Dynasty: a sequence of powerful leaders in the same family

Geography and environment

The country we call China today is a vast region, about the size of all of Europe. The eastern part of this region includes a large fertile plain around two rivers—the Yangtze and the Yellow River (the Huang He). In ancient times, this fertile plain made farming and the formation of big cities possible. To the west are drier and sandier areas and high plateaus. Because it is so vast, China comprises different climates: northern China is temperate while the south is tropical.

For about 4,000 years, from 2070 BCE to 1912 CE, China was ruled by dynasties of emperors. A dynasty is a series of rulers who all come from the same family. Between dynasties, there were often long periods of disunity, when China was divided into many smaller states that fought each other for territory. The period from 481 to 221 BCE was called the Warring States. The short-lived Qin Dynasty (221–206 BCE) united China after this period of war, and that was followed by the Han Dynasty (202 BCE–220 CE). The Han Dynasty reunified China and ruled for about four centuries. The first Han Dynasty emperor was Liu Bang, who reigned from 202 to 195 BCE.

The Han Dynasty ruled a region that was well-suited for farming and somewhat protected from invasion by deserts, mountains, and the Pacific Ocean. The two river valleys produced rich farmland, which supported the growth of a large and stable population. But farming also made the population vulnerable, because periods of drought and the long-term effects of deforestation and farming sometimes led to food shortages.

To make their society more stable, the Han Dynasty rulers improved their territory. They built canals and irrigation systems to feed their farms. They built the first part of a long wall—the Great Wall of China—to protect against invasion from the north.

Bureaucracy: an organized group of hired officials, especially governmental

Political structure

The Han Dynasty was governed as an empire. From Liu Bang onward, the ruler was an emperor. Emperors were believed to possess the Mandate of Heaven. This was a belief that dynasties were chosen to rule by the gods. However, when a ruler was unsuccessful or cruel, people might argue that he had lost the Mandate, which meant they could rebel against him. Emperors often justified their power through religion and ethics. One government-sponsored belief system is Confucianism. Confucianism is based on the teachings of a man named Confucius. This belief system says that to create a peaceful society, you must focus on respect for the family, education, and ethical behavior. Confucianism teaches that people should be obedient to authority—both their parents and the emperor. These ideas helped the emperors rule.

The Han Dynasty had a bigger and better bureaucracy than any other state at the time, even the Roman Empire. A bureaucracy is a system of government where many officials and workers are organized into different government departments to help run the country. These officials earned their positions by studying Confucian ideas and strategies of government, and they had to pass a test to get a job in the government.

The bureaucracy helped carry out important tasks, such as collecting taxes, enforcing laws, and defending China from invaders. Some bureaucrats were judges, and others managed building projects. Some of the most powerful bureaucrats were the governors, who managed whole regions of China.

This highly organized system became more important as time went on. First, the Han emperors had to fight rebellions within their empire. Second, they faced invasion from people outside of China, like the nomadic peoples from Central Asia. Finally, several Han emperors conquered more territory, making the empire larger and harder to manage. For these three reasons, the bureaucracy became bigger and more complex over time.

Culture

We know a lot about the Han Dynasty because paper was invented in China during this period. Paper made it easier to record and store written information. Also, because education was so important to anyone who wanted to join the bureaucracy, the government produced lots of written documents for us to study. Han Dynasty China also gave us one of the first great historians, Sima Qian, who wrote a history of China from its origins to the reign of Han Emperor Wu.

"Confucianism taught that farmers were important because they fed the country."

Government and history were also tied up with the religious and ethical beliefs of China, which included several different belief systems. One, which we’ve already mentioned, is Confucianism, which was developed during the period of warfare before the Han Dynasty, and which was important for keeping this vast state organized and obedient to the emperor. However, Confucianism existed alongside other beliefs. Daoism was a belief system that taught people to live simply and in harmony with the Universe. But because Daoism also taught that people should be free, it was sometimes embraced by people who rebelled against emperors. Buddhism also reached China during the Eastern Han period, and some people mixed Buddhist beliefs with Confucianism and Daoism.

All these faiths—and the wealth of emperors and the bureaucratic families—meant that the Han Dynasty launched a period with lots of poetry, writing, and arts such as pottery, sculpture, and painting. Wealthy people liked to wear expensive clothes made of silk carefully dyed in vibrant colors. They also enjoyed showing off their skills in music and writing. Silk-making was just one important technology that developed during this period of great innovation.

Society

While the Han Dynasty produced great culture, not everybody could take advantage of it in the same way. Only a small percentage of people were from powerful, educated families. Most people were farmers, growing food to feed China’s large population. Farmers couldn’t afford expensive clothing and art.

However, they were not looked down upon. In general, Confucianism taught that farmers were important because they fed the country. There were also merchants, who were wealthier than peasants but were often seen as being less virtuous, according to Confucianism. Still, the merchants helped make China rich from trade and brought goods from far away—even as far as Rome. Of course, this sophisticated society also had lots of artisans—people who made goods to sell.

For most of the 400 years the Han Dynasty ruled China, this social system worked pretty well. The system of choosing government workers by exam meant that they were better trained than in other parts of the world. If the emperor was wise, and if there was no invasion, and if the rainfall was right for growing food, nearly everyone could live a pretty good life.

Collapse

Unfortunately, this wasn’t always the case. Late in the Han Dynasty, emperors began to tax the food-producing farmers too heavily. They did this to pay for the emperor’s wars. The system of exams became corrupt, and money-hungry bureaucrats allowed the rich to buy farmland, pushing peasant farmers into becoming bandits or living homeless in cities. Members of the royal family also began to fight for power. This broken system couldn’t deal with natural disasters, particularly flooding and drought. In 220 CE, the last Han emperor lost his throne, and China broke apart into three kingdoms, launching another period of disunity. But the Han Dynasty had set in motion great advances in complexity that later Chinese dynasties would use as an example and build upon.