Western Han Dynasty
The first half of the Han dynasty from 207 BC is considered the epoch of the Western Han in Chinese history . until 9 AD , in which Chang'an was the capital of the country. It was followed by the brief period of the Xin dynasty of the usurper Wang Mang , before the time of the Eastern Han Dynasty began in 25 AD with Luoyang further east as the capital.
The Western Han Dynasty is considered a high point of the Chinese imperial era. Through a series of wise political decisions by the first emperors of the dynasty, China stabilized and recovered internally, allowing it to make a strong outward appearance. In this way, the country managed to fend off the constant threat from the nomads from the north for several hundred years and to open a route to the west via the Silk Road .
Summary
After the fall of the Qin Dynasty , Liu Bang emerged victorious in the battle for the imperial title . After the brief rule of the Qin and the longstanding civil war , China was largely devastated by this time. The cities had lost up to four fifths of their population, and large parts of the country lay fallow. In addition, the emperor felt compelled to reward a large army that had helped him to power. Liu Bang resorted to the method of the Zhou dynasty and enfeoffed his followers with land. The simplest soldiers and officers were given land according to rank. Liu Bang also tried to settle other strata of the population (migrant population, city dwellers) in the country in order to cultivate it. The farmers who voluntarily settled after this call were spared taxes and compulsory labor for up to 12 years . In addition, Liu Bang had the code of law greatly simplified. Many of the cruelly persecuted during the Qin period have now been punished and other inhumane methods of torture have been abolished. The guilt by association was severely restricted.
His successors Han Wendi and Han Jingdi continued this policy. They cut taxes drastically, which made the economy grow strongly. The penalties were reduced again, and kin liability was completely abolished. After just 50 years, the population had already doubled again. Cities like Chang'an or Luoyang grew rapidly.
Although the early days of the Han Dynasty in China are repeatedly cited as an example of good government, the dynasty was constantly threatened from within and without. Liu Bang already saw himself forced to curtail the power of the kings he enfeoffed in his later reign . Above all, he mistrusted those kings who were not directly related to him. Han Wendi and Han Jingdi had to fight against rebellious kings from their own families. The curtailment of the power of these local rulers became a priority for the emperors. At the same time, the Chinese empire was threatened by the Xiongnu from the north. Almost every year there were conflicts on the border with their territory. At that time, China was unable to wage full-blown wars. The emperors tried to reduce the risk of war by appeasement policies and sent Chinese princesses as brides to the rulers of the Xiongnu.
The reign of Han Wudi is considered to be the height of the Han dynasty. He consolidated the imperial power within, the regional kings were stripped of almost all power. Han Wudi also felt strong enough to take military action against the Xiongnu. In three expeditions that took his armies deep into the deserts and steppes of what is now Mongolia , he was able to defeat them. But as a result, he went overboard by ordering further expeditions to the east into what is now Korea and south to what is now Vietnam , which were less successful. To finance his military ventures, he had to raise taxes again, which led to resentment in the country. Towards the end of his reign there were several uprisings which forced the emperor to take an unprecedented step in public self-criticism.
It was also Han Wudi who made Confucianism the sole state ideology. Before that, Daoism was the predominant philosophical current in Chinese society.
His successors reverted to the more inward policies of his predecessors. In addition, one could rest on the military successes of Han Wudi and maintain good relations with the neighboring countries. A long period of peace followed.
The last emperors of the Western Han are considered politically weak and were only partially able to do so. It is said of Emperor Han Chengdi , for example, that he left the business of government to his relatives and preferred to hunt and play. So it was not surprising that an ambitious minister soon seized power, deposed the emperor and had himself proclaimed emperor.
Relationship with neighboring countries
The Western Han Dynasty is considered to be one of the most open times in Chinese history. Although the country has constantly fought wars with surrounding tribes and countries, there has also been lively exchange between the peoples. The expansion of the Chinese empire to the west enabled the increased use of the trade routes known as the Silk Road , which even connected China with Rome ( Roman-Chinese relations ) via intermediate stations . There is also the earliest documentation of exchanges with Japan from the Western Han period .
Culture
At the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty, Daoism was very fashionable. The idea of governing by doing nothing (无为 而 治) was particularly popular among officials and rulers . The understanding of Daoism at that time is quite different from today's understanding, so other philosophical currents also found entry, respect for the law of the Fa current (法家) is a very good example. Emperor Wu changed this state philosophy by making Confucianism a state ideology. To this end, the Confucian classics have been re-edited. The current version of these books is mostly from that time.
The historian records of Sima Qian (135 BC - 93 BC) are the first comprehensive history book to document Chinese history from the written period to Han Wudi . Even if much of what he reports about the time before the Zhou dynasty comes from the world of legends. The book is widely regarded in China as a model for later dynasty stories. Later history books up to the time of the Republic of China also take the book as a model in terms of form and chapter structure . It also has great literary value which many of its successors could not match. Many chapters from this book are still used today in Chinese schools as subjects for teaching Classical Chinese.
Numerous prose works have come down to us from the Han period . Most of them discuss political issues or give advice to the rulers. For example, the essay On the Mistakes of Qin (过 秦 论) by Jia Yi analyzes in detail the mistakes of the Qin Dynasty that led to its downfall.
In poetry there are two different developments in the Western Han Dynasty. On the one hand, the Han rulers had folk songs collected and edited. These processed songs follow the tradition of the book of songs , have a fixed number of characters per line and are usually kept relatively short. Especially poems with five characters per line enjoyed great popularity among writers. On the other hand, a trend in poetry followed the example of Qu Yuan . She allows greater freedom in verse, her poems are long and rhymed. She also follows her example when it comes to topics. It is mostly about sadness or displeasure. The poem Thoughts of Qu Yuan (吊 屈原 赋), also by Jia Yi, can be used as an example of these emotionally moving poems. Other writers later also adopted this form of the poem. In doing so, they become more and more free, sometimes completely absurd, and thus come closer and closer to prose .
science and technology
During the Western Han period, in 28 B.C.E. BC reports that when the sun rose, a large spot was seen. This is now widely regarded as the first documentation of sunspots . It was probably an unusually large group of sunspots.
A particular problem was the Chinese calendar , which calculated the months and years after the lunar period. The length of a year that was calculated from this does not match the solar year . The problem was only solved in the Western Han Dynasty by introducing 7 leap months according to a fixed rule every 19 years. As a result, the calendar year was largely aligned with the solar year.
One of the most important inventions of the Western Han period was paper. Paper was found during excavations in Shaanxi and Gansu provinces . However, paper was not widely used at the time. Most of the books and pictures of that time that have been found so far are still written on wood, bamboo or cloth.
