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From the Zhou to the Han Dynasties
Classical Empires
 What exactly is an empire?
 On one level, empires are simply states;
political systems that exercise coercive
power.
 The term is usually reserved for larger and
more aggressive states, those that
conquer, rule, and extract resources from
other states and peoples.
Classical Empires
 Empires usually encompass a considerable
variety of peoples and cultures within a
single political system, and they are often
associated with political and cultural
oppression.
Classical Empires
 The classical empires we’re going to study
shared a set of common problems…
 Would they try to impose the culture of the
imperial heartland on their varied subjects?
 Would they rule conquered peoples directly
or through established local authorities?
Classical Empires
 How would they extract the wealth of empire
in the form of taxes, tribute, and labor while
maintaining order in conquered territories?
 No matter how impressive they were at their
peak, they all sooner or later collapsed.
Classical Empires
 Probably the majority of humankind before
the 20th century lived out their lives in
empires, where they were often governed
by rulers culturally different from
themselves.
Classical Empires
 These imperial
states brought
together people of
different traditions
and religions and
so stimulated the
exchange of ideas,
cultures, and
values.
Classical Empires
 Despite their violence, exploitation, and
oppression, empires also imposed substantial
periods of peace and security, which fostered
economic and artistic development,
commercial exchange, and cultural mixing.
Classical China
 China’s isolation meant it wouldn’t learn much
from other cultures…this created a distinctive
Chinese identity.
 With less major disruptions from the outside,
the Chinese could focus on and build upon
technologies initially developed by the
Huang he civilization.
Classical China
 Probably the most important
intellectual/philosophical carryover from the
Shang-Zhou dynasties was the idea of
harmony within nature, that everything was
balanced by an opposite.
Classical China
 Rulers and peasants alike, in order to live
a good life, needed to live in harmony and
balance by avoiding all excesses.
 When the Zhou (or Chou…pronounced
joe) forcibly overthrew the Shang dynasty
in the 12th century BCE, they justified it by
claiming the Shang had become “morally
degenerate.”
Classical China
 Early Zhou (Chou) rulers claimed they had
been given the right (or mandate) to rule by
“heaven,” or the supernatural deities who
oversaw earthly life (this legitimized their
rule).
 As long as the rulers were just and fair, they
retained the confidence of heaven, but if
they were not, the mandate would be lost.
Classical China
 Prosperity was seen as a “sign from heaven”
that the rulers still had the mandate.
 But misfortunes (rebellions, floods, drought,
poor harvests, insects, disease, etc) were
usually interpreted as a communication from
the deities that the ruler was not living up to
the high expectations of the heavenly
mandate.
Classical China
 If the ruler lost the mandate, his subjects not
only had the right, but the responsibility, to
replace him.
 This was the central belief that guided
Chinese dynasties up until the early 20th
century (1912).
 Another cultural continuity was the
foundation of the Chinese language and
writing seen on oracle bones.
Classical China
 The Shang-Zhou dynasties often consulted
oracles when making decisions.
 Turtle shells or the shoulder blades of
certain animals would be inscribed and a
heated bronze pin would produce cracks
on the reverse side.
 The direction and length of these cracks in
relation to the characters would then be
considered.
Classical China
Classical China
 The writing on these oracle bones shows a
unique consistency; while other
civilizations gave up on pictographic
characters in favor of phonetic systems,
the Chinese language grew and evolved,
but remained essentially within the
pictographic framework.
Classical China
 By the classical period, the structure of the
modern Chinese language was set—
monosyllabic and depending on word
order, not on the inflection of words, to
convey meaning.
 Despite cultural continuity, China’s political
traditions went through several changes,
eventually developing into the world’s
largest classical empire.
Classical China
 Creating the classical Chinese empire was
less creating something new (like Rome) and
more a matter of restoring something old.
 The Chinese civilization under the Xia, Shang,
and Zhou (Chou) that had flourished for 14
centuries (2200-800 BCE) was in shambles
by the 8th century BCE.
 Earlier unity vanished as China faced internal
pressures from various groups that wanted to
replace the Zhou.
Classical China
 From the 8th to the 3rd century BCE, this led
to weakness and vulnerability from external
pressures (usually northern nomadic
invaders who periodically attacked China).
Classical China
•This led to the violent Era of Warring States
(475-221 BCE), which featured the endless
rivalries of seven competing dukedoms
fighting for the control of China.
Classical China
 The Warring States Period was a time of
political turmoil, with regional warlords
(dukes) constantly challenging the
authority of the Zhou.
 To many Chinese, this was an unnatural
and unacceptable condition, so rulers in
various states tried to reunify the country.
Classical China
 By the Warring States Period, China had
scores of cities, and their prevalence
implies an increasingly varied society.
 Many cities had three well-defined areas: a
small enclosure where the aristocracy
lived, a larger one inhabited by specialized
craftsmen and merchants, and the fields
outside the walls which fed the city.
Classical China
 A merchant class was an important
development during the Zhou dynastic
period (and though not well regarded by
the landowners, a currency of cowry shells
showed economic complexity).
Classical China
 By the Warring States
Period Chinese cities
had commercial
districts selling food,
clothing, curios, and
jewels (as well as
taverns, gambling
houses, and brothels).
 Bronze wine vessels of
the Zhou Dynasty.
Classical China
 The heart of Chinese society remained tied
to the land. Ownership of estates—
theoretically all granted by the king—
extended not only to land, but to carts,
livestock, implements, and above all,
people.
 Laborers could be sold, exchanged, or left
by will.
Classical China
 By the Warring States Period, the privileged
landowning class had grown increasingly
independent of the king.
 Landowners/nobles originally had the
responsibility of providing soldiers to the
king, but as they became more independent,
they increased their monopoly of arms.
Classical China
 Only the nobles could afford the expensive
weapons, armor, and horses which
increasingly came into use.
Classical China
 During the Period of the Warring States
there was a burst of speculation about the
foundation of government and ethics.
 This era was to remain famous as the time
of the “Hundred Schools,” when wandering
scholars moved about from patron to
patron, expounding their teachings.
Classical China
 The appearance of Confucianism, Daoism,
and Legalism during the late Zhou period is
part of what German philosopher Karl
Jaspers (1883-1969) called the “Axial Age.”
 This intellectually fertile period was when
“the spiritual foundations of humanity were
laid down simultaneously and independently
in China, India, Persia, Palestine, and
Greece.”
Classical China
 This period was characterized by a
dramatically changing social environment so
a key feature of the Axial Age was the
relatively sudden appearance of intellectuals
engaged in a similar search for human
meaning; the near simultaneous emergence
of new religions and philosophical elites;
and the advent of itinerant (traveling)
scholars who roamed from city to city as
teachers and religious figures.
Classical China
 But the search for
universal ethical
and philosophical
principles was not
uniform; for some it
was associated
with gods/religion
and for others it
was rational
thought.
Classical China
 The debate over how to solve China’s many
problems led to the origins of three
influential philosophical systems:
Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism.
Classical China
 I. Confucianism
(philosopher K’ung fu
Tzu 553-479 BCE)
argued that education
was the key to
producing ethical
leaders and thus
good governance.
Classical China
 K’ung fu Tzu argued that the superior
individual was not necessarily one born
into a superior class, but someone who
had attained the rank of junzu (princeling)
through pursuing high levels of intellectual
and ethical cultivation.
 Men who attained the rank of junzu would
have the intellectual and ethical capacity to
lead by example and restore order and
harmony to Chinese society.
Classical China
 K’ung fu Tzu believed that real reform, such
as was needed in the dukedom of Lu, came
about because the ruler himself was moral
and just.
 He believed in order, and he believed that
true justice flowed downward.
 “The ruler is a wave of wind and it will blow
over the people and they will bend in
obedience if that ruler is just.”
Classical China
 Confucius came from a family of lesser
nobility and spent some time as a minister of
state and an overseer of granaries.
 When he could not find a ruler who would
put into practice his recommendations for a
just government, he turned to meditation and
teaching, spending 13 years in a selfimposed exile.
 He tried to revive personal integrity and
disinterested service in the governing class.
Classical China
 Somewhere in the past, he thought, lay a
mythical age when each man knew his place
and did his duty.
 Everyone had a place in society, from the
ruler to his lowliest subject, and all had
responsibilities in their relationships with
others.
Classical China
 Confucius emphasized the importance of
virtuous behavior (moral excellence) and
hierarchal, harmonious relationships (respect
for one’s social superiors) as necessary for
the creation of an orderly society.
 These principles of order were to be the
foundation of Chinese government and ethics
(that lasted into the 20th century).
Classical China
 Confucianism saw
the family as the
foundation of
society.
 It should serve as a
model for
benevolence, duty,
and courtesy.
Classical China
 For this great thinker and teacher, the most
important path to wisdom was the study of
history, literature, and ritual.
 Confucian teachings were designed to
produce men who would respect the
traditional culture, emphasize the value of
good form and consistent behavior, and
seek to realize their moral obligations in
the scrupulous discharge of their duties.
Classical China
 It would be K’ung fu Tzu that would play the
same pivotal and fundamental role in
Chinese thought as the Buddha in India, as
Jesus did in the history of Europe, and as
Socrates did in the intellectual life of
Greece.
Classical China
 In China, Confucian teachings became
official government policy in the 2nd century
BCE under the Han Dynasty, in Korea,
Confucianism replaced Buddhism in the
14th century, and in Japan, Confucian
ideals influenced the emperors from the
17th to the 19th centuries.
Classical China
 II. Daoism (philosopher Lao
zi which literally means “Old
Master”) reacted to the
constant warfare and chaos
by encouraging people to
avoid useless struggles by
following the Dao (“the Way”
or the path).
Classical China
 Legend has it that he was conceived when
his mother gazed upon a shooting star,
stayed in her womb for 62 years, and was
born when his mother leaned against a plumb
tree.
 He accordingly emerged a grown man with a
full grey beard and long earlobes, which are
the symbols of wisdom and long life.
Classical China
 He shunned military or political ambitions
as lacking morality and meaning, and
guided his followers toward nature for
comfort and understanding.
 “The world is ruled by natural harmony and
letting things take their natural course. It
cannot be ruled by going against nature or
arrogance.”
Classical China
 Nature is stabilized by order, and humans
along with all other natural phenomena
existed within nature. Attempting one’s own
path was arrogant, futile, and selfdestructive.
 All of mankind’s troubles were caused by
having forgotten the “Way.” Remembering
the “Way” is an awareness of our
connection with Nature within the entirety of
creation.
Classical China
 Daoism urged submission to a conception
already important in Chinese thought and
familiar to Confucius, that of the Dao or the
‘way,’ the cosmic principle that ran through
and sustained the harmoniously ordered
universe.
 In many ways, Daoist thinking ran counter
to Confucianist thought.
Classical China
 Daoism emphasized
acceptance and individual
retreat from society (lack
of political involvement—
and thus embraced by
anti-authoritarian
movements), while
Confucius believed in
education, moral
improvement, and good
government.
Classical China
 The practical results of Daoism were likely
to be political quietism and non-attachment;
the idea that a village should know that
other villages existed (because they could
hear the roosters crowing in the mornings),
but should have no further interest in them,
no commerce with them and no political
order binding them together.
 This idealization of simplicity and poverty
was the opposite of empire and prosperity
Confucianism upheld.
Classical China
 Confucius focused on the world of human
relationships, Daoists turned to the realm of
the mysteries of nature.
 An old Chinese saying was “Confucius
roams within society while Lao zi roams
beyond it.”
Classical China
 III. Legalism—Those that advocated a third
political philosophy called Legalism were
pragmatists.
 They believed the Confucian idea of
educating men and cultivating wisdom and
virtue was unrealistic.
 Legalist thought stressed that humans were
naturally evil, required restraint, and would
only obey authority and rules through force.
Classical China
 Legalism advocated strict, well-known laws,
harsh punishments, and the sacrifice of
personal freedom for the good of the state
(all exercised by a strong central
government).
 In a proper state, the army would control
(under a powerful emperor), and the people
would labor; the idea of pleasures in
educated discourse or courtesy was
dismissed as frivolity. Sound familiar?
Classical China
 It would not be Confucianism that
succeeded in reuniting China but Legalism.
 By the 3rd century BCE, one of the “warring
states,” the powerful Qin (Chin) adopted
the authoritarian ideology of Legalism,
which attempted to achieve social
cohesion through strict laws and harsh
punishments.
Classical China
 The Qin originally were horse breeders for
the ruling Zhou.
 After the Zhou gave them land for the task,
they began to organize themselves and
developed political skills.
 By the 3rd century BCE they had developed
an effective bureaucracy, had subordinated
their aristocracy, had equipped their army
with iron weapons, had rising agricultural
output, and a growing population.
Classical China
 They gradually assumed power over the
weak Zhou, giving their leaders the title of
‘Duke of Qin’ and then in 325 BC raising it to
‘King of Qin’.
 For the Qin, the foundations of their state’s
strength were the military and agrarian
sectors, and they tried to channel as many
men into those occupations as possible and
away from socially “useless” professions like
education, philosophy, or business.
Classical China
 In 246 BCE, with a large army (including one
of the first uses of cavalry), a young
warrior/king named Ying Zheng (a 13 year-old
known as “the tiger”) launched a military
campaign to reunify the country.
 Within 10 years, he had defeated the other
“warring states” and brought unification and
order to much of China.
 According to a writer from the 1st Century CE,
Zheng had 400,000 soldiers from a rival state
buried alive.
Classical China
Qin Shi Huangdi
 Believing that he had created a universal
and eternal empire, he grandly proclaimed
himself Qin Shi Huangdi “The First
Emperor” of “the Empire of Ten Thousand
Generations” and “First August and Divine
Emperor of Qin.”
Qin Shi Huangdi
 ‘First’
because he planned a long line of
successors…
‘August and Divine’ as he was now equal
to a god…
‘Emperor’ to separate himself from his
ancestors who were only kings and dukes,
and align himself with mythical emperors of
the past.
Qin Shi Huangdi
 Qin Shi Huangdi
(r.
221-210 BCE).
 Shi Huangdi ruled his
empire through a
centralized bureaucracy
that replaced the
regional nobility from
his capital city (near
present day Xi’an).
Qin Shi Huangdi
 Xi’an would be China’s capital for more
than 1,000 years.
Qin Shi Huangdi
 Considered a brutal and unpopular ruler
under Shi Huangdi, the state exercised
absolute control over the people (he was
essentially a dictator).
 The tenets of Legalism served him well as
he stripped the nobility of power and
divided China into administrative provinces
governed by administrators, chosen by Shi
Huangdi, who served at his pleasure.
Qin Shi Huangdi
 Most nobles were transplanted from their
homes to the capital as a means of
exercising control over them.
 The E’Pang Palace of the Qin.
Qin Shi Huangdi
 But despite his harshness, Shi
strengthened China through numerous
achievements.
Qin Shi Huangdi
 A unified China needed a consistent,
standardized language, so Shi mandated that
the language and writing of China become
uniform.
• Even though many dialects remained, the
common script enabled people throughout the
empire to communicate effectively through
writing.
Qin Shi Huangdi
 Shi had laws and
currency
standardized
(copper coins
were minted) so
they were the
same throughout
the country.
Qin Shi Huangdi
 Axle lengths were also made uniform. This
was done because the cartwheels made
ruts in the road, and the ruts had to all be
the same width, or carts with a different axle
length could not travel on them.
Qin Shi Huangdi
 Shi ordered China’s first national census (for
tax and labor reasons).
 Weights and measurements were
standardized.
 Shi also promoted the manufacturing of silk
cloth.
 Roads and irrigation canals were built
throughout the country to increase trade and
agricultural production.
Qin Shi Huangdi
 Hundreds of
thousands of
laborers were forced
to build the 1500+
mile long Great Wall.
It was built in the
north, to protect
against invasions
from “barbarians.”
Qin Shi Huangdi
 Shi Huangdi also had a huge palace built
for himself. This was what ½ of it looked
like. It was supposed to mirror paradise.
Qin Shi Huangdi
 But the public works projects and taxes
were too great a burden on the population.
 Those who died on construction projects
were often buried underneath them.
 The Confucian scholars who disagreed
with Shi’s policies were executed and their
books burned.
 Shi banned any books that advocated
forms of government other than his.
Qin Shi Huangdi
 Shi Huangdi grew increasingly paranoid (not
without reason), and banished all foreign scholars
from his court as spies.
 The king's fears were well-founded; in 227, the Yan
state sent two assassins to his court, but he fought
them off with his sword. A musician also tried to kill
him with a lead-weighted lute.
Qin Shi Huangdi
 Shi Huangdi craved longevity, so he sent his
ministers to go on quests seeking the
mythical “elixir of immortality.”
 However he died while traveling in 210 BCE
(before an elixir of immortality could be
found).
 It is believed he died of mercury poisoning
(thought to be part of the elixir of
immortality).
Qin Shi Huangdi
 Next to the Great Wall, Shi was most
famous for his mausoleum, which included
over 7,500 life-sized terra cotta soldiers.
The terra cotta soldiers of Shi
Huangdi
Qin Shi Huangdi
 It was said that over 700,000 workers from
every province toiled unceasingly to build
Shi’s tomb at the foot of Mount Li.
 It was designed to be a scale model of
Shi’s palace, the empire, and the world.
 Its treasures were safeguarded by
automatically triggered weapons designed
to thwart tomb robbers.
Qin Shi Huangdi
 After Shi’s death, the
craftsmen of the
tomb were walled up
upon an order of his
son, the second
emperor, as a
precaution that they
not betray their
secrets.
Qin Shi Huangdi
 Artists conceptual view of Shi Huangdi’s
tomb.
The Qin
The Qin
 His son, who was not as brutal nor as
capable, became emperor. He was quickly
deposed in a revolt.
 Even though he was known as a brutal
ruler, Shi laid the foundations for a unified
Chinese state, which has endured, with
periodic interruptions, to the present.
The Han Dynasty
 The brutality of the Qin dynasty caused its
collapse, and few mourned its demise.
 After Shi’s son was deposed, a new dynasty
arose in China; the Han.
 Rather than fall into chaos at Shi’s death,
the Han dynasty’s rule lasted over 400
years, from 207 BCE to 220 CE (roughly
paralleling Rome).
The Han Dynasty
 Liu Bang, the first Han emperor.
The Han Dynasty
 Political developments:
 Like their contemporaries the Romans, the
Han organized and controlled China through
a strong bureaucracy.
 The Han kept and maintained the centralized
features of the Qin, but they were
considerably less harsh in their policies.
The Han Dynasty
 The Han de-emphasized legalism in favor
of a government based on Confucian
ideals.
 The family hierarchy became the basis for
government structure, with subjects owing
the emperor the same obedience that
children give their fathers.
The Han Dynasty
 The Han believed in “the Mandate of
Heaven” and merged it with Confucian
values.
 The Han promoted the Confucian ideal of
benevolent rule to replace Qin strictness
and reliance on brute force.
The Han Dynasty
 The Han had several able
rulers who were able to
expand China’s borders
even more than Shi
Huangdi.
 The most famous, Han
Wudi (140-87 BCE)
expanded the frontier
west, north and south.
The Han Dynasty
 While the Qin ruled an
area of about 1 million
sq miles (Alaska,
Texas, and California)
under Wudi the Han
extended Chinese
control to over 2.5
million square miles
(the entire United
States is 3.8 million sq
miles).
The Han Dynasty
 These conquests brought the Chinese into
contact with other civilizations, including
the Romans, although probably through
intermediaries.
 Other trade contacts included India,
northeast Asia (part of Korea was
conquered), and Southeast Asia (Vietnam).
The Han Dynasty
 The nomadic groups to the north were a
threat to Han stability as they had been to
the Qin (these skilled horsemen constantly
got around the Great Wall and attacked
settlements to the south).
 Han Wudi’s forces eventually defeated the
nomads and annexed their pasturelands, and
he added to the Great Wall.
The Han Dynasty
 Economic/Social Developments:
 Like Rome, Han China was an urban
empire that ruled a rural and peasant
population.
 Xi’an had a population of several hundred
thousand within the city walls and
thousands more outside the walls in
neighboring communities.
The Han Dynasty
 One of the most important manifestations
of Han imperial order was architecture:
vast palatial complexes, towered
gateways, and city walls were built as
symbols of power and prestige as well as
for defense.
The Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty
 The emperor lived in the Forbidden City, so
named because only his family, servants,
and closest advisors were permitted within
its boundaries.
The Han Dynasty
 The Forbidden City was surrounded by
administrative buildings and houses of the
aristocrats and scholar-gentry.
 The streets bustled with commerce.
 Several other urban areas also grew so
that as much as 30% of the population
lived in towns and cities.
The Han Dynasty
 Canals were built, and the road system
expanded to improve communication and
commerce.
 The most important export was silk, and its
production from cocoons on the leaves of
mulberry trees was a closely guarded
secret that gave the Chinese a silk
monopoly.
The Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty
 A scholar-bureaucrat (shi) during the Han
Dynasty.
The Han Dynasty
 The Han rulers
increasingly promoted
Confucianism, and
thorough knowledge of
Confucian teachings
became essential for
promotion in the Han
government.
The Han Dynasty
 One of the world’s first universities was
founded in Xi’an to educate young (male)
scholars to prepare them for jobs in the
bureaucracy.
 An examination system (based almost
solely on Confucian texts) was set up in
the last century BCE to help the Han
government identify the best candidates for
their bureaucracy.
The Han Dynasty
 Theoretically, any Chinese man could take
the exams, but only the sons of the
wealthy had the leisure time to study for
them.
 As a result, the bureaucracy was mostly
filled from aristocratic and scholar-gentry
families.
The Han Dynasty
 The importance of social class was reinforced
by the fact that most bureaucratic jobs were
still hereditary, and passed from father to son.
 Even though most positions within the
government were hereditary, the Chinese
were the first to experiment with the idea of
filling important offices based on merit and
effort.
The Han Dynasty
 There were three main social classes in Han
China:
 1). The aristocrats and scholar-gentry: This
class was linked to the shi. Their status was
based on their control of large amounts of
land and bureaucratic positions within the
government.
 These families tended to have homes in both
the city and countryside, and they passed
their wealth and status down to their children,
sometimes for many centuries.
The Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty
 2). Ordinary, but free, citizens: the common
people included a broad range, with the
majority being peasants. Some peasants had
decent-sized plots of land and lived well.
Others were forced to work for landlords, and
still others were barely able to survive.
 All peasants were required to work a
designated number of days each year on public
works, and they could also be forced to join the
army.
The Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty
 3). The Underclass: This broad category
included many different groups, including
unskilled labor and non-Han Chinese on the
fringes of the empire. Often these people
were forced from their land by the growing
Han population and were variously described
as “mean”: bandits, beggars, and vagabonds.
 Slavery existed, but was far less prevalent
than in Rome. Most slaves served as
domestic servants.
The Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty
 Even though they were not given high
status by the scholar-gentry, the
artisan/manufacturing classes grew
during the Han period because of
numerous inventions and technological
innovations.
The Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty
 The introduction of
the brush-pen and
paper greatly
facilitated the work of
the scholar-gentry,
and the demand for
their production
increased.
The Han Dynasty
 Before paper, turtle shells, animal bones,
stones, bamboo, wood and cloth were used
for recording and remembering things. None
of these were easy or practical.
 It is believed that paper was invented
(approx 105 CE) after much trial/error using
twine, old cloth, and unused netting.
The Han Dynasty
 One of the highest
art forms was
calligraphy (or
artistic drawing of
the written word).
 Calligraphy is still a
skill highly prized in
Chinese society.
The Han Dynasty
 The first primitive
form of (wood) block
printing was
invented, making the
copying of official
communications into
written word
available to the
Imperial
Administrations.
The Han Dynasty
 Math and science in Han
China reflected
practicality (empirical
science) over theoretical.
 Other innovations
included using water
mills for agriculture,
hydraulics, rudders for
ships, and new mining
techniques for iron and
copper.
 From the 1st century CE.
The Han Dynasty
 Han scholars studied mathematics in
music to develop better acoustics. They
developed the idea of negative numbers.
 Han scholars had a calendar of 365.5 days
(actually from the Warring States Era).
 Han astronomers correctly calculated the
movements of Jupiter and Saturn 1,500
years before the Europeans could do it.
The Han Dynasty
 Han astronomers also “discovered” that
the moon shines because of the sun’s
light.
 Han astronomers were also among the first
to record the movements of comets (what
the Han called “broom” stars).
The Han Dynasty
 Han scientists also developed the
compass (they found that the ore in
lodestone causes it to line up along a
north/south axis because of magnetism).
 The Chinese believed that good luck would
be achieved if their homes, temples, and
even graves were correctly positioned
along the north/south axis.
The Han Dynasty
 Han scholars
designed and built an
early seismograph to
predict earthquakes.
 This early
seismograph dropped
a ball in the direction
of the earthquake,
sometimes felt several
hundred miles away.
The Han Dynasty
 Han science also focused on medical
research. They had knowledge of blood
circulation 1,500 years before the
Europeans.
 The Han also studied personal hygiene as
a way to increase life expectancy.
 Anesthesia was supposedly used for the
first time during a medical operation.
The Han Dynasty
 Acupuncture was mentioned for the first
time during the Han period.
The Han Dynasty
 Han farmers developed the triple plow and
they invented the seed drill which led to
much higher yields.
The Han Dynasty
 Chang'an (also called Xi’an—the capital of the
Han) in present-day Shaanxi Province—a
large urban center laid out on a north-south
axis with palaces, residential wards, and two
bustling market areas—was one of the two
largest cities in the ancient world (Rome was
the other).
The Han Dynasty
 Chang’an (Xi’an)
The Han Dynasty
 Like other ancient civilizations, China was
a patriarchy.
 Marriages were arranged according to
family ties, and neither young men nor
young women had much say about who
their partners would be.
The Han Dynasty
 Women from upper-class families were
often educated in writing, the arts, and
music.
 But women at all social levels were
subordinated to men.
 Families were controlled by the older men,
and younger men were favored over their
sisters.
The Han Dynasty
 Political positions were reserved for the
men, and only boys could sit for the
Confucian examinations.
 Women from peasant families played
traditional roles as cooks, house cleaners,
and support for the men in the fields.
 All were legally subordinated to their
fathers and husbands.
The Han Dynasty
 The Han were
known for their
interest in
decorative arts and
for the quality of
workmanship in
everything they
made.
The Han Dynasty
 The famous Han “Flying Horse.”
The Han Dynasty
 Earthenware funerary jar.  Earthenware model of a
watchtower.
The Han Dynasty
 Han pottery.
The Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty
 Even though the Silk Roads enabled the
Han to have limited contact with other
peoples, China’s relative isolation caused it
to look at itself as the center of the
universe surrounded by uncivilized
barbarians.
 As a result, the Chinese never felt the
need to learn from other societies.
The Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty
 The Han dynasty established China's
lasting model of imperial order and
imposed a new national consciousness
that survives today among the Chinese,
who still refer to themselves as the "Han
people“ or “the sons of Han.”
The Han Dynasty