now chose a one-year-old baby, but soon after he felt that the time had come for officially assuming the rulership.  In A.D. 8 he dethroned the baby, ostensibly at Heaven’s command, and declared himself emperor and first of the Hsin ("new”) dynasty.  All the members of the old imperial family in the capital were removed from office and degraded to commoners, with the exception of those who had already been supporting Wang Mang.  Only those members who held unimportant posts at a distance remained untouched.

Wang Mang’s “usurpation” is unusual from two points of view.  First, he paid great attention to public opinion and induced large masses of the population to write petitions to the court asking the Han ruler to abdicate; he even fabricated “heavenly omina” in his own favour and against the Han dynasty in order to get wide support even from intellectuals.  Secondly, he inaugurated a formal abdication ceremony, culminating in the transfer of the imperial seal to himself.  This ceremony became standard for the next centuries.  The seal was made of a precious stone, once presented to the Ch’in dynasty ruler before he ascended the throne.  From now on, the possessor of this seal was the legitimate ruler.

6 The pseudo-socialistic dictatorship.  Revolt of the “Red Eyebrows"

Wang Mang’s dynasty lasted only from A.D. 9 to 23; but it was one of the most stirring periods of Chinese history.  It is difficult to evaluate Wang Mang, because all we know about him stems from sources hostile towards him.  Yet we gain the impression that some of his innovations, such as the legalization of enthronement through the transfer of the seal; the changes in the administration of provinces and in the bureaucratic set-up in the capital; and even some of his economic measures were so highly regarded that they were retained or re-introduced, although this happened in some instances centuries later and without mentioning Wang Mang’s name.  But most of his policies and actions were certainly neither accepted nor acceptable.  He made use of every conceivable resource in order to secure power to his clique.  As far as possible he avoided using open force, and resorted to a high-level propaganda.  Confucianism, the philosophic basis of the power of the gentry, served him as a bait; he made use of the so-called “old character school” for his purposes.  When, after the holocaust of books, it was desired to collect the ancient classics again, texts were found under strange circumstances in the walls of Confucius’s house; they were written in an archaic script.  The people who occupied themselves with these books were called the old character school.  The texts came under suspicion; most scholars had little belief in their genuineness.  Wang Mang, however, and his creatures energetically supported the cult of these ancient writings.  The texts were edited and issued, and in the process, as can now be seen, certain things were smuggled into