Download Packet #6 Classical China: The Qin and Han Dynasties 600 B.C.E.

Packet #6
Classical China:
The Qin and Han Dynasties
600 B.C.E.-600 C.E.
Packet #6
This packet includes information on the following topics:
 The Qin and Han Dynasties
Warring States:
 Political confusion followed the collapse of the Zhou Dynasty. This led to the
Period of the Warring States (403-221 BCE). Three schools of thought
emerged during those centuries of confusion and chaos—Confucianism,
Daoism, and Legalism. More on these in their own packet.
The Unification of China:
Politics:
 In the year 221 BCE the king of the Qin proclaimed himself the First Emperor
and decreed that his descendants would follow him and reign for thousands
of generations.
 The First Emperor, Qin Shihuangdi, lasted only 14 years. Yet it had a lasting
impact. He employed harsh rule and followed legalism.
o Established a tradition of centralized imperial rule and provided large
scale political organization over the long term of Chinese history.
o Ruled the empire through a centralized bureaucracy.
o He built roads to facilitate communications and movement of armies.
HE drafted laborers by the hundreds of thousands to build defensive
walls. He ordered laborers to link existing walls as ad defensive
barrier that was a precursor to the Great Wall of China.
o Standardized currencies, and laws. China became more tightly knit
society with this new standardization. Importantly, also standardized
Chinese scripts.
o Book Burning—Confucians, Daoists, and others launched a vigorous
campaign of criticism against his rule. Shihuangdi executed those who
criticized him. He burned all books of philosophy, ethics, history, and
literature. Buried alive some 460 scholars.
o Terra Cotta Warriors: in 210 BCE Shihuangdi died. He created a
lavish tomb and resting place. He was laid to rest in an elaborate
underground palace lined with bronze and protected by traps and a
life size army of statues. (Pictured on cover)
The Han Dynasty:
 The Han Dynasty consolidated the tradition of centralized imperial rule that
the Qin Dynasty had pioneered
 Lasted for more than 400 years.
 Lasted 206 BCE to 220 CE.
Han Wudi and Political aspects of the Han Dynasty:
 Han Dynasty’s greatest and most energetic emperor. Reigned for 54 years. He
sent imperial officers to implement his policies and maintain order and
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administrative provinces and districts. Han Wudi created the imperial
university that prepared young men for government service.
He didn’t care much for learning but he knew its value. The
imperial university took Confucianism to provide
intellectual discipline as the basis of the curriculum.
Civil Service Exam: An exam that must be passed in order
to service a government position –thus basing appointments
based on merit not birth. This started in the Han Dynasty
(very important continuity through much of Chinese
history) in 165 BCE. The principle of selecting officials on
the basis of talent had been established and would
eventually become standard practice.
Foreign invasion: Han Wudi expanded aggressively. He invaded northern
Vietnam and Korea. The greatest foreign challenge that Han Wudi faced came
from the Xiongnu who came from Central Asia. Han Wudi went on the
offensive against the Xiongnu. He invaded central Asia with vast armies. He
brought much of the Xiongnu under the Chinese empire.
Economy:
 Major expansion of trade both domestic and foreign
 Han were suspicious of private merchants – viewed as parasites providing
little true value to Chinese society.
 Utilized sea routes for trade
 New technology contributed to the prosperity of the Han era. Progress was
made in areas like the textile manufacturing, water mills, and iron casting.
Paper was invented under the Han, and the development of the rudder and
fore and aft rigging permitted ships to sail into the wind for the first time.
 The Han continued to be an agriculturally based society.
Culture:
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Population increased rapidly
The Qin dynasty feared family loyalty as a threat to the state. Legalists
imposed a heavy tax on family with more than two adult sons in order to
break down the family concept.
Under the Han, the family revived and increased in importance. With official
encouragement, the family system began to take on the character that it
would possess until our own day. The family was not only the basic economic
unit; it was also the basic social unit for education, religious observance and
training in ethical principles.
Most Chinese lived in the countryside (like today). As time passed, cities
began to play a larger role in Chinese society.
Female subservience was a key element to Chinese society. In ancient China,
men worked in the fields, and women raised children and served in the
homes. The Chinese symbol for wife is a woman with a broom.
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The Fall of the Han Dynasty:
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Military pursuits caused economic strain
To finance his ventures, Han Wudi raised taxes and confiscated land and
personal property from wealthy individuals.
Social Tensions: distinctions between rich and poor hardened during the
course of the Han dynasty. Wealthy individuals wore fine silk garments,
leather shoes, and jewelry and poor classes made do with hemp clothing and
sandals. By the first century B.C.E. social and economic differences had
generated serious tensions, and peasants in hard pressed regions began to
organize rebellions in hopes of gaining a larger share of Han society’s
resources.
Wang Mang: Tensions came to ahead during the early first century C.E. when
a powerful and respected Han minister named Wang Mang undertook a
program of reform. He broke apart big estates and redistributed the land.
This resulted in widespread confusion & resentment. Landlords and peasants
killed him. The dynasty was weakened.
Yellow Turban Uprising: Waged by rebels who wore yellow turbans, was a
peasant uprising
o A major cause of the rebellion was an agrarian crisis, in which famine
forced many farmers and former military settlers in the north to seek
employment in the south, where large landowners exploited the labor
surplus to amass large fortunes. This significantly weakened the Han
Dynasty
Internal weakness and expansion contributed to the breakdown of the Han.
China remained divided for 4 centuries into several large regional kingdoms.
SOCIAL
ECONOMIC
POLITICAL
Qin and Han
China
ENVIRONMENTAL
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Han
Textbook pp. 114-118
Rome
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Vocabulary
Qin Shihuangdi
Great Wall of China
Terra Cotta Warriors
Civil Service Exam
Han Wudi
Wang Mang
Yellow Turban
Uprising
Definition