Han dynasty

A detailed Summary of Han dynasty

The Han dynasty (202 BC - AD 220) reunited the China after the Qin dynasty fell apart. The Han ruled China for forty years, which was divided into two periods: the earlier period Western Han and the later period Easter Han. Gaozu, who was the first king of the Han dynasty, was a minor official in Qin dynasty. He became a leader of a small group of soldiers and acquired territories. Overtime, his army expanded to large number. In 206 BC, Gaozu took the title as King of Han and he ended the Qin dynasty in 202 BC. "The Han period was, for good reason, associated with the victory of Confucianism. Where the Qin had given political support to Legalism, the Han gave it to Confucianism." (Ebrey, P. 75) After the Qin acrimonious governing, everyone welcomed Confucianism because the basis of Confucian ethics was the concept of "love" or "goodness". The Han was one of most remarkable and proud period in Chinese History. The Chinese displayed their pride from Han's accomplishment by naming themselves the "Han people". During Han times, the Chinese extended the size of the state and population. Behind all the success of the Han dynasty, there was one of these people who took all the challenges and made the changes was the minister.

Han faced the first major difficulty from the invasion by the barbarian who lived near the China. The barbarian had annoyed every dynasty. The best way to solve this problem was conquering the barbarian and let them become a part of China. Campaigns were carried out to establish Chinese dominion along the northern and northwest border in Wudi's reign. Some officials said the campaigns expended the boundaries of the state, but it also increased governments' the expenditure. The minister did not completely agree with them. The campaigns cost a lot of expenditure but it was worth it. It brought long lasting peace to the residents who lived in the north. Furthermore, barbarian had to pay taxes to the government after conquering them, which helped increase the income of the Han dynasty.

The minister disagreed "Gaozu thus began by rewarding his old comrades with large territories to govern as vassal state." (Ebrey, P.64). This rewarding decentralized the power and put Han into situation like the early Zhou dynasty. The primary cause for the end of the Zhou dynasty was the decentralization and the territories had more military power than the central government. Thus, Han could not repeat the same mistake as Zhou, but some officials would agree to this rewarding policy. Their view was that Gaozu had to trust his old comrades as they trusted him. The decentralization was successful with the first generation subordinates in the early Zhou dynasty, but not with the generation subordinates at the end of the Zhou dynasty. Therefore, it was "the challenge for the early Han government to develop a form of centralized power that could secure order and dynastic stability without undue harshness." (Ebrey, P. 64) When Gaozu died in 195 BC, his throne passed peacefully to Wudi. Wudi realized that the decentralizing would cause a war or rebellion in the future, thus, he worked

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Approximate Word count = 1277
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History