The Han Dynasty's motto was actually to govern the state will fillial piety (孝治天下) and the emperors had only one belief in governing- being fillial. The emperor must take the lead in being fillial, and all the citizens of the state will then practice this virtue. There is a saying that goes: If you are fillial to your elders (parents or the elderly), you, as an official, will also be loyal to the Emperor, as the Emperor is known as the "father" of the whole state and you, having been fillial to your parents, will also be fillial to the "father" of the whole state- the Emperor, if one gets a chance to be a court official.
The most interesting thing lies in the temple names of Han Dynasty Emperors. After the Emperor is dead, he will be recognized by his temple name too, which is something like a "title". All Han Dynasty Emperors have the word 孝 (fillial) as the first word in their temple names, which the exception of two people: Western Han Dynasty founder Liu Bang and Eastern Han Dynasty Liu Xiu, as they were the founders. Look at the temple names of Emperor Hui 孝惠皇帝, Emperor Wen 孝文皇帝, Emperor Jing 孝景皇帝, Emperor Wu孝武皇帝, Emperor Zhao孝昭皇帝...they all had the character "孝" in front of their names, which led to my belief that the emperors should respect their ancestors and also the founders of their dynasty, Liu Xiu and Liu Bang.
I would also like to seek help in a particular area:
Emperors of the Han Dynasty have four different titles: 庙号 (posthumous name)，年号 (name of the emperor's reign- like the 1st year of Emperor Gaozu, the fourth year of Qin Shi Huang)，陵号 and 谥号 (temple name). I've looked up the meaning of 陵号 in Chinese but I don't understand it and also, what is the different between a posthumous name and a temple name? For instance, Liu Bang's temple name is Gaozu (高祖）and his posthumous name is Gaodi (高帝). Aren't both titles similar?
I heard that only some emperors who have made great contributions to the empire deserve posthumous names. Out of the 11 Western Han Emperors, only 5 have posthumous names: Liu Bang (posthumous name-高帝) , Liu Heng 刘恒(posthumous name- 太宗 Taizong）, Liu Ce刘彻（posthumous name- 世宗 Shizong）, Liu Xun 刘询（posthumous name- 中宗 Zhongzong）and Liu Shi（posthumous name- 高宗 Gaozong).
In that case, can we say that a posthumous name is more valuable and worthy than a temple name, since not all emperors have a posthumous name but all emperors have a temple name?
Thanks so much for reading
