Download Classical China

Han Empire: China
206 BCE-220 CE
THE EARLY HAN DYNASTY
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Liu Bang
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A general, persistent man, a methodical planner
Restored order, established dynasty, 206 B.C.E.
Han was long-lived dynasty
Martial Emperor (141-87 B.C.E.)
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Han Wudi ruled for 54 years
Pursued centralization and expansion
HAN STATECRAFT
Han centralization
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Adopted Legalist policies
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Built an enormous bureaucracy to rule the empire
Continued to build roads and canals
Levied taxes on agriculture, trade, and craft
industries
Imperial monopolies on production of iron and salt
Established Confucian educational system for training
bureaucrats
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Confucianism as the basis of the curriculum in imperial university
Thirty thousand students enrolled in the university in Later Han
Han imperial expansion
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Invaded and colonized northern Vietnam and Korea
Extended China into central Asia
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Han organized vast armies to invade Xiongnu territory
Han enjoyed uncontested control in east and central Asia
HAN SOCIAL STRUCTURE
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Patriarchal, patrilocal households averaged five inhabitants
Large, multigenerational compound families also developed
Women's subordination (Ban Zhao Admonitions for Women)
Cultivators were the majority of the population
Differences apparent between noble, lower class women
Scholar bureaucrats: Confucian trained bureaucrats
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Scholar Gentry
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Officials selected through competitive testing
Used to run the government in Early Han
Confucian bureaucrats intermarried with
landed elite
New class comes to dominate local, national
offices
Strongest in late Han
Merchants held in low social esteem
TRADE AND COMMERCE
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Iron metallurgy: Farming tools, utensils, and weapons
State monopolies on liquor, salt and iron
Silk textiles
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Paper production
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Invented probably before 100 C.E.
Began to replace silk and bamboo as writing
materials
Population growth
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Sericulture spread all over China during the Han
High quality Chinese silk became a prized commodity
Traded as far afield as India, Persia, Mesopotamia, and Rome
Increased from twenty to sixty million from
220 B.C.E. to 9 C.E.
Despite light taxation, state revenue was
large
Silk Road established: horses for silk
“To this city everything that is most rare and
valuable in all parts of the world finds its way.”
Silk Road Traveler, Marco Polo, Describing the Chinese city of Beijing.
View the video,
“Trade Connects the World: The Silk Road.”
Answer these questions as you watch the video:
1. What goods were
traded on the
Silk Road during
the Han Dynasty?
2. What ideas
traveled along
the Silk Road?
Silk Road Traders
Ancient trade was not limited to the Mediterranean
region. The Chinese Han Dynasty Emperor Wudi
opened up a trade route, later called the Silk Road
that linked China and the west for centuries.
Silk Road trade goods included silk, whose
Click here for British Museum production secrets were carefully guarded by
Silk Road exhibition website. the Chinese, jade, and porcelain in return for
glassware, linen, fabric and cedar wood .
Han and Roman Empire Similarities
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Highly stratified societies.
Patriarchal families.
Confucianism,
pater familias.
Agricultural base:
free peasants-small
farms or tenant farmers,
Heavy dependency
on slavery and latifundias.
Han and Roman Empire Similarities
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Educated civil service.
Confucian trained
scholar bureaucrats,
civic responsibility.
Highly centralized state
dynastic, empires with
appearance of limits
through Senate.
Han and Roman (continued)
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Multicultural empires—most conquered
assimilated, citizenship offered to best,
extension of Roman law and building
Extensive road systems
and urban communities
Subordinated women
Armies maintain the
empire internally and
externally.