The Han dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by

Liu Bang Emperor Gaozu of Han (2561 June 195 BC), also known by his given name Liu Bang, was the founder and first emperor of the Han dynasty, reigning from 202 to 195 BC. He is considered by traditional Chinese historiography to be one o ...

and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived

Qin dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ) was the first Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China. It is named for its progenitor state of Qin, a fief of the confederal Zhou dynasty (256 BC). Beginning in 230 BC, the Qin under King Ying Zheng enga ...

(221–206 BC) and a warring

interregnum An interregnum (plural interregna or interregnums) is a period of revolutionary breach of legal continuity, discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order. Archetypally, it was the period of time between the reign of one m ...

known as the

Chu–Han Contention The Chu–Han Contention (), also known as the Chu–Han War (), was an interregnum in Imperial China between the fall of the Qin dynasty and the establishment of the Han dynasty. After the Qin dynasty was overthrown in 206 BCE, the empir ...

(206–202 BC), and it was succeeded by the

Three Kingdoms The Three Kingdoms of Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu dominated China from AD 220 to 280 following the end of the Han dynasty. This period was preceded by the Eastern Han dynasty and followed by the Jin dynasty (266–420), Western Jin dyna ...

period (220–280 AD). The dynasty was briefly interrupted by the

Xin dynasty The Xin dynasty (; ), also known as Xin Mang () in Chinese historiography, was a short-lived Dynasties in Chinese history, Chinese imperial dynasty which lasted from 9 to 23 AD, established by the Han dynasty consort kin Wang Mang, who usurped th ...

(9–23 AD) established by the usurping regent

Wang Mang Wang Mang (45 BCE6 October 23 CE), courtesy name Jujun, officially known as the Shijianguo Emperor (), was the founder and the only emperor of the short-lived Chinese Xin dynasty. He was originally an official and consort kin of the ...

, and is thus separated into two periods—the

Western Han The Han dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) and a warring int ...

(202 BC9 AD) and the

Eastern Han The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...

(25–220 AD). Spanning over four centuries, the Han dynasty is considered a golden age in Chinese history, and had a permanent impact on Chinese identity in later periods. The majority ethnic group of modern China refer to themselves as the "

Han people The Han Chinese, alternatively the Han people, are an East Asian ethnic group native to Greater China. With a global population of over 1.4 billion, the Han Chinese are the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 17.5% of the worl ...

" or "Han Chinese". The spoken Chinese and

written Chinese Written Chinese is a writing system that uses Chinese characters and other symbols to represent the Chinese languages. Chinese characters do not directly represent pronunciation, unlike letters in an alphabet or syllabograms in a syllabary. Rath ...

are referred to respectively as the "Han language" and "

Han characters Chinese characters are logographs used to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represent the only one ...

". The Han emperor was at the pinnacle of Han society and culture. He presided over the Han government but shared power with both the nobility and the appointed ministers who came largely from the scholarly gentry class. The Han Empire was divided into areas directly controlled by the central government called commanderies, as well as a number of semi-autonomous kingdoms. These kingdoms gradually lost all vestiges of their independence, particularly following the

Rebellion of the Seven States The Rebellion of the Seven States or Revolt of the Seven Kingdoms ( zh, s=七国之乱, t=七國之亂, p=Qī Guózhī Luàn) took place in 154 BC against the rule of Emperor Jing of Han dynasty by its regional semi-autonomous kings, to resist ...

. From the reign of Emperor Wu () onward, the Chinese court officially sponsored

Confucianism Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, Religious Confucianism, religion, theory of government, or way of li ...

in education and court politics, synthesized with the

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

of later scholars such as

Dong Zhongshu Dong Zhongshu (; 179–104 BC) was a Chinese philosopher, politician, and writer of the Han dynasty. He is traditionally associated with the promotion of Confucianism as the official ideology of the Chinese imperial state, favoring heaven worsh ...

. The Han dynasty oversaw periods of economic prosperity as well as significant growth in the money economy that had first been established during the

Zhou dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( ) was a royal dynasty of China that existed for 789 years from until 256 BC, the longest span of any dynasty in Chinese history. During the Western Zhou period (771 BC), the royal house, surnamed Ji, had military ...

(256 BC). The

coinage Coinage may refer to: * Coins, standardized as currency * Coining (mint), the process of manufacturing coins * '' COINage'', a numismatics magazine * Tin coinage, a tax on refined tin * Coinage, a protologism or neologism In linguistics, a neolo ...

minted by the central government in 119 BC remained the standard in China until the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

(618–907 AD). The period saw a number of limited institutional innovations. To finance its military campaigns and the settlement of newly conquered frontier territories, the Han government nationalised private salt and iron industries in 117 BC, creating government monopolies that were later repealed during the Eastern period. There were significant advances in

science and technology Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is an umbrella term used to group together the distinct but related technical disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The term is typically used in the context of ...

during the Han period, including the emergence of

papermaking Papermaking is the manufacture of paper and cardboard, which are used widely for printing, writing, and packaging, among many other purposes. Today almost all paper is Pulp and paper industry, made using industrial machinery, while handmade pape ...

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, airship, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (usually air or water). On an airplane, the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw ...

s for steering ships,

negative number In mathematics, a negative number is the opposite (mathematics), opposite of a positive real number. Equivalently, a negative number is a real number that is inequality (mathematics), less than 0, zero. Negative numbers are often used to represe ...

s in

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

raised-relief map A raised-relief map, terrain model or embossed map is a three-dimensional representation, usually of terrain, materialized as a physical artifact. When representing terrain, the vertical dimension is usually exaggerated by a factor between fiv ...

hydraulic Hydraulics () is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counterpart of pneumatics, which concer ...

-powered

armillary sphere An armillary sphere (variations are known as spherical astrolabe, armilla, or armil) is a model of objects in the sky (on the celestial sphere), consisting of a spherical framework of rings, centered on Earth or the Sun, that represent lines o ...

s for

astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

, and

seismometer A seismometer is an instrument that responds to ground displacement and shaking such as caused by quakes, volcanic eruptions, and explosions. They are usually combined with a timing device and a recording device to form a seismograph. The out ...

s that discerned the cardinal direction of distant earthquakes by use of

inverted pendulum An inverted pendulum is a pendulum that has its center of mass above its Lever, pivot point. It is unstable equilibrium, unstable and falls over without additional help. It can be suspended stably in this inverted position by using a control s ...

s. The Han dynasty had many conflicts with the

Xiongnu The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of Nomad, nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese historiography, Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, t ...

, a nomadic confederation centred in the eastern

Eurasian steppe The Eurasian Steppe, also called the Great Steppe or The Steppes, is the vast steppe ecoregion of Eurasia in the temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands biome. It stretches through Manchuria, Mongolia, Xinjiang, Kazakhstan, Siberia, Europea ...

. The Xiongnu defeated the Han in 200 BC, prompting the Han to appease the Xiongnu with a policy of marriage alliance and payments of tribute, though the Xiongnu continued to raid the Han's northern borders. Han policy changed in 133 BC, under Emperor Wu, when Han forces began a series of military campaigns to quell the Xiongnu. The Xiongnu were eventually defeated and forced to accept a status as Han vassals, and the Xiongnu confederation fragmented. The Han conquered the

Hexi Corridor The Hexi Corridor ( ), also known as the Gansu Corridor, is an important historical region located in the modern western Gansu province of China. It refers to a narrow stretch of traversable and relatively arable plain west of the Yellow River's O ...

and Inner Asian territory of the

Tarim Basin The Tarim Basin is an endorheic basin in Xinjiang, Northwestern China occupying an area of about and one of the largest basins in Northwest China.Chen, Yaning, et al. "Regional climate change and its effects on river runoff in the Tarim Basin, Ch ...

from the Xiongnu, helping to establish the

Silk Road The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...

. The lands north of the Han's borders were later overrun by the nomadic

Xianbei The Xianbei (; ) were an ancient nomadic people that once resided in the eastern Eurasian steppes in what is today Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Northeastern China. The Xianbei were likely not of a single ethnicity, but rather a multiling ...

confederation. Emperor Wu also launched successful conquests in the south, annexing Nanyue in 111 BC and Dian in 109 BC. He further expanded Han territory into the northern

Korean Peninsula Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically divided at or near the 38th parallel between North Korea (Dem ...

, where Han forces conquered Gojoseon and established the

Xuantu Xuantu Commandery (; ) was a Jun (country subdivision), commandery of the Chinese Han dynasty. It was one of Four Commanderies of Han, established in 107 BCE in the northern Korean Peninsula and part of the Liaodong Peninsula, after the Han dynas ...

and

Lelang The Lelang Commandery was a commandery of the Han dynasty established after it had conquered Wiman Joseon in 108 BC and lasted until Goguryeo conquered it in 313. The Lelang Commandery extended the rule of the Four Commanderies of Han as far ...

commanderies in 108 BC. After 92 AD, palace

eunuchs A eunuch ( , ) is a male who has been castration, castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2 ...

increasingly involved themselves in the dynasty's court politics, engaging in violent power struggles between various

consort clan The consort kin or outer kins () were the kin or a group of people related to an empress dowager or a consort of a monarch or a warlord in the Sinosphere. The leading figure of the clan was either a (usually male) sibling, cousin, or parent ...

s of the empresses and

empresses dowager Empress dowager (also dowager empress or empress mother; ) is the English language translation of the title given to the mother or widow of a monarch, especially in regards to Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese monarchs in the Chinese cult ...

. Imperial authority was also seriously challenged by large

Taoist Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ...

religious societies which instigated the

Yellow Turban Rebellion The Yellow Turban Rebellion, alternatively translated as the Yellow Scarves Rebellion, was a peasant revolt during the late Eastern Han dynasty of ancient China. The uprising broke out in 184 CE, during the reign of Emperor Ling. Although t ...

and the Five Pecks of Rice Rebellion. Following the death of Emperor Ling (), the palace eunuchs were massacred by military officers, allowing members of the aristocracy and military governors to become warlords and divide the empire. The Han dynasty came to an end in 220 AD when

Cao Pi Cao Pi () (late 187 – 29 June 226), courtesy name Zihuan, was the first emperor of the state of Cao Wei in the Three Kingdoms period of China. He was the second son of Cao Cao, a warlord who lived in the late Eastern Han dynasty, but the ...

, king of

Wei Wei or WEI may refer to: States * Wey (state) (衛, 1040–209 BC), ''Wèi'' in pinyin, but spelled Wey to distinguish from the bigger ''Wèi'' of the Warring States * Wei (state) (魏, 403–225 BC), one of the seven major states of the Warring ...

, usurped the throne from

Emperor Xian Emperor Xian of Han (2 April 181 – 21 April 234), personal name Liu Xie (劉協), courtesy name Bohe, was the 14th and last emperor of the Eastern Han dynasty of China. He reigned from 28 September 189 until his abdication and subsequent end ...

Etymology

According to the ''

Records of the Grand Historian The ''Shiji'', also known as ''Records of the Grand Historian'' or ''The Grand Scribe's Records'', is a Chinese historical text that is the first of the Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written during the late 2nd and early 1st ce ...

'', after overthrowing the

, the hegemon rebel

Xiang Yu Xiang Yu (), born Xiang Ji, was a Chinese warlord who founded and led the short-lived ancient Chinese states, kingdom-state of Western Chu during the interregnum period between the Qin dynasty, Qin and Han dynasty, Han dynasties of China, d ...

appointed

Eighteen Kingdoms The historiographical term "Eighteen Kingdoms" ( zh, t=十八國), also translated as "Eighteen States", refers to the eighteen '' fengjian'' states in China created by military leader Xiang Yu in 206 BCE, after the collapse of the Qin dynasty.� ...

, giving

(whom Xiang disliked and wanted rid of) a

fief A fief (; ) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of feudal alle ...

over the

Sichuan Basin The Sichuan Basin (), formerly transliterated as the Szechwan Basin, sometimes called the Red Basin, is a lowland region in southwestern China. It is surrounded by mountains on all sides and is drained by the upper Yangtze River and its tributar ...

, which was then used mainly as a impoverished region of

penal colonies A penal colony or exile colony is a Human settlement, settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general population by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colony, colonial territory. Although the te ...

for

exile Exile or banishment is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons ...

d criminals. After some lobbying by Zhang Liang, Liu Bang was additionally enfeoffed the small but better developed

Hanzhong Basin Hanzhong Basin or Hanzhong Pendi (), reputed to be "a land of fish and rice", is a geographic region located in the southern Shaanxi. Hanzhong Basin is a large-scale Cenozoic faulted basin, and an important agricultural area of southern Shaan ...

within the

Qinling Mountains The Qinling () or Qin Mountains, formerly known as the Nanshan ("Southern Mountains"), are a major east–west mountain range in southern Shaanxi Province, China. The mountains mark the divide between the drainage basins of the Yangtze and Ye ...

, and given the title of King of Han (), named after the location of his then-capital Nanzheng (modern day

Hanzhong Hanzhong ( zh, s= , t= , l=middle of the Han River (Hubei), Han River; abbreviation: Han) is a prefecture-level city in Southern Shaanxi, the southwest of Shaanxi, Shaanxi province, China, bordering the provinces of Sichuan to the south and Gans ...

) along the Han River. Following Liu Bang's eventual victory in the

, his title was inherited as the name of the newly established Han dynasty.

History

Western Han (202 BC – 9 AD)

China's first

imperial dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a monarchy, monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A dynasty may also be referred to as a "house", "family" or "clan", among others. H ...

was the

(221–206 BC). The Qin united the Chinese

Warring States The Warring States period in Chinese history (221 BC) comprises the final two and a half centuries of the Zhou dynasty (256 BC), which were characterized by frequent warfare, bureaucratic and military reforms, and struggles for gre ...

by conquest, but their regime became unstable after the death of the first emperor

Qin Shi Huang Qin Shi Huang (, ; February 25912 July 210 BC), born Ying Zheng () or Zhao Zheng (), was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of China. He is widely regarded as the first ever supreme leader of a unitary state, unitary d ...

. Within four years, the dynasty's authority had collapsed in a rebellion. Two former rebel leaders,

() of

Chu Chu or CHU may refer to: Chinese history * Chu (state) (c. 1030 BC–223 BC), a state during the Zhou dynasty * Western Chu (206 BC–202 BC), a state founded and ruled by Xiang Yu * Chu Kingdom (Han dynasty) (201 BC–70 AD), a kingdom of the H ...

and

() of Han, engaged in a war to determine who would have hegemony over China, which had fissured into

, each claiming allegiance to either Xiang Yu or Liu Bang. Although Xiang Yu proved to be an effective commander, Liu Bang defeated him at the

Battle of Gaixia The Battle of Gaixia was a battle of annihilation during Early Imperial China, fought between the forces of Han under Liu Bang and Western Chu under Xiang Yu in December 203 BC. It was the final major battle of the Chu-Han Contention, a civ ...

(202 BC) in modern-day

Anhui Anhui is an inland Provinces of China, province located in East China. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze and Huai rivers, bordering Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the east, Jiang ...

. Liu Bang assumed the title of Emperor at the urging of his followers and is known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu ().

Chang'an Chang'an (; zh, t=長安, s=长安, p=Cháng'ān, first=t) is the traditional name of the city now named Xi'an and was the capital of several Chinese dynasties, ranging from 202 BCE to 907 CE. The site has been inhabited since Neolithic time ...

(modern Xi'an) was chosen as the new capital of the reunified empire under Han. Han dynasty Kingdoms 195 BC

At the beginning of the Western Han (), also known as the Former Han (), thirteen centrally-controlled commanderies—including the capital region—existed in the western third of the empire, while the eastern two-thirds were divided into ten semi-autonomous kingdoms. To placate his prominent commanders from the war with Chu, Emperor Gaozu

enfeoffed In the Middle Ages, especially under the European feudal system, feoffment or enfeoffment was the deed by which a person was given land in exchange for a pledge of service. This mechanism was later used to avoid restrictions on the passage of t ...

some of them as kings. By 196, the Han court had replaced all of these kings with royal

Liu Liu (; or ) is an East Asian surname. pinyin: in Mandarin Chinese, in Cantonese. It is the family name of the Han dynasty emperors. The character originally meant 'battle axe', but is now used only as a surname. It is listed 252nd in the clas ...

family members, with the lone exception of

Changsha Changsha is the capital of Hunan, China. It is the 15th most populous city in China with a population of 10,513,100, the Central China#Cities with urban area over one million in population, third-most populous city in Central China, and the ...

. The loyalty of non-relatives to the emperor was questioned, and after several insurrections by Han kings—with the largest being the

in 154—the imperial court began enacting a series of reforms that limited the power of these kingdoms in 145, dividing their former territories into new commanderies under central control. Kings were no longer able to appoint their own staff; this duty was assumed by the imperial court. Kings became nominal heads of their

s and collected a portion of tax revenues as their personal incomes. The kingdoms were never entirely abolished and existed throughout the remainder of Western and Eastern Han. To the north of

China proper China proper, also called Inner China, are terms used primarily in the West in reference to the traditional "core" regions of China centered in the southeast. The term was first used by Westerners during the Manchu people, Manchu-led Qing dyn ...

, the nomadic

chieftain

Modu Chanyu Modu () was the son of Touman and the founder of the empire of the Xiongnu. He came to power by ordering his men to kill his father in 209 BCE. Modu ruled from 209 to 174 BCE. He was a military leader under his father Touman and later ''chanyu ...

() conquered various tribes inhabiting the eastern portion of the

Eurasian Steppe The Eurasian Steppe, also called the Great Steppe or The Steppes, is the vast steppe ecoregion of Eurasia in the temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands biome. It stretches through Manchuria, Mongolia, Xinjiang, Kazakhstan, Siberia, Europea ...

. By the end of his reign, he controlled the

Inner Asia Inner Asia refers to the northern and landlocked regions spanning North Asia, North, Central Asia, Central, and East Asia. It includes parts of Western China, western and northeast China, as well as southern Siberia. The area overlaps with some d ...

n regions of

Manchuria Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

, and the

, subjugating over twenty states east of

Samarkand Samarkand ( ; Uzbek language, Uzbek and Tajik language, Tajik: Самарқанд / Samarqand, ) is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central As ...

. Emperor Gaozu was troubled about the abundant Han-manufactured iron weapons traded to the Xiongnu along the northern borders, and he established a trade

embargo Economic sanctions or embargoes are commercial and financial penalties applied by states or institutions against states, groups, or individuals. Economic sanctions are a form of coercion that attempts to get an actor to change its behavior throu ...

against the group. In retaliation, the Xiongnu invaded what is now

Shanxi Shanxi; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi is a Provinces of China, province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi a ...

, where they defeated the Han forces at Baideng in 200 BC. After negotiations, the ''

heqin ''Heqin'', also known as marriage alliance, refers to the historical practice of Chinese monarchs marrying princesses—usually members of minor branches of the ruling family—to rulers of neighboring states. It was often adopted as an appeasem ...

'' agreement in 198 BC nominally held the leaders of the Xiongnu and the Han as equal partners in a royal marriage alliance, but the Han were forced to send large amounts of tribute items such as silk clothes, food, and wine to the Xiongnu. Despite the tribute and negotiation between

Laoshang Chanyu Laoshang (; r. 174–161 BCE), whose personal name was Jiyu (), was a c''hanyu'' of the Xiongnu Empire who succeeded his father Modu Chanyu in 174 BCE. Under his reign, the Xiongnu Empire continued to expand against the Yuezhi with the Xiongnu ...

() and Emperor Wen () to reopen border markets, many of the

Chanyu Chanyu () or Shanyu (), short for Chengli Gutu Chanyu (), was the title used by the supreme rulers of Inner Asian nomads for eight centuries until superseded by the title "''Khagan''" in 402 AD. The title was most famously used by the ruling L ...

's subordinates chose not to obey the treaty and periodically raided Han territories south of the

Great Wall The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand Li (unit), ''li'' long wall") is a series of fortifications in China. They were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection agains ...

for additional goods. In a court conference assembled by Emperor Wu () in 135 BC, the majority consensus of the ministers was to retain the ''heqin'' agreement. Emperor Wu accepted this, despite continuing Xiongnu raids. However, a court conference the following year convinced the majority that a limited engagement at Mayi involving the assassination of the Chanyu would throw the Xiongnu realm into chaos and benefit the Han. When this plot failed in 133 BC, Emperor Wu launched a series of massive military invasions into Xiongnu territory. The assault culminated in 119 BC at the

Battle of Mobei The Battle of Mobei () was a military campaign fought mainly in modern-day Mongolia, in the extreme cold and barren lands of the Gobi Desert. It was part of a major strategic offensive launched by the Han dynasty in the winter of January 119 BC ...

, when Han commanders

Huo Qubing Huo Qubing (140 BC – October 117 BC, formerly ''Ho Ch'ii-ping'') was a Chinese military general and politician of the Western Han dynasty during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han. He was a nephew of the general Wei Qing and Empress Wei Zifu (Emp ...

() and

Wei Qing Wei Qing (died Jun 106 BC?In Emperor Wu's biography in ''Book of Han'' and volume 21 of ''Zizhi Tongjian'', the record of Wei Qing's death appeared after the 4th month of the 5th year of the ''Yuan'feng'' era. Thus, it is likely (but not certai ...

() forced the Xiongnu court to flee north of the

Gobi Desert The Gobi Desert (, , ; ) is a large, cold desert and grassland region in North China and southern Mongolia. It is the sixth-largest desert in the world. The name of the desert comes from the Mongolian word ''gobi'', used to refer to all of th ...

, and Han forces reached as far north as

Lake Baikal Lake Baikal is a rift lake and the deepest lake in the world. It is situated in southern Siberia, Russia between the Federal subjects of Russia, federal subjects of Irkutsk Oblast, Irkutsk Oblasts of Russia, Oblast to the northwest and the Repu ...

. After Wu's reign, Han forces continued to fight the Xiongnu. The Xiongnu leader

Huhanye Huhanye (), born Jihoushan (), was a ''chanyu'' of the Xiongnu Empire, the son of Xulüquanqu Chanyu. He rebelled in 59 BC with the aid of Wushanmu and Woyanqudi Chanyu soon committed suicide, leaving the Xiongnu torn apart by factional strife. ...

() finally submitted to the Han as a tributary vassal in 51 BC. Huhanye's rival claimant to the throne,

Zhizhi Chanyu Zhizhi or Chi-Chi (, from Old Chinese (58 BCE): *''tśit-kie'' < *''tit-ke'';Schuessler 2014, p. 277 died 36 BCE), also known as Jzh-jzh, was a

Chen Tang Chen Tang may refer to: * Chen Tang (general), Chinese military general of the Western Han dynasty * Chen Tang (actor), Zhuang American actor * Chen Tang (footballer), Chinese footballer See also * Tang Chen, Hong Kong actress {{hndis} ...

and Gan Yanshou () at the

Battle of Zhizhi The Battle of Zhizhi (郅支之戰) was fought in 36 BC between the Han dynasty and the Xiongnu chieftain Zhizhi Chanyu. Zhizhi was defeated and killed. The battle was probably fought near Talas on the Talas River on the Kazakhstan–K ...

, in modern

Taraz Taraz ( ; also historically known as Talas) is a city and the administrative center of Jambyl Region in Kazakhstan, located on the Talas (river), Talas (Taraz) River in the south of the country near the border with Kyrgyzstan. It had a populatio ...

, Kazakhstan. In 121 BC, Han forces expelled the Xiongnu from a vast territory spanning the

Lop Nur Lop Nur or Lop Nor (, , from an Oirat Mongolic name meaning "Lop Lake", where "Lop" is a toponym of unknown origin) is a now largely dried-up salt lake formerly located within the ''Lop Depression'' in the eastern fringe of the Tarim Basin in ...

. They repelled a joint Xiongnu- Qiang invasion of this northwestern territory in 111 BC. In that same year, the Han court established four new frontier commanderies in this region to consolidate their control:

Jiuquan Jiuquan, formerly known as Suzhou is a prefecture-level city in the northwesternmost part of Gansu Province in the People's Republic of China. It is more than wide from east to west, occupying , although its built-up area is mostly located in it ...

Zhangyi Zhangyi () is a town under the administration of Yuanzhou District, Guyuan, Ningxia, China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, ...

Dunhuang Dunhuang () is a county-level city in northwestern Gansu Province, Western China. According to the 2010 Chinese census, the city has a population of 186,027, though 2019 estimates put the city's population at about 191,800. Sachu (Dunhuang) was ...

, and Wuwei. The majority of people on the frontier were soldiers. On occasion, the court forcibly moved peasant farmers to new frontier settlements, along with government-owned slaves and convicts who performed hard labour. The court also encouraged commoners, such as farmers, merchants, landowners, and hired labourers, to voluntarily migrate to the frontier. Even before the Han's expansion into Central Asia, diplomat

Zhang Qian Zhang Qian (; died c. 114 BC) was a Chinese diplomat, explorer, and politician who served as an imperial envoy to the world outside of China in the late 2nd century BC during the Western Han dynasty. He was one of the first official diploma ...

's travels from 139 to 125 BC had established Chinese contacts with many surrounding civilizations. Zhang encountered

Dayuan Dayuan (or Tayuan; ; Middle Chinese ''dâiC-jwɐn'' <

LHC

: ''dɑh-ʔyɑn'') is the Chinese

Fergana Fergana ( uz-Latn-Cyrl, Fargʻona, Фарғона, ), () or Ferghana, also Farghana is a district-level city and the capital of Fergana Region in eastern Uzbekistan. Fergana is about 320 km east of Tashkent, about 75 km southwest of A ...

Kangju Kangju (; Eastern Han Chinese: ''kʰɑŋ-kɨɑ'' standard Chinese ''Kāngjū''), proposes that it was an Iranian word meaning "stone", and compares it to Pashto ''kā́ṇay'' "stone". Joseph Marquart, Omeljan Pritsak and Peter B. Golde ...

(

Sogdiana Sogdia () or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian civilization between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, and in present-day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Sogdiana was also a province of the Achaemenid Empire, and l ...

), and

Daxia Daxia, Ta-Hsia, or Ta-Hia (; literally: 'Great Xia') was apparently the name given in antiquity by the Han Chinese to Tukhara or Tokhara: the main part of Bactria, in what is now northern Afghanistan, and parts of southern Tajikistan and Uz ...

(

Bactria Bactria (; Bactrian language, Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient Iranian peoples, Iranian civilization in Central Asia based in the area south of the Oxus River (modern Amu Darya) and north of the mountains of the Hindu Kush, an area ...

, formerly the

Greco-Bactrian Kingdom The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom () was a Ancient Greece, Greek state of the Hellenistic period located in Central Asia, Central-South Asia. The kingdom was founded by the Seleucid Empire, Seleucid satrap Diodotus I, Diodotus I Soter in about 256 BC, ...

); he also gathered information on Shendu (the

Indus River The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayas, Himalayan river of South Asia, South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northw ...

valley) and Anxi (the

Parthian Empire The Parthian Empire (), also known as the Arsacid Empire (), was a major Iranian political and cultural power centered in ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD. Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I, who led the Parni tribe ...

). All of these countries eventually received Han embassies. These connections marked the beginning of the

trade network that extended to the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

, bringing goods like Chinese silk and Roman glasswares between the two. From until , Han forces fought the Xiongnu over control of the oasis city-states in the Tarim Basin. The Han was eventually victorious and established the

Protectorate of the Western Regions The Protectorate of the Western Regions () was an imperial administration (a Protectorate (imperial China), protectorate) situated in the Western Regions administered by Han dynasty, Han dynasty China and its successors on and off from 59 or 6 ...

in 60 BC, which dealt with the region's defence and foreign affairs. The Han also expanded southward. The naval conquest of Nanyue in 111 BC expanded the Han realm into what are now modern

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

Guangxi Guangxi,; officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam (Hà Giang Province, Hà Giang, Cao Bằn ...

, and northern Vietnam.

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

was brought into the Han realm with the

conquest Conquest involves the annexation or control of another entity's territory through war or Coercion (international relations), coercion. Historically, conquests occurred frequently in the international system, and there were limited normative or ...

of the Dian Kingdom in 109 BC, followed by parts of the

with the

Han conquest of Gojoseon The Han conquest of Gojoseon was a campaign launched by Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty against Wiman Joseon between 109 and 108 BCE. It resulted in the fall of Gojoseon and the establishment of the Four Commanderies of Han in the northern half ...

and establishment of the

and Lelang commanderies in 108 BC. The first nationwide census in Chinese history was taken in 2 AD; the Han's total population was registered as comprising 57,671,400 individuals across 12,366,470 households. To pay for his military campaigns and colonial expansion, Emperor Wu

nationalised Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with ...

several private industries. He created central government

monopolies A monopoly (from Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic competition to produce a particular thing, a lack of viable sub ...

administered largely by former merchants. These monopolies included salt, iron, and liquor production, as well as bronze coinage. The liquor monopoly lasted only from 98 to 81 BC, and the salt and iron monopolies were eventually abolished in the early Eastern Han. The issuing of coinage remained a central government monopoly throughout the rest of the Han dynasty. The government monopolies were eventually repealed when a political faction known as the Reformists gained greater influence in the court. The Reformists opposed the Modernist faction that had dominated court politics in Emperor Wu's reign and during the subsequent

regency In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

Huo Guang Huo Guang (; died 21 April 68 BC), courtesy name Zimeng (子孟), posthumous name Marquess Xuancheng of Bolu (博陸宣成侯), was a Chinese politician and imperial regent who served as the dominant state official of the Han dynasty#Western Ha ...

(). The Modernists argued for an aggressive and expansionary foreign policy supported by revenues from heavy government intervention in the private economy. The Reformists, however, overturned these policies, favouring a cautious, non-expansionary approach to foreign policy, frugal

budget A budget is a calculation plan, usually but not always financial plan, financial, for a defined accounting period, period, often one year or a month. A budget may include anticipated sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities including tim ...

reform, and lower tax-rates imposed on private entrepreneurs.

Wang Mang's reign and civil war

Wang Zhengjun Wang Zhengjun (; 71 BC – 3 February 13 AD), officially Empress Xiaoyuan (孝元皇后), later and more commonly known as Grand Empress Dowager Wang, born in Yuancheng (modern Handan, Hebei), was an empress during the Western Han dynasty of C ...

(71 BC13 AD) was first empress, then

empress dowager Empress dowager (also dowager empress or empress mother; ) is the English language translation of the title given to the mother or widow of a monarch, especially in regards to Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese monarchs in the Chines ...

, and finally

grand empress dowager Grand empress dowager (also grand dowager empress or grand empress mother) ( (太皇太后) was a title given to the grandmother, or a woman from the same generation, of a Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese emperor in the Chinese cultur ...

during the reigns of the Emperors Yuan (), Cheng (), and Ai (), respectively. During this time, a succession of her male relatives held the title of regent. Following the death of Ai, Wang Zhengjun's nephew

(45 BC23 AD) was appointed regent as Marshall of State on 16 August under Emperor Ping (1 BC6 AD). When Ping died on 3 February 6 AD,

Ruzi Ying Ruzi Ying (; 5 – February or March 25 CE), personal name Liu Ying (), was a ruler of the Han dynasty of China and the last of the Western Han dynasty. He was the titular ruler of the Han Empire from 6 CE to 9 CE, even though he did not officia ...

() was chosen as the heir and Wang Mang was appointed to serve as acting emperor for the child. Wang promised to relinquish his control to Liu Ying once he came of age. Despite this promise, and against protest and revolts from the nobility, Wang Mang claimed on 10 January that the divine

Mandate of Heaven The Mandate of Heaven ( zh, t=天命, p=Tiānmìng, w=, l=Heaven's command) is a Chinese ideology#Political ideologies, political ideology that was used in History of China#Ancient China, Ancient China and Chinese Empire, Imperial China to legit ...

called for the end of the Han dynasty and the beginning of his own: the

(9–23 AD). Wang Mang initiated a series of major reforms that were ultimately unsuccessful. These reforms included outlawing slavery,

nationalizing Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with priv ...

and equally distributing land between households, and introducing new currencies, a change which debased the value of coinage. Although these reforms provoked considerable opposition, Wang's regime met its ultimate downfall with the massive floods of AD and 11 AD. Gradual silt build-up in the

Yellow River The Yellow River, also known as Huanghe, is the second-longest river in China and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system on Earth, with an estimated length of and a Drainage basin, watershed of . Beginning in the Bayan H ...

had raised its water level and overwhelmed the flood control works. The Yellow River split into two new branches: one emptying to the north and the other to the south of the

Shandong Peninsula The Shandong Peninsula or Jiaodong (tsiaotung) Peninsula is a peninsula in Shandong in eastern China, between the Bohai Sea to the north and the Yellow Sea to the south. The latter name refers to the east and Jiaozhou. Geography The waters ...

, though Han engineers managed to dam the southern branch by 70 AD. The flood dislodged thousands of peasant farmers, many of whom joined roving bandit and rebel groups such as the

Red Eyebrows The Red Eyebrows () was one of the two major peasant rebellion movements against Wang Mang's short-lived Xin dynasty, the other being Lülin. It was so named because the rebels painted their eyebrows red. The rebellion, initially active in t ...

to survive. Wang Mang's armies were incapable of quelling these enlarged rebel groups. Eventually, an insurgent mob forced their way into the

Weiyang Palace The Weiyang Palace () was the main imperial palace complex of the Han dynasty and numerous other Chinese dynasties, located in the city of Chang'an (modern-day Xi'an). It was built in 200 BC at the request of the Emperor Gaozu of Han, under the s ...

and killed Wang Mang. The

Gengshi Emperor The Gengshi Emperor (died November AD 25), born Liu Xuan, was an emperor of China, emperor of the Han dynasty that had been restored following the downfall of Wang Mang's short-lived Xin dynasty. He was also known by his courtesy name Shenggo ...

(), a descendant of Emperor Jing (), attempted to restore the Han dynasty and occupied Chang'an as his capital. However, he was overwhelmed by the Red Eyebrow rebels who deposed, assassinated, and replaced him with the puppet monarch

Liu Penzi Liu Penzi (; 10 AD – after 27 AD) was a puppet emperor placed on the Han dynasty throne temporarily by the Red Eyebrows (Chimei) rebels after the collapse of the Xin dynasty, from 25 to 27 AD. Liu Penzi and his two brothers were forced into ...

. Gengshi's distant cousin Liu Xiu, known posthumously as

Emperor Guangwu Emperor Guangwu of Han (; 15 January 5 BC29 March AD 57), born Liu Xiu (), courtesy name Wenshu (), was a Chinese monarch. He served as an emperor of the Han dynasty by restoring the dynasty in AD 25, thus founding the Eastern Han dynasty. He ...

(), after distinguishing himself at the

Battle of Kunyang The Battle of Kunyang () was fought during June and July in 23 AD,Liu Xiu's biography in ''Book of the Later Han'' recorded a maneuver by Liu Xiu during the battle which took place on the ''ji'mao'' day of the 6th month of the 1st year of the ''G ...

in 23 AD, was urged to succeed Gengshi as emperor. Under Guangwu's rule, the Han Empire was restored. Guangwu made

Luoyang Luoyang ( zh, s=洛阳, t=洛陽, p=Luòyáng) is a city located in the confluence area of the Luo River and the Yellow River in the west of Henan province, China. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zheng ...

his capital in 25 AD, and by 27 his officers

Deng Yu Deng Yu (2 – June 585th month of the 1st year of the ''Yong'ping'' era, per Emperor Ming's biography in ''Book of the Later Han''. The month corresponds to 11 Jun to 9 Jul 58 in the Julian calendar.), courtesy name Zhonghua, was a Chinese sta ...

and

Feng Yi Feng Yi (?- A.D. 34) was a Chinese military general of the Eastern Han dynasty, who helped Emperor Guangwu of Han establish the Eastern Han dynasty. One of his greatest contributions was the final defeat of the Red Eyebrows rebels. He was fam ...

had forced the Red Eyebrows to surrender and executed their leaders for

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...

. From 26 until 36 AD, Emperor Guangwu had to wage war against other regional warlords who claimed the title of emperor; when these warlords were defeated, China reunified under the Han. The period between the foundation of the Han dynasty and Wang Mang's reign is known as the Western Han () or Former Han () (206 BC9 AD). During this period the capital was at

(modern

Xi'an Xi'an is the list of capitals in China, capital of the Chinese province of Shaanxi. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong plain, the city is the third-most populous city in Western China after Chongqing and Chengdu, as well as the most populou ...

). From the reign of Guangwu the capital was moved eastward to Luoyang. The era from his reign until the fall of Han is known as the Eastern Han or Later Han (25–220 AD).

Eastern Han (25–220 AD)

The Eastern Han (), also known as the Later Han (), formally began on 5 August AD 25, when Liu Xiu became

Emperor Guangwu of Han Emperor Guangwu of Han (; 15 January 5 BC29 March AD 57), born Liu Xiu (), courtesy name Wenshu (), was a Chinese monarch. He served as an emperor of the Han dynasty by restoring the dynasty in AD 25, thus founding the Eastern Han dynasty. He ...

. During the widespread rebellion against

, the state of

Goguryeo Goguryeo (37 BC – 668 AD) (; ; Old Korean: Guryeo) also later known as Goryeo (; ; Middle Korean: 고ᇢ롕〮, ''kwòwlyéy''), was a Korean kingdom which was located on the northern and central parts of the Korea, Korean Peninsula an ...

was free to raid Han's Korean commanderies; Han did not reaffirm its control over the region until AD 30. The

Trưng Sisters The Trưng sisters ( (), 𠄩婆徵, literally "Two Ladies

amed Amed or AMED may refer to: *Amed (Bali), a town in Bali, Indonesia *Amedisys Home Health and Hospice Care, a home health and hospice care company in the US, NASDAQ abbreviation AMED * Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development *Amed Ber, a t ...

Trưng", 14 – c. 43) were Luoyue military leaders who ruled for three years after Trung sisters' rebellion, commanding a rebellion of Luoyue tribes and other tribes in ...

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

rebelled against Han in AD 40. Their rebellion was crushed by Han general

Ma Yuan Ma Yuan may refer to: * Ma Yuan (Han dynasty) (馬援; 14 BC – 49 AD), general of the Han dynasty * Ma Yuan (painter) (馬遠; 1160–1225), painter of the Song dynasty * Ma Yuan (judge) (:zh:馬原 (政治人物), 馬原; born 1930), a former V ...

() in a campaign from AD 42 to 43. Wang Mang renewed hostilities against the

, who were estranged from Han until their leader Bi (), a rival claimant to the throne against his cousin Punu (), submitted to Han as a tributary vassal in AD 50. This created two rival Xiongnu states: the Southern Xiongnu led by Bi, an ally of Han, and the Northern Xiongnu led by Punu, an enemy of Han. During the turbulent reign of Wang Mang, China lost control over the Tarim Basin, which was conquered by the Northern Xiongnu in AD 63 and used as a base to invade the Hexi Corridor in

Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

Dou Gu Dou Gu (; died 88 AD), born in Xianyang, was a Chinese military general during the Eastern Han dynasty who fought in the Battle of Yiwulu in 73. Shortly after the battle, Dou Gu sent two of his generals, Ban Chao and Guo Xun, on a diplomatic e ...

() defeated the Northern Xiongnu at the

Battle of Yiwulu The Battle of Yiwulu took place during a major expedition against the Xiongnu launched by the Han dynasty in February AD 73, after the fall of Xin dynasty. The battle was a success for the Han, who were led by Dou Gu. In 73, annoyed at the Xiong ...

in AD 73, evicting them from

Turpan Turpan () or Turfan ( zh, s=吐鲁番) is a prefecture-level city located in the east of the Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of Xinjiang, China. It has an area of and a population of 693,988 (2020). The historical center of the ...

and chasing them as far as Lake Barkol before establishing a garrison at Hami. After the new Protector General of the Western Regions

Chen Mu Chen Mu (, d. 75) was a governor and general during the Han dynasty who served the first Protector General of the Western Regions under Eastern Han between 74 and 75. During his service, he was killed by the rebels in Karasahr Karasahr or Karash ...

() was killed by allies of the Xiongnu in

Karasahr Karasahr or Karashar (), which was originally known in the Tocharian languages as ''Ārśi'' (or Arshi), Qarašähär, or Agni or the Chinese derivative Yanqi ( zh, s=焉耆, p=Yānqí, w=Yen-ch'i), is an ancient town on the Silk Road and the capi ...

and

Kucha Kucha or Kuche (also: ''Kuçar'', ''Kuchar''; , Кучар; zh, t= 龜茲, p=Qiūcí, zh, t= 庫車, p=Kùchē; ) was an ancient Buddhist kingdom located on the branch of the Silk Road that ran along the northern edge of what is now the Taklam ...

, the garrison at Hami was withdrawn. At the

Battle of Ikh Bayan The Battle of Altai Mountains (), was a major expedition launched against the Northern Xiongnu by the Han dynasty in June 89 AD. The battle was a success for the Han under Dou Xian.'' Book of Later Han'', vols. 04, 19, 23, 88, 89, 90.''Ziz ...

in AD 89,

Dou Xian Dou Xian (; - died 92 AD) was a Chinese general and consort kin of the Eastern Han dynasty, famous for destroying the Xiongnu nomadic empire. Early life A native of modern-day Xianyang, Shaanxi Province, he was part of the powerful Dou clan whi ...

() defeated the Northern Xiongnu ''chanyu'' who then retreated into the

Altai Mountains The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central Asia, Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob River, Ob have their headwaters. The ...

. After the Northern Xiongnu fled into the

Ili River The Ili River (, , ; ; ; zh, 伊犁河, ; , ; , ) is a river in Northwest China and Southeastern Kazakhstan. It flows from the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region to the Almaty Region in Kazakhstan. It ...

valley in AD 91, the nomadic

occupied the area from the borders of the

Buyeo Kingdom Buyeo (; ; ), also rendered as Puyŏ or Fuyu, was an ancient kingdom that was centered in northern Manchuria in modern-day northeast China. It had ties to the Yemaek people, who are considered to be the ancestors of modern Koreans. Buyeo is ...

in Manchuria to the Ili River of the

Wusun The Wusun ( ) were an ancient semi-Eurasian nomads, nomadic Eurasian Steppe, steppe people of unknown origin mentioned in Chinese people, Chinese records from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD. The Wusun originally l ...

people. The Xianbei reached their apogee under

Tanshihuai Tanshihuai (137–181) was a Xianbei chieftain who lived during the late Eastern Han dynasty period of China. It was under Tanshihuai when the Xianbei became a unified polity and posed a constant threat to the Han dynasty's northern borders for ma ...

(), who consistently defeated Chinese armies. However, Tanshihuai's confederation disintegrated after his death.

Ban Chao Ban Chao (; 32–102 CE), courtesy name Zhongsheng, was a Chinese diplomat, explorer, and military general of the Eastern Han dynasty. He was born in Fufeng (region), Fufeng, now Xianyang, Shaanxi. Three of his family members—father Ban Biao, ...

() enlisted the aid of the

Kushan Empire The Kushan Empire (– CE) was a Syncretism, syncretic empire formed by the Yuezhi in the Bactrian territories in the early 1st century. It spread to encompass much of what is now Afghanistan, Eastern Iran, India, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbe ...

, which controlled territory across South and Central Asia, to subdue

Kashgar Kashgar () or Kashi ( zh, c=喀什) is a city in the Tarim Basin region of southern Xinjiang, China. It is one of the westernmost cities of China, located near the country's border with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. For over 2,000 years, Kashgar ...

and its ally Sogdiana. When a request by Kushan ruler

Vima Kadphises Vima Kadphises (Greek: Οοημο Καδφιϲηϲ ''Ooēmo Kadphisēs'' (epigraphic); Kharosthi: 𐨬𐨁𐨨 𐨐𐨫𐨿𐨤𐨁𐨭 ', ') was a Kushan emperor from approximately 113 to 127 CE. According to the Rabatak inscription, he was th ...

() for a marriage alliance with the Han was rejected in AD 90, he sent his forces to

Wakhan Wakhan, or "the Wakhan" (also spelt Vakhan; Persian and , ''Vâxân'' and ''Wāxān'' respectively; , ''Vaxon''), is a rugged, mountainous part of the Pamir, Hindu Kush and Karakoram regions of Afghanistan. Wakhan District is a district in ...

(modern-day Afghanistan) to attack Ban Chao. The conflict ended with the Kushans withdrawing because of lack of supplies. In AD 91, the office of Protector General of the Western Regions was reinstated when it was bestowed on Ban Chao. Foreign travellers to the Eastern Han empire included

Buddhist monks A ''bhikkhu'' (, ) is an ordained male in Buddhist monasticism. Male, and female monastics (''bhikkhunī''), are members of the Sangha (Buddhist community). The lives of all Buddhist monastics are governed by a set of rules called the prātimo ...

who translated works into Chinese, such as

An Shigao An Shigao (, Korean: An Sego, Japanese: An Seikō, Vietnamese: An Thế Cao) (fl. c. 148–180 CE) was an early Buddhist missionary to China, and the earliest known translator of Indian Buddhist texts into Chinese. According to legend, he was a p ...

from Parthia, and Lokaksema from Kushan-era

Gandhara Gandhara () was an ancient Indo-Aryan people, Indo-Aryan civilization in present-day northwest Pakistan and northeast Afghanistan. The core of the region of Gandhara was the Peshawar valley, Peshawar (Pushkalawati) and Swat valleys extending ...

. In addition to tributary relations with the Kushans, the Han empire received gifts from sovereigns in the

, as well as from kings in modern

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. He also initiated an unsuccessful mission to

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

in AD 97 with

Gan Ying Gan Ying (; CE) was a Chinese diplomat, explorer, and military official who was sent on a mission to the Roman Empire to find out more about it in 97 CE by the Chinese military general Ban Chao. Gan Ying did not reach Rome, only traveling to ...

as emissary. A Roman embassy of Emperor

Marcus Aurelius Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ( ; ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoicism, Stoic philosopher. He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty, the last of the rulers later known as the Five Good Emperors ...

() is recorded in the ''

Weilüe The ''Weilüe'' (; ') was a Chinese historical text written by Yu Huan between 239 and 265. Yu Huan was an official in the state of Cao Wei (220–265) during the Three Kingdoms period. Although not a formal historian, Yu Huan has been held in h ...

'' and ''

Book of Later Han The ''Book of the Later Han'', also known as the ''History of the Later Han'' and by its Chinese name ''Hou Hanshu'' (), is one of the Twenty-Four Histories and covers the history of the Han dynasty from 6 to 189 CE, a period known as the Late ...

'' to have reached the court of

Emperor Huan of Han Emperor Huan of Han (; 132 – 25 January 168) was the 27th emperor of the Han dynasty after he was enthroned by the Empress Dowager and her brother Liang Ji on 1 August 146. He was a great-grandson of Emperor Zhang. He was the 11th emperor of ...

() in AD 166, yet

Rafe de Crespigny Richard Rafe Champion de Crespigny (born 1936), also known by his Chinese name Zhang Leifu (), is an Australian sinologist and historian. He is an adjunct professor in the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University. ...

asserts that this was most likely a group of Roman merchants. In addition to

Roman glass Roman glass objects have been recovered across the Roman Empire in domestic, industrial and funerary contexts. Glass was used primarily for the production of vessels, although mosaic tiles and window glass were also produced. Roman glass producti ...

wares and

coins A coin is a small object, usually round and flat, used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to facilitate trade. They are most often issued by ...

found in China, Roman medallions from the reign of

Antoninus Pius Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius (; ; 19 September 86 – 7 March 161) was Roman emperor from AD 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors from the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. Born into a senatorial family, Antoninus held var ...

and his adopted son Marcus Aurelius have been found at

Óc Eo Óc Eo (Vietnamese language, Vietnamese) is an archaeological site in modern-day Óc Eo communes of Vietnam, commune of Thoại Sơn District in An Giang Province of southern Vietnam. Located in the Mekong Delta, Óc Eo was a busy port of the king ...

in Vietnam. This was near the commandery of

Rinan Rinan (; ), also rendered as Jih-nan, was the southernmost commandery of the Chinese Han dynasty. It was located in the central area of modern-day Vietnam between Quảng Bình and Bình Định provinces. It was administered by a local manda ...

where Chinese sources claim the Romans first landed, as well as embassies from Tianzhu in northern India in 159 and 161. Óc Eo is also thought to be the port city " Cattigara" described by

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

in his ''

Geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

'' () as lying east of the

Golden Chersonese The Golden Chersonese or Golden Khersonese (, ''Chrysḗ Chersónēsos''; ), meaning the Golden Peninsula, was the name used for the Malay Peninsula by Greek and Roman geographers in classical antiquity, most famously in Claudius Ptolemy's 2nd-c ...

(

Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula is located in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area contains Peninsular Malaysia, Southern Tha ...

) along the ''

Magnus Sinus The Magnus Sinus or Sinus Magnus (Latin; , ''o Mégas Kólpos''), also anglicization of names, anglicized as the was the form of the Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea known to Greek geographers, Greek, Roman geographers, Roman, medieval Arab g ...

'' (i.e. the

Gulf of Thailand The Gulf of Thailand (), historically known as the Gulf of Siam (), is a shallow inlet adjacent to the southwestern South China Sea, bounded between the southwestern shores of the Indochinese Peninsula and the northern half of the Malay Peninsula. ...

and

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by South China, in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan island, Taiwan and northwestern Philippines (mainly Luz ...

), where a Greek sailor had visited. Emperor Zhang's () reign came to be viewed by later Eastern Han scholars as the high point of the dynastic house. Subsequent reigns were increasingly marked by

eunuch A eunuch ( , ) is a male who has been castration, castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2 ...

intervention in court politics and their involvement in the violent power struggles of the imperial

s. In 92 AD, with the aid of the eunuch

Zheng Zhong Zheng Zhong (), courtesy name Jichan (季產) or Jiping (季平) (died 114), was the first Han dynasty eunuch with real power in government, thanks to the trust that Emperor He had in him for his contributions in overthrowing the clan of Empress ...

(), Emperor He () had Empress Dowager Dou () put under

house arrest House arrest (also called home confinement, or nowadays electronic monitoring) is a legal measure where a person is required to remain at their residence under supervision, typically as an alternative to imprisonment. The person is confined b ...

and her clan stripped of power. This was in revenge for Dou's purging of the clan of his natural mother—

Consort Liang Consort Liang (梁貴人, personal name unknown) (62(?) - 83?), posthumous title Empress Gonghuai (恭懷皇后, literally, "empress of reverent recollection"), was an imperial consort to Emperor Zhang of Han. She gave birth to his son Liu Zhao (� ...

—and then concealing her identity from him. After Emperor He's death, his wife

Empress Deng Sui Deng Sui ( zh, t=鄧綏; 81 – 17 April 121), formally Empress Hexi ( zh, t=和熹皇后, links=no, l=moderate and pacifying empress), was an empress of the Eastern Han dynasty through her marriage to Emperor He of Han, and later its '' de fact ...

() managed state affairs as the regent empress dowager during a turbulent financial crisis and widespread Qiang rebellion that lasted from 107 to 118 AD. When Empress Dowager Deng died, Emperor An () was convinced by the accusations of the eunuchs Li Run () and Jiang Jing () that Deng and her family had planned to depose him. An dismissed Deng's clan members from office, exiled them, and forced many to commit suicide. After An's death, his wife, Empress Dowager Yan () placed the child

Marquess of Beixiang The Marquess of Beixiang (; died 10 December 125), personal name Liu Yi, also referred to as Emperor Shao (少帝, literally "young emperor"), was an emperor of the Chinese Han dynasty. He was selected to succeed Emperor An after Emperor An's su ...

on the throne in an attempt to retain power within her family. However, palace eunuch

Sun Cheng Sun Cheng () (died 132) was a Chinese court eunuch, military general, and politician at the Imperial Chinese court during the Han dynasty. Contrary to the stereotype of Han eunuchs being corrupt and power-hungry, he was loyal to the imperial fami ...

() masterminded a successful overthrow of her regime to enthrone

Emperor Shun of Han Emperor Shun of Han (; 115 – 20 September 144) was an emperor of China, emperor of the Chinese Han dynasty and the eighth emperor of the Eastern Han. He reigned from December 125 to September 144. Emperor Shun (Prince Bao) was the only son o ...

(). Yan was placed under house arrest, her relatives were either killed or exiled, and her eunuch allies were slaughtered. The regent

Liang Ji Liang Ji (梁冀) (died 9 September 159), courtesy name Bozhuo (伯卓), was a Chinese military general and politician. As a powerful consort kin, he dominated government in the 150s together with his younger sister, Empress Liang Na. After hi ...

(), brother of

Empress Liang Na Liang Na (; 116 – 6 April 150), formally Empress Shunlie (順烈皇后, literally "the kind and achieving empress"), was an empress during the Han dynasty. Her husband was Emperor Shun of Han. She later served as regent for his son Emperor Ch ...

(), had the brother-in-law of Consort Deng Mengnü () killed after Deng Mengnü resisted Liang Ji's attempts to control her. Afterward, Emperor Huan employed eunuchs to depose Liang Ji, who was then forced to commit suicide. Students from the imperial university organized a widespread

student protest Campus protest or student protest is a form of student activism that takes the form of protest at university campuses. Such protests encompass a wide range of activities that indicate student dissatisfaction with a given political or academi ...

against the eunuchs of Emperor Huan's court. Huan further alienated the bureaucracy when he initiated grandiose construction projects and hosted thousands of concubines in his harem at a time of economic crisis. Palace eunuchs imprisoned the official Li Ying () and his associates from the Imperial University on a dubious charge of treason. In 167 AD, the Grand Commandant

Dou Wu Dou Wu (; died 25 October 168), courtesy name Youping (), was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Eastern Han dynasty. He was known as a Confucian scholar and served as a low-level official during the reign of Emperor Huan until his ...

() convinced his son-in-law, Emperor Huan, to release them. However, the emperor permanently barred Li Ying and his associates from serving in office, marking the beginning of the Partisan Prohibitions. Following Huan's death, Dou Wu and the Grand Tutor

Chen Fan Chen Fan (90s - 25 October 168), courtesy name Zhongju (), was a Chinese politician of the Eastern Han dynasty. A native of Pingyu, Runan (north of present-day Pingyu County, Henan), Chen served as Grand Commandant () during the reign of E ...

() attempted a coup against the eunuchs Hou Lan (), Cao Jie (), and Wang Fu (). When the plot was uncovered, the eunuchs arrested Empress Dowager Dou () and Chen Fan. General Zhang Huan () favoured the eunuchs. He and his troops confronted Dou Wu and his retainers at the palace gate where each side shouted accusations of treason against the other. When the retainers gradually deserted Dou Wu, he was forced to commit suicide. Under Emperor Ling () the eunuchs had the partisan prohibitions renewed and expanded, while also auctioning off top government offices. Many affairs of state were entrusted to the eunuchs

Zhao Zhong The Ten Attendants, also known as the Ten Eunuchs, were a group of influential eunuch-officials in the imperial court of Emperor Ling ( 168–189) in Eastern Han China. Although they are often referred to as a group of 10, there were actually ...

() and

Zhang Rang The Ten Attendants, also known as the Ten Eunuchs, were a group of influential eunuch-officials in the imperial court of Emperor Ling ( 168–189) in Eastern Han China. Although they are often referred to as a group of 10, there were actually ...

() while Emperor Ling spent much of his time

roleplaying Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' offers a definition of role-playing ...

with concubines and participating in military parades.

End of the Han dynasty

The Partisan Prohibitions were repealed during the

and Five Pecks of Rice Rebellion in 184 AD, largely because the court did not want to continue to alienate a significant portion of the gentry class who might otherwise join the rebellions. The Yellow Turbans and Five-Pecks-of-Rice adherents belonged to two different hierarchical

religious societies led by faith healers

Zhang Jue Zhang Jue (; died October 184) was a religious leader in ancient China who became a military general and led the Yellow Turban Rebellion during the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. He had a reputation as a Taoist sorcerer capable of performin ...

() and Zhang Lu (), respectively. Zhang Lu's rebellion, in what is now northern

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

and southern

Shaanxi Shaanxi is a Provinces of China, province in north Northwestern China. It borders the province-level divisions of Inner Mongolia to the north; Shanxi and Henan to the east; Hubei, Chongqing, and Sichuan to the south; and Gansu and Ningxia to t ...

, was not quelled until 215 AD. Zhang Jue's massive rebellion across eight

provinces A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provi ...

was annihilated by Han forces within a year; however, the following decades saw much smaller recurrent uprisings. Although the Yellow Turbans were defeated, many generals appointed during the crisis never disbanded their assembled militias and used these troops to amass power outside of the collapsing imperial authority. General-in-chief

He Jin He Jin () (died 22 September 189), courtesy name Suigao, was a Chinese military general and politician. He was the military Grand Marshal and regent of the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. He was an elder half-brother of Empress He (the emp ...

(), half-brother to Empress He (), plotted with

Yuan Shao Yuan Shao (, ; died 28 June 202), courtesy name Benchu (), was a Chinese military general, politician, and warlord who lived in the late Eastern Han dynasty. He occupied the northern territories of China during the civil wars that occurred tow ...

() to overthrow the eunuchs by having several generals march to the outskirts of the capital. There, in a written petition to Empress He, they demanded the eunuchs' execution. After a period of hesitation, Empress He consented. When the eunuchs discovered this, however, they had her brother He Miao () rescind the order. The eunuchs assassinated He Jin on 22 September 189. Yuan Shao then besieged Luoyang's Northern Palace while his brother

Yuan Shu Yuan Shu () (155 – 199), courtesy name Gonglu, was a Chinese military general, politician, and warlord who lived during the late Eastern Han dynasty. He rose to prominence following the collapse of the Han central government in 189. He decla ...

() besieged the Southern Palace. On September 25 both palaces were breached and approximately two thousand eunuchs were killed. Zhang Rang had previously fled with Emperor Shao () and his brother Liu Xie—the future

Emperor Xian of Han Emperor Xian of Han (2 April 181 – 21 April 234), personal name Liu Xie (劉協), courtesy name Bohe, was the 14th and last Emperor of China, emperor of the Han dynasty#Eastern Han (25–220 AD), Eastern Han dynasty of China. He reigned from ...

(). While being pursued by the Yuan brothers, Zhang committed suicide by jumping into the Yellow River. General

Dong Zhuo Dong Zhuo () (c. 140s – 22 May 192), courtesy name Zhongying, was a Chinese military general, politician, and warlord who lived in the late Eastern Han dynasty. At the end of the reign of the Eastern Han, Dong Zhuo was a general and powerful ...

() found the young emperor and his brother wandering in the countryside. He escorted them safely back to the capital and was made Minister of Works, taking control of Luoyang and forcing Yuan Shao to flee. After Dong Zhuo demoted Emperor Shao and promoted his brother Liu Xie as Emperor Xian, Yuan Shao led a coalition of former officials and officers against Dong, who burned Luoyang to the ground and resettled the court at Chang'an in May 191 AD. Dong Zhuo later poisoned Emperor Shao. Dong was killed by his adopted son

Lü Bu Lü Bu (; died 7 February 199), courtesy name Fengxian, was a Chinese military general, politician, and warlord who lived during the late Eastern Han dynasty of Imperial China. Originally a subordinate of a minor warlord Ding Yuan, he betrayed a ...

() in a plot hatched by Wang Yun (). Emperor Xian fled from Chang'an in 195 AD to the ruins of Luoyang. Xian was persuaded by

Cao Cao Cao Cao (; ; ; 15 March 220), courtesy name Mengde, was a Chinese statesman, warlord, and poet who rose to power during the end of the Han dynasty (), ultimately taking effective control of the Han central government. He laid the foundation f ...

(155–220 AD), then Governor of Yan Province in modern western

Shandong Shandong is a coastal Provinces of China, province in East China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River. It has served as a pivotal cultural ...

and eastern

Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...

, to move the capital to

Xuchang Xuchang ( zh, s=, t= ; postal: Hsuchang) is a prefecture-level city in central Henan province in Central China. It is bordered by the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the northwest, Kaifeng to the northeast, Zhoukou to the east, Luohe ...

in 196 AD. Yuan Shao challenged Cao Cao for control over the emperor. Yuan's power was greatly diminished after Cao defeated him at the

Battle of Guandu The Battle of Guandu was fought between the warlords Cao Cao and Yuan Shao in 200 AD in the late Eastern Han dynasty. Cao Cao's decisive victory against Yuan Shao's numerically superior forces marked the turning point in their war. The victory ...

in 200 AD. After Yuan died, Cao killed Yuan Shao's son

Yuan Tan Yuan Tan (died February 205), courtesy name Xiansi, was a Chinese military general, politician, and warlord who was the eldest son of Yuan Shao, a warlord who occupied much of northern China during the late Eastern Han dynasty. After Yuan Shao' ...

(173–205 AD), who had fought with his brothers over the family inheritance. His brothers

Yuan Shang Yuan Shang (died December 207), courtesy name Xianfu, was a Chinese military general, politician, and warlord who lived during the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. He was the third son and successor of the warlord Yuan Shao. In the 14th-centu ...

and

Yuan Xi Yuan Xi (died December 20711th month of the 12th year of the ''Jian'an'' era, per Emperor Xian's biography in ''Book of the Later Han''. The month corresponds to 7 Dec 207 to 5 Jan 208 in the Julian calendar.), courtesy name Xianyi or Xianyong ...

were killed in 207 AD by

Gongsun Kang Gongsun Kang (; 200s to 210s) was a Chinese military general, politician, and warlord who lived during the late Eastern Han dynasty. He became a vassal of the state of Cao Wei in the early Three Kingdoms period. Life Gongsun Kang was a son of ...

(), who sent their heads to Cao Cao. After Cao's defeat at the naval

Battle of Red Cliffs The Battle of Red Cliffs, also known as the Battle of Chibi, was a decisive naval battle in China that took place during the winter of AD 208–209. It was fought on the Yangtze River between the forces of warlords controlling different parts ...

in 208 AD, China was divided into three spheres of influence, with Cao Cao dominating the north,

Sun Quan Sun Quan (; 182 – 21 May 252), courtesy name Zhongmou (), posthumous name, posthumously known as Emperor Da of Wu, was the founder of Eastern Wu, one of the Three Kingdoms of China. He inherited control of the warlord regime established by hi ...

(182–252 AD) dominating the south, and

Liu Bei Liu Bei (, ; ; 161 – 10 June 223), courtesy name Xuande (), was a China, Chinese warlord in the late Han dynasty#Eastern Han, Eastern Han dynasty who later became the founding Emperor of China, emperor of Shu Han, one of the Three Kingdoms of ...

(161–223 AD) dominating the west. Cao Cao died in March 220 AD. By December his son

(187–226 AD) had Emperor Xian relinquish the throne to him and is known posthumously as

Emperor Wen of Wei Cao Pi () (late 187 – 29 June 226), courtesy name Zihuan, was the first emperor of the state of Cao Wei in the Three Kingdoms period of China. He was the second son of Cao Cao, a warlord who lived in the late Eastern Han dynasty, but the eld ...

. This formally ended the Han dynasty and initiated an age of conflict between the

Cao Wei Wei () was one of the major Dynasties in Chinese history, dynastic states in China during the Three Kingdoms period. The state was established in 220 by Cao Pi based upon the foundations laid by his father Cao Cao during the end of the Han dy ...

Eastern Wu Wu (Chinese language, Chinese: 吳; pinyin: ''Wú''; Middle Chinese *''ŋuo'' < Eastern Han Chinese: ''*ŋuɑ''), known in historiography as Eastern Wu or Sun Wu, was a Dynasties of China, dynastic state of China and one of the three major sta ...

, and

Shu Han Han (; 221–263), known in historiography as Shu Han ( ) or Ji Han ( "Junior Han"), or often shortened to Shu ( zh, t=蜀, p=Shǔ; Sichuanese Pinyin: ''Su'' < Middle Chinese: *''źjowk'' < Eastern Han Chinese: *''dźok''), was a Dynasties in ...

Culture and society

Social class

In the hierarchical social order, the emperor was at the apex of Han society and government. However, the emperor was often a minor, ruled over by a regent such as the

or one of her male relatives. Ranked immediately below the emperor were

the kings The Kings are a Canadian rock band formed in 1977 in Oakville, Ontario. They are best known for their 1980 song "This Beat Goes On/Switchin' To Glide", which was a hit in the United States and Canada. Recording history The Kings were formed in ...

who were of the same

family clan. The rest of society, including

nobles Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...

lower than kings and all commoners excluding slaves, belonged to one of twenty ranks (''ershi gongcheng'' ). Each successive rank gave its holder greater pensions and legal privileges. The highest rank, of full

marquess A marquess (; ) is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German-language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman with the rank of a marquess or the wife (or wid ...

, came with a state pension and a territorial

dom. Holders of the rank immediately below, that of ordinary marquess, received a pension, but had no territorial rule.

Scholar-bureaucrat The scholar-officials, also known as literati, scholar-gentlemen or scholar-bureaucrats (), were government officials and prestigious scholars in Chinese society, forming a distinct social class. Scholar-officials were politicians and governmen ...

s who served in government belonged to the wider commoner social class and were ranked just below nobles in social prestige. The highest government officials could be enfeoffed as marquesses. By the Eastern Han, local elites of unattached scholars, teachers, students, and government officials began to identify themselves as members of a nationwide gentry class with shared values and a commitment to mainstream scholarship. When the government became noticeably corrupt in mid-to-late Eastern Han, many gentry even considered the cultivation of morally-grounded personal relationships more important than serving in public office. Farmers, namely small landowner–cultivators, were ranked just below scholars and officials in the social hierarchy. Other agricultural cultivators were of a lower status, such as tenants, wage labourers, and slaves. The Han dynasty made adjustments to

slavery in China Slavery in China has taken various forms throughout history. Slavery was nominally abolished in 1910,Hallet, Nicole.China and Antislavery". ''Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition'', Vol. 1, p. 154156. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007. . alt ...

and saw an increase in agricultural slaves. Artisans, technicians, tradespeople, and craftsmen had a legal and socioeconomic status between that of owner-cultivator farmers and common merchants. State-registered merchants, who were forced by law to wear white-coloured clothes and pay high commercial taxes, were considered by the gentry as social parasites with a contemptible status. These were often petty shopkeepers of urban marketplaces; merchants such as industrialists and itinerant traders working between a network of cities could avoid registering as merchants and were often wealthier and more powerful than the vast majority of government officials. Wealthy landowners, such as nobles and officials, often provided lodging for retainers who provided valuable work or duties, sometimes including fighting bandits or riding into battle. Unlike slaves, retainers could come and go from their master's home as they pleased. Physicians, pig breeders, and butchers had fairly high social status, while occultist diviners, runners, and messengers had low status. -0202 0220 Brick Relief with Acrobatic Performance Han Dynasty National Museum of China anagoria

-0202 0220 Brick Relief with Acrobatic Performance Han Dynasty National Museum of China anagoria

Marriage, gender, and kinship

The Han-era family was

patrilineal Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritanc ...

and typically had four to five

nuclear family A nuclear family (also known as an elementary family, atomic family, or conjugal family) is a term for a family group consisting of parents and their children (one or more), typically living in one home residence. It is in contrast to a single ...

members living in one household. Multiple generations of

extended family An extended family is a family that extends beyond the nuclear family of parents and their children to include aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins or other relatives, all living nearby or in the same household. Particular forms include the stem ...

members did not occupy the same house, unlike families of later dynasties. According to Confucian family norms, various family members were treated with different levels of respect and intimacy. For example, there were different accepted time frames for mourning the death of a father versus a paternal uncle. Marriages were highly ritualized, particularly for the wealthy, and included many important steps. The giving of betrothal gifts, known as

bride price Bride price, bride-dowry, bride-wealth, bride service or bride token, is money, property, or other form of wealth paid by a groom or his family to the woman or the family of the woman he will be married to or is just about to marry. Bride dowry ...

and

dowry A dowry is a payment such as land, property, money, livestock, or a commercial asset that is paid by the bride's (woman's) family to the groom (man) or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price ...

, were especially important. A lack of either was considered dishonourable and the woman would have been seen not as a wife, but as a concubine.

Arranged marriage Arranged marriage is a type of Marriage, marital union where the bride and groom are primarily selected by individuals other than the couple themselves, particularly by family members such as the parents. In some cultures, a professional matchmaki ...

s were typical, with the father's input on his offspring's spouse being considered more important than the mother's. Monogamous marriages were also normal, although nobles and high officials were wealthy enough to afford and support concubines as additional lovers. Under certain conditions dictated by custom, not law, both men and women were able to divorce their spouses and remarry. However, a woman who had been widowed continued to belong to her husband's family after his death. In order to remarry, the widow would have to be returned to her family in exchange for a ransom fee. Her children would not be allowed to go with her. Among the nobility, bisexuality was the norm, continuing the accepted tradition of sexual expression amongst other nobles since the Zhou dynasty. In the Royal Court, Emperors often favored eunuchs above other non-castrated men for their bodies' "sexual passivity". On the other hand, Han authors did not view male homosexual individuals as effeminate, as occurred in later dynasties. While non-royal nobility were obligated to heterosexual marriages, male concubines were widely accepted. Despite openness to bisexuality or homosexuality, Han dynasty norms around gender and family obligated most moral questions, including that of polygamy, homosexuality, and bisexuality, to be solved by the patriarch within the household. Apart from the passing of noble titles or ranks,

inheritance Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...

practices did not involve

primogeniture Primogeniture () is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn Legitimacy (family law), legitimate child to inheritance, inherit all or most of their parent's estate (law), estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some childre ...

; each son received an equal share of the family property. Unlike the practice in later dynasties, the father usually sent his adult married sons away with their portions of the family fortune. Daughters received a portion of the family fortune through their dowries, though this was usually much less than the shares of sons. A different distribution of the remainder could be specified in a

will Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...

, but it is unclear how common this was. Women were expected to obey the will of their father, then their husband, and then their adult son in old age. However, it is known from contemporary sources that there were many deviations to this rule, especially in regard to mothers over their sons, and empresses who ordered around and openly humiliated their fathers and brothers. Women were exempt from the annual

corvée Corvée () is a form of unpaid forced labour that is intermittent in nature, lasting for limited periods of time, typically only a certain number of days' work each year. Statute labour is a corvée imposed by a state (polity), state for the ...

labour duties, but often engaged in a range of income-earning occupations aside from their domestic chores of cooking and cleaning. The most common occupation for women was weaving clothes for the family, for sale at market, or for large textile enterprises that employed hundreds of women. Other women helped on their brothers' farms or became singers, dancers, sorceresses, respected medical physicians, and successful merchants who could afford their own silk clothes. Some women formed spinning collectives, aggregating the resources of several different families.

Education, literature, and philosophy

The early Western Han court simultaneously accepted the philosophical teachings of

Legalism Legalism may refer to: * Legalism (Chinese philosophy), Chinese political philosophy based on the idea that a highly efficient and powerful government is the key to social order * Legalism (Western philosophy), a concept in Western jurisprudence * ...

, Huang-Lao Taoism, and

in making state decisions and shaping government policy. However, the Han court under Emperor Wu gave Confucianism exclusive patronage. In 136 BC, he abolished all academic chairs not concerned with the

Five Classics The Four Books and Five Classics are authoritative and important books associated with Confucianism, written before 300 BC. They are traditionally believed to have been either written, edited or commented by Confucius or one of his disciples. S ...

, and in 124 BC he established the Imperial University, at which he encouraged nominees for office to receive a Confucian education. Unlike the original ideology espoused by

Confucius Confucius (; pinyin: ; ; ), born Kong Qiu (), was a Chinese philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. Much of the shared cultural heritage of the Sinosphere originates in the phil ...

(551–479 BC), Han Confucianism in Emperor Wu's reign was the creation of

(179–104 BC). Dong was a scholar and minor official who aggregated the ethical Confucian ideas of

ritual A ritual is a repeated, structured sequence of actions or behaviors that alters the internal or external state of an individual, group, or environment, regardless of conscious understanding, emotional context, or symbolic meaning. Traditionally ...

filial piety Filial piety is the virtue of exhibiting love and respect for one's parents, elders, and ancestors, particularly within the context of Confucian ethics, Confucian, Chinese Buddhism, Chinese Buddhist ethics, Buddhist, and Daoism, Daoist ethics. ...

, and harmonious relationships with

five phases ( zh, c=五行, p=wǔxíng), usually translated as Five Phases or Five Agents, is a fivefold conceptual scheme used in many traditional Chinese fields of study to explain a wide array of phenomena, including terrestrial and celestial rela ...

and

yin-yang Originating in Chinese philosophy, yin and yang (, ), also yinyang or yin-yang, is the concept of opposite cosmic principles or forces that interact, interconnect, and perpetuate each other. Yin and yang can be thought of as complementary an ...

cosmologies. Dong's synthesis justified the imperial system of government within the natural order of the universe. The Imperial University grew in importance as the student body grew to over 30,000 by the 2nd century AD. A Confucian-based education was also made available at commandery-level schools and

private school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

s opened in small towns, where teachers earned respectable incomes from tuition payments. Schools were established in far southern regions where standard Chinese texts were used to assimilate the local populace. Some important texts were created and studied by scholars. Philosophy written by Yang Xiong (53 BC18 AD),

Huan Tan Huan Tan (BC– AD28) was a Chinese philosopher, poet, and politician of the Western Han and its short-lived interregnum between AD9 and 23, known as the Xin dynasty. Life Huan worked as an official under the administrations of Emperor Ai of ...

(43 BC28 AD),

Wang Chong Wang Chong (; 27 – c. 97 AD), courtesy name Zhongren (仲任), was a Chinese astronomer, meteorologist, naturalist, philosopher, and writer active during the Eastern Han dynasty. He developed a rational, secular, naturalistic and mecha ...

(27–100 AD), and Wang Fu (78–163 AD) questioned whether human nature was innately good or evil and posed challenges to Dong's universal order. The ''

'' started by

Sima Tan Sima Tan (; 165–110 BCE) was a Chinese astrologist, astronomer, and historian during the Western Han dynasty. His work ''Records of the Grand Historian'' was completed by his son Sima Qian, who is considered the founder of Chinese hist ...

() and finished by his son

Sima Qian Sima Qian () was a Chinese historian during the early Han dynasty. He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for the ''Shiji'' (sometimes translated into English as ''Records of the Grand Historian''), a general history of China cov ...

(145–86 BC) established the

standard model The Standard Model of particle physics is the Scientific theory, theory describing three of the four known fundamental forces (electromagnetism, electromagnetic, weak interaction, weak and strong interactions – excluding gravity) in the unive ...

for imperial China's tradition of official histories, being emulated initially by the ''

Book of Han The ''Book of Han'' is a history of China finished in 111 CE, covering the Western, or Former Han dynasty from the first emperor in 206 BCE to the fall of Wang Mang in 23 CE. The work was composed by Ban Gu (32–92 CE), ...

'' authored by

Ban Biao Ban Biao (, 3–54 CE), courtesy name (), was a Chinese historian and politician born in what is now Xianyang, Shaanxi during the Han dynasty. He was the nephew of Consort Ban, a famous poet and concubine to Emperor Cheng. Ban Biao's mother w ...

(3–54 AD) with his son

Ban Gu Ban Gu (AD32–92) was a Chinese historian, poet, and politician best known for his part in compiling the ''Book of Han'', the second of China's 24 dynastic histories. He also wrote a number of '' fu'', a major literary form, part prose ...

(32–92 AD), and his daughter

Ban Zhao Ban Zhao (; 45 or 49 – c. 117/120 CE), courtesy name Huiban (), was a Chinese historian, philosopher, and politician. She was the first known female Chinese historian and, along with Pamphile of Epidaurus, one of the first known female h ...

(45–116 AD).

Biographies A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curri ...

on important figures were written by members of the gentry. There were also

dictionaries A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...

published during the Han period such as the ''

Shuowen Jiezi The ''Shuowen Jiezi'' is a Chinese dictionary compiled by Xu Shen , during the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE). While prefigured by earlier reference works for Chinese characters like the ''Erya'' (), the ''Shuowen Jiezi'' contains the ...

'' by

Xu Shen Xu Shen () was a Chinese calligrapher, philologist, politician, and writer of the Eastern Han dynasty (25–189 CE). During his own lifetime, Xu was recognized as a preeminent scholar of the Five Classics. He was the author of ''Shuowen Jiezi'' ...

() and the '' Fangyan'' by Yang Xiong. Han dynasty poetry was dominated by the ''fu'' genre, which achieved its greatest prominence during the reign of Emperor Wu.

Law and order

Han scholars such as

Jia Yi Jia Yi (; c. 200169 BCE) was a Chinese essayist, poet and politician of the Western Han dynasty, best known as one of the earliest known writers of ''fu'' rhapsody and for his essay "Disquisition Finding Fault with Qin" (''Guò Qín Lùn'' ), wh ...

(201–169 BC) portrayed the Qin as a brutal regime. However, archaeological evidence from Zhangjiashan and Shuihudi reveal that many of the statutes in the Han law code compiled by Chancellor

Xiao He Xiao He (257 BC – 16 August 193 BC''xinwei'' day of the 7th month of the 2nd year of Emperor Hui's reign, per vol. 12 of ''Zizhi Tongjian'') was a Chinese calligrapher and politician of the early Western Han dynasty. He served Emperor Gaozu of ...

() were derived from Qin law. Various cases for rape, physical abuse, and murder were prosecuted in court. Women, although usually having fewer rights by custom, were allowed to level civil and criminal charges against men. While suspects were jailed, convicted criminals were never imprisoned. Instead, punishments were commonly monetary fines, periods of forced hard labour for convicts, and the penalty of death by beheading. Early Han punishments of torturous mutilation were borrowed from Qin law. A series of reforms abolished mutilation punishments with progressively less-severe beatings by the

bastinado Foot whipping, falanga/falaka or bastinado is a method of inflicting pain and humiliation by administering a beating on the soles of a person's bare feet. Unlike most types of flogging, it is meant more to be painful than to cause actual injury ...

. Acting as a judge in lawsuits was one of the many duties of the

county magistrate The county magistrate or local magistrate, known by several Chinese names, was the official in charge of the '' xian'' ("county"), the lowest level of central government in Imperial and early Republican China. The magistrate was the official ...

and Administrators of commanderies. Complex, high-profile, or unresolved cases were often deferred to the Minister of Justice in the capital or even the emperor. In each Han county was several districts, each overseen by a chief of police. Order in the cities was maintained by government officers in the marketplaces and

constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. ''Constable'' is commonly the rank of an officer within a police service. Other peo ...

s in the neighbourhoods.

Food

The most common staple crops consumed during Han were

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...

foxtail millet Foxtail millet, scientific name ''Setaria italica'' (synonym ''Panicum italicum'' L.), is an annual grass grown for human food. It is the second-most widely planted species of millet, and the most grown millet species in Asia. The oldest evidenc ...

proso millet ''Panicum miliaceum'' is a grain crop with many common names, including proso millet, broomcorn millet, common millet, hog millet, Kashfi millet, red millet, and white millet. Archaeobotany, Archaeobotanical evidence suggests millet was first ...

, rice, and

bean A bean is the seed of some plants in the legume family (Fabaceae) used as a vegetable for human consumption or animal feed. The seeds are often preserved through drying (a ''pulse''), but fresh beans are also sold. Dried beans are traditi ...

s. Commonly eaten fruits and vegetables included chestnuts, pears, plums, peaches, melons, apricots, strawberries, red bayberries,

jujube Jujube (UK ; US or ), sometimes jujuba, scientific name ''Ziziphus jujuba'', and also called red date, Chinese date, and Chinese jujube, is a species in the genus '' Ziziphus'' in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae. It is often confused wit ...

calabash Calabash (; ''Lagenaria siceraria''), also known as bottle gourd, white-flowered gourd, long melon, birdhouse gourd, New Guinea bean, New Guinea butter bean, Tasmania bean, and opo squash, is a vine grown for its fruit. It can be either harvest ...

bamboo shoot Bamboo shoots or bamboo sprouts are the edible shoots (new bamboo culms that come out of the ground) of many bamboo species including '' Bambusa vulgaris'' and '' Phyllostachys edulis''. They are used as vegetables in numerous Asian dishes a ...

mustard plant The mustard plant is any one of several plant species in the genera ''Brassica'', ''Rhamphospermum'' and ''Sinapis'' in the family Brassicaceae (the mustard family). Mustard seed is used as a spice. Grinding and mixing the seeds with water, vin ...

, and

taro Taro (; ''Colocasia esculenta'') is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, stems and Petiole (botany), petioles. Taro corms are a ...

. Domesticated animals that were also eaten included chickens,

Mandarin duck The mandarin duck (''Aix galericulata'') is a perching duck species native to the East Palearctic. It is Sexual dimorphism, sexually dimorphic – the males are elaborately coloured, while the females have more subdued colours. It is a medium- ...

s, geese, cows, sheep, pigs, camels, and dogs (various types were bred specifically for food, while most were used as pets). Turtles and fish were taken from streams and lakes. Commonly hunted game, such as owl, pheasant, magpie,

sika deer The sika deer (''Cervus nippon''), also known as the northern spotted deer or the Japanese deer, is a species of deer native to much of East Asia and introduced to other parts of the world. Previously found from northern Vietnam in the south t ...

, and

Chinese bamboo partridge The Chinese bamboo partridge (''Bambusicola thoracicus'') is a small Galliform bird. It is one of three species in the genus '' Bambusicola'', along with the mountain bamboo partridge of the Himalayas, and the Taiwan bamboo partridge of Taiwan ...

were consumed. Seasoning included sugar, honey, salt, and

soy sauce Soy sauce (sometimes called soya sauce in British English) is a liquid condiment of China, Chinese origin, traditionally made from a fermentation (food), fermented paste of soybeans, roasted cereal, grain, brine, and ''Aspergillus oryzae'' or ''A ...

. Beer and wine were regularly consumed.

Clothing

The types of clothing worn and the materials used during the Han period depended upon social class. Wealthy folk could afford silk robes, skirts, socks, and mittens, coats made of badger or fox fur, duck plumes, and slippers with inlaid leather, pearls, and silk lining. Peasants commonly wore clothes made of hemp, wool, and ferret skins.

Religion, cosmology, and metaphysics

Families throughout Han China made ritual sacrifices of animals and food to deities, spirits, and ancestors at Temple (Chinese), temples and shrines. They believed that these items could be used by those in the spiritual realm. It was thought that each person had a Hun and po, two-part soul: the spirit-soul which journeyed to the afterlife paradise of immortals (''Xian (Taoism), xian''), and the body-soul which remained in its grave or tomb on earth and was only reunited with the spirit-soul through a ritual ceremony. In addition to his many other roles, the emperor acted as the highest priest in the land who made sacrifices to Heaven, the Chinese mythology, main deities known as the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, Five Powers, and spirits of mountains and rivers known as ''Shen (Chinese religion), shen''. It was believed that the three realms of Heaven, Earth, and Mankind were linked by natural cycles of yin and yang and the

. If the emperor did not behave according to proper ritual, ethics, and morals, he could disrupt the fine balance of these cosmological cycles and cause calamities such as earthquakes, floods, droughts, epidemics, and swarms of locusts. It was believed that immortality could be achieved if one reached the lands of the Queen Mother of the West or Mount Penglai. Han-era Taoists assembled into small groups of hermits who attempted to achieve immortality through breathing exercises, sexual techniques, and the use of medical elixirs. By the 2nd century AD, Taoists formed large hierarchical religious societies such as the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice. Its followers believed that the sage-philosopher Laozi () was a holy prophet who would offer salvation and good health if his devout followers would confess their sins, ban the worship of unclean gods who accepted meat sacrifices, and chant sections of the ''Tao Te Ching''. Buddhism first entered Imperial China Silk Road transmission of Buddhism, through the Silk Road during the Eastern Han, and was first mentioned in 65 AD. Liu Ying (prince), Liu Ying (), a half-brother to Emperor Ming of Han (), was one of its earliest Chinese adherents, although Chinese Buddhism at this point was heavily associated with Huang–Lao Taoism. China's first known Buddhist temple, the White Horse Temple, was constructed outside the wall of Luoyang during Emperor Ming's reign. Important Buddhist canons were translated into Chinese during the 2nd century AD, including the ''Sutra of Forty-two Chapters'', ''Perfection of Wisdom'', ''Shurangama Sutra'', and ''Pratyutpanna Sutra''.

Government and politics

Central government

In Han government, the emperor was the supreme judge and lawgiver, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and sole designator of official nominees appointed to the top posts in central and local administrations; those who earned a Government of the Han dynasty#Salaries, 600-bushel salary-rank or higher. Theoretically, there were no limits to his power. However, state organs with competing interests and institutions such as the court conference (''tingyi'' )—where ministers were convened to reach a majority consensus on an issue—pressured the emperor to accept the advice of his ministers on policy decisions. If the emperor rejected a court conference decision, he risked alienating his high ministers. Nevertheless, emperors sometimes did reject the majority opinion reached at court conferences. Below the emperor were his cabinet (government), cabinet members known as the Three Councillors of State. These were the Chancellor of China, Chancellor or Minister over the Masses, the Imperial Counsellor or Excellency of Works (''Yushi dafu'' or ''Da sikong'' ), and Grand Commandant or Grand Marshal (''Taiwei'' or ''Da sima'' ). The Chancellor, whose title had changed in 8 BC to Minister over the Masses, was chiefly responsible for drafting the government budget. The Chancellor's other duties included managing provincial registers for land and population, leading court conferences, acting as judge in lawsuits, and recommending nominees for high office. He could appoint officials below the salary-rank of 600 bushels. The Imperial Counsellor's chief duty was to conduct disciplinary procedures for officials. He shared similar duties with the Chancellor, such as receiving annual provincial reports. However, when his title was changed to Minister of Works in 8 BC, his chief duty became the oversight of public works projects. The Grand Commandant, whose title was changed to Grand Marshal in 119 BC before reverting to Grand Commandant in 51 AD, was the irregularly posted commander of the military and then regent during the Western Han period. In the Eastern Han era he was chiefly a civil official who shared many of the same censorial powers as the other two Councillors of State. Rubbing of a Han Citang

Ranked below the Three Councillors of State were the Nine Ministers, who each headed a specialized ministry. The Minister of Ceremonies (''Taichang'' ) was the chief official in charge of religious rites, rituals, prayers, and the maintenance of ancestral temples and altars. The Minister of the Household (''Guang lu xun'' ) was in charge of the emperor's security within the palace grounds, external imperial parks, and wherever the emperor made an outing by chariot. The Minister of the Guards (''Weiwei'' ) was responsible for securing and patrolling the walls, towers, and gates of the imperial palaces. The Minister Coachman (''Taipu'' ) was responsible for the maintenance of imperial stables, horses, carriages, and coach-houses for the emperor and his palace attendants, as well as the supply of horses for the armed forces. The Minister of Justice (''Tingwei'' ) was the chief official in charge of upholding, administering, and interpreting the law. The Minister Herald (''Da honglu'' ) was the chief official in charge of receiving honoured guests like nobles and Foreign relations of Imperial China, foreign ambassadors at court. The Minister of the Imperial Clan (''Zongzheng'' ) oversaw the imperial court's interactions with the empire's nobility and extended imperial family, such as granting fiefs and titles. The Minister of Finance (''da sìnong'' ) was the treasurer for the official bureaucracy and the armed forces who handled tax revenues and set standards for units of measurement. The Minister Steward (''Shaofu'' ) served the emperor exclusively, providing him with entertainment and amusements, proper food and clothing, medicine and physical care, valuables and equipment.

Local government

The Han empire, excluding kingdoms and marquessates, was divided, in descending order of size, into political units of Zhou (country subdivision), provinces, commanderies, and Counties of China#History, counties. A county was divided into several districts (''xiang'' ), the latter composed of a group of Hamlet (place), hamlets (''li'' ), each containing about a hundred families. The heads of provinces, whose official title was changed from Inspector to Governor and vice versa several times during Han, were responsible for inspecting several commandery-level and kingdom-level administrations. On the basis of their reports, the officials in these local administrations would be promoted, demoted, dismissed, or prosecuted by the imperial court. A governor could take various actions without permission from the imperial court. The lower-ranked inspector had executive powers only during times of crisis, such as raising militias across the commanderies under his jurisdiction to suppress a rebellion. A commandery consisted of a group of counties, and was headed by an administrator. He was the top civil and military leader of the commandery and handled defence, lawsuits, seasonal instructions to farmers, and recommendations of nominees for office sent annually to the capital in a quota system first established by Emperor Wu. The head of a large county of about 10,000 households was called a Prefect, while the heads of smaller counties were called chiefs, and both could be referred to as magistrates. A Magistrate maintained law and order in his county, registered the populace for taxation, mobilized commoners for annual

duties, repaired schools, and supervised public works.

Kingdoms and marquessates

Kingdoms—roughly the size of commanderies—were ruled exclusively by the emperor's male relatives as semi-autonomous fiefdoms. Before 157 BC, some kingdoms were ruled by non-relatives, granted to them in return for their services to Emperor Gaozu. The administration of each kingdom was very similar to that of the central government. Although the emperor appointed the Chancellor of each kingdom, kings appointed all the remaining civil officials in their fiefs. However, in 145 BC, after several insurrections by the kings, Emperor Jing removed the kings' rights to appoint officials whose Government of the Han dynasty#Salaries, salaries were higher than 400 bushels. The Imperial Counsellors and Nine Ministers (excluding the Minister Coachman) of every kingdom were abolished, although the Chancellor was still appointed by the central government. With these reforms, kings were reduced to being nominal heads of their fiefs, gaining a personal income from only a portion of the taxes collected in their kingdom. Similarly, the officials in the administrative staff of a full marquess's fief were appointed by the central government. A marquess's chancellor was ranked as the equivalent of a county prefect. Like a king, the marquess collected a portion of the tax revenues in his fief as personal income. Until the reign of Emperor Jing of Han, the Han emperors had great difficulties controlling their vassal kings, who often switched allegiances to the

whenever they felt threatened by imperial centralization of power. The seven years of Gaozu's reign featured defections by three vassal kings and one marquess, who then aligned themselves with the Xiongnu. Even imperial princes controlling fiefdoms would sometimes invite a Xiongnu invasion in response to the Emperor's threats. The Han moved to secure a treaty with the Xiongnu, aiming to clearly divide authority between them. The Han and Xiongnu now held one another out as the "two masters" with sole dominion over their respective peoples; they cemented this agreement with a marriage alliance (''

''), before eliminating the rebellious vassal kings in 154 BC. This prompted some of the Xiongnu vassals to swap allegiances to the Han, starting in 147. Han court officials were initially hostile to the idea of disrupting the status quo by expanding into Xiongnu territory in the steppe. The surrendered Xiongnu were integrated into a parallel military and political structures loyal to the Han emperor, a step toward a potential Han challenge to the superiority of Xiongnu cavalry in steppe warfare. This also brought the Han into contact with the interstate trade networks through the Tarim Basin in the far northwest, allowing for the Han's expansion from a regional state to a universalist, cosmopolitan empire achieved in part through further marriage alliances with the

, another steppe power.

Military

At the beginning of the Han, every male commoner aged twenty-three was liable for conscription into the military. The minimum age was reduced to twenty following the reign of Emperor Zhao of Han, Emperor Zhao (). Conscripted soldiers underwent one year of training and one year of service as non-professional soldiers. The year of training was spent in one of three branches of the armed forces: infantry, cavalry, or navy. Prior to the abolition of much of the conscription system after 30 AD, soldiers could be called up for future service following the completion of their terms. They had to continue training regularly to maintain their skills, and were subject to annual inspections of their military readiness. The year of active service was served either on the frontier, in a king's court, or in the capital under the Minister of the Guards. A small professional army was stationed near the capital. During the Eastern Han, conscription could be avoided if one paid a commutable tax. The Eastern Han court favoured the recruitment of a volunteer army. The volunteer army comprised the Southern Army (''Nanjun'' ), while the standing army stationed in and near the capital was the Northern Army (''Beijun'' ). Led by Colonels (''Xiaowei'' ), the Northern Army consisted of five regiments, each composed of several thousand soldiers. When central authority collapsed after 189 AD, wealthy landowners, members of the aristocracy/nobility, and regional military-governors relied upon their retainers to act as their own personal troops. During times of war, the volunteer army was increased, and a much larger militia was raised across the country to supplement the Northern Army. In these circumstances, a general (''jiangjun'' ) led a Division (military), division, which was divided into regiments led by a colonel or major (''sima'' ). Regiments were divided into company (military unit), companies and led by captains. Platoons were the smallest units.

Economy

Currency

The Han dynasty inherited the ''Ancient Chinese coinage#Ban Liang coins, ban liang'' coin type from the Qin. In the beginning of the Han, Emperor Gaozu closed the Mint (coin), government mint in favour of private minting of coins. This decision was reversed in 186 BC by his widow Empress Lü Zhi, Grand Empress Dowager Lü Zhi (), who abolished private minting. In 182 BC, Lü Zhi issued a bronze coin that was much lighter in weight than previous coins. This caused widespread inflation that was not reduced until 175 BC, when Emperor Wen allowed private minters to manufacture coins that were precisely in weight. In 144 BC, Emperor Jing abolished private minting in favour of central-government and commandery-level minting; he also introduced a new coin. Emperor Wu introduced another in 120 BC, but a year later he abandoned the ''ban liangs'' entirely in favour of the ''Ancient Chinese coinage#Western Han and the Wu Zhu coins, wuzhu'' coin, weighing . The ''wuzhu'' became China's standard coin until the

(618–907). Its use was interrupted briefly by several new currencies introduced during Wang Mang's regime until it was reinstated in 40 AD by Emperor Guangwu. Since commandery-issued coins were often of inferior quality and lighter weight, the central government closed commandery mints and monopolized the issue of coinage in 113 BC. This central government issuance of coinage was overseen by the Government of the Han dynasty#Superintendent of Waterways and Parks, Superintendent of Waterways and Parks, this duty being transferred to the Minister of Finance during the Eastern Han.

Taxation and property

Aside from the landowner's Land value tax#History, land tax paid in a portion of their crop yield, the Tax per head, poll tax and property taxes were paid in coin cash. The annual poll tax rate for adult men and women was 120 coins and 20 coins for minors. Merchants were required to pay a higher rate of 240 coins. The poll tax stimulated a money economy that necessitated the minting of over 28,000,000,000 coins from 118 BC to 5 AD, an average of 220,000,000 coins a year. The widespread circulation of coin cash allowed successful merchants to invest money in land, empowering the very social class the government attempted to suppress through heavy commercial and property taxes. Emperor Wu even enacted laws which banned registered merchants from owning land, yet powerful merchants were able to avoid registration and own large tracts of land. The small landowner-cultivators formed the majority of the Han tax base; this revenue was threatened during the latter half of Eastern Han when many peasants fell into debt and were forced to work as farming tenants for wealthy landlords. The Han government enacted reforms in order to keep small landowner-cultivators out of debt and on their own farms. These reforms included reducing taxes, temporary remissions of taxes, granting loans, and providing landless peasants temporary lodging and work in Tuntian, agricultural colonies until they could recover from their debts. In 168 BC, the land tax rate was reduced from one-fifteenth of a farming household's crop yield to one-thirtieth, and later to one-hundredth of a crop yield for the last decades of the dynasty. The consequent loss of government revenue was compensated for by increasing property taxes. The labour tax took the form of conscripted labour for one month per year, which was imposed upon male commoners aged fifteen to fifty-six. This could be avoided in Eastern Han with a commutable tax, since hired labour became more popular.

Private manufacture and government monopolies

In the early Western Han, a wealthy salt or iron industrialist, whether a semi-autonomous king or wealthy merchant, could boast funds that rivalled the imperial treasury and amass a peasant workforce numbering in the thousands. This kept many peasants away from their farms and denied the government a significant portion of its land tax revenue. To eliminate the influence of such private entrepreneurs, Emperor Wu nationalized the salt and iron industries in 117 BC and allowed many of the former industrialists to become officials administering the state monopolies. By the Eastern Han, the central government monopolies were repealed in favour of production by commandery and county administrations, as well as private businessmen. Liquor was another profitable private industry nationalized by the central government in 98 BC. However, this was repealed in 81 BC and a property tax rate of two coins for every was levied for those who traded it privately. By 110 BC, Emperor Wu also interfered with the profitable trade in grain when he eliminated speculation by selling government stores of grain at a lower price than that demanded by merchants. Apart from Emperor Ming's creation of a short-lived Office for Price Adjustment and Stabilization, which was abolished in 68 AD, central-government price control regulations were largely absent during the Eastern Han.

Science and technology

The Han dynasty was a unique period in the development of premodern Chinese science and technology, comparable to the level of Technology of the Song dynasty, scientific and technological growth during the Song dynasty (960–1279).

Writing materials

In the 1st millennium BC, typical ancient Chinese writing materials were Chinese bronze inscriptions, bronzeware, Oracle bone script, oracle bones, and bamboo slips or wooden boards. By the beginning of the Han, the chief writing materials were clay tablets, silk cloth, hemp History of paper#Paper in China, paper, and rolled scrolls made from bamboo strips sewn together with hempen string; these were passed through drilled holes and secured with clay stamps. The oldest known Chinese piece of hempen paper dates to the 2nd century BC. The standard papermaking process was invented by Cai Lun (AD 50–121) in 105. The oldest known surviving piece of paper with writing on it was found in the ruins of a Han watchtower that had been abandoned in AD 110, in Inner Mongolia.

Metallurgy and agriculture

Evidence suggests that blast furnaces, that convert raw iron ore into pig iron, which can be remelted in a cupola furnace to produce cast iron by means of a cold blast and hot blast, were operational in China by the late Spring and Autumn period (). The bloomery was non-existent in ancient China; however, the Han-era Chinese produced wrought iron by injecting excess oxygen into a furnace and causing decarburisation. Cast iron and pig iron could be converted into wrought iron and steel using a finery forge, fining process. The Han dynasty Chinese used bronze and iron to make a range of weapons, culinary tools, carpenters' tools, and domestic wares. A significant product of these improved iron-smelting techniques was the manufacture of new agricultural tools. The three-legged iron seed drill, invented by the 2nd century BC, enabled farmers to carefully plant crops in rows instead of sowing seeds by hand. The heavy mouldboard iron plough, also invented during the Han, required only one man to control it with two oxen to pull it. It had three ploughshares, a seed box for the drills, a tool which turned down the soil and could sow roughly of land in a single day. To protect crops from wind and drought, the grain intendant Zhao Guo () created the alternating fields system (''daitianfa'' ) during Emperor Wu's reign. This system switched the positions of furrows and ridges between growing seasons. Once experiments with this system yielded successful results, the government officially sponsored it and encouraged peasants to use it. Han farmers also used the pit field system ( ) for growing crops, which involved heavily fertilized pits that did not require ploughs or oxen and could be placed on sloping terrain. In the southern and small parts of central Han-era China, paddy fields were chiefly used to grow rice, while farmers along the Huai River used Transplanting, transplantation methods of rice production.

Structural and geo-technical engineering

Timber was the chief building material during the Han; it was used to build palace halls, multi-story residential towers and halls, and single-story houses. Because wood decays rapidly, the only remaining evidence of Han wooden architecture is a collection of scattered ceramic roof tiles. The oldest surviving wooden halls in China date to the Tang dynasty. Architectural historian Robert L. Thorp points out the scarcity of Han-era archaeological remains, and claims that often unreliable Han-era literary and artistic sources are used by historians as clues concerning lost Han architecture. Though Han wooden structures decayed, some Han dynasty ruins made of brick, stone, and rammed earth remain intact. This includes stone pillar-gates, brick tomb chambers, rammed-earth Chinese city wall, city walls, rammed-earth and brick beacon towers, rammed-earth sections of the

, rammed-earth platforms where elevated halls once stood, and two rammed-earth castles in

. The ruins of rammed-earth walls that once surrounded the capitals Chang'an and Luoyang still stand, along with their Sewage collection and disposal, drainage systems of brick arches, ditches, and ceramic water pipes. Monumental stone pillar-gates called ''que (tower), que'', of which 29 dated to the Han survive, formed entrances of walled enclosures at shrine and tomb sites. These pillars feature artistic imitations of wooden and ceramic building components such as roof tiles, eaves, and balustrades. The courtyard house is the most common type of home portrayed in Han artwork. Ceramic architectural Architectural model, models of buildings, like houses and towers, were found in Han tombs, perhaps to provide lodging for the dead in the afterlife. These provide valuable clues about lost wooden architecture. The artistic designs found on ceramic roof tiles of tower models are in some cases exact matches to Han roof tiles found at archaeological sites. Over ten Han-era underground tombs have been found, many of them featuring archways, Vault (architecture), vaulted chambers, and domed roofs. Underground vaults and domes did not require buttress supports since they were held in place by earthen pits. The use of brick vaults and domes in aboveground Han structures is unknown. From Han literary sources, it is known that wooden-trestle beam bridges, arch bridges, simple suspension bridges, and floating pontoon bridges existed during the Han. However, there are only two known references to arch bridges in Han literature. There is only one Han-era relief sculpture, located in Sichuan, that depicts an arch bridge. Underground mine shafts were dug to extract metal ores, with some reaching depths of more than . Borehole drilling and derricks were used to lift brine to iron pans where it was distilled into salt. The distillation furnaces were heated by natural gas funnelled to the surface through Pipeline transport, bamboo pipelines. It is possible that these boreholes reached a total depth of . File:登封汉代少室阙.jpg, A pair of stone-carved ''Que (tower), que'' from the Eastern Han, at the temple of Mount Song in Dengfeng, Henan File:幽州書佐秦君石闕 17.jpg, A pair of ''que'' from the Eastern Han in Babaoshan, Beijing File:Gao Yi Que2.jpg, A stone-carved ''que'' in height from the Eastern Han, at the tomb of Gao Yi in Ya'an, Sichuan File:Eastern Han tomb, Luoyang 2.jpg, A Vault (architecture), vaulted tomb chamber made of small bricks from the Eastern Han, at Luoyang

Mechanical and hydraulic engineering

Han-era mechanical engineering comes largely from the choice observational writings of sometimes-disinterested Confucian scholars who generally considered scientific and engineering endeavours to be far beneath them. Professional artisan-engineers (''jiang'' ) did not leave behind detailed records of their work. Han scholars, who often had little or no expertise in mechanical engineering, sometimes provided insufficient information on the various technologies they described. Nevertheless, some literary sources provide crucial information. For example, in 15 BC the philosopher and poet Yang Xiong described the invention of the Belt (mechanical), belt drive for a quilling machine, which was of great importance to early textile manufacturing. The inventions of mechanical engineer and craftsman Ding Huan are mentioned in the ''Miscellaneous Notes on the Western Capital''. Around AD 180, Ding created a manually operated rotary fan used for air conditioning within palace buildings. Ding also used gimbals as pivotal supports for one of his incense burners and invented the world's first known zoetrope lamp. Modern archaeology has led to the discovery of Han artwork portraying inventions which were otherwise absent in Han literary sources. As observed in Han miniature tomb models, but not in literary sources, the Crank (mechanism), crank handle was used to operate the Fan (mechanical), fans of Fengshanche, winnowing machines that separated grain from chaff. The odometer cart, invented during the Han period, measured journey lengths, using mechanical figures banging drums and gongs to indicate each distance travelled. This invention is depicted in Han artwork by the 2nd century, yet detailed written descriptions were not offered until the 3rd century. Modern archaeologists have also unearthed specimens of devices used during the Han dynasty, for example a pair of sliding metal calipers used by craftsmen for making minute measurements. These calipers contain inscriptions of the exact day and year they were manufactured. These tools are not mentioned in any Han literary sources. The waterwheel appeared in Chinese records during the Han. As mentioned by Huan Tan , they were used to turn gears that lifted iron trip hammers, and were used in pounding, threshing, and polishing grain. However, there is no sufficient evidence for the watermill in China until around the 5th century. The administrator, mechanical engineer, and metallurgist Du Shi () created a waterwheel-powered Reciprocating motion, reciprocator that worked the bellows for the smelting of iron. Waterwheels were also used to power chain pumps that lifted water to raised irrigation ditches. The chain pump was first mentioned in China by the philosopher Wang Chong in his 1st-century ''Lunheng''. The

, a three-dimensional representation of the movements in the celestial sphere, was invented by the Han during the 1st century BC. Using a water clock, waterwheel, and a series of gears, the Court Astronomer Zhang Heng (78–139 AD) was able to mechanically rotate his metal-ringed armillary sphere. To address the problem of slowed timekeeping in the pressure head of the inflow water clock, Zhang was the first in China to install an additional tank between the reservoir and inflow vessel. Zhang also invented a device he termed an "earthquake weathervane" ( ), which the British sinologist and historian Joseph Needham described as "the ancestor of all seismographs". This device was able to detect the exact Cardinal direction, cardinal or ordinal direction of earthquakes from hundreds of kilometres away. It employed an

that, when disturbed by ground tremors, would trigger a set of gears that dropped a metal ball from one of eight dragon mouths (representing all eight directions) into a metal toad's mouth. The account of this device in the ''Book of the Later Han'' describes how, on one occasion, one of the metal balls was triggered without any of the observers feeling a disturbance. Several days later, a messenger arrived bearing news that an earthquake had struck in Longxi Commandery (modern Gansu), the direction the device had indicated, which forced the officials at court to admit the efficacy of Zhang's device.

Mathematics

Three Han mathematical treatises still exist. These are the ''Book on Numbers and Computation'', the ''Zhoubi Suanjing,'' and the ''Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art''. Han mathematical achievements include solving problems with right triangles, square roots, cube roots, and Matrix (mathematics), matrix methods, finding more accurate Chronology of computation of π, approximations for pi, providing mathematical proof of the Pythagorean theorem, use of the Fraction (mathematics), decimal fraction, Gaussian elimination to solve System of linear equations, linear equations, and continued fractions to find the root of a function, roots of equations. One of the Han's greatest mathematical advancements was the world's first use of

s. Negative numbers first appeared in the ''Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art'' as black counting rods, where positive numbers were represented by red counting rods. Negative numbers were also used by the Greek mathematician Diophantus around AD 275, and in the 7th-century Bakhshali manuscript of

, South Asia, but were not widely accepted in Europe until the 16th century. The Han applied mathematics to various diverse disciplines. In musical tuning, Jing Fang (78–37 BC) realized that 53 perfect fifths was approximate to 31 octaves. He also created a musical scale of 60 tones, calculating the difference at ¹⁷⁷¹⁴⁷⁄₁₇₆₇₇₆ (the same value of 53 equal temperament discovered by the German mathematician Nicholas Mercator [1620–1687], i.e. 3⁵³/2⁸⁴).

Astronomy

Mathematics were essential in drafting the Chinese calendar, astronomical calendar, a lunisolar calendar that used the Sun and Moon as time-markers throughout the year. In the 5th century BC, during the Spring and Autumn period, the Chinese established the Sifen calendar (), which measured the tropical year at 365.25 days. This was replaced in 104 BC with the Taichu calendar () that measured the tropical year at (~ 365.25016) days and the lunar month at days. However, Emperor Zhang later reinstated the Sifen calendar. Han dynasty astronomers made star catalogues and detailed records of comets that appeared in the night sky, including recording the appearance of the comet now known as Halley's Comet in 12 BC. They adopted a geocentric model of the universe, theorizing that it was a sphere surrounding the Earth in the centre. They assumed that the Sun, Moon, and planets were spherical and not disc-shaped. They also thought that the illumination of the Moon and planets was caused by sunlight, that lunar eclipses occurred when the Earth obstructed sunlight falling onto the Moon, and that a solar eclipse occurred when the Moon obstructed sunlight from reaching the Earth. Although others disagreed with his model, Wang Chong accurately described the water cycle of the evaporation of water into clouds.

Cartography, ships, and vehicles

Both literary and archaeological evidence has demonstrated that cartography in China predated the Han. Some of the oldest Han-era maps that have been discovered were written using ink on silk, and were found amongst the Mawangdui Silk Texts in a 2nd-century BC tomb in Hunan. The general

created the world's first known

from rice in the 1st century. This date could be revised if the tomb of

is excavated and the ''Shiji'' account of a model map of the empire is proven to be true. Although the use of Scale (map), graduated scales and grid references in maps was not thoroughly described prior to the work of Pei Xiu (AD 224–271), there is evidence that their use was introduced in the early 2nd century by the cartographer Zhang Heng. The Han sailed in various types of ships that differed from those used in previous eras, such as the Lou chuan, tower ship. The Junk (ship), ''junk'' design was developed and realized during the Han era. Junk ships featured a square-ended Bow (ship), bow and stern, a flat-bottomed Hull (watercraft), hull or Carvel (boat building), carvel-shaped hull with no keel or sternpost, and Bulkhead (partition), solid transverse bulkheads in the place of [structural ribs found in Western vessels. Moreover, Han ships were the first in the world to be steered using a

at the stern, in contrast to the simpler steering oar used for riverine transport, allowing them to sail on the high seas. Although ox carts and chariots were previously used in China, the wheelbarrow was first used in Han China in the 1st century BC. Han artwork of horse-drawn chariots shows that the Warring-States-Era heavy wooden yoke placed around a horse's chest was replaced by the softer ''breast strap''. Later, during the Northern Wei (386–534), the fully developed horse collar was invented.

Medicine

Han-era medical physicians believed that the human body was subject to the same forces of nature that governed the greater universe, namely the cosmological cycles of yin and yang and the

. Each organ of the body was associated with a particular phase. Illness was viewed as a sign that qi, or vital energy, channels leading to a certain organ had been disrupted. Thus, Han-era physicians prescribed medicine that was believed to counteract this imbalance. For example, since the wood phase was believed to promote the fire phase, medicinal ingredients associated with the wood phase could be used to heal an organ associated with the fire phase. Besides dieting, Han physicians also prescribed moxibustion, acupuncture, and callisthenics as methods of maintaining one's health. When surgery was performed by the Chinese physician Hua Tuo (), he used anaesthesia to numb his patients' pain and prescribed a rubbing ointment that allegedly sped up the healing process for surgical wounds. The physician Zhang Zhongjing () is known to have written the ''Shanghan Lun'' ("Dissertation on Typhoid Fever"), and it is thought that he and Hua Tuo collaborated to compile the ''Shennong Bencaojing'' medical text.

Notes

References

Citations

Sources cited

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External links

"Han dynasty" by Emuseum – Minnesota State University, MankatoHan dynasty art with video commentary, Minneapolis Institute of ArtsEarly Imperial China: A Working Collection of Resources

"Han Culture," Hanyangling Museum WebsiteThe Han Synthesis
BBC Radio 4 discussion with Christopher Cullen, Carol Michaelson & Roel Sterckx (''In Our Time'', Oct. 14, 2004) {{Authority control Han dynasty, States and territories established in the 3rd century BC States and territories disestablished in the 3rd century 1st century BC in China, . 1st century in China, . 2nd century BC in China, . 2nd century in China, . 200s BC establishments 206 BC 220 disestablishments 3rd-century BC establishments in China 3rd-century disestablishments in China 3rd century BC in China, . Dynasties of China Former countries in Chinese history

Etymology

History

Western Han (202 BC – 9 AD)

Wang Mang's reign and civil war

Eastern Han (25–220 AD)

End of the Han dynasty

Culture and society

Social class

Marriage, gender, and kinship

Education, literature, and philosophy

Law and order

Food

Clothing

Religion, cosmology, and metaphysics

Government and politics

Central government

Local government

Kingdoms and marquessates

Military

Economy

Currency

Taxation and property

Private manufacture and government monopolies

Science and technology

Writing materials

Metallurgy and agriculture

Structural and geo-technical engineering

Mechanical and hydraulic engineering

Mathematics

Astronomy

Cartography, ships, and vehicles

Medicine

See also

Notes

References

Citations

Sources cited

Further reading

External links