Aim: Does the Han Dynasty deserve to be called a “Classical” civilization?

Period 2: 600 BCE – 600 CENY State Standards 2

Common Core Standards RS 5, 7, 9, WS 1, 4, 8

Timeline of Chinese History so Far…

I The Warring States 481 - 221 BCEA) Starting in 481 B.C., the seven major kingdoms making up what is now most of China constantly fought one another. This is known in Chinese history as the Period of Warring States. Gradually, the Kingdom of Qin, in the north, took advantage of its superior cavalry (mounted soldiers on horseback) to form a fearsome war machine, and won 15 major wars from 374-234 BCE. Also, the Qin had the advantage of a favorable location; its territory in modern Shaanxi province is well guarded from the east by mountains and gorges and has easy access to the North China plain through the Yellow River passes. No major battle ever took place in Qin’s heartland.B) The great literary works of philosophy and religion that became the basis for later Chinese religious and social belief stem from the Warring States Period. However, what we know about the philosophies and literature of those times is limited to mainly just the schools of Taoism, Confucianism, and Legalism because the first Qin Emperor decreed that all literature other than those about Legalism and a few scientific fields be destroyed. There was a simultaneous emergence of religions and philosophies in the middle and late Zhou Dynasty era that is called the "One Hundred Schools of Thought". There were hundreds of philosophers and writers who wrote conflicting documents, and there was discussion and communication.

The Warring States 481 – 221 BCE

The Warring States Continued…C) The Qin statesman Shang Yang (356-338 BCE) advocated total war and a disregard for the polite policies of battle which Chinese generals had always adhered to. His lessons were implemented by Ying Zheng, King of Qin, who emerged victorious from the Warring States period and proclaimed himself Shi Huangti - `first emperor' - of China in 221 BCE. About 230 BCE, when the final campaign to unify China began, it is estimated that Qin controlled one-third of all the land under cultivation in China and one-third of China’s total population. Shi Huangti used spies and bribery to prevent a grand alliance of the other six kingdoms against him. He created an army of 600,000 men, most of them conscripted (drafted) peasants. He appointed his generals based on ability rather than family name. He used his cavalry and lightly armored foot soldiers to outmaneuver the enemy's bulky war chariots. In less than a decade, he had conquered and annexed all six enemy kingdoms.

II Qin Dynasty 221 – 207 BCEA) The Qin Dynasty was the first centralized Chinese government, ruled by an Emperor. "Qin now possessed All under Heaven." B) Shi Huangti abolished the old feudal system, which had distributed most lands to powerful lords. Li Si organized China into 36 districts governed by officials appointed by the first emperor., Shi Huangti ordered all the royal families of the vanquished kingdoms to move to his capital city of Xianyang to keep watch over them.C) Believed in the philosophy of legalism.D) Began the Great Wall of China and the Grand Canal.E) There were peasant revolts due to the harsh rule. In 207 BCE, the army led by Liu Bang conquered the troops of the Qin Dynasty at Julu (currently Hebei Province) and in 206 BC he seized Xianyang (the capital city of the Qin Dynasty), thus ending the rule of the Qin.

Shi Huangti

The Terra Cotta ArmyThe first Qin Emperor, Qin Shi Huangti, had an “army” of 6000+ life-size

statues of soldiers, chariots, horses and weapons buried with him. Amazingly, each statue’s face is different!

Legalism under the QinUnder Legalism, farmers were freed from serfdom (recall that the Zhou consisted of decentralized feudal states), and Shi Huangti reduced the power of the aristocracy. The people throughout the empire were now supposed to bear collective responsibility for each other. If a person did not behave according to the rules then others were required to report him. If they did not do this, they were quartered or beheaded. Fear and control were the key features of this political system. Those who contributed the most to the state were highly rewarded while those whose lives were considered of no consequence were sent to work as slaves on Shi Huangti's building projects such as the Great Wall of China, the Grand Canal, and the roads. Scholarship was strongly suppressed and literacy denied to the majority of the populace. Shi Huangti believed that uneducated people were easier to control. This policy resulted in the burning of books on a large scale and, in 212 BCE, on the advice of his chief advisor Li Siu, Shi Huangti had scholars executed on a large scale. Books were banned throughout the empire, as was teaching, except for subjects touching upon the re-written history of the Qin Dynasty, Legalism, or the personal glory of Shi Huangti. It was not until the later Han Dynasty that books were recovered from hiding and repaired, and literacy was again available to the people of China.

Great Wall of China1. The Great Wall of China is a system of defensive walls and towers. It was built in stages between 476 BCE and 1644 CE to protect China from the Huns, Mongols, and other “barbarian” invaders from the north.2. The Great Wall winds up and down across deserts, grasslands, mountains and plateaus, stretching 5,500 miles from east to west of China.3. The Great Wall did not succeed in keeping out invaders. However, it has become a symbol of Chinese achievement.4. While it was begun under the Qin Dynasty, the wall we see today was mostly built during the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644 CE).

The Great Wall of China is often called the “longest cemetery on Earth”, as over 1,000,000 workers died while building it.

Archaeologists have even discovered human remains buried under sections of the wall.

Great Wall Watch Tower

The Grand CanalThe Grand Canal, about 1,200 miles (1,764 km) in length, is the longest man-made waterway as well as being the greatest in ancient China, far surpassing the next two of the world: the Suez and Panama Canals. It was begun under the Qin dynasty, but began to be linked together under the Sui.

III Han Dynasty 206 BCE – 220 CE

Han Dynasty Continued…A) After 4 years of war between Liu Bang and Xiang Yu, Liu Bang defeated his rival and established the Han Dynasty establishing Chang'an (the present Xian) as its capital city in 202 BCE. Chang’an soon would become the eastern end of the Silk Road!B) New Technologies: Pulleys and wheelbarrows were used to move goods. To pulverize ores and grains, they employed the water-powered trip-hammer and air was pumped into furnaces thanks to the aid of bellows. Paper was invented by drying pulverized wood pulp onto a screen (though it was mostly used to wrap fish during the Han Dynasty! Thousands of written documents survived on wood or bamboo rather than paper.) Han physicians developed acupuncture to alleviate pain and to treat various illnesses; needles are inserted into specific points on your body . C) The opening of the Silk Road was probably the major economic achievement of the Han Dynasty. Emperor Wu set out on diplomatic missions to various rulers in Central Asia. This led to the exploration of trade routes that linked Chang’an to the Levant coast on the Mediterranean and opened up new roads for merchants. This increased the trade and economic prosperity of the empire and also led to a constant cultural exchange between several cultures.D) It was also during Wu Di's time that China incorporated the whole of modern China proper, northern Vietnam, Inner Mongolia, southern Manchuria, and most of Korea.

Paper Making and Acupuncture

The Silk Road

Chang’an to Tiashan Corridor, Silk Road

Han Dynasty Continued…F) Chinese calligraphy developed into an art.G) Confucianism was made the official state ideology during the time of Emperor Wu Di, who built an academy solely devoted to the works of Confucius. In order to work in any level of the government bureaucracy, you had to pass a civil service exam which was based on Confucianism and Chinese history. The civil service examination system was an important vehicle of social mobility in imperial China. Even a youth from the poorest family could theoretically join the ranks of the educated elite by succeeding in the examination system. This assurance of success in the examinations dependent only on one’s ability rather than one’s social position helped circulate the key ideas of Confucianism -- concerning proper behavior, rituals, relationships, etc. -- through all levels of Chinese society. But even for the farmer’s son who did not do well enough to take the exams at the lowest level, going to school he had to master the same basic texts that others who went on to pass the examinations at the highest level also studied.

Han Dynasty Continued…The Sack of Chang’an: Wang Man was a government official who took control of the empire by usurping the throne and proclaiming the beginning of a new dynasty called Xin, or “new”, in 9 CE. He took advantage of the fact that since the time Emperor Wu died in 87 BCE, the Han Dynasty had been immersed in various political and social conflicts. The gap between rich and poor was already a serious problem. Wang Man wanted to re-establish the social order by changing the land owning structure; he decreed that those large estates which had been favored in the past (and threatened imperial power), be dissolved and their lands distributed among peasants, an initiative firmly opposed by the aristocracy. The 14 years of unsuccessful attempts to amend the unfair landownership pattern, coupled with a terrible flooding of the Yellow River, set the stage for Wang Man’s end: a full-scale peasant rebellion was triggered. The angry mobs of hungry peasants had their own identity badge; red paint smeared on their foreheads. The rebels thus were known as the “Red Eyebrows”. Wang Man tried to restore order, but late in 23 CE the Red Eyebrows entered Chang’an, sacked it, and cut off Wang Man’s head. Liu Xiu, a descendant of Liu Bang, took back control of the empire thus re-establishing the Han lineage. Liu Xiu led his loyal officials to the city of Luoyang, where the imperial capital was relocated after the disaster of Chang’an. The Han reign in Chang’an is usually referred to as Western Han or Former Han, while the period in Luoyang is normally called Eastern Han or Later Han.

IV Decline of the Han DynastyA) By the end of the 1st century CE, a number of different natural calamities such as tremors, and floods took place, leading people to believe the Han had lost the Mandate of Heaven. Thousands of members of the Confucian academy protested against the corruption of the government. In 184 CE a very large peasant uprising known as the Yellow Scarves Rebellion threatened the imperial capital. A warlord named Dong Zhou seized control of the imperial capital in 190 CE and placed a child, Liu Xie, as the new ruler. Liu Xie was also a member of the Han family, but real power was in the hands of Dong Zhou. Dong Zhou burned Luoyang to the ground. Battle after battle weakened the imperial order until Liu Xie finally abdicated in 220 CE, the last year of the Han period. Wars between warlords and states continued and China would have to wait around 350 years to be unified again.B) In 560, there were four kingdoms in the area. This was called the Southern and Northern Dynasties era (420–589). One of the four kingdoms of this era was called the Northern Zhou. The Northern Zhou controlled a big inland region that reached from Mongolia and down into the southwest. It was far from the sea. In 581, the Sui Dynasty began when a member of the ruling clan of Northern Zhou killed about 60 of his brothers and relatives and made himself the emperor of his kingdom.

V The Sui Dynasty 589 – 619 CE

A) The Sui linked the Grand Canal, increasing trade. They also expanded the Great Wall.

B) Emperor Wen was a Buddhist and tried to spread Buddhism. He made Luoyang his capital.

Luoyang Buddhas

Focus Questions1. Fill in your civilization chart for the Qin, Han, and Sui dynasties.2.Read your textbook pages 50-51 “Women in Patriarchal Societies”. How do you think most women reared in a patriarchal society would react to their conditions? What do you think of the conditions of Chinese women under the Qin and the Han?2. Read the quote below. Do you agree or disagree and why? “The West inherited its traditions from the Romans and the Greeks, while China inherits from the Han.” -Liu Qingzhu, director of the Institute of Archaeology in Beijing

Key Vocabulary