Hsu Fu-kuan, seen as a representative of traditional Confucianism, argued that the "one-man dictatorship" system which began in the Qin and Han dynasties was in fact a denial of the humanitarian spirit of the classical Confucianism of the pre-Qin.
被認為是傳統儒者代表的徐復觀先生，亦認為秦漢以降的天下統於一君的「一人專制」思想，正是箝制先秦古典儒家之人文精神充份發展的罪魁禍首。