Complex sentence: Emperor Wu of Han (140--87 BC) barred Legalist scholars from official positions and established a university for the study of the Confucian classics, but his policies and his most trusted advisers were Legalist.
Split into simpler sentences: Emperor Wu of Han (140--87 BC) barred Legalist scholars from official positions and established a university for the study of the Confucian classics. Although the emperor acted as a patron of Confucianism, his policies and his most trusted advisers were Legalist.