Ostensibly the purpose of this, according to Liu An, was to instruct his nephew, Emperor Wu of Han, in the proper ways to maintain the empire, unifying the people while allowing for their differences, which would prove much more effective than attempting to eliminate these differences or impose norms. There was likely another more personal purpose behind the text as well. In the mid to late second century BCE, the central Han government began moving away from an older model of imperial control i