Download Imperial China

The Age of Chin and Han
220 B.C.E-220 C.E.
 Marked by fragmentation, dictated by geography.
 Compact in Northeastern China.
 Decentralized Zhou, saw rival states vying for the very
thing the Zhou created, the Mandate of Heaven.
 The Qin state from the Wei Valley emerged as
victorious.
 Marked by rigid centralization.
 Emphasis on Legalist political ideology.
 Totalitarian structure
 Crackdown on Confucianism
 Eliminate all rivals centers of authority.
 Coping with:
 1. Landowners: abolished hereditary land ownership
by eldest son.
 2. Gain strength amongst poor: abolish slavery. Tried
to create a free peasantry.
 Complete Standardization: everything from coins to
music.
 More prominently: standardized writing and laws.
 Started Great Wall
 Built thousands of miles of roads
 Facilitated military transportation.
 Uniform law code
 Stability
 As marked by his opulent tombdied in 210 B.C.E.
 Myth of the “first emperor”
 The dynasty died with him in 206 B.C.E as other Qin
emperors couldn’t even take their place as the state
erupted in rebellion.
 Liu Bang a former peasant outlasted his rivals and
claimed the Mandate of Heaven.
 Hallmarks of the Han
 Reject excess of the Qin
 Reject errors of Qin leagalism
 Restore institutions of the past
 Combined the objectives of Legalism with the “tone” of
Confucianism.
 Emphasized a strong rigid administration, ably staffed.
 First 80 years to reconsolidate after Qin.
 Remaining time focused on expansion.
 Greatest expansionist: Emperor Wu
 Thick pounded walls
surrounded the city.
 Built near a fertile plain.
 Bustling city of over
200,000 residents.
 Became a model of urban
planning.
 Emperor: the “Son of
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Heaven”
Was regarded as divine
on earth
Word was law
Failure to govern
demonstrated a loss of
divine confidence.
Similar to Egypt.
 Run by a Prime Minister and civil service director.
 Had a cabinet style structure.
 Federalist in nature in that it was a tiered structure.
 Central Government rarely impacted peoples daily
lives.
 Rise of the GENTRY: a class of ruling scholars.
 Part of a class warfare against the aristocratic class.
 Similar to the Roman equites. This group was
protected and respected.
 Role of Confucianism:
 Provide a system for training officials to be:
 Intellectually capable
 Morally worth
 Set a code of conduct to measure performance
 Formal university to train at Chang’an
 Civil Servants advanced through the system and grew
in power and influence. In time this became the new
aristocracy and target for Chinese youth.
 Became very popular to the common people, as
Buddhism did during Mauryan India.
 Daoism ephasized the search for the “dao” that elusive
concept that means “path to nature” and harmonizing
with it.
 Despite its passive nature, Daoism began to become
very skeptical. One aspect of its skepticism was the
nature e of social order in China.
 Urged denial of ambition, acceptance of the world’s
disorders, and the following of natural instincts.
 Technology has always been a Chinese strength
 First developed Bronze (1500 B.C.E) and Iron a millennium
later. By the time of Rome’s height, the Chinese were the
masters of Iron.
 Developed:
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Crossbow
Chariots
Watermills for running water
Horse collar (Europe)
Large scale wall building
Roads and couriers
Silk
 Fervor for Chinese Silk as
well as improved security
and transportation opened
up a legendary trade route.
 Over the centuries, many
important scientific and
technological innovations
migrated to the West along
the Silk Road, including
gunpowder, the magnetic
compass, the printing
press, silk, mathematics,
ceramic and lacquer crafts
 Likely arrived in China around the same time as the Silk
Roads began to explode.
 Posed problems for the Chinese, in many of the same ways
that the Romans experienced problems with the advent of
Christianity.
 Political obstacle to the direction of the “Son of Heaven
principle”
 Principle of “seclusion” ran contrary to the Chinese tradition
of Family.
 Different from the teachings of Confucius and the established
norms of Chinese society.
 Grew in popularity as chaos began to disrupt the Han
Dynasty—it became a political threat.
 As barbarians consolidated rule in China, so did
Buddhism grow.
 “ We were born out of the marches and though we are
unworthy, we have complied with our appointed destiny
and govern the Chinese as their prince…with Buddha
being a barbarian god, this is the very one we should
worship.”
 Buddhism provided a clear network of refuge for the
desperate and a vision of salvation
 Dharma began to become known as “Dao”
 Pure land Buddhism
 Respected minister who undertook a complete
overhaul of land reform.
 In 9 C.E he claimed the Mandate of Heaven.
 “The Socialist Reformer”
 Land limits, large estates broken up and redistributed,
and the landless given land.
 A result of the failure to address land distribution
 Renegade peasants in distinctive headwear disrupting
trade as a result of hopelessness.
 This didn’t destroy the empire, it did weaken
them…outside invaders, namely the Xiongnu,
epidemic diseases and political unrest will succeed
where the Yellow Turbans failed.