The Triumph of the Qin and Han Dynasties

CHINA

Triumph of the Qin• Objective: After centuries of political division and social disorder, strong new dynasty, the Qin, reunited China at the end of the 3rd Century BCE. The Qin era brought the foundations of an enduring centralized bureaucracy and completion of the Great Wall

Transformation of a “barbarian” landA.Qin was located in Northwest fringe of former Zhou Empire.

B.From early 5th century BCE the Qin initiated several critical social and political changes that increased tier agility to wage war against rivals.

C.Tool making was the key: Bronze and ironworking continued under the Qin, also encouraged peasants to adopt new tools and more productive cultivation techniques

D.Qin freed men and peasants from bondage to local lords allowing them to claim their own land. This would increase the resource base upon which the Qin political ambitions depended

E.Freed peasants undermined the support to vassal warriors, who originally carried out local administration

F.Centralized Bureaucracy attempted.

G.Qin power and military prowess were increased by the many wars the state fought first to survive, second to conquer China.

Transformation of a “barbarian” landH.Qin conscripted the peasants they freed for military service, making its armies larger than those of rival states

I.Bureaucracy of Qin meant that its forces were better supplied and organized

J.Nomadic background of Qin elite ensured supply of able military leaders

K.Military innovations, more receptive to them: Cavalry, crossbow,

L.Good leadership, free peasants who may have felt they had something to fight for, made Qin armies famous for their ferocity and speed

Legalist SanctionA.4th century efforts of Qin rulers to break power of their vassals

were justified by the writings of several statesmen who became known as the Legalists.

B.Recap; Legalists School of political philosophy was brought about by he semi-legendary Shang Yang, who served a Qin ruler of the mid 4th century BCE. Founding the Legalist School, and writing The Book of Lord Shang : where he argued that the power of China’s rulers should be absolute.

C.Major objective: to enhance the strength and wealth of the state. Shang Yang argued that the people exited to serve the state, nothing to say of the ruler’s duty to promote their welfare

D.Responsibility of the state with regard to people was to promote strict laws with harsh punishments for offenders

E.Ruler’s rule may be absolute, but not above the law. Shang Yang once had a crown prince punished for breaking the law, and he found he too was subject to the laws at the end of his life.

Shi Huangdi, Emperor of ChinaA.Receptive to the legalist approach

B.Man of unbounded ambition, energy and physical courage, and a megalomaniac who tolerated no challenges to his rule

C.Complaints from his officials were solved: buried 100 of the Shi alive

D.Harsh consequence for leaking information:

E.By 221 BCE, Shi Huangdi had complete work of predecessors1. Unified china

2. Strengthened hold over his vassals, ordered regional fortresses destroyed, local warrior weapons collected and melted

3. Created 36 provinces

4. Vassal overlords and regional commanders replaced by Qin bureaucrats

5. Surviving princes/aristocrats/wealth merchants ordered to live in capital Xianyang.

6. Emperor’s scribes developed a standard script for writing, coinage, and weights and measures uniting the empire.

Shi Huangdi, Emperor of ChinaF.Huangdi’s great passion was building. His architects joined and expanded the wall that had been built by northern kingdoms, creating the Great Wall of China

G.Also other public works projects: canals, roadways, constructed by forcibly recruited peasant laborers.

H.Death of Shi Huangdi could not stop his building. In preparing for his burial, emperor order construction of tomb at Mount Li, which was not uncovered until 1971. (army of clay soldiers)

I. Collapse of a Tyrannical, but Pivotal regimeA. Great resistance to the building and harsh rule of Legalist Adms.

B. The Shi were angered by the repression of any ideas that challenged those of Legalists

Shi Huangdi, Emperor of China

I. Collapse of a Tyrannical but Pivotal RegimeC. Efforts at thought control – book burning

D. Peasants alienated by Qin’s demands for taxes and labor for public works projects

E. Great Revolt of 207 BCE: lead by peasants conscripted to work on a building project, just 3 years after the death of Shi Huangdi

F. Qin rule over China lasted for only a few decades but accomplished many things

1. Under Shi Huangdi – united China, governed with centralized bureaucracy and staff

2. Strengthening of Shi supporters who provided the social and political bonds that would hold China together

3. Public works – grid of roads and canals

4. Great wall, reinforced divisions between nomads of central/north Asia from the farmers of the South

5. Improved communications and unified currency enabling merchants to establish interregional markets and promoted the interdependence of different geographic areas of China.

Han DynastyA.Built on the foundations of Qin, The death of Shi Huangdi and

subsequent leaders incapable to rule led to widespread rebellion after his death

B.As rebellion grew, Vassal chiefs fought former Qin bureaucrats for local control,

C.Liu Bang was the unlikely winner of these many sided power battles

D.Liu Bang did not have the life of a ruler of China: born peasant, lazy in youth, undedicated, and jobless, obtains a position as village headman.

E.In confusion following the fall of the Qin, or disintegration, he built up a following of soldiers, ex-bureaucrats, and disgruntled peasants

F.While he was not much of a general, nearly lost all his battles, he managed to win the last battle for control of China

G.In 202 BCE after years of campaigning and negotiation, Liu Bang proclaimed himself the new Emperor of china, founding the Han Dynasty, which would last for

Han DynastyI. Consolidation and Control

A. Appeared that the new emperor, whose official name was Gaozu, would restore the system of vassalage in the Zhou era

B. He had raised many of his followers to the nobility, rewarded them with large estates

C. Once loyal followers were not above using the domains granted to build up an independent sphere of power

D. Liu Bang, thought to be illiterate, would rely on Shi advisors and strengthen efforts at bureaucratic centralization and focused on enhancing their training and responsibilities.

II. SuccessorsA. Han Wudi: would take up centralization

B. The larger fiefs granted to the highest nobles were broken up by royal decree that demanded the domains of the vassals to be divided between all their sons at the time of their death, rather than pass to the eldest son.

C. Regular government appointees, regional governors and district magistrates, expanded their authority at the expense of local lords.

D. When a noble died without a legitimate offspring, his estates were confiscated by the central government

Han DynastyIII. Han Expansion

A. Used military might to expand the empire and neutralize external threats

B. Most formidable were the Huns who lived north of the Great Wall

C. Other emperors had attempted to by them off, by the time of Han Wudi, it was clear that major expeditions would be necessary, the emperor’s forces defeated the nomads and annexed their lands north and west of the Great Wall.

D. In he East, the northern parts of Korea were conquered in 108 BCE, to be ruled by the Chinese for over 400 years

E. In the South, Han China extended into the mountainous interior and down the coast of the South China Sea to Vietnam

F. The peoples and ethnic groups either submitted to Han rule and assimilated to Chinese civilization, or migrated further south into modern Burma, Thailand and Laos.

Han DynastyIV. Revenge of Shi Bureaucrats

A. Followers of Confucianism and shi principles, despised the legalists, Lui Bang and successors banned the works of legalists, and members of the school were hounded form court and killed in some cases.

B. Qin harsh laws were replaced by milder laws of the Han. Legalist ideas were eventually blended into the mix of philosophies and religious beliefs that came to make up China’s official ideology

C. Confucianism in its variations became the dominant thought system in Chinese civilization. It full ascendancy was delayed in the early Han era by the suspicions of rulers, like Liu Bang

D. By the end of 2ndcentury BCE, Shi scholars/officials and Confucian ideas they championed had won a prominence they would enjoy for the next 2000 years

E. Knowledge of Confucian teachings became essential to employment and promotion within Han Government. This was further institutionalized by the founding of an imperial university in Xian. In 124 BCE, (30,000 students)

Han DynastyV. Education, Examinations and Shi Dominance

A. Students at imperial university were expected to master law and a choice of specialized field, (history, astronomy, music) memorization was principle

B. Chinese examinations marked beginning of the first professional civil service in human history.

C. First Exams were confined to the upper levels of government, local and regional exams were later established to identify local talent

D. Theoretically, any Chinese man could take them, but no one could hope to pass them without a proper education, thus it was left to upper classes who could afford an education

1. On occasion a particularly bright child form a peasant household would be adopted by a shi or landlord family and given the support to do well on exams and advance in the government

Han DynastyV. Education, Examinations and Shi Dominance

E. Opportunities for government positions were limited by the fact that only a small % of jobs were allotted through examination

F. The remaining jobs were appointed, a man’s chance of winning an office relied on personal links to the emperor

G. Few offices were earned by passing exams. But the Han system nurtured the idea.

VI. Scholar-Gentry A. There were three social strata that came to be recognized

by those who wrote the official documents and histories1. The literate shi

2. Ordinary but free subjects

3. Underclass, called the “mean people”

Han DynastyVI. Scholar-Gentry

B. The Shi, who ranged from the powerful families that served the imperial household to local tutor and petty clerks stationed in the provinces

C. Common people, groups we would identify as separate classes. Peasants,, even these groups varied in wealth and social status. Some controlled large amounts of land, lived in extend family compounds, and tried to provide their sons with the education that would elevated the family to Shi status.

D. Local landlord families were linked by marriage or the success of their sons to the shi. This gave rise to new class configuration

E. The Scholar-Gentry: superseded the shi, their dual label suggest they up held their position through landholdings

F. Wealth fro landholding was used to educate the brightest sons and increase the family fortunes by winning lucrative admin. Positions

G. Scholar Gentry, in town or country, lived in large walled compounds. Often of stucco, and often separate unites of each unit of the extended family. Surviving clay figurines of gentry home show that they were multiuser structures with stucco or wooden walls and tiled roofs.

Han DynastyVI. Class and Gender roles

A. Women during the Han in the scholar-gentry, did have more freedom and status than in later periods of Chinese history

B. Marriages, arranged among elites, family alliances, not romantic

C. Father paid a dowry to family of his son-in-law, and woman went to her husband’s house to live, bride could rely on her powerful relatives to ensure that she was well treated in her new home.

D. Bride often could take along her servants, even a sister as live-in companion

E. Women were still subdominant to men, Family households were run by the older men, although women could inherit, male children normally received the greater share of the family property.

F. Political positions reserved for men, women could have influence from behind throne, this merely confirmed what Confucians though about women’s unfitness for politics

G. Women from peasant families were expected to cook, clean house, and work long hours in the fields.

H. Women of the Scholar-gentry could be expected to the demands and criticisms of the domineering mother-in-law's

I. At all class levels, women were expected to marry, and their most vital social function remained the bearing of children preferably boys

Han DynastyVII. Peasant Life

A. Ordinary frames held varying amounts of land, but few produced more than they needed to live an pay taxes.

B. Moderately prosperous farmers sold their surplus to traders or their agents, or in a local town market.

C. Most peasants who had a decent sized plot of land lived well.

D. Most peasants had little or no land of their own and were forced to work for landlords in order to earn a meager living. And peasants with plots that were too small to support their families complained to Han officials that they did no have enough husks and beans to eat and that their coarse clothing was not in good conditions

E. Those who worked the land of others as tenants or landless laborers were even more miserable.

F. Inventions1. Shoulder collar, wheelbarrow

2. Expanded irrigation networks, improved iron tools, new crop patterns/

Han DynastyVIII.Capital at Xian

A. Urban growth most noticeable social development

B. Basic feature of Chinese Imperial cities from this time forward, laid out on a grid, Great roadways that gave access to and defined the main quarters of the cities. City was protected by long earth and brick walls, with towers and gates at regular intervals

C. Population from 250,00-100,000, includes people living outside the walls in neighboring villages

D. Emperor lives in an inner or Forbidden City, with only his family, servants, and closest advisors permitted to enter.

E. Each palace included audience halls banquet rooms, large gardens and fish ponds, and luxurious living quarters for the emperor, his wife and concubines, and their children

F. Forbidden city surrounded by administrative buildings and the palaces of the most powerful aristocratic and scholar-gentry households.

G. Cities throughout the empire grew and became major trade centers

Imperial CrisisA. 2 centuries the han maintained hold on a unified Chines e empire. End

of the 1st century BCE problems centering on the court threatened to bring an end to Han rule

B. After han Wudi, the quality of the emperors declined markedly, successors had neglected the duties of government, like monarch of other late dynasties indulged heavily in the pleasures of food, drink, and concubines.

C. Hold of the emperors over state affairs weakened the powerful families of their wives who sought to take charge of imperial administration

D. 6 CE, the only male heir of the han dynasty was a small child, giving one of these families, the Wang, the opportunity to seize the throne.

E. With initial support of the scholar-gentry and the general populace, an ambitious nephew of the Empress Dowager Wang, Wang Mang, proclaimed himself emperor in 9 CE

F. But his reforms rapidly alienated the very groups that he ahead originally supported. Attempts to exhort control over the land ownership angered the Scholar-gentry. In 22 CE, the hapless Wang mang was overthrown and the Han dynasty was restored.

Later HanIX. Restoration of Han

A. Later han ruled unified China for next 200 years

B. Internal rebellions/ and nomads were suppressed1. The last centuries of Han saw little innovation and creativity of the early centuries

2. Major breakthroughs in art, and government would have to wait until the Tang

C. Han saw steady period of decline, han rulers were plagued struggles between actions at the court, which had been transferred form Xian eastward to Loyang.

D. Challenges from the families of the emperors’ wives continued, but were complicated by the growing power of the Eunuchs, men who were reliable guardians of the emperor’s wives and concubines.

E. Eunuchs had increased their power after the restoration, they gain substantial power as the palace administrators and inner advisors of later emperors.

F. In the last decades of eh han empire, these emperors attempted to use the eunuchs to check the power of their wives' families.

G. The three way struggle between the Scholar-gentry, families of the ruler’s wives, and the eunuchs would rip apart the court.

H. Divisions at the center of the empire weakened the ability to stop nomadic incursions and remedy the worsening conditions of the people

I. The dynasty was officially overthrown in 220 CE

Classical China and the WorldX. Qin and Han dynasty

A. Established the basic components of the longest lived civilizations in history. Chin also became one of the most creative influential civilizations of all human history.

B. Strength of its agrarian base allowed China to carry about 1/5 of the total human population from the last centuries BCE to the present

C. Productivity o its peasants had made it possible for some of the world largest cities to flourish in China, and nurtures the largest most creative elites in history.

D. Chinese pioneered the development of basic technologies that were disseminated over Eurasia, paper, compasses (for communication and travel), water mills that provided sources of power and food processing, porcelain, which elevated dining to unparalleled levels of elegance and opened up exciting possibilities for artistic expression

Classical China and the WorldX. Qin and Han dynasty

D. Trade in silk and though the luxury products generated a network of roads throughout Asia knows as the Silk road. Under the han, the Chinese government actively encouraged trade with regions to the west.

E. Improved roads in China and the Middle east encouraged trade. One Chinese emissary Zhang Wian, actually traveled to western India.

F. Until well after the Han, no one seems to have traveled all the way from China to the Mediterranean or vice versa. But the trade was lively spurring attention also to sea routes into the Indian Ocean

G. Silk road trade was important enough gain the attention of upper classes and government circles, and provide an initial framework on which global trading patterns would later elaborate.