The Han: A Chinese Dynasty
Han China
If you didn’t know yet, Han China includes the Qin and Han Dynasty. The
Qin Dynasty ruled from 21B.C.-206 B.C. The Qin Dynasty was able to expand around the confluence of the Huang He and Wei Rivers. There they were able to control “the whole north of China and a segment of the south of China.” After about a century of warring with other regional states, by about 221 B.C.E., they declared themselves as a unified empire (the first in the history of China). The first emperor to rule “unified China” was named Qin Shi Huang
di; he ruled from 221-210B.C.E. The Han Dynasty ruled from 206 B.C.E. - 220 The extent of the Qin and Han Dyansty C.E. Its first emperor was
named Liu Bang; he ruled from 206-195 B.C.E.
Daily Life
On your trip to Han China in the Han Dynasty, you might notice a social hierarchy consisting of an emperor at the top, followed by a class that consist of government officials/scholar gentry, followed by nobles, peasants, artisans, and merchants as the lowest class. An emperor, was of Lui Bang
course the one who rules the empire. They are supposed to lead the empire to prosperity and success.
The person that held close to the same power as the emperor did, was the empress dowager. An empress dowager is the widowed wife of the previous emperor. She has the power to “issue edicts and pardons as well as to appoint a new emperor” in a case in which the present emperor dies without a designated heir.
The government officials, scholar-gentry, and nobles basically just can all just categorized into one social class. If you are wondering what scholar-gentry are, scholar-gentry are essentially just government officials and bureaucrats. The scholar-gentry were greatly respectable people. It’s amazing how the knowledge availability in itself was limited, and still these people managed to be highly knowledgeable aristocrats for their time period.
Followed after them are the peasants. It might surprise that the peasants come before the merchants, this is because society depends mainly on them more t
han the merchants. The peasants not only help with agriculture and the production of food but they also earned revenues of the country. They were considered “highly respectable landowners.”
Next were the artisans and the craftsmen. They had the responsibility of helping with the production of day-to-day items such as of swords and knives and the making of luxury goods for the wealthier classes. They also were the backbone of the famous art, technological inventions, and architecture in China.
Finally, were the merchants and traders. Since, in general, the only thing they did was trade and sell items, they were considered to have a lower social esteem because they didn’t contribute to the production system. They are the backbone of
The Han peasants the “active trading system in Ancient China.” You can give credit
to the traders and merchants of Ancient China, for the effective and efficient Silk Route.
In the Han Dynasty slaves only made up 1% of the entire dynasty’s population. They were either state-owned or privately-owned. When they were privately-owned they were normally sent to work on domestic services and sometimes farming. When they were state-owned they were oftentimes sent to work palaces and offices.
Religion/Philosophies
Depending if you decide to go to the Qin Dynasty or the Han Dynasty you will find philosophies/religions called, Legalism, Daoism, or Confucianism. Legalism was used under the Qin Dynasty by Qin Shi Huangdi. Legalism isn’t very hard to understand, it basically just consisted of strict laws and a strict form of government. In my opinion you wouldn’t want to go to the Qin Dynasty because it also believed in order to obtain a good and stable government, was achieved by having strict laws, strict punishment, and strict enforcement. Having strict laws and government led to the people having a lack of human rights, for example if you tried to rebel or maybe you just did something that isn’t very appealing to the emperor or to those in charge, not only will they kill you, but they will kill your entire family as well. If you would like to know when this type of governing system what occurring, it was basically during the entire Qin Dynasty which, maybe you already know, ruled from 221 BC-206BC (try to avoid this time period).
Daoism was a philosophy/religion that was founded by Laozi (604-517 BCE). Some say that this was the main religion of the Han Dynasty. If Daoism was applied to how a government was ruled, it wouldn’t be a very strong government at all, and you’ll read why in a few seconds. Daoism consists a lot on emphasizing on the harmony with nature. Daoism believed that in order to achieve happiness and peace was to let go of greed, materialism, selfishness, and desires, basically just live a very simple life. They believed that there should be less emphasis on learning and education in life, this way, they believed, there will be less cleverness in people and that “untutored simplicity would be powerful.” Even though Daoism might have been the main religion/philosophy in the Han Dynasty, it doesn’t mean that Han Dynasty was ruled by a Daoist government.
To get a little insight of their government, their government was controlled by a Confucian Bureaucracy. This bureaucracy was made up of scholar-bureaucrats The Yin Yang to symbolize that were taught the basics and depths of Confucianism. At the end of being peace, harmony, and taught what Confucianism is and how it will be used in government they would tranquility take an exam and based on that exam they will be entered into the Confucian Bureaucracy. Since this government was based on Confucian principles, with whatever issues that was presented to the government would be solved using Confucian wisdom and knowledge. If a government was ruled using Daoist principles, and there would be that one day they would get invaded, they would probably just give in instead of going to war against them. They wouldn’t go to war because of their principles implying that there should be peace in your mind, with others, and in your surroundings.
Confucianism was founded by Kong Fuzi (551-479 BCE), known in Latin as Confucius. This philosophy, Confucius, and his followers believed that a good government could be achieved by “good officials, humanity, benevolence, virtue, and culture.” They believed that all problems and affairs should be brought to harmony, peace and order. He also believed that there should be essential goodness and educability in each individual. He believed people aren’t able to just automatically be born and be good people, they have to be educated properly to be able to learn to put “the needs of society ahead of their private desires.”
Confucius
Architecture & Inventions
You might want to visit some of the architecture and inventions that the Han Chinese contributed to.One of their most well- known architectural achievements that the Qin Dynasty constructed was the Great Wall of China.
The Great Wall was built under the rule of Qin Shi Huangdi. This wall was not only built for the aesthetics of the empire, but also for defense and, some believe, for cultural significances. It was supposed to, and it did, help keep “barbarians” from northern Xiongnu out of China. It included watch-towers that had the height of 40 feet, they were constructed every couple hundred yards “to serve as first warning in case of attempted invasion.” This wall extends about 1500 miles, it took a labor force of about one million including soldiers, common people, and criminals. You honestly wouldn’t want to be one of those people working on the wall. Not only because you might be lazy and might not want help construct it, but because
many of those laborers have died on the wall and have been found byarcheologists buried under the sections of the walls, due to starvation, poor nutrition, etc.If you are a man you should worry and plan out well about the time you decide to go to see the Great Wall. Try not going when it’s in construction because men are normally the ones sent to work on it, they probably won’t care if you are a tourist, and like I said you wouldn’t want to be one of those people that die during the construction of it, this time period includes from the Warring States Period (770-476 BC) to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). So, basically, try to go when it has finally been 100% built. The Great Wall of China is also said to symbolize consolidation, sophistication, strength, and a civilized society.
The wall is supposed to symbolize the end of the “civilized” world
An invention that they contributed to was the mining for salt. If you’re interested you might want to visit one of their mines. I don’t know if you ever knew that we wouldn’t be able to live if there wasn’t enough salt intake in our bodies. Salt helps our bodies conduct certain messages around and through our bodies to help it have the ability to function properly. In these times periods there wasn’t The extent of the Great Wall of China
the abundance of salt we have
now, now you can practically get all the salt you need in one day with an order of large fries from McDonalds, back then it wasn’t like that. Salt came to a point that it became a monopoly owned by the government. The emperor that set up these salt monopolies was named Empero
r Wu (156 BC- 87 BC), he was the seventh emperor of the Han Dynasty.Since the government owned these salt monopolies, the government was able to control the price of the salt and the only way you could buy salt was by you buying it from the government. Emperor Wu stated that he was making salt monopolies as well as iron and liquor monopolies, to help “secure profits for his government and its border wars.” The minister also stated he was doing this to help raise funds for the expenditures that are performed at the borders or else the men that are sacrificing their lives defending those borders would suffer and possibly die from hunger and cold.
During the Qin Dynasty canals were built as well as river Salt transport systems in both the Wei River system that was in the north and in the Min River system that was located in Sichuan which was in west-central China. The ones that were located in Sichuan were able to irrigate a region called Chengdu and also turned it into a granary for the nation. Their achievements of building transportation and irrigation systems that were built in the northern state of Shanxi transformed it into an area that was so rich in the productivity of agriculture and the “means of transporting it that they could control all of north China from this base!”
Like before stated, they made iron monopolies and mined for iron. Ironworking became so remarkably important in the Chinese military and economic development. The Qin were able to capture the “richest sources of iron ore” and two of the best ironworking facilities in China, which were crucial resources of the making of tools, weapons, including kitchen household utensils.