HAN DYNASTY

EARLY HAN POLICIES

• Imperial Rule
• Allotted land to imperial family
• Divided empire into administrative districts
• Officials who served at the empires request

MARTIAL EMPEROR HAN WUDI

• Ruled 54 years (141-87 bce)
• Ruled with vision and vigor
• Two policies:
• Administration centralization
• Imperial expansion

HAN WUDI(CONTINUED)

• Built enormous bureacracy
• Legalistic rule
• Built roads
• Levied taxes

CONFUCION EDUCATION

• Needed intelligent indiviguals to rule bureacracy
• Established imperial university
• Eventually had over 30,000 students

IMPERIAL EXPANSION

• Wudi invaded Korea and northern Vietnam
• Brought under chinese soceity
• Confucian values followed Han armies

XIONGNU

• Nomadic people from central asia
• Spoke turkish language
• Excellent on horseback, great fighters
• Greatly feared Qin and Han

HAN EXPANSION INTO CENTRAL ASIA

• Invaded with vast armies
• Brought much of Xiongnu under chinese control
• Prevented Xiongnu from trade
• Caused Han state to go into disarray

SOCIAL ORDER

• Similar to Zhou era
• Patriarchal households
• Important of filial piety
• Womens subordination to menfolks

IRON METALLURGY

• Iron casts
• Stoves, knives, pots, needle, axes
• Iron army suits
• Strength and sharpness of iron tools

SILK TEXTILES

• Advanced sericulture techniques
• Relied on silkworms
• Lead to establishment of intricate trade network

PAPER

• Before: bamboo, silk, oracle bones
• Easier to write on
• Preferred medium for most writing

SOCIAL TENSIONS

• Distinction of rich and poor
• Generated social tension
• Peasent rebellions

LAND DISTRIBUTION

• Bad land, poor harvests, high taxes
• Caused people to sell themsleves into slavery
• Rich people had cheap labor
• Landless peasants, fear of rebellion

REIGN OF WANG MANG

• Respected Han minister
• Regent of two-year-old leader
• Socialist emperor
• Limited amount of land people could rule
• Law caused tension

YELLOW TURBAN UPRISING

• Peasant rebellion
• Tested resilience of Han state
• Weakened Han state 2-3 century ce

COLLAPSE OF THE HAN

• Unable to prevent development of factions
• Relationships between factions strained
• Caused war
• Central government disintegrated