HAN DYNASTY

THE BEGINNING

• Liu Bang is the founder and first emperor of Han Dynasty
• Liu Bang commonl known by temple name, Gaozu
• Named Han Dynasty because it means river and in honor of his native land

HAN WUDI

• started a school to teach future administrators the Confucian classics
• Foreign policy- aggressive, many attacks
• centralized on imperial expansion
• invaded north Vietnam & Korea and forced them into Chinese rule
• ruled these two lands through his Chinese-style government and made them into new colonies

LAND AND REFORM

• self-sufficient, but began to rely more heavily upon commercial exchanges with wealthy landowners
• fell into debt and were forced to become hired laborers or rent-paying tenants of wealthy classes
• Reforms: land reform, administrative reforms, foreign policies, and economic and currency reforms
• All reforms failed

LAND AND REFORM CONT.

• tried to limit the amount of land that an individual could own
• tried to regard to slaveholding by the wealthy
• Wang Mang believed he was doing what Confucianism taught

LAND AND REFORM CONT.

• limited the amount of land a family could own
• ordered his officials to break up estates and spread land to others
• provided these people with property to cultivate
• Intentions were good, but the reforms caused chaos and didn't work

END