Han dynasty

The Han dynasty[a] was an imperial dynasty of China

Han
漢
(202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang
and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was
preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC)
and a warring interregnum known as the Chu–Han
202 BC – 9 AD; 25–220 AD
Contention (206–202 BC), and it was succeeded by the
(9–23 AD: Xin)
Three Kingdoms period (220–280 AD). The dynasty
was briefly interrupted by the Xin dynasty (9–23 AD)
established by the usurping regent Wang Mang, and is
thus separated into two periods—the Western Han
(202 BC – 9 AD) and the Eastern Han (25–220 AD).
Spanning over four centuries, the Han dynasty is
considered a golden age in Chinese history, and had a
permanent impact on Chinese identity in later
periods.[5] The majority ethnic group of modern China
refer to themselves as the "Han people" or "Han
Chinese". The spoken Chinese and written Chinese are
The Western Han dynasty in 2 AD[1]
referred to respectively as the "Han language" and "Han Principalities and centrally-administered
characters".[6] commanderies
Protectorate of the Western Regions (Tarim Basin)
The Han emperor was at the pinnacle of Han society
and culture. He presided over the Han government but Capital Chang'an
shared power with both the nobility and the appointed (206 BC – 9 AD, 190–195 AD)
ministers who came largely from the scholarly gentry Luoyang (23–190 AD, 196 AD)
class. The Han Empire was divided into areas directly Xuchang (196–220 AD)
controlled by the central government called Common languages Old Chinese
commanderies, as well as a number of semi-
autonomous kingdoms. These kingdoms gradually lost Religion Chinese folk religion · Taoism ·
Buddhism
all vestiges of their independence, particularly
following the Rebellion of the Seven States. From the Government Monarchy
reign of Emperor Wu (r. 141–87 BC) onward, the Emperor
Chinese court officially sponsored Confucianism in • 202–195 BC (first) Emperor Gaozu
education and court politics, synthesized with the • 141–87 BC Emperor Wu
cosmology of later scholars such as Dong Zhongshu. • 74–48 BC Emperor Xuan
• 25–57 AD Emperor Guangwu
The Han dynasty oversaw periods of economic • 189–220 AD (last) Emperor Xian
prosperity as well as significant growth in the money Chancellor
economy that had first been established during the Zhou • 206–193 BC Xiao He
dynasty (c. 1050 – 256 BC). The coinage minted by the • 193–190 BC Cao Shen
central government in 119 BC remained the standard in • 189–192 AD Dong Zhuo
China until the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD). The period • 208–220 AD Cao Cao
• 220 AD Cao Pi
saw a number of limited institutional innovations. To
finance its military campaigns and the settlement of Historical era Imperial
newly conquered frontier territories, the Han
government nationalised private salt and iron industries
in 117 BC, creating government monopolies that were
later repealed during the Eastern period. There were • Xiang Yu 206 BC
significant advances in science and technology during appointed Liu
Bang as King of
the Han period, including the emergence of Han
papermaking, rudders for steering ships, negative • Battle of Gaixia; 202 BC
numbers in mathematics, raised-relief maps, hydraulic- Liu Bang
powered armillary spheres for astronomy, and proclaimed
emperor
seismometers that discerned the cardinal direction of
• Xin dynasty 9–23 AD
distant earthquakes by use of inverted pendulums.
• Abdication to Cao 220 AD
Wei
The Han dynasty had many conflicts with the Xiongnu,
a nomadic confederation centred in the eastern Eurasian Area
50 BC (est. Western 6,000,000 km2
steppe.[7] The Xiongnu defeated the Han in 200 BC,
Han peak)[2] (2,300,000 sq mi)
prompting the Han to appease the Xiongnu with a
100 AD (est. 6,500,000 km2
policy of marriage alliance and payments of tribute, Eastern Han (2,500,000 sq mi)
though the Xiongnu continued to raid the Han's peak)[2]
northern borders. Han policy changed in 133 BC, under Population
Emperor Wu, when Han forces began a series of
• 2 AD[3] 57,671,400
military campaigns to quell the Xiongnu. The Xiongnu
were eventually defeated and forced to accept a status Currency Ban Liang coins and Wu Zhu
coins
as Han vassals, and the Xiongnu confederation
fragmented. The Han conquered the Hexi Corridor and Preceded by Succeeded by
Inner Asian territory of the Tarim Basin from the
Qin dynasty Cao Wei
Xiongnu, helping to establish the Silk Road. The lands
Eighteen Kingdoms Shu Han
north of the Han's borders were later overrun by the Eastern Wu
nomadic Xianbei confederation. Emperor Wu also
launched successful conquests in the south, annexing
Nanyue in 111 BC and Dian in 109 BC. He further expanded Han Han dynasty
territory into the northern Korean Peninsula, where Han forces
conquered Gojoseon and established the Xuantu and Lelang
commanderies in 108 BC.

After 92 AD, palace eunuchs increasingly involved themselves in

the dynasty's court politics, engaging in violent power struggles
"Han" in ancient seal script (top left), Han-era
between various consort clans of the empresses and empresses
clerical script (top right), modern traditional
dowager. Imperial authority was also seriously challenged by
(bottom left), and simplified (bottom right)
large Taoist religious societies which instigated the Yellow
Chinese characters
Turban Rebellion and the Five Pecks of Rice Rebellion.
Following the death of Emperor Ling (r. 168–189 AD), the palace Traditional Chinese 漢
eunuchs were massacred by military officers, allowing members Simplified Chinese 汉
of the aristocracy and military governors to become warlords and
Hanyu Pinyin Hàn
divide the empire. The Han dynasty came to an end in 220 AD
when Cao Pi, king of Wei, usurped the throne from Emperor Transcriptions
Xian. Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin Hàn
Bopomofo ㄏㄢˋ
Etymology Gwoyeu Romatzyh Hann
Wade–Giles Han4
According to the Records of the Grand Historian, after the
collapse of the Qin dynasty the hegemon Xiang Yu appointed Liu Tongyong Pinyin Hàn
Bang as prince of the small fief of Hanzhong, named after its Yale Romanization Hàn
IPA [xân]
location on the Han River (in modern southwest Shaanxi). Wu
Following Liu Bang's victory in the Chu–Han Contention, the Romanization Hoe
resulting Han dynasty was named after the Hanzhong fief.[8] Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization Hon

History Jyutping Hon3

IPA [hɔn˧]
Southern Min
Western Han (202 BC – 9 AD) Hokkien POJ Hàn
China's first imperial dynasty was the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC). Tâi-lô Hàn
The Qin united the Chinese Warring States by conquest, but their Middle Chinese
regime became unstable after the death of the first emperor Qin Middle Chinese xàn
Shi Huang. Within four years, the dynasty's authority had
Old Chinese
collapsed in a rebellion.[9] Two former rebel leaders, Xiang Yu
Baxter (1992) *xans
(d. 202 BC) of Chu and Liu Bang (d. 195 BC) of Han, engaged in
a war to determine who would have hegemony over China, which Baxter–Sagart (2014) *n̥ ˤar-s
had fissured into Eighteen Kingdoms, each claiming allegiance
to either Xiang Yu or Liu Bang.[10] Although Xiang Yu proved
to be an effective commander, Liu Bang defeated him at the
Battle of Gaixia (202 BC) in modern-day Anhui. Liu Bang
assumed the title of Emperor at the urging of his followers and
is known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu (r. 202–195 BC).[11]
Chang'an (modern Xi'an) was chosen as the new capital of the
reunified empire under Han.[12]

Western Han painted Reverse side of a

ceramic jar with raised Western Han bronze
reliefs of dragons, mirror with a painted
phoenixes, and taotie flower motif

At the beginning of the Western Han (traditional

Chinese: 西漢 ; simplified Chinese: 西汉; pinyin: Xīhàn),
also known as the Former Han ( 前漢 前汉
; ; Qiánhàn),
thirteen centrally-controlled commanderies—including
the capital region—existed in the western third of the
empire, while the eastern two-thirds were divided into
ten semi-autonomous kingdoms.[13] To placate his
prominent commanders from the war with Chu, Emperor
Gaozu enfeoffed some of them as kings.

By 196, the Han court had replaced all of these kings

with royal Liu family members, with the lone exception
Thirteen direct-controlled commanderies including the
of Changsha. The loyalty of non-relatives to the emperor
capital region (yellow) and ten semi-autonomous
kingdoms, 195 BC
was questioned,[13] and after several insurrections by
Han kings—with the largest being the Rebellion of the
Seven States in 154—the imperial court began enacting a
series of reforms that limited the power of these kingdoms in 145, dividing their former territories into new
commanderies under central control.[14] Kings were no longer able to appoint their own staff; this duty was assumed
by the imperial court.[15][16] Kings became nominal heads of their fiefs and collected a portion of tax revenues as
their personal incomes.[15][16] The kingdoms were never entirely abolished and existed throughout the remainder of
Western and Eastern Han.[17]

To the north of China proper, the nomadic Xiongnu chieftain Modu Chanyu (r. 209–174 BC) conquered various
tribes inhabiting the eastern portion of the Eurasian Steppe. By the end of his reign, he controlled the Inner Asian
regions of Manchuria, Mongolia, and the Tarim Basin, subjugating over twenty states east of Samarkand.[18][19][20]
Emperor Gaozu was troubled about the abundant Han-manufactured iron weapons traded to the Xiongnu along the
northern borders, and he established a trade embargo against the group.[21]

In retaliation, the Xiongnu invaded what is now Shanxi, where they defeated the Han forces at Baideng in
200 BC.[21][22] After negotiations, the heqin agreement in 198 BC nominally held the leaders of the Xiongnu and the
Han as equal partners in a royal marriage alliance, but the Han were forced to send large amounts of tribute items
such as silk clothes, food, and wine to the Xiongnu.[23][24][25]

Despite the tribute and negotiation between Laoshang

Chanyu (r. 174–160 BC) and Emperor Wen
(r. 180–157 BC) to reopen border markets, many of the
Chanyu's subordinates chose not to obey the treaty and
periodically raided Han territories south of the Great Wall
for additional goods.[27][28][29] In a court conference
assembled by Emperor Wu (r. 141–87 BC) in 135 BC, the
majority consensus of the ministers was to retain the heqin
agreement. Emperor Wu accepted this, despite continuing
Xiongnu raids.[30][31]

However, a court conference the following year convinced

Statue of a horse trampling a Xiongnu warrior, at the
the majority that a limited engagement at Mayi involving
mausoleum of Western Han general Huo Qubing
the assassination of the Chanyu would throw the Xiongnu (d. 117 BC), who fought in the Han–Xiongnu War. This is
realm into chaos and benefit the Han.[32][33] When this the first known monumental stone statue in China.[26]
plot failed in 133 BC,[34] Emperor Wu launched a series of
massive military invasions into Xiongnu territory. The
assault culminated in 119 BC at the Battle of Mobei, when Han commanders Huo Qubing (d. 117 BC) and Wei Qing
(d. 106 BC) forced the Xiongnu court to flee north of the Gobi Desert, and Han forces reached as far north as Lake
Baikal.[35][36]

After Wu's reign, Han forces continued to fight the Xiongnu. The Xiongnu leader Huhanye (r. 58–31 BC) finally
submitted to the Han as a tributary vassal in 51 BC. Huhanye's rival claimant to the throne, Zhizhi Chanyu
(r. 56–36 BC), was killed by Han forces under Chen Tang and Gan Yanshou ( 甘延壽
) at the Battle of Zhizhi, in
modern Taraz, Kazakhstan.[37][38]

In 121 BC, Han forces expelled the Xiongnu from a vast territory spanning the Hexi Corridor to Lop Nur. They
repelled a joint Xiongnu-Qiang invasion of this northwestern territory in 111 BC. In that same year, the Han court
established four new frontier commanderies in this region to consolidate their control: Jiuquan, Zhangyi, Dunhuang,
and Wuwei.[39][40][41] The majority of people on the frontier were soldiers.[42] On occasion, the court forcibly
moved peasant farmers to new frontier settlements, along with government-owned slaves and convicts who
performed hard labour.[43] The court also encouraged commoners, such as farmers, merchants, landowners, and
hired labourers, to voluntarily migrate to the frontier.[44]

Even before the Han's expansion into Central Asia, diplomat Zhang Qian's travels from 139 to 125 BC had
established Chinese contacts with many surrounding civilizations. Zhang encountered Dayuan (Fergana), Kangju
(Sogdiana), and Daxia (Bactria, formerly the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom); he also gathered information on Shendu
 (the Indus River valley) and Anxi (the Parthian Empire). All of these
countries eventually received Han embassies.[45][46][47][48][49] These
connections marked the beginning of the Silk Road trade network that
extended to the Roman Empire, bringing goods like Chinese silk and
Roman glasswares between the two.[50][51]

From c. 115 BC until c. 60 BC, Han forces fought the Xiongnu over
control of the oasis city-states in the Tarim Basin. The Han was
eventually victorious and established the Protectorate of the Western
The ruins of a Han dynasty watchtower
Regions in 60 BC, which dealt with the region's defence and foreign
made of rammed earth at Dunhuang,
located at the eastern edge of the Silk
affairs.[52][53][54][55] The Han also expanded southward. The naval
Road conquest of Nanyue in 111 BC expanded the Han realm into what are
now modern Guangdong, Guangxi, and northern Vietnam. Yunnan was
brought into the Han realm with the conquest of the Dian Kingdom in
109 BC, followed by parts of the Korean Peninsula with the Han conquest of Gojoseon and establishment of the
Xuantu and Lelang commanderies in 108 BC.[56][57] The first nationwide census in Chinese history was taken in
2 AD; the Han's total population was registered as comprising 57,671,400 individuals across 12,366,470
households.[58]

To pay for his military campaigns and colonial expansion, Emperor Wu nationalised several private industries. He
created central government monopolies administered largely by former merchants. These monopolies included salt,
iron, and liquor production, as well as bronze coinage. The liquor monopoly lasted only from 98 to 81 BC, and the
salt and iron monopolies were eventually abolished in the early Eastern Han. The issuing of coinage remained a
central government monopoly throughout the rest of the Han dynasty.[59][60][61][62][63][b]

The government monopolies were eventually repealed when a political faction known as the Reformists gained
greater influence in the court. The Reformists opposed the Modernist faction that had dominated court politics in
Emperor Wu's reign and during the subsequent regency of Huo Guang (d. 68 BC). The Modernists argued for an
aggressive and expansionary foreign policy supported by revenues from heavy government intervention in the
private economy. The Reformists, however, overturned these policies, favouring a cautious, non-expansionary
approach to foreign policy, frugal budget reform, and lower tax-rates imposed on private entrepreneurs.[64][65][66]

Wang Mang's reign and civil war

Wang Zhengjun (71 BC – 13 AD)
was first empress, then empress
dowager, and finally grand
empress dowager during the
reigns of the Emperors Yuan
(r. 49–33 BC), Cheng
(r. 33–7 BC), and Ai (r. 7–1 BC),
respectively. During this time, a
succession of her male relatives
held the title of regent.[68][69] These rammed earth ruins of a granary in Hecang Fortress (河仓城 ; Hécāng
Following the death of Ai, Wang chéng), located approximately 11 km (7 mi) northeast of the Western Han-era
Zhengjun's nephew Wang Mang Yumen Pass, were built during the Western Han (202 BC – 9 AD) and was
(45 BC – 23 AD) was appointed significantly rebuilt during the Western Jin (280–316 AD).[67]
regent as Marshall of State on 16
August under Emperor Ping (r.
1 BC – 6 AD).[70]
When Ping died on 3 February 6 AD, Ruzi Ying (d. 25 AD) was chosen as the heir and
Wang Mang was appointed to serve as acting emperor for the child.[70] Wang promised
to relinquish his control to Liu Ying once he came of age.[70] Despite this promise, and
against protest and revolts from the nobility, Wang Mang claimed on 10 January that
the divine Mandate of Heaven called for the end of the Han dynasty and the beginning
of his own: the Xin dynasty (9–23 AD).[71][72][73]

Wang Mang initiated a series of major reforms that were ultimately unsuccessful. These
reforms included outlawing slavery, nationalizing and equally distributing land between A Western Han painted
households, and introducing new currencies, a change which debased the value of ceramic mounted
cavalryman from a
coinage.[74][75][76][77] Although these reforms provoked considerable opposition,
general's tomb at
Wang's regime met its ultimate downfall with the massive floods of c. 3 AD and 11 AD. Xianyang, Shaanxi
Gradual silt build-up in the Yellow River had raised its water level and overwhelmed
the flood control works. The Yellow River split into two new branches: one emptying to
the north and the other to the south of the Shandong Peninsula, though Han engineers
managed to dam the southern branch by 70 AD.[78][79][80]

The flood dislodged thousands of peasant farmers, many of whom joined roving bandit
and rebel groups such as the Red Eyebrows to survive.[78][79][80] Wang Mang's armies
were incapable of quelling these enlarged rebel groups. Eventually, an insurgent mob A Western or Eastern
forced their way into the Weiyang Palace and killed Wang Mang.[81][82] Han bronze horse
statuette with a lead
The Gengshi Emperor (r. 23–25 AD), a descendant of Emperor Jing (r. 157–141 BC), saddle
attempted to restore the Han dynasty and occupied Chang'an as his capital. However, he
was overwhelmed by the Red Eyebrow rebels who deposed, assassinated, and replaced
him with the puppet monarch Liu Penzi.[83][84] Gengshi's distant cousin Liu Xiu, known posthumously as Emperor
Guangwu (r. 25–57 AD), after distinguishing himself at the Battle of Kunyang in 23 AD, was urged to succeed
Gengshi as emperor.[85][86]

Under Guangwu's rule, the Han Empire was restored. Guangwu made Luoyang his capital in 25 AD, and by 27 his
officers Deng Yu and Feng Yi had forced the Red Eyebrows to surrender and executed their leaders for
treason.[86][87] From 26 until 36 AD, Emperor Guangwu had to wage war against other regional warlords who
claimed the title of emperor; when these warlords were defeated, China reunified under the Han.[88][89]

The period between the foundation of the Han dynasty and Wang Mang's
reign is known as the Western Han ( 西漢 西汉
; ; Xīhàn) or Former Han
前漢 前汉
( ; ; Qiánhàn) (206 BC – 9 AD). During this period the capital
was at Chang'an (modern Xi'an). From the reign of Guangwu the capital
was moved eastward to Luoyang. The era from his reign until the fall of
Han is known as the Eastern Han or Later Han (25–220 AD).[90]

Eastern Han (25–220 AD)

The Eastern Han (traditional Chinese: 東漢 ; simplified Chinese: 东汉 ;
A Western Han period arrow from Inner

pinyin: Dōnghàn), also known as the Later Han ( 後漢 后汉; ; Hòuhàn),

Mongolia, now in the Gansu Provincial
Museum, Lanzhou
formally began on 5 August AD 25, when Liu Xiu became Emperor
Guangwu of Han.[91] During the widespread rebellion against Wang
Mang, the state of Goguryeo was free to raid Han's Korean commanderies; Han did not reaffirm its control over the
region until AD 30.[92]

The Trưng Sisters of Vietnam rebelled against Han in AD 40. Their rebellion was crushed by Han general Ma Yuan
(d. AD 49) in a campaign from AD 42 to 43.[93][94] Wang Mang renewed hostilities against the Xiongnu, who were
比
estranged from Han until their leader Bi ( ), a rival claimant to the throne against his cousin Punu ( 蒲奴
),
submitted to Han as a tributary vassal in AD 50. This created two rival Xiongnu states: the Southern Xiongnu led by
Bi, an ally of Han, and the Northern Xiongnu led by Punu, an enemy of Han.[95][96]

During the turbulent reign of Wang

Mang, China lost control over the Tarim
Basin, which was conquered by the
Northern Xiongnu in AD 63 and used as
a base to invade the Hexi Corridor in
Gansu.[98] Dou Gu (d. 88 AD) defeated
the Northern Xiongnu at the Battle of
Yiwulu in AD 73, evicting them from
Turpan and chasing them as far as Lake Bronze seal of a Xiongnu chieftain with impression and transcription,
conferred by the Eastern Han government and inscribed with the following
Barkol before establishing a garrison at
Hami.[99] After the new Protector
text: 漢匈奴，歸義親，漢長 ("The Chief of the Han Xiongnu, who have
returned to righteousness and embraced the Han")[97]
General of the Western Regions Chen
Mu (d. AD 75) was killed by allies of the
Xiongnu in Karasahr and Kucha, the garrison at Hami was withdrawn.[99][100]

At the Battle of Ikh Bayan in AD 89, Dou Xian (d. AD 92) defeated the Northern Xiongnu chanyu who then
retreated into the Altai Mountains.[99][101] After the Northern Xiongnu fled into the Ili River valley in AD 91, the
nomadic Xianbei occupied the area from the borders of the Buyeo Kingdom in Manchuria to the Ili River of the
Wusun people.[102] The Xianbei reached their apogee under Tanshihuai (d. AD 181), who consistently defeated
Chinese armies. However, Tanshihuai's confederation disintegrated after his death.[103]

Ban Chao (d. AD 102) enlisted the aid of the Kushan Empire, which
controlled territory across South and Central Asia, to subdue Kashgar
and its ally Sogdiana.[105][106] When a request by Kushan ruler Vima
Kadphises (r. c. 90 – c. 100 AD– ) for a marriage alliance with the Han
was rejected in AD 90, he sent his forces to Wakhan (modern-day
Afghanistan) to attack Ban Chao. The conflict ended with the Kushans
withdrawing because of lack of supplies.[105][106] In AD 91, the office of
Protector General of the Western Regions was reinstated when it was Eastern Han inscriptions on a lead ingot,
using the Greek alphabet in the style of
bestowed on Ban Chao.[107]
the Kushans, excavated in Shaanxi, 1st–
2nd centuries AD – Gansu Provincial
Foreign travellers to the Eastern Han empire included Buddhist monks
Museum[104]
who translated works into Chinese, such as An Shigao from Parthia, and
Lokaksema from Kushan-era Gandhara.[108][109] In addition to tributary
relations with the Kushans, the Han empire received gifts from sovereigns in the Parthian Empire, as well as from
kings in modern Burma and Japan. He also initiated an unsuccessful mission to Rome in AD 97 with Gan Ying as
emissary.[110][111]

A Roman embassy of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–180 AD) is recorded in the Weilüe and Book of Later Han to
have reached the court of Emperor Huan of Han (r. 146–168 AD) in AD 166,[112] yet Rafe de Crespigny asserts that
this was most likely a group of Roman merchants.[113][114] In addition to Roman glasswares and coins found in
China,[115][116] Roman medallions from the reign of Antoninus Pius and his adopted son Marcus Aurelius have been
found at Óc Eo in Vietnam.[116][117] This was near the commandery of Rinan where Chinese sources claim the
Romans first landed, as well as embassies from Tianzhu in northern India in 159 and 161.[118] Óc Eo is also thought
to be the port city "Cattigara" described by Ptolemy in his Geography (c. 150 AD) as lying east of the Golden
Chersonese (Malay Peninsula) along the Magnus Sinus (i.e. the Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea), where a
Greek sailor had visited.[119][120][121][122]
Emperor Zhang's (r. 75–88 AD) reign came to be
viewed by later Eastern Han scholars as the high
point of the dynastic house.[124] Subsequent reigns
were increasingly marked by eunuch intervention in
court politics and their involvement in the violent
power struggles of the imperial consort
clans.[125][126] In 92 AD, with the aid of the eunuch Eastern Han tombs sometimes have depiction of battles
Zheng Zhong (d. 107 AD), Emperor He between Hu barbarians, with bows and arrows and wearing
(r. 88–105 AD) had Empress Dowager Dou pointed hats (left), against Han troops – Eastern Han-era,
(d. 97 AD) put under house arrest and her clan Tsangshan tomb, Linyi. Also visible in the Yinan tombs.[123]
stripped of power. This was in revenge for Dou's
purging of the clan of his natural mother—Consort
Liang—and then concealing her identity from him.[127][128] After Emperor He's death, his wife Empress Deng Sui
(d. 121 AD) managed state affairs as the regent empress dowager during a turbulent financial crisis and widespread
Qiang rebellion that lasted from 107 to 118 AD.[129][130]

When Empress Dowager Deng died, Emperor An (r. 106–125 AD) was convinced by the accusations of the eunuchs
Li Run (李閏 江京
) and Jiang Jing ( ) that Deng and her family had planned to depose him. An dismissed Deng's clan
members from office, exiled them, and forced many to commit suicide.[131][132] After An's death, his wife, Empress
Dowager Yan (d. 126 AD) placed the child Marquess of Beixiang on the throne in an attempt to retain power within
her family. However, palace eunuch Sun Cheng (d. 132 AD) masterminded a successful overthrow of her regime to
enthrone Emperor Shun of Han (r. 125–144 AD). Yan was placed under house arrest, her relatives were either killed
or exiled, and her eunuch allies were slaughtered.[133][134] The regent Liang Ji (d. 159 AD), brother of Empress
Liang Na (d. 150 AD), had the brother-in-law of Consort Deng Mengnü (d. 165 AD) killed after Deng Mengnü
resisted Liang Ji's attempts to control her. Afterward, Emperor Huan employed eunuchs to depose Liang Ji, who was
then forced to commit suicide.[135][136]

Students from the imperial university organized a widespread student

protest against the eunuchs of Emperor Huan's court.[137] Huan further
alienated the bureaucracy when he initiated grandiose construction
projects and hosted thousands of concubines in his harem at a time of
economic crisis.[138][139] Palace eunuchs imprisoned the official Li Ying
(李膺 ) and his associates from the Imperial University on a dubious
charge of treason. In 167 AD, the Grand Commandant Dou Wu
(d. 168 AD) convinced his son-in-law, Emperor Huan, to release
them.[140] However, the emperor permanently barred Li Ying and his
associates from serving in office, marking the beginning of the Partisan A mural showing women dressed in
Prohibitions.[140] traditional hanfu from the late Eastern
Han-era Dahuting Tomb in Zhengzhou,
Following Huan's death, Dou Wu and the Grand Tutor Chen Fan Henan
(d. 168 AD) attempted a coup against the eunuchs Hou Lan (d. 172 AD),
Cao Jie (d. 181 AD), and Wang Fu ( 王甫 ). When the plot was
uncovered, the eunuchs arrested Empress Dowager Dou (d. 172 AD) and Chen Fan. General Zhang Huan ( ) 張奐
favoured the eunuchs. He and his troops confronted Dou Wu and his retainers at the palace gate where each side
shouted accusations of treason against the other. When the retainers gradually deserted Dou Wu, he was forced to
commit suicide.[141]

Under Emperor Ling (r. 168–189 AD) the eunuchs had the partisan prohibitions renewed and expanded, while also
auctioning off top government offices.[142][143] Many affairs of state were entrusted to the eunuchs Zhao Zhong
(d. 189 AD) and Zhang Rang (d. 189 AD) while Emperor Ling spent much of his time roleplaying with concubines
and participating in military parades.[144]
End of the Han dynasty
The Partisan Prohibitions were repealed during the
Yellow Turban Rebellion and Five Pecks of Rice
Rebellion in 184 AD, largely because the court did
not want to continue to alienate a significant portion
of the gentry class who might otherwise join the
rebellions.[142] The Yellow Turbans and Five-Pecks-
of-Rice adherents belonged to two different
hierarchical Taoist religious societies led by faith
healers Zhang Jue (d. 184 AD) and Zhang Lu
(d. 216 AD), respectively.

Zhang Lu's rebellion, in what is now northern

Sichuan and southern Shaanxi, was not quelled until
215 AD.[145] Zhang Jue's massive rebellion across
Provinces and commanderies in 219 AD, the penultimate year
eight provinces was annihilated by Han forces of the Han dynasty
within a year; however, the following decades saw
much smaller recurrent uprisings.[146] Although the
Yellow Turbans were defeated, many generals appointed during the crisis never disbanded their assembled militias
and used these troops to amass power outside of the collapsing imperial authority.[147]

General-in-chief He Jin (d. 189 AD), half-brother to Empress He (d. 189 AD), plotted with Yuan Shao (d. 202 AD) to
overthrow the eunuchs by having several generals march to the outskirts of the capital. There, in a written petition to
Empress He, they demanded the eunuchs' execution.[148] After a period of hesitation, Empress He consented. When
the eunuchs discovered this, however, they had her brother He Miao ( 何苗 ) rescind the order.[149] The eunuchs
assassinated He Jin on 22 September 189.

Yuan Shao then besieged Luoyang's Northern Palace while his brother Yuan Shu (d. 199 AD) besieged the Southern
Palace. On September 25 both palaces were breached and approximately two thousand eunuchs were killed.[150][151]
Zhang Rang had previously fled with Emperor Shao (r. 189 AD) and his brother Liu Xie—the future Emperor Xian
of Han (r. 189–220 AD). While being pursued by the Yuan brothers, Zhang committed suicide by jumping into the
Yellow River.[152]

General Dong Zhuo (d. 192 AD) found the young emperor and his brother wandering in the countryside. He
escorted them safely back to the capital and was made Minister of Works, taking control of Luoyang and forcing
Yuan Shao to flee.[153] After Dong Zhuo demoted Emperor Shao and promoted his brother Liu Xie as Emperor
Xian, Yuan Shao led a coalition of former officials and officers against Dong, who burned Luoyang to the ground
and resettled the court at Chang'an in May 191 AD. Dong Zhuo later poisoned Emperor Shao.[154]

Dong was killed by his adopted son Lü Bu (d. 198 AD) in a plot hatched by Wang Yun (d. 192 AD).[155] Emperor
Xian fled from Chang'an in 195 AD to the ruins of Luoyang. Xian was persuaded by Cao Cao (155–220 AD), then
Governor of Yan Province in modern western Shandong and eastern Henan, to move the capital to Xuchang in
196 AD.[156][157]

Yuan Shao challenged Cao Cao for control over the emperor. Yuan's power was greatly diminished after Cao
defeated him at the Battle of Guandu in 200 AD. After Yuan died, Cao killed Yuan Shao's son Yuan Tan (173–
205 AD), who had fought with his brothers over the family inheritance.[158][159] His brothers Yuan Shang and Yuan
Xi were killed in 207 AD by Gongsun Kang (d. 221 AD), who sent their heads to Cao Cao.[158][159]

After Cao's defeat at the naval Battle of Red Cliffs in 208 AD, China was divided into three spheres of influence,
with Cao Cao dominating the north, Sun Quan (182–252 AD) dominating the south, and Liu Bei (161–223 AD)
dominating the west.[160][161] Cao Cao died in March 220 AD. By December his son Cao Pi (187–226 AD) had
Emperor Xian relinquish the throne to him and is known posthumously as Emperor Wen of Wei. This formally
ended the Han dynasty and initiated an age of conflict between the Three Kingdoms: Cao Wei, Eastern Wu, and Shu
Han.[162][163]

Culture and society

宴飲
A late Eastern Han mural in a tomb, showing lively scenes of a banquet (yanyin ), dance and music (wuyue 舞樂),
百戲
acrobatics (baixi ), and wrestling (xiangbu相撲 ), from the Dahuting tomb in Zhengzhou, Henan

Social class
In the hierarchical social order, the emperor was at the apex of Han
society and government. However, the emperor was often a minor, ruled
over by a regent such as the empress dowager or one of her male
relatives.[164] Ranked immediately below the emperor were the kings
who were of the same Liu family clan.[16][165] The rest of society,
including nobles lower than kings and all commoners excluding slaves,
belonged to one of twenty ranks (ershi gongcheng 二十公乘 ).

Each successive rank gave its holder greater pensions and legal
privileges. The highest rank, of full marquess, came with a state pension
and a territorial fiefdom. Holders of the rank immediately below, that of
ordinary marquess, received a pension, but had no territorial
rule.[166][167] Scholar-bureaucrats who served in government belonged
to the wider commoner social class and were ranked just below nobles in
social prestige. The highest government officials could be enfeoffed as A mural from an Eastern Han tomb at
marquesses.[168] Zhucun ( 朱村 ), Luoyang; the two figures
in the foreground are playing liubo, with
By the Eastern Han, local elites of unattached scholars, teachers, the playing mat between them, and the
liubo game board to the side of the mat.
students, and government officials began to identify themselves as
members of a nationwide gentry class with shared values and a
commitment to mainstream scholarship.[169][170] When the government became noticeably corrupt in mid-to-late
Eastern Han, many gentry even considered the cultivation of morally-grounded personal relationships more
important than serving in public office.[139][171]
Farmers, namely small landowner–cultivators, were ranked just below
scholars and officials in the social hierarchy. Other agricultural
cultivators were of a lower status, such as tenants, wage labourers, and
slaves.[172][173][174][175] The Han dynasty made adjustments to slavery
in China and saw an increase in agricultural slaves. Artisans,
technicians, tradespeople, and craftsmen had a legal and socioeconomic
status between that of owner-cultivator farmers and common
merchants.[176]
Museum restoration of a household's
State-registered merchants, who were forced by law to wear white-
lacquered furniture and furbishing.
coloured clothes and pay high commercial taxes, were considered by the
Lacquerware became a common luxury
gentry as social parasites with a contemptible status.[177][178] These were item in the Han dynasty.
often petty shopkeepers of urban marketplaces; merchants such as
industrialists and itinerant traders working between a network of cities
could avoid registering as merchants and were often wealthier and more powerful than the vast majority of
government officials.[178][179]

Wealthy landowners, such as nobles and officials, often provided lodging for retainers who provided valuable work
or duties, sometimes including fighting bandits or riding into battle. Unlike slaves, retainers could come and go from
their master's home as they pleased.[180] Physicians, pig breeders, and butchers had fairly high social status, while
occultist diviners, runners, and messengers had low status.[181][182]

A Han dynasty brick relief with acrobats

Marriage, gender, and kinship

The Han-era family was patrilineal and typically had four to five nuclear
family members living in one household. Multiple generations of
extended family members did not occupy the same house, unlike
families of later dynasties.[186][187] According to Confucian family
norms, various family members were treated with different levels of
respect and intimacy. For example, there were different accepted time
frames for mourning the death of a father versus a paternal uncle.[188]

Marriages were highly ritualized, particularly for the wealthy, and Detail of a mural showing two women
included many important steps. The giving of betrothal gifts, known as wearing Hanfu robes, from Dahuting
bride price and dowry, were especially important. A lack of either was
considered dishonourable and the woman would have been seen not as a
wife, but as a concubine.[189] Arranged marriages were typical, with the father's input on his offspring's spouse
being considered more important than the mother's.[190][191]
 Left: a ceramic statue of a seated woman holding a bronze mirror, Eastern Han – Sichuan Provincial Museum Chengdu
Right: a dog figurine found in a Han tomb wearing a decorative dog collar, indicating their domestication as pets.[183]
Dog figurines are a common archaeological find in Han tombs,[184] while it is also known from written sources that the
emperor's imperial parks had kennels for keeping hunting dogs.[185]

Western Han- or Xin-era murals showing men and women dressed in hanfu, with the Queen Mother of the West dressed
in shenyi, from a tomb in Dongping, Shandong

Monogamous marriages were also normal, although nobles and high officials were wealthy enough to afford and
support concubines as additional lovers.[192][193] Under certain conditions dictated by custom, not law, both men
and women were able to divorce their spouses and remarry.[194][195] However, a woman who had been widowed
continued to belong to her husband's family after his death. In order to remarry, the widow would have to be
returned to her family in exchange for a ransom fee. Her children would not be allowed to go with her.[189]

Among the nobility, bisexuality was the norm, continuing the accepted tradition of sexual expression amongst other
nobles since the Zhou dynasty.[196] In the Royal Court, Emperors often favored eunuchs above other non-castrated
men for their bodies' "sexual passivity".[197] On the other hand, Han authors did not view male homosexual
individuals as effeminate, as occurred in later dynasties.[198] While non-royal nobility were obligated to
heterosexual marriages, male concubines were widely accepted. Despite openness to bisexuality or homosexuality,
Han dynasty norms around gender and family obligated most moral questions, including that of polygamy,
homosexuality, and bisexuality, to be solved by the patriarch within the household.[199]

Apart from the passing of noble titles or ranks, inheritance

practices did not involve primogeniture; each son received
an equal share of the family property.[200] Unlike the
practice in later dynasties, the father usually sent his adult
married sons away with their portions of the family
fortune.[201] Daughters received a portion of the family
fortune through their dowries, though this was usually
much less than the shares of sons.[202] A different
distribution of the remainder could be specified in a will,
Left image: A ceramic female servant in silk robes but it is unclear how common this was.[203]
Right image: A Han pottery female dancer in silk robes
Women were expected to obey the will of their father, then
their husband, and then their adult son in old age. However,
it is known from contemporary sources that there were many deviations to this rule, especially in regard to mothers
over their sons, and empresses who ordered around and openly humiliated their fathers and brothers.[204] Women
were exempt from the annual corvée labour duties, but often engaged in a range of income-earning occupations
aside from their domestic chores of cooking and cleaning.[205]

The most common occupation for women was weaving clothes for the family, for sale at market, or for large textile
enterprises that employed hundreds of women. Other women helped on their brothers' farms or became singers,
dancers, sorceresses, respected medical physicians, and successful merchants who could afford their own silk
clothes.[206][207] Some women formed spinning collectives, aggregating the resources of several different
families.[208]

Education, literature, and philosophy

A Western Han fresco depicting Confucius and Laozi, from a tomb of Dongping County, Shandong

The early Western Han court simultaneously accepted the philosophical

teachings of Legalism, Huang-Lao Taoism, and Confucianism in making
state decisions and shaping government policy.[209][210] However, the
Han court under Emperor Wu gave Confucianism exclusive patronage.
In 136 BC, he abolished all academic chairs not concerned with the Five
Classics, and in 124 BC he established the Imperial University, at which
he encouraged nominees for office to receive a Confucian
education.[211][212][213][214]
Model of the Han dynasty royal academy
Unlike the original ideology espoused by Confucius (551–479 BC), Han
Confucianism in Emperor Wu's reign was the creation of Dong
Zhongshu (179–104 BC). Dong was a scholar and minor official who aggregated the ethical Confucian ideas of
ritual, filial piety, and harmonious relationships with five phases and yin-yang cosmologies.[215][216] Dong's
synthesis justified the imperial system of government within the natural order of the universe.[217]

The Imperial University grew in importance as the student body grew to over 30,000 by the 2nd
century AD.[218][219] A Confucian-based education was also made available at commandery-level schools and
private schools opened in small towns, where teachers earned respectable incomes from tuition payments.[220]
Schools were established in far southern regions where standard Chinese texts were used to assimilate the local
populace.[221]

Some important texts were created and studied by scholars. Philosophy written by Yang Xiong (53 BC – 18 AD),
Huan Tan (43 BC – 28 AD), Wang Chong (27–100 AD), and Wang Fu (78–163 AD) questioned whether human
nature was innately good or evil and posed challenges to Dong's universal order.[225] The Records of the Grand
Historian started by Sima Tan (d. 110 BC) and finished by his son Sima Qian (145–86 BC) established the standard
model for imperial China's tradition of official histories, being emulated initially by the Book of Han authored by
Ban Biao (3–54 AD) with his son Ban Gu (32–92 AD), and his daughter Ban Zhao (45–116 AD).[226][227]
Biographies on important figures were written by members of the gentry.[228] There were also dictionaries published
 during the Han period such as the
Shuowen Jiezi by Xu Shen (c. 58 –
c. 147 AD) and the Fangyan by Yang
Xiong.[229][230] Han dynasty poetry
was dominated by the fu genre, which
achieved its greatest prominence
during the reign of Emperor
Wu.[227][231][232][233][234]
Han period inscribed bamboo slips of
Sun Bin's Art of War, unearthed in Linyi, Law and order
Shandong
Han scholars such as Jia Yi (201–
169 BC) portrayed the Qin as a brutal
regime. However, archaeological evidence from
Zhangjiashan and Shuihudi reveal that many of the A fragment of the Xiping Stone
statutes in the Han law code compiled by Chancellor Classics; these stone-carved
Xiao He (d. 193 BC) were derived from Qin Five Classics installed during
Emperor Ling's reign along the
law.[236][237][238]
roadside of the imperial
university right outside
Various cases for rape, physical abuse, and murder were
Luoyang, were made at the
prosecuted in court. Women, although usually having
instigation of Cai Yong (132–
fewer rights by custom, were allowed to level civil and 192 AD), who feared the
criminal charges against men.[239][240] While suspects Classics housed in the imperial
were jailed, convicted criminals were never imprisoned. library were being interpolated
Instead, punishments were commonly monetary fines, by University
periods of forced hard labour for convicts, and the Academicians.[222][223][224]
penalty of death by beheading.[241] Early Han
punishments of torturous mutilation were borrowed from
Qin law. A series of reforms abolished mutilation punishments with progressively less-
A silk banner from
Mawangdui, draped
severe beatings by the bastinado.[242]
over the coffin of
Acting as a judge in lawsuits was one of the many duties of the county magistrate and
Lady Dai
(d. 168 BC), wife of Administrators of commanderies. Complex, high-profile, or unresolved cases were often
the Marquess Li deferred to the Minister of Justice in the capital or even the emperor.[243] In each Han
Cang (利蒼 ) county was several districts, each overseen by a chief of police. Order in the cities was
(d. 186 BC), maintained by government officers in the marketplaces and constables in the
chancellor for the neighbourhoods.[244][245]
Kingdom of
Changsha.[235]
Food

Two Han dynasty red-and-black lacquerwares, one a bowl, the other a tray; usually only wealthy officials, nobles, and
merchants could afford domestic luxury items like lacquerwares, which were common commodities produced by skilled
artisans and craftsmen.[246][247]
The most common staple crops consumed during Han were wheat, barley, foxtail millet, proso millet, rice, and
beans.[248] Commonly eaten fruits and vegetables included chestnuts, pears, plums, peaches, melons, apricots,
strawberries, red bayberries, jujubes, calabash, bamboo shoots, mustard plant, and taro.[249] Domesticated animals
that were also eaten included chickens, Mandarin ducks, geese, cows, sheep, pigs, camels, and dogs (various types
were bred specifically for food, while most were used as pets). Turtles and fish were taken from streams and lakes.
Commonly hunted game, such as owl, pheasant, magpie, sika deer, and Chinese bamboo partridge were
consumed.[250] Seasoning included sugar, honey, salt, and soy sauce.[251] Beer and wine were regularly
consumed.[252][253]

Clothing
The types of clothing worn and the materials used during the
Han period depended upon social class. Wealthy folk could
afford silk robes, skirts, socks, and mittens, coats made of
badger or fox fur, duck plumes, and slippers with inlaid leather,
pearls, and silk lining. Peasants commonly wore clothes made
of hemp, wool, and ferret skins.[254][255][256]
Woven silk textiles from Woven silk textiles from
Tomb #1 at Mawangdui Tomb #1 at Mawangdui
Religion, cosmology, and metaphysics

Carved reliefs on stone tomb doors showing men dressed in hanfu, with one holding a shield, the other a broom, Eastern
Han Dynasty, from Lanjia Yard, Pi County, Sichuan – Sichuan Provincial Museum, Chengdu.

Families throughout Han China made ritual sacrifices of animals and food to deities, spirits, and ancestors at temples
and shrines. They believed that these items could be used by those in the spiritual realm.[257] It was thought that
each person had a two-part soul: the spirit-soul which journeyed to the afterlife paradise of immortals (xian), and the
body-soul which remained in its grave or tomb on earth and was only reunited with the spirit-soul through a ritual
ceremony.[253][258]

In addition to his many other roles, the emperor acted as the highest priest in the land who made sacrifices to
Heaven, the main deities known as the Five Powers, and spirits of mountains and rivers known as shen.[259] It was
believed that the three realms of Heaven, Earth, and Mankind were linked by natural cycles of yin and yang and the
five phases.[260][261][262][263] If the emperor did not behave according to proper ritual, ethics, and morals, he could
disrupt the fine balance of these cosmological cycles and cause calamities such as earthquakes, floods, droughts,
epidemics, and swarms of locusts.[263][264][265]

It was believed that immortality could be achieved if one reached the lands of the Queen Mother of the West or
Mount Penglai.[266][267] Han-era Taoists assembled into small groups of hermits who attempted to achieve
immortality through breathing exercises, sexual techniques, and the use of medical elixirs.[268]
 By the 2nd century AD, Taoists formed large hierarchical religious
societies such as the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice. Its followers
believed that the sage-philosopher Laozi (fl. 6th century BC) was a holy
prophet who would offer salvation and good health if his devout
followers would confess their sins, ban the worship of unclean gods who
accepted meat sacrifices, and chant sections of the Tao Te Ching.[269]

Buddhism first entered Imperial China through the Silk Road during the
Eastern Han, and was first mentioned in 65 AD.[270][271] Liu Ying
(d. 71 AD), a half-brother to Emperor Ming of Han (r. 57–75 AD), was
one of its earliest Chinese adherents, although Chinese Buddhism at this
point was heavily associated with Huang–Lao Taoism.[271] China's first
known Buddhist temple, the White Horse Temple, was constructed
outside the wall of Luoyang during Emperor Ming's reign.[272]
Important Buddhist canons were translated into Chinese during the 2nd
century AD, including the Sutra of Forty-two Chapters, Perfection of
Wisdom, Shurangama Sutra, and Pratyutpanna Sutra.[273][c]
Han dynasty fulu talisman, part of the
Wucheng bamboo slips ( 烏程漢簡 )

Government and
politics

Central government
In Han government, the emperor was
the supreme judge and lawgiver, the
commander-in-chief of the armed
forces and sole designator of official
nominees appointed to the top posts in An Eastern Han bronze statuette of a
central and local administrations; those qilin, 1st century AD
who earned a 600-bushel salary-rank or
higher.[274][275]
Theoretically, there
were no limits to
his power.

A fragmentary Daoist
manuscript from the 2nd
century BC, ink on silk,
Mawangdui tomb #3

A scene of historic paragons of filial piety conversing with one

However, state organs with competing interests and another, Chinese painted artwork on a lacquerware basketwork
institutions such as the court conference (tingyi 廷 box, excavated from a tomb of the Lelang Commandery on the
議 )—where ministers were convened to reach a Korean Peninsula dating to the Eastern Han.
majority consensus on an issue—pressured the
emperor to accept the advice of his ministers on
policy decisions.[276][277] If the emperor rejected a court conference decision, he risked alienating his high ministers.
Nevertheless, emperors sometimes did reject the majority opinion reached at court conferences.[278]
Below the emperor were his cabinet members known as the Three Councillors of State. These were the Chancellor
or Minister over the Masses, the Imperial Counsellor or Excellency of Works (Yushi dafu 御史大夫
or Da sikong 大
司空 ), and Grand Commandant or Grand Marshal (Taiwei 太尉 or Da sima 大司馬
).[279][280]

The Chancellor, whose title had changed in 8 BC to Minister over the Masses, was chiefly responsible for drafting
the government budget. The Chancellor's other duties included managing provincial registers for land and
population, leading court conferences, acting as judge in lawsuits, and recommending nominees for high office. He
could appoint officials below the salary-rank of 600 bushels.[281][282]

The Imperial Counsellor's chief duty was to conduct disciplinary procedures for officials. He shared similar duties
with the Chancellor, such as receiving annual provincial reports. However, when his title was changed to Minister of
Works in 8 BC, his chief duty became the oversight of public works projects.[283][284]

The Grand Commandant, whose title was changed to Grand Marshal in 119 BC before reverting to Grand
Commandant in 51 AD, was the irregularly posted commander of the military and then regent during the Western
Han period. In the Eastern Han era he was chiefly a civil official who shared many of the same censorial powers as
the other two Councillors of State.[285][286]

Ranked below the Three Councillors of State were the Nine Ministers,
who each headed a specialized ministry. The Minister of Ceremonies
(Taichang 太常 ) was the chief official in charge of religious rites, rituals,
prayers, and the maintenance of ancestral temples and
altars.[287][288][289] The Minister of the Household (Guang lu xun 光祿
勳 ) was in charge of the emperor's security within the palace grounds,
external imperial parks, and wherever the emperor made an outing by
chariot.[287][290]
A rubbing of a Han pictorial stone
The Minister of the Guards
showing an ancestor worship hall (cítang
祠堂 )
(Weiwei 衛 尉 ) was
responsible for securing and
patrolling the walls, towers,
and gates of the imperial palaces. [292][293] The Minister Coachman
(Taipu 太僕 ) was responsible for the maintenance of imperial stables,
horses, carriages, and coach-houses for the emperor and his palace
attendants, as well as the supply of horses for the armed forces.[292][294]
The Minister of Justice (Tingwei廷尉 ) was the chief official in charge
of upholding, administering, and interpreting the law.[295][296] The
Minister Herald (Da honglu 大鴻臚 ) was the chief official in charge of
receiving honoured guests like nobles and foreign ambassadors at
Animalistic guardian spirits of day and
court.[297][298]
night wearing Han-era robes, Han-era

The Minister of the Imperial Clan (Zongzheng 宗正 ) oversaw the

paintings on ceramic tile; Michael Loewe
writes that the hybrid of man and beast in
imperial court's interactions with the empire's nobility and extended art and religious beliefs predated the Han
imperial family, such as granting fiefs and titles.[299][300] The Minister
of Finance (da sìnong 大司農 ) was the treasurer for the official
and remained popular during the first half
of Western Han and the Eastern Han.[291]
bureaucracy and the armed forces who handled tax revenues and set
standards for units of measurement.[301][302] The Minister Steward
(Shaofu 少府 ) served the emperor exclusively, providing him with entertainment and amusements, proper food and
clothing, medicine and physical care, valuables and equipment.[301][303]
Local government
The Han empire, excluding kingdoms and marquessates, was divided, in
descending order of size, into political units of provinces, commanderies, and
counties.[304] A county was divided into several districts (xiang 鄉
), the latter
composed of a group of hamlets (li 里 ), each containing about a hundred
families.[305][306]

The heads of provinces, whose official title was changed from Inspector to
Governor and vice versa several times during Han, were responsible for
inspecting several commandery-level and kingdom-level administrations.[307][308]
On the basis of their reports, the officials in these local administrations would be
promoted, demoted, dismissed, or prosecuted by the imperial court.[309]

A governor could take various actions without permission from the imperial court.
An Eastern Han devotional
The lower-ranked inspector had executive powers only during times of crisis,
stone statue depicting Li Bing
such as raising militias across the commanderies under his jurisdiction to suppress
(fl. 3rd century BC) in an
a rebellion.[304] official's cap and robe in
Dujiangyan, Sichuan
A commandery consisted of a group of counties, and was headed by an
administrator.[304] He was the top civil and military leader of the commandery
and handled defence, lawsuits, seasonal instructions to farmers, and recommendations of nominees for office sent
annually to the capital in a quota system first established by Emperor Wu.[310][311][312] The head of a large county of
about 10,000 households was called a Prefect, while the heads of smaller counties were called chiefs, and both could
be referred to as magistrates.[313][314] A Magistrate maintained law and order in his county, registered the populace
for taxation, mobilized commoners for annual corvée duties, repaired schools, and supervised public works.[314]

Kingdoms and marquessates

Kingdoms—roughly the size of commanderies—were ruled exclusively by the emperor's male relatives as semi-
autonomous fiefdoms. Before 157 BC, some kingdoms were ruled by non-relatives, granted to them in return for
their services to Emperor Gaozu. The administration of each kingdom was very similar to that of the central
government.[315][316][317] Although the emperor appointed the Chancellor of each kingdom, kings appointed all the
remaining civil officials in their fiefs.[315][316]

However, in 145 BC, after several insurrections by the kings, Emperor Jing removed the kings' rights to appoint
officials whose salaries were higher than 400 bushels.[316] The Imperial Counsellors and Nine Ministers (excluding
the Minister Coachman) of every kingdom were abolished, although the Chancellor was still appointed by the
central government.[316]

With these reforms, kings were reduced to being nominal heads of their fiefs, gaining a personal income from only a
portion of the taxes collected in their kingdom.[16] Similarly, the officials in the administrative staff of a full
marquess's fief were appointed by the central government. A marquess's chancellor was ranked as the equivalent of a
county prefect. Like a king, the marquess collected a portion of the tax revenues in his fief as personal
income.[313][318]

Until the reign of Emperor Jing of Han, the Han emperors had great difficulties controlling their vassal kings, who
often switched allegiances to the Xiongnu whenever they felt threatened by imperial centralization of power. The
seven years of Gaozu's reign featured defections by three vassal kings and one marquess, who then aligned
themselves with the Xiongnu. Even imperial princes controlling fiefdoms would sometimes invite a Xiongnu
invasion in response to the Emperor's threats. The Han moved to secure a treaty with the Xiongnu, aiming to clearly
divide authority between them. The Han and Xiongnu now held one another out as the "two masters" with sole
dominion over their respective peoples; they cemented this agreement with a marriage alliance (heqin), before
eliminating the rebellious vassal kings in 154 BC. This prompted some
of the Xiongnu vassals to swap allegiances to the Han, starting in 147.
Han court officials were initially hostile to the idea of disrupting the
status quo by expanding into Xiongnu territory in the steppe. The
surrendered Xiongnu were integrated into a parallel military and
political structures loyal to the Han emperor, a step toward a potential
Han challenge to the superiority of Xiongnu cavalry in steppe warfare.
This also brought the Han into contact with the interstate trade networks
through the Tarim Basin in the far northwest, allowing for the Han's
expansion from a regional state to a universalist, cosmopolitan empire
The Flying Horse of Gansu, depicted in
achieved in part through further marriage alliances with the Wusun, full gallop, bronze sculpture 34.5 cm in
another steppe power.[319] height. Wuwei, Gansu (25–220 AD)

Military
At the beginning of the Han, every male commoner aged
twenty-three was liable for conscription into the military.
The minimum age was reduced to twenty following the
reign of Emperor Zhao (r. 87–74).[320] Conscripted
soldiers underwent one year of training and one year of
service as non-professional soldiers. The year of training
was spent in one of three branches of the armed forces:
infantry, cavalry, or navy. Prior to the abolition of much
A mural showing chariots and cavalry from the Dahuting
of the conscription system after 30 AD, soldiers could be tomb near Zhengzhou, Henan, dated to the late Eastern
called up for future service following the completion of Han
their terms. They had to continue training regularly to

A Chinese crossbow mechanism with a buttplate from either the late Warring States period or the early Han dynasty;
made of bronze and inlaid with silver

maintain their skills, and were subject to annual inspections of their military readiness.[321][322] The year of active
service was served either on the frontier, in a king's court, or in the capital under the Minister of the Guards. A small
professional army was stationed near the capital.[321][322]

During the Eastern Han, conscription could be avoided if one paid a commutable tax. The Eastern Han court
favoured the recruitment of a volunteer army.[323] The volunteer army comprised the Southern Army (Nanjun ), 南軍
while the standing army stationed in and near the capital was the Northern Army (Beijun ). 北軍
[324] Led by
Colonels (Xiaowei 校尉 ), the Northern Army consisted of five regiments, each composed of several thousand
soldiers.[325][326] When central authority collapsed after 189 AD, wealthy landowners, members of the
aristocracy/nobility, and regional military-governors relied upon their retainers to act as their own personal
troops.[327]

During times of war, the volunteer army was increased, and a much larger militia was raised across the country to
supplement the Northern Army. In these circumstances, a general (jiangjun 將軍
) led a division, which was divided
into regiments led by a colonel or major (sima
[325][328]
司馬
). Regiments were divided into companies and led by captains.
Platoons were the smallest units.
Economy

Currency
The Han dynasty inherited the ban liang coin type from the Qin. In the
beginning of the Han, Emperor Gaozu closed the government mint in
favour of private minting of coins. This decision was reversed in 186 BC
by his widow Grand Empress Dowager Lü Zhi (d. 180 BC), who abolished
private minting.[329] In 182 BC, Lü Zhi issued a bronze coin that was much
lighter in weight than previous coins. This caused widespread inflation that
was not reduced until 175 BC, when Emperor Wen allowed private minters
to manufacture coins that were precisely 2.6 g (0.092 oz) in weight.[329] A wuzhu (五銖 ) coin issued during the
reign of Emperor Wu (r. 141–87 BC),
In 144 BC, Emperor Jing abolished private minting in favour of central- 25.5 mm in diameter
government and commandery-level minting; he also introduced a new
coin.[330] Emperor Wu introduced another in 120 BC, but a year later he
abandoned the ban liangs entirely in favour of the wuzhu coin, weighing
3.2 g (0.11 oz).[331] The wuzhu became China's standard coin until the
Tang dynasty (618–907). Its use was interrupted briefly by several new
currencies introduced during Wang Mang's regime until it was reinstated
in 40 AD by Emperor Guangwu.[332][333][334]

Since commandery-issued coins were often of inferior quality and

Gold coins from the Eastern Han
lighter weight, the central government closed commandery mints and
monopolized the issue of coinage in 113 BC. This central government
issuance of coinage was overseen by the Superintendent of Waterways and Parks, this duty being transferred to the
Minister of Finance during the Eastern Han.[334][335]

Taxation and property

Aside from the landowner's land tax paid in a portion of their crop yield, the poll tax and property taxes were paid in
coin cash.[336] The annual poll tax rate for adult men and women was 120 coins and 20 coins for minors. Merchants
were required to pay a higher rate of 240 coins.[337] The poll tax stimulated a money economy that necessitated the
minting of over 28,000,000,000 coins from 118 BC to 5 AD, an average of 220,000,000 coins a year.[338]

The widespread circulation of coin cash allowed successful merchants to invest money in land, empowering the very
social class the government attempted to suppress through heavy commercial and property taxes.[339] Emperor Wu
even enacted laws which banned registered merchants from owning land, yet powerful merchants were able to avoid
registration and own large tracts of land.[340][341]

The small landowner-cultivators formed the majority of the Han tax base; this revenue was threatened during the
latter half of Eastern Han when many peasants fell into debt and were forced to work as farming tenants for wealthy
landlords.[342][343][344] The Han government enacted reforms in order to keep small landowner-cultivators out of
debt and on their own farms. These reforms included reducing taxes, temporary remissions of taxes, granting loans,
and providing landless peasants temporary lodging and work in agricultural colonies until they could recover from
their debts.[62][345]

In 168 BC, the land tax rate was reduced from one-fifteenth of a farming household's crop yield to one-
thirtieth,[346][347] and later to one-hundredth of a crop yield for the last decades of the dynasty. The consequent loss
of government revenue was compensated for by increasing property taxes.[347]
The labour tax took the form of conscripted labour for one month per year, which was imposed upon male
commoners aged fifteen to fifty-six. This could be avoided in Eastern Han with a commutable tax, since hired labour
became more popular.[321][348]

Private manufacture and government monopolies

In the early Western Han, a wealthy salt or iron industrialist, whether a
semi-autonomous king or wealthy merchant, could boast funds that
rivalled the imperial treasury and amass a peasant workforce numbering
in the thousands. This kept many peasants away from their farms and
denied the government a significant portion of its land tax
revenue.[349][350] To eliminate the influence of such private
entrepreneurs, Emperor Wu nationalized the salt and iron industries in
117 BC and allowed many of the former industrialists to become
officials administering the state monopolies.[351][352][353] By the Eastern An iron ji polearm and iron dagger
Han, the central government monopolies were repealed in favour of
production by commandery and county administrations, as well as
private businessmen.[351][354]

Liquor was another profitable private industry nationalized by the central government in 98 BC. However, this was
repealed in 81 BC and a property tax rate of two coins for every 0.2 litres (0.053 US gal) was levied for those who
traded it privately.[355][356] By 110 BC, Emperor Wu also interfered with the profitable trade in grain when he
eliminated speculation by selling government stores of grain at a lower price than that demanded by merchants.[62]
Apart from Emperor Ming's creation of a short-lived Office for Price Adjustment and Stabilization, which was
abolished in 68 AD, central-government price control regulations were largely absent during the Eastern Han.[357]

Science and technology

The Han dynasty was a unique period in the development of premodern Chinese
science and technology, comparable to the level of scientific and technological
growth during the Song dynasty (960–1279).[359][360]

Writing materials
In the 1st millennium BC, typical ancient Chinese writing materials were
bronzeware, oracle bones, and bamboo slips or wooden boards. By the beginning
of the Han, the chief writing materials were clay tablets, silk cloth, hemp
paper,[361][362] and rolled scrolls made from bamboo strips sewn together with
hempen string; these were passed through drilled holes and secured with clay
stamps.[363][364][365]
A gilded bronze oil lamp in the
The oldest known Chinese piece of hempen paper dates to the 2nd shape of a kneeling female
century BC.[366][361] The standard papermaking process was invented by Cai Lun servant, dated to the 2nd
(AD 50–121) in 105.[367][368] The oldest known surviving piece of paper with century BC, found in the tomb
writing on it was found in the ruins of a Han watchtower that had been abandoned of Dou Wan, wife of Liu Sheng,
Prince of Zhongshan; its sliding
in AD 110, in Inner Mongolia.[369]
shutter allows for adjustments
in the direction and brightness
in light while it also traps
smoke within the body.[73][358]
Metallurgy and agriculture
Evidence suggests that blast furnaces, that convert raw iron ore into pig
iron, which can be remelted in a cupola furnace to produce cast iron by
means of a cold blast and hot blast, were operational in China by the late
Spring and Autumn period (c. 770 – c. 481 BC).[370][371] The bloomery
was non-existent in ancient China; however, the Han-era Chinese
produced wrought iron by injecting excess oxygen into a furnace and
causing decarburisation.[372] Cast iron and pig iron could be converted
An array of bronze bells from the into wrought iron and steel using a fining process.[373][374]
Western Han
The Han dynasty Chinese used bronze and iron to make a range of
weapons, culinary tools, carpenters' tools, and domestic wares.[375][376]
A significant product of these improved iron-smelting techniques was the
manufacture of new agricultural tools. The three-legged iron seed drill, invented
by the 2nd century BC, enabled farmers to carefully plant crops in rows instead of
sowing seeds by hand.[377][378][379] The heavy mouldboard iron plough, also
invented during the Han, required only one man to control it with two oxen to pull
it. It had three ploughshares, a seed box for the drills, a tool which turned down
An ornamental belt buckle from the soil and could sow roughly 45,730 m2 (492,200 sq ft) of land in a single
the late Han, made of chiselled day.[380][381]
and hammered gold and
To protect crops from wind and drought, the grain intendant Zhao Guo ( 趙過 )
代田法
decorated with mythical
creatures created the alternating fields system (daitianfa ) during Emperor Wu's
reign. This system switched the positions of furrows and ridges between growing
seasons.[382] Once experiments with this system
yielded successful results, the government
officially sponsored it and encouraged peasants to
use it.[382] Han farmers also used the pit field
system (aotian 凹田 ) for growing crops, which
Left: A mould for making bronze gear wheels – Shanghai Museum involved heavily fertilized pits that did not
Right: A pair of iron scissors from the Eastern Han require ploughs or oxen and could be placed on
sloping terrain.[383][384] In the southern and small
parts of central Han-era China, paddy fields were
chiefly used to grow rice, while farmers along the Huai River used transplantation methods of rice production.[385]

Structural and geo-technical engineering

Timber was the chief building material during the Han; it was used to build palace halls, multi-story residential
towers and halls, and single-story houses.[389] Because wood decays rapidly, the only remaining evidence of Han
wooden architecture is a collection of scattered ceramic roof tiles.[389][390] The oldest surviving wooden halls in
China date to the Tang dynasty.[391] Architectural historian Robert L. Thorp points out the scarcity of Han-era
archaeological remains, and claims that often unreliable Han-era literary and artistic sources are used by historians
as clues concerning lost Han architecture.[392]

Though Han wooden structures decayed, some Han dynasty ruins made of brick, stone, and rammed earth remain
intact. This includes stone pillar-gates, brick tomb chambers, rammed-earth city walls, rammed-earth and brick
beacon towers, rammed-earth sections of the Great Wall, rammed-earth platforms where elevated halls once stood,
and two rammed-earth castles in Gansu.[393][394][395][d] The ruins of rammed-earth walls that once surrounded the
capitals Chang'an and Luoyang still stand, along with their drainage systems of brick arches, ditches, and ceramic
 Left: A pottery model of a palace from a Han dynasty tomb; the entrances to the emperor's palaces were strictly guarded
by the Minister of the Guards; if it was found that a commoner, official, or noble entered without explicit permission via a
tally system, the intruder was subject to execution.[386]
Right: A painted ceramic architectural model depicting a fortified manor with towers, a courtyard, verandas, tiled
rooftops, dougong support brackets, and a covered bridge extending from the third floor of the main tower to the smaller
watchtower, found in an Eastern Han tomb at Jiazuo, Henan[387]

Left: A ceramic architectural model of a grain storage tower with five layers of tiled rooftops and columns supporting the
roofs of balconies on the first two floors, dated from the mid-Western Han to early Eastern Han
Right: A Han pottery model of a granary tower with windows and balcony placed several stories above the first-floor
courtyard; Zhang Heng (78–139 AD) described the large imperial park in the suburbs of Chang'an as having tall towers
where archers would shoot stringed arrows from the top in order to entertain the Western Han emperors.[388]

water pipes.[396] Monumental stone pillar-gates called que, of which 29 dated to the Han survive, formed entrances
of walled enclosures at shrine and tomb sites.[397][398] These pillars feature artistic imitations of wooden and
ceramic building components such as roof tiles, eaves, and balustrades.[399][398]

The courtyard house is the most common type of home portrayed in Han artwork.[389] Ceramic architectural models
of buildings, like houses and towers, were found in Han tombs, perhaps to provide lodging for the dead in the
afterlife. These provide valuable clues about lost wooden architecture. The artistic designs found on ceramic roof
tiles of tower models are in some cases exact matches to Han roof tiles found at archaeological sites.[400]

Over ten Han-era underground tombs have been found, many of them featuring archways, vaulted chambers, and
domed roofs.[401] Underground vaults and domes did not require buttress supports since they were held in place by
earthen pits.[402] The use of brick vaults and domes in aboveground Han structures is unknown.[402]

From Han literary sources, it is known that wooden-trestle beam bridges, arch bridges, simple suspension bridges,
and floating pontoon bridges existed during the Han.[403] However, there are only two known references to arch
bridges in Han literature.[404] There is only one Han-era relief sculpture, located in Sichuan, that depicts an arch
bridge.[405]
Underground mine shafts were dug to extract metal ores, with some reaching depths of more than 100 m
(330 ft).[406][407] Borehole drilling and derricks were used to lift brine to iron pans where it was distilled into salt.
The distillation furnaces were heated by natural gas funnelled to the surface through bamboo pipelines.[406][408][409]
It is possible that these boreholes reached a total depth of 600 m (2,000 ft).[410]

A pair of stone-carved que from A pair of que from the Eastern A stone-carved que 6 m (20 ft)
the Eastern Han, at the temple Han in Babaoshan, Beijing in height from the Eastern Han,
of Mount Song in Dengfeng, at the tomb of Gao Yi in Ya'an,
Henan Sichuan[398]

A vaulted tomb chamber made

of small bricks from the Eastern
Han, at Luoyang

Mechanical and hydraulic engineering

Han-era mechanical engineering comes largely from the choice
observational writings of sometimes-disinterested Confucian scholars
who generally considered scientific and engineering endeavours to be
匠
far beneath them.[411] Professional artisan-engineers (jiang ) did not
leave behind detailed records of their work.[412][e] Han scholars, who
often had little or no expertise in mechanical engineering, sometimes
provided insufficient information on the various technologies they
described.[413]
A Han dynasty pottery model of two men
Nevertheless, some literary sources provide crucial information. For operating a winnowing machine with a
example, in 15 BC the philosopher and poet Yang Xiong described the crank handle and a tilt hammer used to
pound grain
invention of the belt drive for a quilling machine, which was of great
importance to early textile manufacturing.[414] The inventions of
mechanical engineer and craftsman Ding Huan are mentioned in the
Miscellaneous Notes on the Western Capital.[415] Around AD 180, Ding
created a manually operated rotary fan used for air conditioning within
palace buildings.[416] Ding also used gimbals as pivotal supports for one
of his incense burners and invented the world's first known zoetrope
lamp.[417]

Modern archaeology has led to the discovery of Han artwork portraying

inventions which were otherwise absent in Han literary sources. As
observed in Han miniature tomb models, but not in literary sources, the
crank handle was used to operate the fans of winnowing machines that
separated grain from chaff.[418] The odometer cart, invented during the
Han period, measured journey lengths, using mechanical figures banging
drums and gongs to indicate each distance travelled.[419] This invention
is depicted in Han artwork by the 2nd century, yet detailed written A modern replica of Zhang Heng's
descriptions were not offered until the 3rd century.[420] seismometer

Modern archaeologists have also unearthed specimens of devices used

during the Han dynasty, for example a pair of sliding metal calipers used by craftsmen for making minute
measurements. These calipers contain inscriptions of the exact day and year they were manufactured. These tools
are not mentioned in any Han literary sources.[421]

The waterwheel appeared in Chinese records during the Han. As mentioned by Huan Tan c. 20 AD, they were used
to turn gears that lifted iron trip hammers, and were used in pounding, threshing, and polishing grain.[422] However,
there is no sufficient evidence for the watermill in China until around the 5th century.[423] The administrator,
mechanical engineer, and metallurgist Du Shi (d. 38 AD) created a waterwheel-powered reciprocator that worked the
bellows for the smelting of iron.[424][425] Waterwheels were also used to power chain pumps that lifted water to
raised irrigation ditches. The chain pump was first mentioned in China by the philosopher Wang Chong in his 1st-
century Lunheng.[426]

The armillary sphere, a three-dimensional representation of the movements in the celestial sphere, was invented by
the Han during the 1st century BC.[427] Using a water clock, waterwheel, and a series of gears, the Court
Astronomer Zhang Heng (78–139 AD) was able to mechanically rotate his metal-ringed armillary
sphere.[428][429][430][431] To address the problem of slowed timekeeping in the pressure head of the inflow water
clock, Zhang was the first in China to install an additional tank between the reservoir and inflow vessel.[428][432]

Zhang also invented a device he termed an "earthquake weathervane" (houfeng didong yi 候風地動儀 ), which the
British sinologist and historian Joseph Needham described as "the ancestor of all seismographs".[433] This device
was able to detect the exact cardinal or ordinal direction of earthquakes from hundreds of kilometres
away.[428][434][430] It employed an inverted pendulum that, when disturbed by ground tremors, would trigger a set of
gears that dropped a metal ball from one of eight dragon mouths (representing all eight directions) into a metal
toad's mouth.[435] The account of this device in the Book of the Later Han describes how, on one occasion, one of
the metal balls was triggered without any of the observers feeling a disturbance. Several days later, a messenger
arrived bearing news that an earthquake had struck in Longxi Commandery (modern Gansu), the direction the
device had indicated, which forced the officials at court to admit the efficacy of Zhang's device.[436]

Mathematics
Three Han mathematical treatises still exist. These are the Book on Numbers and Computation, the Zhoubi Suanjing,
and the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. Han mathematical achievements include solving problems with
right triangles, square roots, cube roots, and matrix methods,[437][438] finding more accurate approximations for
pi,[439][440] providing mathematical proof of the Pythagorean theorem,[441][442] use of the decimal fraction,[443]
Gaussian elimination to solve linear equations,[444][445][446] and continued fractions to find the roots of
equations.[447]

One of the Han's greatest mathematical advancements was the world's first use of negative numbers. Negative
numbers first appeared in the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art as black counting rods, where positive
numbers were represented by red counting rods.[438] Negative numbers were also used by the Greek mathematician
Diophantus around AD 275, and in the 7th-century Bakhshali manuscript of Gandhara, South Asia,[448] but were not
widely accepted in Europe until the 16th century.[438]

The Han applied mathematics to various diverse disciplines. In musical tuning, Jing Fang (78–37 BC) realized that
53 perfect fifths was approximate to 31 octaves. He also created a musical scale of 60 tones, calculating the
difference at 177147⁄176776 (the same value of 53 equal temperament discovered by the German mathematician
Nicholas Mercator [1620–1687], i.e. 353/284).[449][450]

Astronomy
Mathematics were essential in drafting the astronomical calendar, a lunisolar calendar that used the Sun and Moon
as time-markers throughout the year.[451][452] In the 5th century BC, during the Spring and Autumn period, the
Chinese established the Sifen calendar ( 古四分歷 ), which measured the tropical year at 365.25 days. This was
太初曆
replaced in 104 BC with the Taichu calendar ( ) that measured the tropical year at 365385⁄1539 (~ 365.25016)
days and the lunar month at 2943⁄81 days.[453] However, Emperor Zhang later reinstated the Sifen calendar.[454]

Han dynasty astronomers made star catalogues and detailed records of comets that appeared in the night sky,
including recording the appearance of the comet now known as Halley's Comet in 12 BC.[455][456][457][458] They
adopted a geocentric model of the universe, theorizing that it was a sphere surrounding the Earth in the
centre.[459][460][461] They assumed that the Sun, Moon, and planets were spherical and not disc-shaped. They also
thought that the illumination of the Moon and planets was caused by sunlight, that lunar eclipses occurred when the
Earth obstructed sunlight falling onto the Moon, and that a solar eclipse occurred when the Moon obstructed
sunlight from reaching the Earth.[462] Although others disagreed with his model, Wang Chong accurately described
the water cycle of the evaporation of water into clouds.[463]

Cartography, ships, and vehicles

Both literary and archaeological evidence has demonstrated that cartography in
China predated the Han.[464][465] Some of the oldest Han-era maps that have been
discovered were written using ink on silk, and were found amongst the
Mawangdui Silk Texts in a 2nd-century BC tomb in Hunan.[464][466] The general
Ma Yuan created the world's first known raised-relief map from rice in the 1st
century.[467] This date could be revised if the tomb of Qin Shi Huang is excavated
and the Shiji 's account of a model map of the empire is proven to be true.[468]

Although the use of graduated scales and grid references in maps was not
thoroughly described prior to the work of Pei Xiu (AD 224–271), there is A silk map from the early
evidence that their use was introduced in the early 2nd century by the Western Han depicting the
cartographer Zhang Heng.[428][464][469][470] kingdoms of Changsha and
Nanyue in southern China, with
The Han sailed in various types of ships that differed from those used in previous the southern direction oriented
eras, such as the tower ship. The junk design was developed and realized during at the top – Mawangdui tomb
No. 3
the Han era. Junk ships featured a square-ended bow and stern, a flat-bottomed
hull or carvel-shaped hull with no keel or sternpost, and solid transverse
bulkheads in the place of [structural ribs found in Western vessels.[471][472]
Moreover, Han ships were the first in the world to be steered using a rudder at the
stern, in contrast to the simpler steering oar used for riverine transport, allowing
them to sail on the high seas.[473][474][475][476][477][478]

Although ox carts and chariots were previously used in China, the wheelbarrow
was first used in Han China in the 1st century BC.[479][480] Han artwork of horse-
drawn chariots shows that the Warring-States-Era heavy wooden yoke placed An Eastern Han pottery boat
model with a steering rudder at
around a horse's chest was replaced by the softer breast strap.[481] Later, during
the stern and anchor at the
the Northern Wei (386–534), the fully developed horse collar was invented.[481] bow

Medicine
Han-era medical physicians believed that the human body was subject to the same
forces of nature that governed the greater universe, namely the cosmological
cycles of yin and yang and the five phases. Each organ of the body was associated
with a particular phase. Illness was viewed as a sign that qi, or vital energy,
channels leading to a certain organ had been disrupted. Thus, Han-era physicians
prescribed medicine that was believed to counteract this imbalance.[482][483][484]

For example, since the wood phase was believed to promote the fire phase, The physical exercise chart; a
medicinal ingredients associated with the wood phase could be used to heal an painting on silk depicting the
organ associated with the fire phase.[482] Besides dieting, Han physicians also practice of Daoyin –
Mawangdui tomb No. 3
prescribed moxibustion, acupuncture, and callisthenics as methods of maintaining
one's health.[485][486][487][488] When surgery was performed by the Chinese
physician Hua Tuo (d. AD 208), he used anaesthesia to numb his patients' pain and prescribed a rubbing ointment
that allegedly sped up the healing process for surgical wounds.[485] The physician Zhang Zhongjing (c. 150 –
c. 219 AD) is known to have written the Shanghan Lun ("Dissertation on Typhoid Fever"), and it is thought that he
and Hua Tuo collaborated to compile the Shennong Bencaojing medical text.[489]

See also
Battle of Jushi
Campaign against Dong Zhuo
Comparative studies of the Roman and Han empires
Han Emperors family tree
Shuanggudui
Ten Attendants

Notes

a. UK: /ˈhæn/, US: /ˈhɑːn/;[4] traditional Chinese: 漢朝

; simplified Chinese: 汉朝
; pinyin: Hàncháo
b. See also Hinsch (2002), pp. 21–22
c. See also Needham (1972), p. 112.
d. See also Ebrey (1999), p. 76; see Needham (1972), Plate V, Fig. 15, for a photo of a Han-era fortress
in Dunhuang, Gansu that has rammed earth ramparts with defensive crenellations at the top.
e. See also Barbieri-Low (2007), p. 36.
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Further reading
——— (2006), The Government of the Qin and Han Empires: 221 BCE–220 CE, Hackett, ISBN 978-
0-87220-819-3.

External links
"Han dynasty" by Emuseum – Minnesota State University, Mankato (https://web.archive.org/web/2009
0710041505/https://mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/china/early_imperial_china/han.html)
Han dynasty art with video commentary, Minneapolis Institute of Arts (https://web.archive.org/web/200
51201013511/http://www.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/dynasty-han.cfm)
Early Imperial China: A Working Collection of Resources (https://e-asia.uoregon.edu/earlychina/)
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20100625031315/https://e-asia.uoregon.edu/earlychina/) 25
June 2010 at the Wayback Machine
"Han Culture," Hanyangling Museum Website (https://web.archive.org/web/20111010033305/https://h
ylae.com/en/hdwh.asp)
The Han Synthesis (https://bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004y29t), BBC Radio 4 discussion with
Christopher Cullen, Carol Michaelson & Roel Sterckx (In Our Time, Oct. 14, 2004)

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