In this essay on the "Han Dynasty" you will find out how it was established and the compariaon to other governments that have came into existence and fallen. Legalism is also discussed.

During the Han Dynasty, China officially became a Confucian state and prospered domestically through agriculture, handicrafts and commerce. The population reached 50 million and the empire extended its political and cultural influence over Vietnam, Central Asia, Mongolia, and Korea before it finally collapsed under a mixture of domestic and external pressures. The first of the two periods of the dynasty, namely the Former Han Dynasty or the Western Han Dynasty 206 BC - AD 9 seated at Chang'an …

…They also rejected the unifying tendencies of the Ch'in, and divided the Chinese empire into small, somewhat independent, feudal domains under individual lords. "China - The Hundred Schools of Thought." <http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_chinathehundredschoolsofthought.htm> "Philosophy of Language in Classical China." < http://www.hku.hk/philodep/ch/lang.htm > "Han Dynasty China." < http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/1xarhan1.htm >