During the Warring States period, the theory of ruling oneself, which aimed at internal and external cultivation, flourished. Both Confucianism and Taoism regarded the sovereign's ruling himself as the fundamental of ruling state. In the Han dynasty, Dong Zhongshu, a Confucian scholar, absorbed the ideas of Taoism and Huanglao and proposed a theory of ruling oneself and ruling the state. In his doctrine, the practice of ruling oneself includes becoming virtuous and nurturing life, with "nourishing the heart/ mind" as the fundamental way. The prerequisite for nurturing life is becoming virtuous, the approach to becoming virtuous is nourishing the heart/ mind, and the sovereign's virtue is the basis of his rule. However, there is no direct relation between the ruling state and the sovereign's nurturing life. The key to the ruling state is that the sovereign becomes virtuous and, based on his virtue, appoints the wise and the able to educate the people. Dong Zhongshu constructed a theoretical and practical framework from sovereign's "correcting the heart/ mind" to the accomplishment of kingly way, demonstrating a concrete model of the strategy for ruling the state through "virtue education".