There are modern elements but I don't know that it's liberal as such. For one thing it's worth noting that the Han dynasty's constitutional settlement was a synthesis of Legalism and Confucianism sometimes referred to as Imperial Confucianism. One way to view it is the realpolitikal Legalist techniques were required to rule an agrarian empire, but people had no real reason to support the leadership without the public morality offered by the Confucians.
It's one of the first great political arguments, whether government exists for the benefit of the rulers or the people, and the Confucians won, but it wasn't unqualified. Mencius and Confucius had highly idealised views of eg the way military power stemmed from moral power which sadly don't hold water when you have a barbarian horde on your doorstep.
I actually didn't write it in the article, but when I was typing it I was thinking that a historian only trained in recording/interpreting modern liberal politics would have an easy task describing that episode of Chinese history in liberal terms (which is what I did).
I will probably do the same creative misinterpretation when I write an article on Chinese iron production and the market technologies they used (ie early capitalism) to establish what was only over-taken by 18thC European industry.
'Sworn to no party, and of no sect am I.' Frederick Vosper's republican motto.
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