 Consisted of most of Han China’s population
 Occupied the lower stratum in the social structure
 Poor economic conditions
 Survived on sparse food and coarse clothing
 Had to sell land at low prices or secure loans at high interest
during emergencies
 Often reduced to poverty
 Became tenants of wealthy
landowners
 Exploited through high rents
that were usually more than
50% of their harvest
 Looked down upon, yet their
work was considered productive
and fundamental to society
 Were banished to the frontier
during the Qin Dynasty
 Merchants’ status in Han China
was a contradiction
 As internal and external trade flourished,
wealthy merchants commanded respect and influence
 The state, deeply suspicious of the merchants’ wealth, sought
to control and repress them
 Two categories of Han merchants:
 Small-scale urban shopkeepers who sold goods at shops in
urban markets
 Were enrolled on an official register and had to pay heavy
commercial taxes
 Had a very low social status and were often subject to additional
restrictions
 Not allowed to own land
 The larger-scale itinerant traders who traveled between cities
and to foreign countries
 Did not have to register and often participated in large-scale trade
with powerful families and officials
 Owned large tracts of land
 Had to compete economically with the emperor’s governmentmanaged shops, which sold goods collected from the merchants as
property taxes
 Various edicts issued by the Han emperors prohibited them
from many activities
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Wearing silks and brocades
Riding in chariots
Carrying weapons
Owning land as property
Serving as officials
 Forced to pay heavier poll and property taxes than others
 Accumulated so much economic power that they could
easily transgress regulations
 Powerful merchants owned a large amount of land and
associated with the nobility and high officials
 Were part of a privileged group comparable in wealth to
the ruling class
 Some obtained political power and social position
through the purchase of positions or bribery
 As a result, authorities closely regulated urban market
activities
 Urban trading took place in government-controlled, walled




markets
Officials decided which traders to let into the market and
watched them from an observation tower located in the
middle of the marketplace
Traders who sold the same goods had to be in the same
location
Goods had to have price tags
Contracts had to be drawn for large purchases
 Viewed as “parasites who produced nothing and earned
their profits deceptively” by philosophers of all schools in
the Warring States period
 Boys were valued more than girls
 However, they were typically both loved equally by parents
 Women were expected to be loyal to their male superiors
(all men, fathers, brothers, husbands, and adult sons)
 In reality, some Han women were given more leeway with
their husbands, and sons still listened to their mothers after
their fathers passed away
 Women’s work was deemed less important to the family’s
prosperity and status
 Women took care of household
chores





Rear children
Weave clothes for the family
Cook and clean
Spinning and weaving
Singing and dancing
 Peasant women worked in the fields and helped produce
their family’s income and food
 Some women took up sorcery as a profession to further
support their family
 More fortunate women became renowned medical
physicians who provided services to the families of high
officials and nobility
 Female merchants dressed in silk clothes that rivaled even
female nobles’ attire
 Women were exempt from corvée labor (forced, unpaid
labor)
 Women were viewed as the
moral foundation of society
 Chastity was thought to be
the root virtue for women
from Han Dynasty onward
 Respect and compliance were
also important virtues for women
 Marriages were usually arranged by parents and other
family members
 In elite households, marriages served to reinforce business
and political alliances between families
 Romantic or passionate love was not the ideal
 Husbands and wives often behaved quite formally in other's
presence
 Oldest male (usually the father) was the head of the family
 Families wanted a son
 Female babies were sometimes murdered or let to die
 Men were of higher importance because they could do
better, more efficient work
 Women usually received very little to no education
 Women could not choose their own marriages
 Women must have had consent on selling and purchasing
household related things, including land
 Women must have listened to their male superiors, no matter
what they were told, or they could possibly be beaten or killed
 Traditional Chinese philosophical concept concerning the
legitimacy of rulers, which dictates that a just ruler has
divine approval
 According to the political vision of Confucianism, only the
virtuous are fit to receive the Mandate of Heaven
 Around 1027 B.C., the Zhou overthrew the last Shang king
and established their own dynasty
 To justify their conquest, the Zhou leaders declared that the
final Shang king had been such a poor ruler that the gods had
taken away the Shang’s rule and given it to the Zhou
 This justification developed over time into a broader view
that royal authority came from heaven
 Mandate of Heaven
 A divine commission given to a nobleman worthy enough to
serve as the Son of Heaven
 The Son of Heaven rules China (the entire civilized world as
far as the Chinese were concerned) as the emperor
 He serves to unite Heaven and Earth by
fulfilling the will of Heaven in this world
through benevolent leadership and the
performance of the proper rituals and
sacrifices
 His success was based on the opinion of the
gods
 If the gods became unhappy with an
emperor’s rule, they would send signs
to the Chinese people
 The emperor would lose the Heavenly
Mandate and was usually overthrown
 Considered a philosophy
 Based mainly on the teachings and
beliefs of Chinese sage Confucius
 Teaching and ideas of Confucius that
are known today are actually just the
recollections of his students and disciples
 Qin Dynasty suppressed Confucianism by burning
Confucius’ books
 Emperor Wu of Han organized China as a Confucian state




Used Confucianism mixed with Legalism
All other ideologies were banned
Everyone was forced to learn the teachings of Confucianism
As a result, the Han Dynasty established and improved the
system of ruling the land by morals and ethics
 An attempt to recruit men on the basis of merit rather than on the
basis of family or political connection
 Was an outgrowth of Confucianism
 Before Confucianism, people were not given positions based on
whether or not they were competent enough to do the job, but due to
other, often social, reasons.
 Emperor Wu of Han started an early form of the imperial examinations
 Local officials would select candidates to take
part in an examination of the Confucian
classics
 New officials were selected through these
examinations
 However, connections and recommendations remained
much more influential than the exams in terms
of promoting people during the Han Dynasty
 Imperial exams later became the main system
through which new officials were chosen.
 The Han Restore Unity to China
 Two powerful leaders: Xiang Yu (aristocratic general) and Liu Bang
(Xiang Yu’s general)
 Fought battle and Liu Bang won
 Liu Bang became 1st emperor of the Han Dynasty
 Han Dynasty- ruled China for more than 400 years; divided into 2
periods
 Former (Western) Han: ruled for about 2 centuries
 Later (Eastern) Han: ruled for
almost another 2 centuries
 One of the greatest periods in
entire history of China - Chinese
people still call themselves the
“People of Han”
 Han Dynasty was named after the
principality, which was itself named
after Hanzhong - modern southern
Shaanxi
 Liu Bang established centralized government (central authority
controls the running of a state), and he lowered taxes and softened
harsh punishments
 Local provinces = commanderies
 Liu Bang died in 195 B.C. – son became emperor (in name)
 Real emperor = Empress Lu (Liu’s wife)
 Died in 180 B.C. and people who remained loyal to Liu Bang’s family executed
Lu’s family
 Wudi- “Martial Emperor” – reigned from 141 to 87 B.C.
and he expanded the empire through war
 Xiongnu (first enemies) – nomads known for deadly
archery
 Empire tried bribing them to get them to leave, but they just
accepted the bribes and grew stronger
 Wudi sent more than 100,000 soldiers to fight and they made
allies of their enemies
 Colonized Manchuria and Korea; at the end of his
reign, empire expanded to nearly the bounds of
present-day China
 A Highly Structured Society
 Emperor = link between heaven and earth;
 people believed if he did his job well the empire would have
peace and prosperity, and if he didn’t do his job well there
would be earthquakes, floods and famines
 Han bureaucracy – imperial army paid for with taxes
 Peasants owed govt. a month worth of labor (corvee’) or
military service every year – paid for roads, canals, irrigation
ditches, and Great Wall
 Civil service: govt. jobs that civilians obtained by taking
examinations
 Confucianism: teachings of Confucius, who lived 400 years
before – practice -“reverence, generosity, truthfulness,
diligence, and kindness”
 Han Technology, Commerce, and Culture
 Paper was invented in 105 A.D. – cheaper than silk  spread education




and helped advance govt. (more convenient for record keeping)
Collar harness for horses  horses could pull much heavier loads
Plow with two blades, improved iron tools, wheelbarrow, and used
water mills to grind grains
Agriculture became most important and most honored occupation (so
many people to feed)
Monopoly: when a group has exclusive control over the production and
distribution of certain goods
 Government monopolies on mining of salt, forging of iron, minting of
coins, and brewing of alcohol were established during Han
 SILK was a valuable item of
trade – had massive silk mills
to make luxurious cloth and
Chinese culture expanded
among silk roads because of
worldwide demand for silk
 The Han Unifies Chinese Culture
 Assimilation: process of making conquered people part of the
Chinese culture
 Sent Chinese farmers to settle newly colonized areas, people
intermarried, and local schools taught people Confucianism
 Recording China’s history
 Sima Qian – Grand Historian for compiling a history of China from
ancient dynasties to Wudi in the book Records of the Grand Historian
 Ban Biao – wrote History of Han Dynasty with help from son Ban Gu
and daughter Ban Zhao
 Ban Zhao also wrote Lessons for Women, teaching women to be humble and
obedient but also industrious
 Confucian teachings said that women had to devote themselves to
their families – duties in home and work on fields of family farm
 Upper-class women sometimes became empresses and some gained
education and lead lives apart from families
 The decline of the former Han
 Economic imbalance caused by customs that allowed the rich
to gain more wealth at the expense of the poor
 Generations of farmers inherited small plots – made it hard to
raise enough food to sell/feed family  debt to landowners
with high interest rates
 Landowners took possession of land that farmers couldn’t pay off
 Landowners didn’t pay taxes, so land left for govt. tax decreased
 Less money coming in  govt. pressed harder to collect money
from small farmers
 Resulted in gap between rich and poor
 B.C. 32 – 9 A.D. – one inexperienced emperor replaced
another; deceiving plots, revolts, and unrest  CHAOS
 Wang Mang – took imperial title in 9 A.D. and
overthrew Han (ending Former Han)
 Minted new money, set up public granaries
to feed the poor, & took large landholdings
from rich  angered powerful landholders
& caused inflation
 11 A.D. – great flood – left 1,000s dead &
millions homeless
 Peasants & wealthy revolted & killed
Wang Mang in 23 A.D. – new member
of old imperial family took power and began Later Han
 In the first decades, Later Han was prosperous, but eventually
fell in 220 into 3 rival kingdoms
 Acted as a land bridge between
the east and west
 At the time of the Han Dynasty, trade
along the Silk Road enlarged contact
between China, South Asia and the
Mediterranean world
 Han Empire expanded westward as
far as the Tarim Basin, making
possible relatively secure caravan traffic
across Central Asia
 As Han armies pushed into the Takla Makan Desert, roads
became more secure and the traffic exploded
 This was the real beginning of the Silk Road
 These roads developed greatly because they were easier access to
other parts of the world that did not involve climbing through
mountains
 Bandits soon learned of the precious goods travelling up
the Gansu Corridor and skirting the Takla Makan, and took
advantage of the terrain to plunder these caravans
 Caravans of goods needed their own defense forces
 Was an added cost for the merchants making the trip
 Han Dynasty set up the local government at Wulei in order
to protect the states in this area
 Not far from Kuga
on the northern
border of the
Takla Makan
 About 50 states at
the time
 Developed into
center of Hui He
kingdom
 Most significant commodity carried along this route was not silk,
but religion
 Buddhism came to China from India this way, along the northern
branch of the route
 This restored China to the state it had been in during the Han
Dynasty, with full control of the western regions, but also including
the territories, Tibet and Mongolia
 Led to the exchange of knowledge, culture, religion, and
technology between the East and West (cultural diffusion)
 Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Manichaeism, and Zoroastrianism
were among the faiths that spread along the route
 Algebra, astronomy, Arabic numerals, medical techniques,
architectural styles, and a host of primarily Chinese techniques and
inventions, e.g., printing and papermaking, spread from East to
West
 Various construction techniques, seafaring methods, medicinal
plants and poisons, cotton cultivation, and horse-related items such
as saddles and stirrups spread from West to East
 Policing the route, which took caravans to the farthest
extent of the Han Empire, became a big problem
 After the Western Han Dynasty, successive dynasties
brought more states under Chinese control
 Experienced influences from the Indian sub-continent
 Included Buddhist art work, examples of which have been found in
several early second century tombs in present-day Sichuan province
 The Astana tombs have turned
up examples of silk cloth from
China, as well as objects from as
far afield as Persia and India
 Where the nobles of Gaochang
had been buried
Sinicization - a process whereby non-Han Chinese societies
come under the influence of dominant Han Chinese state
and society
 During the Taika, Nara, and Heian periods, Japanese borrowing
from China peaked, although Shinto views on the natural and
supernatural world remained central
 From the seventh to the ninth centuries
 The Taika reforms of 646 revamped the administration along
Chinese lines.
 Intellectuals and aristocrats absorbed Chinese influences.
 The common people looked to Buddhist monks for spiritual and
secular assistance and meshed Buddhist beliefs with traditional
religion
 The Taika reforms failed due to resistance from aristocratic families
and Buddhist monks
 The aristocracy returned to Japanese traditions; the peasantry
reworked Buddhism into a Japanese creed; and the emperor lost
power to aristocrats and provincial lords
 Despite following Chinese patterns, the Japanese determined
aristocratic rank by birth, thus blocking social mobility
 The aristocrats dominated the central government and restored
their position as landholders
 The emperor gave up plans for creating a peasant conscript army
and ordered local leaders to form rural militias
 Court culture flourished at Heian
 The basis of life was the pursuit of aesthetic enjoyment and the
avoidance of common, distasteful elements of life
 Poetry was a valued art form, and the
Japanese simplified the script taken
from the Chinese to facilitate expression
 An outpouring of distinctively Japanese
poetic and literary works followed
 Koreans descended from hunting and gathering peoples of
Siberia and Manchuria
 By the fourth century B.C.E., they were acquiring sedentary farming
and metalworking techniques from China
 In 109 B.C.E., the earliest Korean kingdom, Choson, was conquered
by the Han, and parts of the peninsula were colonized by Chinese
 Korean resistance to the Chinese led to the founding in the north of an
independent state by the Koguryo people
 It soon battled the southern states of Silla and Paekche
 Sericulture spread to Korea through the Silk Road
 After the fall of the Han, an extensive adoption of Chinese
culture—Sinification—occurred
 Buddhism was a key element in the transfer
 Chinese writing was adopted, but the Koguryo ruler failed to form a
Chinese-style state
 Tang Alliances and the Conquest of Korea
 Continuing political disunity
in Korea allowed the Tang,
through alliance with Silla,
to defeat Paekche and Koguryo
 The Chinese received tribute
from Silla and left to govern
Korea
 Sinification: The Tributary Link
 Under the Silla and Koryo
(918-1392) dynasties, Chinese
influences peaked and Korean
culture achieved its first full
flowering
 The Silla copied Tang ways, and through frequent missions, brought
Chinese learning, art, and manufactured items to Korea
 The Chinese were content with receiving tribute and allowed Koreans to run
their own affairs
 The Sinification of Korean Elite Culture
 The Silla constructed their capital, Kumsong, on the
model of Tang cities
 The aristocracy built residences around the imperial palace
 Some of them studied in Chinese schools and sat for Confucian
exams introduced by the rulers
 Most government positions were determined by birth and family
connections.
 The elite favored Buddhism, in Chinese forms, over Confucianism
 Koreans refined techniques of porcelain manufacture, first learned from
the Chinese, to produce masterworks
 Knapp, Keith N. "Merchants and Trade in Qin and Han China." ABC-CLIO EBOOK
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