History records that "the spirit is solid", even women will participate in labor. In terms of taxation, the customs tax in Qin Dynasty accounted for one fifth of the total income of a family of five, the land rent accounted for one tenth, and other miscellaneous taxes. Coupled with the heavy corvee, agricultural production often cannot be carried out normally and farmers are miserable.

After the establishment of the Western Han Dynasty, fully aware of the lessons of the demise of the Qin Dynasty, they began to change the general plan of governing the country and practice recuperation. As early as when Liu Banggang ascended the throne, Confucian scholar Lu Jia often explained poetry to Liu Bang, but Liu Bang refused to listen. Lu Jia said, "It's better to get it right away." He told the lesson of the demise of the Qin Dynasty, which made Liu Bang feel ashamed and changed his thought of governing the country. Starting from Liu Bang, the Western Han government began to adopt the policy of "inaction" and "recuperation" of Huang Lao-tao's family. In the following 60 years, this policy experienced three times: Lv Hou, Wendi and Jingdi.

The implementation of the recuperation policy is multifaceted. First of all, it is necessary to "share the interest with the people" and reduce the burden on farmers in order to restore the economy. There was no large-scale engineering construction in the early Western Han Dynasty. Seeing the magnificent palace built by Xiao He, Liu Bang accused him that "Hungary has worked hard in the world for several years, and its success or failure is unknown. Is how to treat the palace too much. " After Liu Bang, Lv Hou, Wendi and Jingdu were very thrifty, and "riding horses in the palace garden yielded nothing". Compared with the Qin Dynasty, the corvee in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty was greatly reduced. The age of starting corvee service has been raised from fifteen to twenty, and the frequency of corvee service has been reduced to once every three years. In terms of land rent, "fifteen taxes and one tax" was implemented in the early Western Han Dynasty, and then it was reduced to "thirty taxes and one tax".

The delicious food was reduced from 120 yuan to 40 yuan. These measures in the Western Han Dynasty are undoubtedly conducive to economic recovery. Secondly, in administration, we should try not to carry out painstaking reforms, mainly "following the old system, keeping the same and changing all the time." In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, "governing by doing nothing" was advocated. Even Xiao He, the prime minister, "drank day and night" in 2000, and didn't ask much about government affairs, which became a model of governing the country by clearing up emptiness. Third, in diplomacy, try not to start a war and focus on peace. After Liu Bang's Northern Expedition, Xiongnu suffered from the siege of Deng Bai, and began to serve Xiongnu with the policy of being close to the people.

Persuading farmers to mulberry in ancient times

60 years of rest and recuperation in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty undoubtedly made great achievements. By the time Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty succeeded to the throne, the population of the Han Dynasty had increased from about100000 in the early Han Dynasty to 50 million. The local economy has also reached a new peak. People call the era of Emperor Wendi and Emperor Jingdi "the rule of cultural scene", which is the first prosperous time in the history of China. Sima Qian praised this in Pinghuai Book:

Second, correct the disadvantages of the Qin law-another important reason why Confucianism destroyed the Qin dynasty was that the criminal law was too heavy. Since Shang Yang, Qin has carried out the idea that legalists should govern the country according to law, and impose heavier punishment than lighter punishment. After the unification of Qin Dynasty, Qin Law was popularized all over the country. The cruelty of Qin law is rare in history, such as the large-scale execution of corporal punishment and the inhuman way of "sitting together", which can be said to be the severance of kindness and kindness. The cruel result of the Qin law was that a large number of torturers were produced, and many big projects in the Qin Dynasty were participated by these torturers. According to Hanshu, the criminal law in the Qin Dynasty was too heavy, which made "evil coexist, the clothes were covered, the city was the city, the world was worried, and chaos and rebellion." In the first 206 years, Liu Bang entered Xianyang and announced the abolition of the Qin law and the implementation of the "three chapters of the contract", which made "Qin people happy and competed for cattle, sheep, wine and food for the sergeant." It can be seen that the people hated Qin law at that time.

The main rulers in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty were aware of the harshness of the Qin law and attached importance to the lessons of "Qin took punishment as its nest" and "Qin Ershi served his sentence when he died". At the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty, Qin law was banned on a large scale. During the period of Liu Bang, Xiao He was ordered to make a "Nine-Chapter Law Order" to abolish clan punishment and the law of sharing seats. During the reign of Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty, "carrying calligraphy" was abolished, and many people only spread and carried books. During Emperor Wendi's reign, several corporal punishments, such as licking, gouging out the left and right toes, were abolished, and the answers were changed to 300 and 500 respectively. During the reign of Emperor Jing, he changed the answer from 500 to 300, and changed the answer from 300 to 200. In the sixth year of Emperor Jing, the answer was reduced from 300 to 200, and the answer was reduced from 200 to 100, and the scale of the pen was stipulated to reduce the degree. In addition, in the early Han Dynasty, imperial edicts such as exoneration, pardon for capital crimes, and "pity for the old and the weak" were repeatedly banned.