After the Western Zhou Dynasty was established, King Wu of Zhou enfeoffed over 800 vassal states, large and small, to govern their territories and maintain the dynasty's rule.
However, as time passed, the feudal states grew increasingly embroiled in power struggles and mutual conquests, their conflicts intensifying. By the time of King Nan of the Eastern Zhou, the Zhou dynasty had become a mere shadow of its former self, existing in name only.
In 221 BCE, Qin Shi Huang unified China, establishing the Qin Dynasty. He abolished the feudal system, dividing the empire into 36 commanderies governed by centrally appointed officials to strengthen imperial control. However, the brutal reigns of Qin Shi Huang and his successor, Qin Er Shi, sparked massive peasant uprisings, leading to the dynasty's collapse.
When Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang, first established the Han dynasty, he believed the Qin dynasty fell because it had not enfeoffed vassals, so he restored the feudal system and granted vast territories to his meritorious officials as non-royal princes. But soon these princes rebelled one after another, forcing Liu Bang to campaign east and west, eliminating them one by one.
Yet Liu Bang failed to learn his lesson, instead enfeoffing numerous kings of the same surname, hoping they would obey central authority and solidify Han rule. But once enfeoffed, these kings grew arrogant and overbearing; some major kings controlled dozens of cities, modeled everything after the central court, and even aspired to seize the throne. It was not until Emperor Wu of Han implemented the "reduction of fiefs," splitting large kingdoms into smaller ones, that central power was gradually consolidated.
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, historian Ban Gu, while compiling the *Book of Han*, keenly observed this issue and remarked, "In the early Western Han, the restoration of the feudal system saw large vassal kingdoms spanning entire prefectures and commanderies, their arrogance reaching such heights that the central government could do nothing to control them. This was Liu Bang's misjudgment of why the Qin Dynasty fell—he overcorrected and went too far!"
Later, the idiom "overcorrecting" came to describe correcting a deviation, or going too far in the correction and falling into another deviation.
Source: *Book of Han*, "Preface to the Table of Princes and Nobles"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "矫枉过正" came to describe correcting a deviation, or going too far in the correction and falling into another deviation.