The Mauryan Empire
(ca. 324 – 185 BCE)
• Created by Chandragupta Maurya
• (ruled 324 – 301 BCE)
– Leads forces to remove Hellenistic influence
and unifies lands by 321BCE
• Paranoid ruler
• Treason suspects tortured and killed
• Spies, food tasters, never sleeps in same
room two nights in a row
Chandragupta’s Rule
• Establishes ruling principles based on:
– Hindu philosophy
– “policy of the scepter”
• Establishes Government
– Pataliputra
– Kingdom divided into Provinces – each ruled
by a royal governor appointed by the ruler
• ivided into districts – each ruled by an official
appointed by the royal governor
– Districts contain villages – each has a village leader
The Reign of Asoka
(269 -232 BCE)
• Initially continues brutal rule as father and
grandfather had
• 260 BCE – Asoka
– converted to Buddhism because he was
disturbed by his own brutality
• Sends out Buddhist missionaries throughout
kingdom
– Spreads buddhism
– uses the principles of Buddhism in the rest of his reign
Asoka’s Rule
• Issues “Rock Edicts”
– has several stone pillars and tablets placed throughout his
kingdom
• outlining his new policies and ideas based on Buddhist principles
• appoints “officials of righteousness” who make sure that
everybody treated fairly
• orders the building of hospitals for people and animals
• creates “rest stops” along roads within the Empire
• revises the legal code of the Empire
• encouraged trade and industry
• allowed freedom of religion within the Empire
End of the Mauryan Empire
• Asoka dies in 232 BCE – Maurayan Empire
starts to decline
• 185 BCE – the last Mauryan Emperor is
assassinated,
• Mauryan empire splits-up
• Intermediate Period (ca. 185 BCE – 320 CE)
– India fragments into independent kingdoms (again)
The Gupta Empire (ca. 320 – 550
CE) – “India’s Golden Age”
Establishment
• Much smaller territory than Mauryan
• Famous Emperors:
• Chandra Gupta I
• (r. 320 – 335 CE) – first Gupta Emperor, united
several kingdoms
• Chandra Gupta II (r. 375• 415 CE) – Emperor during the height
Government/Economic
Organization
• Emperor ruled from the capital
(Pataliputra)
• *. Emperor’s revenues generated from taxes from
provinces
• monopolistic control over salt and minerals
• Empire divided into
• provinces – each ruled by a royal governor
• *. governed loosely, as long as they paid
• Culture
• Hinduism official religion (religious freedom
allowed)
• Arts (especially Hindu-related) - flourished
• Literature written in Sanskrit
• Architecture and Sculpture (many temples)
– especially in the form of Hindu
New Technologies/Developments
• Medicine – Inoculation, basic surgery
• Mathematics – base 10 number system
– Develop concepts of zero and infinity
Decline in the status of women
• arranged marriages become common
• high respect, but little power for women
• End of the Gupta Empire – caused by invasions by
the Huns
The Qin Dynasty
Ben Needle
Kell High School
Marietta, GA
Ben.needle@cobbk12.org
Establishment of the Qin
Dynasty
• Following the Warring States Period (480 – 221
BCE)
• Qin Dynasty Emerges
• It takes over other states gradually
• First emperor unifies China and begins the
imperial age
• This Dynasty may be the source of the name
“China”
• This dynasty was Legalist
•
Shi Huangdi
• “First Emperor”
• Ruthlessly ruled along with prime minister
Li Si
• Highly mobilized the people of China
• Constructed Irrigation and flood control
works that solidified his position
Qin Dynastic Structure
• State had a totalitarian structure
• Cracked down on Confucianism
• This was as a result of the duties shared by people
in Confucianism(5 Relationships)
• Rivals were eliminated
• Primogeniture abolished
– This was the practice of having the eldest son inherit all
land a property
• Wanted to limit power and split amongst multiple
heirs
• Slavery eliminated
• What do all of these steps help Shi Huangdi to
accomplish?
Accomplishments of the Qin
• Thousands of Miles of Roads
• Standard weights, measurements, currency, law,
writing
• Canals
• Frontier Walls (beginning of Great Wall)
• Following the death of Shi Huangdi, he had a
massive tomb built
The Han Dynasty
Ben Needle
Kell High School
Marietta, GA
Ben.needle@cobbk12.org
Han Emergence
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Establishment
Liu Bang
206 BCE Becomes emperor
the “Great Progenitor” or forefather
Liu Bang
• 202 BCE – he had eliminated virtually all his
competition via military means or diplomacy
• tax burden of the peasants
Han dynasty would do this over time
• Food Stockpiles
• Treatment of loyalists
• Threat of loyalists
Han Confucianism
• The Qin/Chin Dynasty
Totalitarian and Legalist
• Rooted in the Legalist Philosophy
• Confucianism vs Legalism
• Confucianism as the basis for the Han Dynasty
• 136 BCE – HAN emperor adopted Confucianism
and the principle of appointing officials based
upon merit
• Bureaucracy expands
• Examinations and opening positions to “anyone”
Changing of the Guard
• Liu Ying and his mother, Empress Lu
Emperor Wu Di (140 BCE)
• Expansion
– Conquered the Tarim Basin, Korea, Tonkin
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Taxes
Ambassadors
Royal academy
The Silk Road Grows
– Trade ended in Rome
• Wu Di’s envoy
Things Get Worse under Wu Di
• Imperial authority declined
• Babies inherited powerful positions
• Mothers appointed relatives to high-level
positions
• What was the problem with this?
• Financial Problems
Hsin Dynasty (8 – 23 CE)
• Rose up against existing dynasty to attempt to
return to Confucian focused style of rule
• Founder, Wang Mang, felt that the Han Dynasty
has lost its “Mandate of Heaven”
In the years 2, 5, and 11 CE, there were great
floods of the Yellow River causing large
numbers of death.
• These led to civil war and the eventual
assassination of Wang Mang and his followers
Later Han Era (25 - 220 CE)
• Struggle for a ruler
• Landowners
• Wars ended by general Ts’ao Ts’ao in 215
His son took the throne in 220 and
established the Wei dynasty.
Han Dynasty Falls
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Peasant revolts
184 – Yellow Turbans
Eunuch Issues - 189
The empire was later split into 3 parts
The end of the Han Dynasty marked the end
of Ancient Chinese unity
• Following this tragic loss of power and unity,
there was continual instability
• Remembered as the height of ancient
Chinese power
Accomplishments
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Improved silk production techniques
Silk Road
Water Clock and sundial invented
Mechanical inventions increased the
production of salt
• Wheel Barrow – Wooden Ox
• Emergence of the science of acupuncture
• Paper 105 by Tsai-Lun