Han Dynasty

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漢朝 Han Dynasty ←   ← 202 BC – 220 AD →   →   → The Han Dynasty in 2 CE (brown), with military garrisons (yellow dot), dependent states (green dot), and tributary vassal states (orange dot) as far as the Tarim Basin in the western part of Central Asia Capital Chang'an (206 BCE–9 CE, 190 CE-195 CE) Luoyang (25 CE–190 CE, 196 CE) Xuchang (196 CE–220 CE) Language(s) Chinese Religion Taoism, Confucianism, Chinese folk religion Government Monarchy Emperor  - 202 BCE–195 BCE Emperor Gaozu of Han Chancellor  - 206 BCE–193 BCE Xiao He  - – Cao Can  - 189 CE–192CE Dong Zhuo  - 208 CE–220 CE Cao Cao  - 220 CE Cao Pi History  - Establishment 202 BC  - Battle of Gaixia; Han rule of China begins 202 BCE  - Interruption of Han rule 9–24  - Abdication to Cao Wei 220 AD Currency Wushu (五銖) coin

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The Han Dynasty (traditional Chinese: 漢朝; simplified Chinese: 汉朝; pinyin: Hàn Cháo; Wade-Giles: Han Ch'ao; 202 BCE – 220 CE) was the second imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Qin Dynasty (221–206 BCE) and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms (220–265 CE). It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty (9–23 CE) of Wang Mang, which divides the dynastic era into two periods: the Former Han Dynasty (traditional Chinese: 前漢; simplified Chinese: 前汉; pinyin: Qiánhàn) or Western Han Dynasty (traditional Chinese: 西漢; simplified Chinese: 西汉; pinyin: Xī Hàn) (202 BCE – 9 CE)—when the capital was at Chang'an (modern Xi'an)—and the Later Han Dynasty (traditional Chinese: 後漢; simplified Chinese: 后汉; pinyin: Hòu Hàn) or Eastern Han Dynasty (traditional Chinese: 東漢; simplified Chinese: 东汉; pinyin: Dōng Hàn) (25–220 CE)—when the capital was at Luoyang (later shifted to Xuchang by 196 CE). It was founded by the peasant rebel leader Liu Bang (256 or 247–195 BCE) of the Liu clan, who is known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han (r. 202–195 BCE). Spanning roughly four centuries, the Han Dynasty is considered a golden age in Chinese history;^[1] to this day, China's majority ethnic group still refer to themselves as the "Han people".

When the Han Empire was founded, its territory was divided between commanderies controlled by the central government and semi-autonomous kingdoms, which were eventually ruled only by close relatives of the emperor. Following the Rebellion of the Seven States, the imperial court directly appointed the administrative staffs of the kingdoms, which remained nominal fiefs of the kings yet came to resemble more or less the regular commandery. Another threat to Han's control was the nomadic Xiongnu Confederation founded by Modu Shanyu (r. 209–174 BCE), which spanned across the eastern portion of the Eurasian Steppe and, following a victory over Han forces in 200 BCE, negotiated terms of a royal marriage alliance and tributary relations in 198 BCE with Han as the de facto inferior partner. When the Xiongnu continued to raid Han's borders despite the treaty, Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141–87 BCE) launched several military campaigns against them which would eventually force the Xiongnu to accept vassal status as one of Han's tributaries. Yet these war campaigns achieved more than subduing the Xiongnu; they expanded the Han realm into the Tarim Basin of Central Asia (with additional conquests of what are now modern northern Vietnam and North Korea) and established the vast trade network of the Silk Road that stretched to the Mediterranean world of the Roman Empire. The Han court received envoys from rulers in what are now Japan, Burma, Afghanistan, North India, Iran, and allegedly one embassy from Rome in 166 CE.

Eastern Han forces were able to split the Xiongnu into two competing states, the Southern Xiongnu and Northern Xiongnu, forcing the latter to flee past the Ili River. Despite this victory, the deserts and steppes of the north were quickly taken over by the nomadic Xianbei Confederation, which Han was unable to conquer. Yet Han's ultimate downfall came from within and not by external invasion. After 92 CE, palace eunuchs perpetually involved themselves in court politics and overthrows of consort clans of the empresses and empress dowagers. Imperial authority was seriously challenged by massive Daoist religious societies who instigated the Yellow Turban Rebellion and Five Pecks of Rice Rebellion. Following the death of Emperor Ling (r. 168–189 CE), the eunuchs were finally slaughtered in the palaces by military officers, triggering events which allowed warlords to carve up the empire. Cao Pi, son of the Chancellor and King of Wei Cao Cao, usurped the throne from Emperor Xian and formally ended the Han Dynasty.

The Han Dynasty was an age of economic prosperity which saw incredible growth of its money economy—first established during the Zhou Dynasty (c. 1050 – 256 BCE). The coin issued by the central government's mint in 119 BCE remained the standard coin of China until the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE). To pay for military campaigns and frontier settlements of newly-conquered territories, the central government nationalized once private industries of salt and iron in 117 BCE, yet these monopolies were repealed during Eastern Han in favor of heavily taxing private entrepreneurs to compensate for lost revenue. The Han government was led by the emperor, who also enjoyed a pinnacle social status in Han society although he shared power with the nobility and was scrutinized by his appointed ministers who came largely from the scholarly gentry class. Beginning with Emperor Wu's regime (and ending with the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911 CE), the Chinese court officially sponsored the ideology of Confucianism in education and court politics (albeit synthesized with the five phases and yin-yang cosmology during the Western Han by the scholar Dong Zhongshu). Science and technology during Han saw significant advancements. The papermaking process was first invented, along with the nautical steering rudder, negative numbers in mathematics, the raised-relief map in cartography, the hydraulic-powered armillary sphere for astronomy, and the seismometer, which employed an inverted pendulum that detected the exact direction of earthquakes from hundreds of kilometers/miles away.

[edit] History

[edit] Western Han

A silk banner from Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan province which was draped over the coffin of the Lady Dai (d. 168 BCE), wife of the Marquess Li Cang (利蒼) (d. 186 BCE), chancellor for the Kingdom of Changsha^[2]

China's first imperial dynasty was the Qin Dynasty (221–206 BCE). It had unified the Warring States through conquest, yet its insecure foundations became apparent after the loss of its first emperor; within four years its authority had collapsed in the face of rebellion.^[3] Two former rebel leaders, Xiang Yu (d. 202 BCE) of Chu and Liu Bang (d. 195 BCE) of Han, engaged in a war to decide who would become hegemon over all of China, which at this point had fissured into several kingdoms claiming allegiance to either Xiang Yu or Liu Bang.^[4] Although Xiang Yu proved to be a capable commander, he was defeated at Gaixia (in modern Anhui), Liu Bang assumed the title of emperor at the urging of his followers, and is known to posterity as Emperor Gaozu (r. 202–195 BCE).^[5] Chang'an was chosen as the new capital of the reunified empire under Han.^[6]

At the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty, thirteen centrally-controlled commanderies (including the capital region) existed in the western third of the empire, while two-thirds of the empire in the east consisted of ten semi-autonomous kingdoms.^[7] To placate his prominent commanders from the war with Chu, Emperor Gaozu enfeoffed some of them as kings. By the time of Gaozu's death, nine of the ten kings were replaced by royal Liu family members (and after 157 BCE, the last one was replaced), since their loyalty to the throne came into question.^[7] After several insurrections by Han kings—the largest being the Rebellion of the Seven States in 154 BCE—the imperial court enacted a series of reforms beginning in 145 BCE which limited the size and power of these kingdoms, carving them into smaller ones or new commanderies.^[8] Kings were no longer able to appoint their own staffs (a duty now assumed by the imperial court) and became only nominal heads of their fiefs who collected a portion of the tax revenues as their personal incomes.^[9][10] Yet the kingdoms were never entirely abolished and existed throughout the rest of Western and Eastern Han.^[11]

To the north of China proper, the nomadic Xiongnu chieftain Modu Shanyu (r. 209–174 BCE) conquered the various tribes inhabiting the eastern portion of the Eurasian Steppe; by the end of his reign, he controlled Manchuria, Mongolia, and the Tarim Basin, subjugating over twenty states east of Samarkand.^[12][13][14] Emperor Gaozu feared for the amount of Han-manufactured iron weapons being traded to the Xiongnu along the northern borders, and so established a trade embargo against them.^[15] In revenge, the Xiongnu invaded what is now modern Shanxi province where they defeated Han forces at Baideng in 200 BCE.^[15][16] Negotiations followed in 198 BCE and the heqin agreement was established, which nominally held the leaders of Xiongnu and Han as equal partners in a royal marriage alliance, yet Han was forced to send large amounts of tribute items like silk clothes, food, and wine to the Xiongnu.^[17][18][19] Despite the tribute and a negotiation reached between Laoshang Shanyu (174–160 BCE) and Emperor Wen (r. 180–157 BCE) to reopen border markets, many of the shanyu's Xiongnu subordinates chose not to obey the treaty and periodically raided Han territories south of the Great Wall for additional goods.^[20][21][22]

A gilded bronze human-shaped oil lamp, dated 2nd century BCE, found in the tomb of Dou Wan, wife to the Han prince Liu Sheng; its sliding shutter allows for adjustments in the direction and brightness in rays of light while it also traps smoke within the body, thus considered an anti-pollutant design.^[23][24]

In a court conference assembled by Emperor Wu (r. 141–87 BCE) in 135 BCE, the majority-consensus of his ministers was to retain the heqin agreement, which Emperor Wu accepted despite Xiongnu raids.^[25][26] However, a court conference in 134 BCE convinced the majority (and Emperor Wu) that a limited engagement at Mayi involving the assassination of the shanyu would throw the Xiongnu realm into chaos for the benefit of Han.^[26][27] When this plot failed in 133 BCE,^[28] Emperor Wu launched massive military invasions into Xiongnu territory that culminated in 119 BCE at the Battle of Mobei, where the Han commanders Huo Qubing (d. 117 BCE) and Wei Qing (d. 106 BCE) forced the Xiongnu court to flee north of the Gobi Desert.^[29][30] After Wu's reign, Han forces continued to gain the upper hand against the Xiongnu. Their leader Huhanye Shanyu (呼韓邪) (r. 58–31 BCE) submitted to Han as a tributary vassal in 51 BCE, while his rival claimant to the throne Zhizhi Shanyu (56–36 BCE) was killed by Chen Tang and Gan Yanshou (甘延壽/甘延寿) at the Battle of Zhizhi (in modern Taraz, Kazakhstan).^[31][32]

Han forces occupied a vast stretch of land from the Hexi Corridor to Lop Nur in 121 BCE; after they repelled a joint Xiongnu-Qiang invasion of this territory in 111 BCE, the Han court promoted the settlement of new frontier commanderies there: Jiuquan, Zhangyi, Dunhuang, and Wuwei.^[33][34][35] Even before Han's expansion into Central Asia, the travels of the diplomat Zhang Qian from 139–125 BCE established Chinese contacts with Dayuan (Fergana), Kangju (Sogdiana), Daxia (Bactria, formerly the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom), and knowledge of Shendu (Indus River valley of North India) and Anxi (the Persian Empire of Parthia), all of which eventually received Han embassies.^{[36][37][38][39][40]} This was the beginning of the Silk Road trade network that extended to the Roman Empire, bringing Han items like silk to Rome and Roman goods such as glasswares to China.^[41][42] From roughly 115–60 BCE, Han forces fought the Xiongnu over control of the oasis city-states in the Tarim Basin (representing the eastern terminus of the Silk Road); Han was eventually victorious and established the Protectorate of the Western Regions in 60 BCE that dealt with defense and foreign affairs.^{[43][44][45][46]} The Han realm was also expanded into what are now modern Guangdong, Guangxi, and northern Vietnam with the naval conquest of Nanyue in 111 BCE, Yunnan with the conquest of the Dian Kingdom in 109 BCE, and the northern part of the Korean Peninsula with the colonial establishments of Xuantu Commandery and Lelang Commandery in 108 BCE.^[47][48] In China's first known nationwide census taken in 2 CE, the population was registered as having 57,671,400 individuals in 12,366,470 households.^[49]

A Western or Eastern Han bronze horse with a lead saddle

To pay for his military campaigns and colonial efforts, Emperor Wu nationalized several private industries with new central government monopolies administered largely by former merchants. This included the production of salt, iron, and liquor commodities, as well as bronze-coin currency. The liquor monopoly lasted only from 98–81 BCE and the salt and iron monopolies were abolished in early Eastern Han; only the issuing of coin cash remained a central government monopoly throughout the rest of Han.^{[50][51][52][53][54][55]} The eventual repeal of the government monopolies was the result of a political faction known as the Reformists gaining greater influence at court, which opposed the Modernist faction that dominated court politics under Emperor Wu's reign and the subsequent regency of Huo Guang (d. 68 BCE). The Modernists argued for an aggressive and expansionary foreign policy supported by revenues from heavy government intervention into the private economy. The Reformists overturned these policies since they favored a cautious, non-expansionary approach to foreign policy, frugal budget reform, and lower tax rates imposed on private entrepreneurs.^[56][57]

[edit] Wang Mang's usurpation and civil war

A succession of male relatives to Empress Wang Zhengjun (71 BCE – 13 CE)—who was first empress, then empress dowager, then grand empress dowager during the reigns of Yuan (r. 49–33 BCE), Cheng (r. 33–7 BCE), and Ai (7–1 BCE) respectively—held the title of regent.^[58][59] Her nephew Wang Mang (45–23 CE) was appointed regent over Emperor Ping (r. 1 BCE – 6 CE), yet when he died in 6 CE, Grand Empress Dowager Wang appointed Wang Mang as acting emperor over the child Liu Ying (d. 25 CE), who Wang promised to relinquish his control to once he came of age.^[60] Despite this and several revolts of the nobility against him, Wang Mang claimed that signals sent from Heaven ushered in the end of Han and the beginning of his own dynasty: the Xin Dynasty (9–23 CE).^[61][62][23]

A painted ceramic mounted cavalryman from the tomb of a military general at Xianyang, Shaanxi province, dated to the Western Han Era

Wang Mang initiated a series of eventually failed reforms, such as the outlawing of slavery, introduction of new currencies which debased the value of coinage, and nationalization of land so that each household was allotted an equal share.^{[63][64][65][66]} Although these reforms produced some backlash against him, the demise of Wang Mang's regime was ensured by massive flooding in c. 3 CE and 11 CE caused by the Yellow River breaking through its flood works and splitting into two branches—one emptying north and another south of the Shandong Peninsula (Han engineers finally dammed up the southern branch by 70 CE).^[67][68][69] This disaster dislodged thousands of farming peasants from their homes who were then forced to join roving bandit and rebel groups such as the Red Eyebrows for survival.^[67][68][69] Wang Mang's armies failed to subdue the rebels and he himself was killed by an insurgent mob in the capital who forced their way into the Weiyang Palace.^[70][71] Emperor Gengshi of Han (r. 23–25 CE), a descendant of Emperor Jing (r. 157–141 BCE) who attempted to restore the Han Dynasty and occupied Chang'an as his capital, was overpowered by the rebel Red Eyebrows who demoted him as a king, assassinated him, and replaced him with a puppet monarch Liu Penzi.^[72][73]

Emperor Gengshi's brother Liu Xiu, who first distinguished himself at the Battle of Kunyang in 23 CE, was urged to take the title of emperor and is known posthumously as Emperor Guangwu (r. 25–57 CE).^[74][75] Under his rule the Han Empire was restored. He occupied Luoyang as his capital in 25 CE, and by 27 CE his officers Deng Yu and Feng Yi forced the Red Eyebrows into surrender before executing their leaders on account of treason.^[75][76] From 26 until 36 CE, Emperor Guangwu waged war against regional warlords who also claimed the title of emperor, yet they were ultimately defeated and China was reunified.^[77][78]

[edit] Eastern Han

Left image: Western-Han painted ceramic jar decorated with raised reliefs of dragons, phoenixes, and taotie
Right image: Reverse side of a Western-Han bronze mirror with painted designs of a flower motif

During the widespread rebellion against Wang Mang, the Korean state of Goguryeo was free to raid Han's Korean commanderies; Han did not reaffirm its control over the region until 30 CE.^[79] The Trưng Sisters of Vietnam rebelled against Han in 40 CE, yet their rebellion was crushed by Han general Ma Yuan (d. 49 CE) in a campaign from 42–43 CE.^[80][81] Wang Mang renewed hostilities against the Xiongnu, who were estranged from Han until their leader Bi (比), a rival claimant to the throne against his cousin Punu (蒲奴), submitted to Han as a tributary vassal in 50 CE, thus creating two rival Xiongnu states: the Southern Xiongnu led by Bi, an ally of Han, and the Northern Xiongnu led by Punu, an enemy of Han.^[82][83]

During the downfall of Wang Mang, Han lost control over the Tarim Basin, which was conquered by the Northern Xiongnu in 63 CE and used as a base to invade Han's Hexi Corridor in Gansu.^[84] Dou Gu (d. 88 CE) defeated the Northern Xiongnu at the Battle of Yiwulu in 73 CE, evicting them from Turfan and chasing them as far as Lake Barkol before establishing a garrison at Hami.^[85] However, after the new Protector General of the Western Regions Chen Mu (d. 75 CE) was killed by the Xiongnu's allies of Karasahr and Kucha, the garrison at Hami was withdrawn.^[85][86] At the Battle of Ikh Bayan in 89 CE, Dou Xian (d. 92 CE) inflicted a heavy defeat against the Northern Xiongnu shanyu before chasing him into the Altai Mountains.^[85][87] After the Northern Xiongnu fled into the Ili River valley in 91 CE, the vacuum of power they left from the borders of the Buyeo Kingdom in Manchuria to the Ili River of the Wusun people was immediately filled by the nomadic Xianbei.^[88] The Xianbei reached their apogee under Tanshihuai (檀石槐) (d. 180 CE), who consistently defeated Chinese armies, yet his confederation fell apart after his death.^[89]

Ban Chao (d. 102 CE) enlisted the aid of the Kushan Empire (of modern India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan) in subduing Kashgar and its ally Sogdiana.^[90][91] When a request by Kushan ruler Vima Kadphises (r. c. 90 – c. 100 CE) for a marriage alliance with Han was rejected in 90 CE, he sent his forces to Wakhan (Afghanistan) to attack Ban Chao, a conflict that ended with Kushan withdrawing due to lack of supplies.^[90][91] In 91 CE, the office of Protector General of the Western Regions was revived when it was bestowed to Ban Chao.^[92] In addition to tributary relations with Kushan, Han also received tribute from Parthia in Persia, from a king in what is now Burma, from a ruler in Japan, and initiated an unsuccessful mission to Daqin (Rome) in 97 CE with Gan Ying as emissary.^[93][94] A Roman embassy of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–180 CE) allegedly reached the court of Emperor Huan of Han (r. 146–168 CE) in 166 CE, yet Rafe de Crespigny asserts that this was most likely a group of Roman merchants.^[95][96] Other travelers to Eastern-Han China included Buddhist monks who translated works into Chinese, such as An Shigao of Persia (Iran) and Lokaksema from Kushan-era Gandhara, India.^[97][98]

A female servant and male advisor dressed in silk robes, ceramic figurines from the Western Han Era

While Emperor Zhang's (75–88 CE) reign was viewed by later Eastern Han scholars as a highpoint for the dynastic house,^[99] subsequent reigns were marked by eunuch intervention in court politics and violent overthrows of consort clans.^[100][101] With the aid of the eunuch Zheng Zhong (d. 107 CE), Emperor He (r. 88–105 CE) had Empress Dowager Dou (d. 97 CE) put under house arrest and her clan stripped from power after she concealed the identity of his natural mother—Consort Liang—while purging the latter's clan.^[102][103] Emperor He's wife Empress Deng Sui (d. 121 CE) managed state affairs as the regent empress dowager during a turbulent financial crisis and widespread Qiang people's rebellion that lasted from 107 to 118 CE and temporarily cut off Han's access to Central Asia.^[104][105] When Empress Dowager Deng died, Emperor An (r. 106–125 CE) accepted the accusations of the eunuchs Li Run (李閏) and Jiang Jing (江京) that she and her family had plotted to remove him from power, so he dismissed her clan members from office, exiled them, and drove many to commit suicide.^[106][107] After Empress Dowager Yan (d. 126 CE) had placed the child Marquess of Beixiang on the throne (who died soon after), the eunuch Sun Cheng (d. 132 CE) put her under house arrest, slaughtered her eunuch allies, had her relatives either killed or exiled, and enthroned Emperor Shun of Han (r. 125–144 CE).^[108][109] When the regent Liang Ji (d. 159 CE), brother of Empress Liang Na (d. 150 CE), had the brother-in-law of Consort Deng Mengnü (later empress) (d. 165 CE) killed after she resisted his attempts to control her, Emperor Huan employed eunuchs to oust Liang Ji from power (forcing him to commit suicide).^[110][111]

A Western-Han pottery tomb statuettes of unclothed servants that once had wooden arms and miniature silk clothes, yet these eroded over time and have since disappeared.^[112]

Students from the Imperial University staged a widespread student protest against the eunuchs of Emperor Huan's court.^[113] Huan further alienated the bureaucracy when he initiated grandiose construction projects and hosted thousands of concubines in his harem during a time of economic crisis.^[114][115] In 167 CE, the Grand Commandant Dou Wu (d. 168 CE) convinced his son-in-law Emperor Huan to release the official Li Ying (李膺) and his student associates of the Imperial University from prison after eunuchs dubiously charged them with treason.^[116] However, Emperor Huan permanently barred Li Ying and his associates from serving in office, the beginning of the Partisan Prohibitions.^[116] Following Huan's death, Dou Wu and the Grand Tutor Chen Fan (陳蕃) (d. 168 CE) attempted a coup d'état against the eunuchs Hou Lan (d. 172 CE), Cao Jie (d. 181 CE), and Wang Fu (王甫). When this was discovered the eunuchs arrested Empress Dowager Dou (d. 172 CE) and Chen Fan, while general Zhang Huan (張奐) sided with the eunuchs and engaged in a shouting match with Dou Wu and his retainers (who gradually deserted him) that resulted in Dou's forced suicide.^[117] The eunuchs under Emperor Ling (r. 168–189 CE) had the Partisan Prohibitions renewed and expanded while selling top government offices at the highest bidder.^[118][119] Much of the affairs of state were entrusted to eunuchs Zhao Zhong (d. 189 CE) and Zhang Rong (d. 189 CE) while Emperor Ling spent much of his time play-acting with concubines and participating in military parades.^[120]

[edit] End of the Han

A Chinese crossbow mechanism with a buttplate from either the late Warring States Period or the early Han Dynasty; made of bronze and inlaid with silver

The Partisan Prohibitions were repealed with the almost simultaneous outbreak of the Yellow Turban Rebellion and Five Pecks of Rice Rebellion in 184 CE, since the court did not want to continue alienating a significant portion of the gentry class who might join the rebel cause.^[118] The Yellow Turbans and Five-Pecks-of-Rice adherents belonged to two different hierarchical Daoist religious societies led by faith healers Zhang Jiao (d. 184 CE) and Zhang Lu (d. 216 CE), respectively. While Zhang Lu's rebellion in what is now modern northern Sichuan and southern Shanxi was not quelled until 215 CE,^[121] Zhang Jiao's massive rebellion across eight provinces was annihilated by Han forces within a year (with much smaller recurrent uprisings in the following decades).^[122] Although the Yellow Turbans were defeated, many of those appointed as generals during the crisis never disbanded the militia forces they had mustered and used these troops to amass their own power outside of imperial authority, which was collapsing.^[123]

Animalistic guardian spirits of day and night wearing Chinese robes, Han Dynasty paintings on ceramic tile; Michael Loewe writes that the hybrid of man and beast in art and religious beliefs predated the Han and remained popular during the first half of Western Han and the Eastern Han.^[124]

General-in-Chief He Jin (d. 189 CE), half-brother to Empress He (d. 189 CE), plotted with Yuan Shao (d. 202 CE) to overthrow the eunuchs by having several generals march to the outskirts of the capital and demand the eunuchs' execution by written petition to Empress He.^[125] After a period of hesitation, Empress He consented; when the eunuchs discovered this, they had her brother He Miao (何苗) rescind the order.^[126][127] After the eunuchs assassinated He Jin on September 22, 189 CE, Yuan Shao besieged Luoyang's Northern Palace while his brother Yuan Shu (d. 199 CE) besieged the Southern Palace; on September 25, both palaces had been breached and some two thousand eunuchs were killed.^[128][129] Zhang Rang had previously fled with Emperor Shao (r. 189 CE) and his brother Liu Xie—the future Emperor Xian of Han (r. 189–220 CE)—yet Zhang committed suicide by jumping into the Yellow River.^[130]

After General of the Van Dong Zhuo (d. 192 CE) found the young emperor and his brother wandering in the countryside, he escorted them back to the capital and was made Minister of Works, taking control of Luoyang and forcing Yuan Shao to flee.^[131] After Dong Zhuo demoted Emperor Shao (and later poisoned him) and promoted his brother Liu Xie as Emperor Xian, Yuan Shao led a coalition of former officials and officers against Dong, who burned Luoyang to the ground and resettled the court at Chang'an in May 191.^[132] Dong was killed by his adopted son Lü Bu (d. 198 CE) in a plot hatched by Wang Yun (d. 192 CE).^[133] Emperor Xian fled Chang'an in 195 CE for the ruins of Luoyang, yet was convinced by Cao Cao (155–220 CE), then Governor of Yan Province (modern western Shandong and eastern Henan), to move the capital to Xuchang in 196 CE.^[134][135] Yuan Shao challenged Cao Cao for control over the emperor, yet Yuan's power was greatly diminished after Cao defeated him at the Battle of Guandu in 200 CE; after he died, Cao was able to eliminate Yuan's sons who fought over his inheritance.^[136][137] After Cao's defeat at the naval Battle of Red Cliffs in 208 CE, China became split into three spheres of influence, with Cao dominating the north, Sun Quan (182–252 CE) dominating the south, and Liu Bei (161–223 CE) dominating the west.^[138][139] Cao Cao died in March 220 CE and by December his son Cao Pi (187–226 CE) had Emperor Xian relinquish the throne to him (and is known posthumously as Emperor Wen of Wei), thus ending the Han Dynasty and initiating an age of conflict between three states: Cao Wei, Eastern Wu, and Shu Han.^[140][141]

[edit] Society and culture

[edit] Social class

Two Han-dynasty red-and-black lacquerwares, one a bowl, the other a tray; usually only wealthy officials, nobles, and merchants could afford domestic luxury items like lacquerwares, which were common commodities produced by skilled artisans and craftsmen.^[142][143]

In the hierarchical social order, the emperor was at the apex of Han society and government, spare all times when he was a minor ruled over by a regent (usually the empress dowager or one of the empress's male relatives).^[144] Ranked just below him were the kings who were of the same Liu family clan.^[10][145] The rest of society, including nobles lower than kings and all commoners excluding slaves, could belong to one of twenty ranks (ershi gongcheng 二十公乘) which provided pensions and legal privileges, the top two ranks being the marquess (who was given a pension) and full marquess (who was given a territorial fief).^[146][147]

Officials who served in government belonged to the wider commoner social class and were ranked just below nobles in social prestige, yet the highest government officials could be enfeoffed as marquesses.^[148] By the Eastern Han period, local elites of unemployed scholars, teachers, students, and government officials began to identify themselves as members of a larger, nationwide gentry class with shared values and commitment to mainstream scholarship.^[149][150] When the government became noticeably corrupt in mid-to-late Eastern Han, many gentrymen even considered the cultivation of morally-grounded personal relationships more important than serving in public office.^[115][151] The farmer, or specifically the small landowner-cultivator, was considered just below scholars and officials in the social hierarchy, yet this did not include other agricultural cultivators who were of a lower status, such as tenants, wage laborers, and in rare cases slaves.^{[152][153][154][155]} Artisans and craftsmen had a legal and socioeconomic status between that of owner-cultivator farmers and common merchants.^[156] State-registered merchants, who were forced by law to wear white-colored clothes and pay high commercial taxes, were considered by the gentry as social parasites with a contemptible status.^[157][158] Yet these were often petty shopkeepers of urban marketplaces; merchants such as industrialists and itinerant traders working between a network of cities could avoid registering as merchants and were often more wealthy and powerful than the vast majority of government officials.^[158][159] Wealthy landowners such as nobles and officials often provided lodging for retainers who provided valuable labor or duties (even fighting off bandits or riding into battle) yet, unlike slaves, were allowed to come and go from their master's home as they pleased.^[160] Medical physicians, pig breeders, and butchers also had a fairly high social status compared to lowly occultist diviners, runners, and messengers.^[161][162]

[edit] Marriage, gender, and kinship

Left image:A Han pottery female servant in silk robes
Right image: A Han pottery female dancer in silk robes

The Han-era family was patrilineal, typically had four to five nuclear family members living under one household, and most often did not include multiple generations of extended family members under the same roof, unlike families of later dynasties.^[163][164] According to Confucian family norms, one had to treat various family members with different levels of respect and intimacy, such as different accepted time frames for mourning the death of a father as opposed to a paternal uncle.^[165] Arranged marriages were the norm, with the father's input on who his sons or daughters should marry carrying more weight than the mother's.^[166][167] Monogamous marriages were also the norm, although nobles and high officials were wealthy enough to afford and support concubines as additional lovers.^[168][169] Custom dictated that if certain conditions were met, both men and women were able to divorce their spouses and remarry.^[170][171] Aside from the passing of noble titles or ranks, customs of inheritance did not involve primogeniture, so that each son received an equal share of the family property.^[172] Unlike later dynasties, sons did not always receive their inheritance after the death of their father, since the father usually sent his adult married sons away with a portion of the family fortune.^[173] Daughters were not formally included in a father's will, although they did receive a portion of the family fortune through their marriage dowries.^[174] Theoretically women were supposed to obey the will of their father, then their husband, and then their adult son in old age, yet it is known from contemporary sources that there were many deviations to this rule, especially in regard to mothers over their sons and empresses who bossed around and openly humiliated their fathers and brothers.^[175] Women were exempt from the annual corvée labor duties, yet could engage in a range of occupations.^[176] The most common occupation for women was weaving clothes for the family, sale at market, or for large textile enterprises that employed hundreds of women, yet some helped their brothers farm while others became singers, dancers, sorceresses, respected medical physicians, and successful merchants who could afford their own silk clothes.^[177][178]

[edit] Education, literature, and philosophy

A fragment of the 'Stone Classics' (熹平石經); these stone-carved Five Classics installed during Emperor Ling's reign along the roadside of the Imperial University (right outside Luoyang) were made at the instigation of Cai Yong (132–192 CE), who feared the Classics housed in the imperial library were being interpolated by University Academicians.^[179][180]

The early Western Han court simultaneously accepted the philosophical teachings of Legalism, Huang-Lao Daoism, and Confucianism in making state decisions and shaping government policy.^[181][182] However, the Han court under Emperor Wu gave Confucianism exclusive patronage. He abolished all academic chairs or erudites (boshi 博士) not dealing with the Confucian Five Classics in 136 BCE and encouraged nominees for office to receive a Confucian-based education at the Imperial University that he established in 124 BCE.^{[183][184][185][186]} Unlike the original ideology espoused by Confucius, or Kongzi (551–479 BCE), Han Confucianism in Emperor Wu's time was the creation of Dong Zhongshu (179–104 BCE), a scholar and minor official who fused together the ethical ideas of Confucianism (such as ritual, filial piety, and harmonious relationships) with five phases and yin-yang cosmologies.^[187][188] Much to the interest of the ruler, Dong's synthesis justified the imperial system of government within the natural order of the universe.^[189] While the Imperial University grew in importance (with a student body that swelled to over 30,000 by the 2nd century CE),^[190][191] a Confucian-based education was also made available at commandery-level schools and private schools opened in small towns, where a teacher could make a decent living from tuition payments.^[192]

The student, scholar, and bureaucrat could be aided by a multitude of texts. Philosophical works written by Yang Xiong (53 BCE – 18 CE), Huan Tan (43 BCE – 28 CE), Wang Chong (27–100 CE), and Wang Fu (78–163 CE) questioned if human nature was innately good or evil and posed challenges to Dong's universal order.^[193] The Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Tan (d. 110 BCE) and his son Sima Qian (145–86 BCE) established the standard model for all of imperial China's Standard Histories, such as the Book of Han written by Ban Biao (3–54 CE), his son Ban Gu (32–92 CE), and his daughter Ban Zhao (45–116 CE).^[194][195] There were dictionaries such as the Shuowen Jiezi by Xu Shen (c. 58 – c. 147 CE) and the Fangyan by Yang Xiong.^[196][197] Biographies on important figures were written by various gentrymen.^[198] Poems and rhapsodies were also popular forms of literature amongst the gentry.^{[195][199][200][201][202]}

[edit] Law and order

Despite the portrayal of the Qin Dynasty as a brutal regime by Han scholars such as Jia Yi (201–169 BCE), much of the statutes in the Han law code first compiled by Chancellor Xiao He (d. 193 BCE) were derived from the Qin law code (supported by archaeological evidence such as finds at Zhangjiashan and Shuihudi).^{[203][204][205]} Various cases for rape, physical abuse, and murder were brought to court, while women—although usually having less rights by custom—were allowed to level civil and criminal charges against men.^[206][207] While suspects were jailed, convicted criminals were never imprisoned; instead, common punishments were monetary fines, periods of forced hard labor for convicts, and the death penalty by beheading.^[208] Early Han punishments of torturous mutilation were borrowed from Qin law, yet a series of reforms abolished mutilation punishments with progressively less-severe beatings by the bastinado.^[209] Acting as a judge in lawsuits was one of many duties of the Magistrates of counties and Administrators of commanderies, while complex, high profile, or unresolved cases were often deferred to the Minister of Justice in the capital or even the emperor.^[210] In each Han county was several districts, each overseen by a chief of police, while order in the cities was ensured by government officers in the marketplaces and constables in the neighborhoods.^[211][212]

[edit] Clothing and cuisine

Silk textile fragments from the Western Han period, colored with various dyes

Woven silk textile from Tomb No. 1 at Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan province, China, 2nd century BCE

The most common staple crops consumed during Han were wheat, barley, rice, foxtail millet, proso millet, and beans.^[213] Commonly-eaten fruits and vegetables included chestnuts, pears, plums, peaches, melons, apricots, strawberries, red bayberries, jujubes, calabash, bamboo shoots, mustard plant, and taro.^[214] Domesticated animals that were also eaten included chickens, Mandarin ducks, geese, cows, sheep, pigs, and even camels and dogs, while turtles and fish were taken from streams and lakes and commonly-hunted game such as owl, pheasant, magpie, sika deer, and Chinese Bamboo Partridge were consumed.^[215] Seasonings included sugar, honey, salt, and soy sauce.^[216] Beer and wine were regularly consumed.^[217][218] The clothing materials used and types of clothing worn during Han varied by social class. While the wealthy could afford silk robes, skirts, socks, and mittens, coats made of badger or fox fur, duck plumes, and slippers with inlaid leather, pearls, and silk lining, the poor made do with clothes made of hemp, wool, and ferret skins.^{[219][220][221]}

[edit] Religion, cosmology, and metaphysics

Left image: Early 20th-century photo of a 2nd-century-CE stone "pillar-gate" (que 闕) from the site of the 'Wu family shrine' in Shandong, Eastern Han period
Right image: An Eastern-Han vaulted tomb chamber at Luoyang made of small bricks

Families throughout Han China made ritual sacrifices of animals and foodstuffs to deities, spirits, and ancestors at temples and shrines, as it was believed these items could be utilized by those in the spiritual realm.^[222] It was believed that a person had a bipartite soul, the spirit-soul (hun 魂) which journeyed to the afterlife paradise of immortals (xian 仙), and the body-soul (po 魄) which remained in its grave or tomb on earth and was only reunited with the spirit-soul through a ritual ceremony (招魂復魄).^[218][223] In addition to his many other roles, the emperor acted as the highest priest in the land who made sacrifices to Heaven, the main deities known as the Five Powers, and the spirits (shen 神) of mountains and rivers.^[224] It was believed that the three realms of Heaven, Earth, and Mankind were linked by natural cycles of yin and yang and the five phases.^{[225][226][227][228]} If the emperor did not behave according to proper ritual, ethics, and morals, he could disrupt the fine balance of these cosmological cycles and cause calamities such as earthquakes, floods, droughts, epidemics, and swarms of locusts.^{[228][229][230]}

It was believed that immortality could be achieved if one reached the lands of the Queen Mother of the West or Mount Penglai.^[231][232] Han-era Daoists assembled into small groups of hermits who attempted to achieve immortality through breathing exercises, sexual techniques, and use of medical elixirs.^[233] However, by the 2nd century CE Daoists formed large hierarchical religious societies such as the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice, which believed that the sage-philosopher Laozi (fl. 6th century BCE) was a holy prophet who would offer salvation and good health if his devout followers would confess their sins, ban the worship of 'unclean' gods who accepted meat sacrifices, and chant sections of the Daodejing.^[234]

[edit] Government

[edit] Central government

A pottery model of a palace from a Han-dynasty tomb; the entrances to the emperor's palaces were strictly guarded by the Minister of the Guards; if it was found that a commoner, official, or noble entered without explicit permission via a tally system, they were liable for execution.^[235]

In Han government, the emperor was the supreme judge and lawgiver, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and sole designator of official nominees appointed to the top posts in central and local administrations (i.e. those who earned a 600-shi salary-rank or higher).^[236][237] Theoretically, there were no limits to his power. However, state organs with competing interests and institutions such as the court conference (tingyi 廷議) which used majority consensus pressured the emperor to accept the advice of his ministers on policy decisions (lest he alienate the bureaucracy).^[238][239] Nevertheless, emperors sometimes did reject the majority opinion reached at court conferences.^[240]

Below the emperor were his cabinet members known as the Three Excellencies: the Chancellor/Minister over the Masses, Imperial Counselor/Excellency of Works, and Grand Commandant/Grand Marshal.^[241][242] The Chancellor, whose title was changed to Minister over the Masses in 8 BCE, was chiefly responsible for drafting the government budget, yet his other duties included managing provincial registers for land and population, leading court conferences, acting as judge in lawsuits, recommending nominees for high office, and could appoint officials below the salary-rank of 600-shi.^[243][244] The chief duty of the Imperial Counselor of Western Han was to conduct disciplinary procedures for officials (with some duties similar to the Chancellor's such as receiving annual provincial reports), yet when his title was changed to Excellency of Works in 8 BCE, his chief duty became oversight of public works projects.^[245][246] The Grand Commandant, whose title was changed to Grand Marshal in 119 BCE before reverting back to Grand Commandant in 51 CE, was the irregularly-posted commander of the military and then regent during Western Han, while in Eastern Han he was chiefly a civil official who shared many of the same censorial powers as the other two Excellencies.^[247][248]

Paragons of filial piety, Chinese painted artwork on a lacquered basketwork box excavated from an Eastern-Han tomb of what was the Chinese Lelang Commandery in modern North Korea.

Ranked below the Three Excellencies were the Nine Ministers, who each headed a specialized ministry and had many subordinates who expanded the various roles of their ministry. The Minister of Ceremonies was the chief official in charge of religious rites, rituals, prayers, and the maintenance of ancestral temples and altars.^{[249][250][251]} The Minister of the Household was in charge of the emperor's security within the palace grounds, external imperial parks, and wherever the emperor made an outing by chariot.^[249][252] The Minister of the Guards was responsible for securing and patrolling the walls, towers, and gates of the imperial palaces.^[253][254] The Minister Coachman was responsible for the maintenance of imperial stables, horses, carriages and coachhouses for the emperor and his palace attendants, as well as the supply of horses for the armed forces.^[253][255] The Minister of Justice was the chief official in charge of upholding, administering, and interpreting the law.^[256][257] The Minister Herald was the chief official in charge of receiving honored guests at the imperial court, such as nobles and foreign ambassadors.^[258][259] The Minister of the Imperial Clan oversaw the imperial court's interactions with the empire's nobility and extended imperial family, such as granting fiefs and titles.^[260][261] The Minister of Finance was the treasurer for the official bureaucracy and the armed forces who handled tax revenues and set standards for units of measurement.^[262][263] The Minister Steward served the emperor exclusively by providing him with entertainment and amusements, proper food and clothing, medicine and physical care, valuables and equipment.^[262][264]

[edit] Local government

A pottery dog found in a Han tomb wearing a decorative dog collar; although dog meat was eaten during the Han, dogs were also domesticated as pets,^[265] while the emperor's imperial parks had kennels for hunting dogs.^[266]

In descending order of size, the Han Empire (excluding kingdoms and marquessates) was carved into political units of provinces (zhou), commanderies (jun), and counties (xian).^[267] The heads of provinces, whose official title was changed from Inspector to Governor and vice versa several times during Han, were each responsible for inspecting several commandery-level and kingdom-level administrations.^[268][269] Based on their reports, the officials in these local administrations would be promoted, demoted, dismissed, or prosecuted by the imperial court.^[270] A Governor could take various actions without permission from the imperial court, while the lower-ranked Inspector had executive powers only during times of crisis (such as raising militias across the commanderies under his jurisdiction to quell a rebellion).^[267] A commandery, which consisted of a group of counties, was headed by an Administrator.^[267] He was the top civil and military leader of the commandery who handled defense, lawsuits, seasonal instructions to farmers, and recommendations of nominees for office sent annually to the capital in a quota system first established by Emperor Wu.^{[271][272][273]} The head of a large county (of about 10,000 households) was called a Prefect, while the heads of smaller counties were called Chiefs, yet both can be referred to as Magistrates.^[274][275] A Magistrate maintained law and order in his county, registered the populace for taxation, mobilized commoners for annual corvée duties, repaired schools, and supervised public works.^[275] A county was divided into several districts, the latter composed of a group of hamlets that each contained about a hundred families on average.^[276][277]

[edit] Kingdoms and marquessates

In the beginning of Han, the kingdoms (which were roughly the size of commanderies) were ruled by the emperor's male relatives as semi-autonomous fiefs. The administration of each kingdom was virtually a scaled down model of the central government.^{[278][279][280]} Although the emperor appointed the Chancellor of each kingdom, kings appointed all other civil official in their fiefs.^[278][279] However, after several insurrections by the kings, Emperor Jing resolved to limit their power in 145 BCE when he stripped kings of their right to appoint officials with salaries higher than 400-shi.^[279] The Imperial Counselors and Nine Ministers (excluding the Minister Coachman) of every kingdom were abolished, although the Chancellor was still appointed by the central government.^[279] With these reforms, kings became merely nominal heads of their fiefs who garnered a personal income only from a set portion of the taxes collected in their kingdom.^[10] Likewise, the officials in the administrative staffs of a full marquess's fief were appointed by the central government (his Chancellor ranked as the equivalent of a county Prefect), while he collected a portion of the tax revenues as personal income.^[274][281]

[edit] Military

An Eastern-Han pottery soldier with a now faded coating of paint and a missing weapon in his right hand

When a male commoner reached age twenty-three, he was drafted into the military for one year of training and one year of service as a non-professional, conscripted soldier (zhengzu 正卒) serving on their frontier, in a king's court, or under the Minister of the Guards in the capital.^[282][283] During Eastern Han, conscription could be avoided if one paid a commutable tax, since the Eastern Han court favored the building of a volunteer army for its non-professional soldiers.^[284] The latter comprised the Southern Army (Nanjun 南軍), while the small, professional standing army stationed at the capital was the Northern Army (Beijun 北軍).^[285] Led by Colonels (Xiaowei 校尉), the Northern Army was made up of five regiments that each had roughly 750 soldiers and 150 junior officers.^[286][287] However, during times of war a much larger militia was raised across the country to supplement the Northern Army. In these circumstances, a General (Jiangjun 將軍) led a division divided into regiments led by Colonels (and sometimes Majors, Sima 司馬), which in turn were divided by companies led by Captains and finally platoons as the smallest soldier units.^[286][288] When central authority broke down after 189 CE, wealthy landowners and regional warlords began relying on their retainers to act as their own personal troops (buqu 部曲).^[289]

[edit] Economics

[edit] Variations in currency

A wushu (五銖) coin issued during the reign of Emperor Wu (r. 141–87 BCE), 25.5 mm in diameter

In the beginning of Han, Emperor Gaozu shut down the government mint in favor of private minting of coins, a decision reversed in 186 BCE by his widow Grand Empress Dowager Lü Zhi (d. 180 BCE) who abolished private minting.^[290] Yet when she issued a bronze coin in 182 BCE that was much lighter in weight than the previous—from 5.7 g (0.2 oz) to 1.5 g (0.05 oz)—she caused widespread inflation that was not tamped down until 175 BCE when Emperor Wen allowed private minters to manufacture coins that were precisely 2.6 g (0.09 oz) in weight.^[290] In 144 BCE Emperor Jing abolished private minting in favor of central-government and commandery-level minting, introducing a coin that was 2.6 g (0.09 oz) in weight.^[291] Emperor Wu introduced another in 120 BCE that was 1.9 g (0.067 oz) in weight.^[291] The following year he replaced this with the wushu (五銖) coin weighing 3.2 g (0.11 oz).^[292] This would remain China's standard coin until the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE), although its use was interrupted briefly by a range of new currencies introduced during Wang Mang's regime (which heavily debased the value of coinage) and was not reinstated until 40 CE.^{[293][294][295]} Since commandery-issued coins were often of inferior quality and lighter weight, the central government shut their mints down and monopolized the issue of coinage in 113 BCE under the oversight of the Superintendent of Waterways and Parks (yet this duty was shifted to the Minister of Finance during Eastern Han).^[295][296]

[edit] Taxation and property

Gilded bronze animal figurines from the Han Dynasty, including a horse, elephant, cow, and unicorn

Aside from the landowner's land tax paid in a portion of their crop yield, the poll tax and property taxes were paid in coin cash.^[297] This stimulated a money economy that necessitated the minting of over 28,000,000,000 coins from 118 BCE to 5 CE, an average of 220,000,000 coins a year.^[298] The widespread circulation of coin cash allowed successful merchants to invest money in land, thus empowering the very social class the government attempted to stifle through heavy commercial and property taxes.^[299] Emperor Wu even enacted laws which banned registered merchants from owning land, yet it is known that powerful merchants who avoided registration owned large tracts of land.^[300][301] The small landowner-cultivators represented the backbone of the Han tax base, yet this was threatened during the latter half of Eastern Han when an alarming amount of peasants fell into debt and were forced to work as farming tenants for wealthy landlords.^{[302][155][303]} The Han government attempted various reforms to keep small landowner-cultivators out of debt and on their own farms, such as reducing taxes, installing temporary remissions of taxes, granting loans, and providing landless peasants temporary lodging and work in agricultural colonies until they were able to recover.^[54][304] In 168 BCE, the land tax rate was relaxed from one-fifteenth of the crop yield to one-thirtieth of a farming household's crop yield.^[305][306] This tax rate was reduced to an astonishing one-hundredth of a crop-yield for the last decades of the dynasty, yet this loss to government revenue was compensated by increasing property taxes.^[306] The labor tax, in the form of conscripted labor for one month out of the year, was imposed on male commoners aged fifteen to fifty-six, yet this could be avoided in Eastern Han with a commutable tax (as hired labor became more popular).^[282][307] The annual poll tax rate for adult men and women was 120 coins and 20 coins for minors, yet merchants were forced to pay a higher rate at 240 coins.^[308]

[edit] Private manufacture and government monopolies

A Han-dynasty iron chicken sickle and iron dagger

In early Western Han, a wealthy salt or iron industrialist—whether a semi-autonomous king or wealthy merchant—could muster funds that rivaled the imperial treasury and amass a peasant workforce of over a thousand (thus keeping many away from their farms and denying the government a significant portion of its land tax revenue).^[309][310] To eliminate the influence of such private entrepreneurs outside of imperial authority, Emperor Wu nationalized the salt and iron industries in 117 BCE and allowed many of the former industrialists to become officials administering the monopolies.^{[311][312][53]} However, by Eastern Han the central government monopolies were repealed in favor of production by commandery-level, county-level administrations, and private businessmen.^[311][313] Liquor was another profitable private industry taken over by the central government in 98 BCE, yet this was repealed in 81 BCE and a property tax rate of 2 coins for every 0.2 L (0.05 gallons) was installed for those who traded it privately.^[314][315] By 110 BCE Emperor Wu also interfered with the profitable private trade in grain when he eliminated speculation by selling government-stored grain at a cheap price when merchants demanded a higher one.^[54] Aside from Emperor Ming of Han's (r. 57–75 CE) brief installment of an Office for Price Adjustment and Stabilization (abolished in 68 CE), central government intervention into the private economy with price control regulations and other economic devices was largely absent during Eastern Han.^[316]

[edit] Science, technology, and engineering

[edit] Writing materials

While more archaic writing materials of ancient China included bronzewares and animal bones, by the beginning of Han the chief writing materials included clay tablets, silk cloth, and rolled scrolls made of bamboo strips sewn together with hempen string passed through drilled holes and secured with clay stamps.^{[317][318][319]} While the oldest known Chinese piece of hard, hempen wrapping paper dates to the 2nd century BCE, the standard papermaking process was invented by Cai Lun (50–121 CE) in 105 CE.^{[320][321][322]} The oldest surviving piece of paper with writing on it was found in the ruins of a Han watchtower in Inner Mongolia dated 110 CE.^[323]

[edit] Metallurgy and agriculture

An pair of iron scissors from the Eastern Han Era

The blast furnace converts raw iron ore into pig iron, which can be remelted in a cupola furnace to produce cast iron by means of a cold blast and hot blast; these were found in China by the late Spring and Autumn Period (722–481 BCE).^[324][325] The bloomery was nonexistent in ancient China, yet the Han-era Chinese produced wrought iron by injecting too much oxygen into the furnace and causing decarburization.^[326] By the Han, cast iron and pig iron could be converted into wrought iron and steel by use of the finery forge and puddling process.^[327][328]

The Han-era Chinese used bronze and iron to make many different domestic wares, weapons, culinary tools, and carpenter's tools,^[329][330] yet perhaps the greatest impact made by the improved iron-smelting techniques during Han was the use of new agricultural tools. The sturdy three-legged iron seed drill, invented by the 2nd century BCE, enabled farmers to carefully plant crops in rows instead of casting seeds out by hand.^{[331][332][333]} The heavy moldboard iron plow, which necessitated one man to control it, two oxen to pull it, had three plowshares, a seed box for the drills, a tool which turned down the soil, and could sow roughly 45,730 m² (11.3 acres) of land in a single day, was also invented during Han.^[334][335]

To protect crops from wind and drought, the Grain Intendant Zhao Guo (趙過) created the alternating fields system (daitianfa 代田法) during Emperor Wu's reign, which switched the places of furrows and ridges between growing seasons.^[336] Han farmers also used the pit field system (aotian 凹田) for growing crops, which involved heavily-fertilized pits that did not require plows or oxen and could be placed on sloping terrains.^[337][338] In central and southern China, paddy fields were chiefly used to grow rice, while Han paddy-field farmers along the Huai River used methods of transplantation.^[339]

[edit] Structural engineering

Left image: Eastern-Han tomb models of towers with dougong brackets supporting balconies, 1st–2nd century CE. Zhang Heng (78–139 CE) described the large imperial park in the suburbs of Chang'an as having tall towers where archers would shoot stringed arrows from the top in order to entertain the Western Han emperors.^[340]
Right image: A painted ceramic architectural model—found in a Han Dynasty tomb—depicting urban residential towers with a courtyard, verandas, tiled rooftops, dougong support brackets, and a covered bridge extending from the third floor of one tower to the other

Timber was the chief building material during Han and was used to build palace halls, multiple-story residential towers and halls, as well as more humble one-story abodes.^[341] Due to wood's rapid decay over time, what remains of Han wooden architecture are scattered ceramic roof tiles, yet non-wooden buildings made of brick, stone, and rammed earth still stand, such as pillar-gates, tomb chambers, city walls, beacon towers, Han-era sections of the Great Wall, and fortified castles in Gansu with towers and crenelations.^{[341][342][343][344]} The ruins of rammed earth and brick walls that once surrounded the capitals Chang'an and Luoyang still stand, along with their drainage systems of arches, ditches, and ceramic water pipes.^[345] Monumental stone pillar-gates, which form entrances at walled enclosures at shrine and tomb sites, feature artistic imitations of wooden and ceramic building components such as roof tiles, eaves, porches, and balustrades.^[346] Over ten thousand underground tombs dating to the Han Dynasty have been found, many of which feature archways, vaulted chambers, and domed roofs.^[347] Aside from tombs, underground mine shafts—some reaching depths of hundreds of meters (feet)—were created for the extraction of metal ores, while borehole drilling, derricks, and bamboo pipelines were used to lift liquid brine that could be distilled into salt in iron pans and natural gas as fuel for the distillation furnaces (dangerous amounts of additional gas were siphoned off via carburetor chambers and exhaust pipes).^{[348][349][350][351]} From Han artwork, it is known that the most common type of home was the courtyard house.^[341] Ceramic architectural models of buildings such as houses and towers that were found in Han tombs (perhaps to provide lodging for the dead in the afterlife) provide valuable clues about lost wooden architecture, since the artistic designs found on ceramic roof tiles of tower models are in some cases exact matches to Han roof tiles found at archaeological sites.^[352] From Han literary sources, it is also known that the wooden-trestle beam bridge, arch bridge, simple suspension bridge, and floating pontoon bridge existed in Han China.^[353]

[edit] Mechanical and hydraulic engineering

A replica of Zhang Heng's seismometer, the Houfeng didong yi, featured in the Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland, California

Significant mechanical inventions during Han include mechanical puppets, sliding calipers used for minute measurements, the collapsible umbrella with sliding levers and bendable joints, and the crank handle used to operate the fan of winnowing machines that separated grain from the chaff.^{[354][355][356]} The artisan Ding Huan (丁緩) also created a manually-operated rotary fan around 180 CE, although his device of several large wheels was used for air conditioning within buildings.^[357] Ding also used gimbals as pivotal supports for one of his incense burners and invented the first known zoetrope lamp.^[358][359] Of great importance to textile manufacture was the invention of the belt drive for a quilling machine, first mentioned by Yang Xiong in 15 BCE.^[360] The distance-measuring odometer cart was also invented during Han.^[361]

The waterwheel first appeared in Chinese records during the Han, yet it was already applied to a wide array of uses. Waterwheels were used to turn gears that lifted iron trip hammers, a useful device in pounding, decorticating, and polishing grain.^[362] It was also used to power the chain pump that lifted materials up difficult or sloping terrains (such as water to irrigation ditches), a device first mentioned in China by Wang Chong in his 1st-century-CE Balanced Discourse.^[363] Du Shi (d. 38 CE) created a waterwheel-powered reciprocator that worked the bellows for smelting iron.^[364][365]

Using a water clock, waterwheel, and series of gears, the Court Astronomer Zhang Heng (78–139 CE) was able to mechanically rotate his metal-ringed armillary sphere (which had existed in China since the 1st century BCE) to create a three-dimensional representation of the movements of the Heavens in the celestial sphere.^{[366][367][368][369][370]} To address the problem of slowed timekeeping in the pressure head of the inflow water clock, Zhang was the first to install an additional tank between the reservoir and inflow vessel.^[366][367] Zhang also invented the first known seismometer (Houfeng didong yi 候风地动仪) in 132 CE to detect the exact cardinal or ordinal direction of earthquakes from hundreds of kilometers (miles) away.^[366][368] This employed an inverted pendulum that, when disturbed by ground tremors, would trigger a set of gears that dropped a metal ball from one of eight dragon mouths (representing all eight directions) into a metal toad's mouth.^[371]

[edit] Mathematics and astronomy

A Han-dynasty era mold for making bronze gear wheels

A few Han mathematical treatises still exist, such as the Book on Numbers and Computation, the Arithmetical Classic of the Gnomon and the Circular Paths of Heaven and the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. Han mathematicians had many achievements, such as solving problems with right-angle triangles, square roots, cube roots, and matrix methods, finding more accurate approximations for pi, providing mathematical proof for the Pythagorean theorem, first using the decimal fraction, Gaussian elimination to solve linear equations, and continued fractions to find the roots of equations.^{[372][373][374][375][376][377]} Of great significance to the history of mathematics was the first use of negative numbers in the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, which appeared as black counting rods as opposed to positive numbers represented by red counting rods.^[378]

Mathematics could be applied to various disciplines. In musical tuning, Jing Fang (78–37 BCE) realized that 53 just fifths was approximate to 31 octaves while creating a musical scale of 60 tones, calculating the difference at ¹⁷⁷¹⁴⁷⁄₁₇₆₇₇₆ (the same value of 53 equal temperament discovered by the German mathematician Nicholas Mercator [1620–1687], i.e. 3⁵³/2⁸⁴).^[379][380] Mathematics were essential in drafting the astronomical calendar, a lunisolar calendar that used the Sun and Moon as time-markers throughout the year.^[381][382] Use of the ancient Sifen calendar (古四分历), which measured the tropical year at 365¹⁄₄ days, was replaced in 104 BCE with the Taichu calendar (太初历) that measured the tropical year at 365³⁸⁵⁄₁₅₃₉ days and the lunar month at 29⁴³⁄₈₁ days.^[383] However, Emperor Zhang later reinstated the Sifen calendar.^[384] The Han Chinese made star catalogues and detailed records of comets that appeared in the night sky, such as the appearance of Halley's comet in 12 BCE.^{[385][386][387][388]} Han-era writers theorized that the universe was shaped as a sphere around the earth (like egg white surrounds the yolk, hence a geocentric model), that the Sun, Moon, and planets were spherical and not disc-shaped, that the illumination of the Moon and planets was caused only by sunlight, that a lunar eclipse occurred when the Earth obstructed light to the Moon, and that a solar eclipse occurred when the Moon obstructed light from reaching the Earth.^{[389][390][391][392]} Although others disagreed with his model, Wang Chong accurately described the water cycle of the evaporation of water into clouds.^[393]

[edit] Cartography, nautics, and vehicles

An Eastern-Han pottery ship model with a steering rudder at the stern and anchor at the bow

As proven by literary and archaeological finds, map-making existed in China before the Han Dynasty.^[394][395] Some of the earliest Han maps discovered were ink-penned silk maps found amongst the Mawangdui Silk Texts in a 2nd-century-BCE tomb.^[394][396] In the 1st century CE, the military officer Ma Yuan created the first known raised-relief map out of rice (although if the tomb of Qin Shi Huang is excavated and the account in the Records of the Grand Historian proven true about a model map of the empire, it might push this date back two centuries).^[397] Although the use of the graduated scale and grid reference for maps was not thoroughly described until the published work of Pei Xiu (224–271 CE), there is ample evidence that Zhang Heng was the first Chinese cartographer to invent scales and grids for maps in the early 2nd century CE.^{[366][394][398][399][400]}

Although the Han-era Chinese sailed in a variety of different ships known in previous eras, such as the tower ship, the seaworthy junk design was first pioneered during Han. It featured a square-ended bow and stern, a flat-bottomed hull or carvel-shaped hull with no keel or sternpost, and solid transverse bulkheads in the place of structural ribs found in Western seacrafts.^[401][402] Moreover, Han ships were the first in the world to be equipped by a steering rudder at the stern that allowed for sailing on the high seas, as opposed to the simpler steering oar meant for riverine transport.^{[403][404][405][406][407][408]} Ox-carts and chariots existed in China since ancient times, yet the wheelbarrow made its first appearance in Han China by the 1st century BCE.^[409][410] As seen in Han artwork of horse-drawn chariots, the Warring-States-Era heavy wooden yoke placed around a horse's chest was replaced by a softer breast strap, and later during Northern Wei (386–534 CE) the fully-developed horse collar was invented.^[411]

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[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Han Dynasty

• An interactive, virtual guide into a Han Dynasty tomb, presented by the Museum of Cornell University (NY)
• Han Dynasty by Minnesota State University
• Han Dynasty art with video commentary, Minneapolis Institute of Arts
• Early Imperial China: A Working Collection of Resources

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