The Han dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, established by the rebel leader Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. Spanning over four centuries, the Han dynasty is considered a golden age in Chinese history, and influenced the identity of the Chinese civilization ever since. Science and technology during the Han period saw significant advances, including the process of papermaking, the nautical steering ship rudder, the use of negative numbers in mathematics, the raised-relief map, and an inverted pendulum that could be used to discern the cardinal direction of distant earthquakes.
About Han dynasty in brief
The Han dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, established by the rebel leader Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. Spanning over four centuries, the Han dynasty is considered a golden age in Chinese history, and influenced the identity of the Chinese civilization ever since. The emperor was at the pinnacle of Han society, but shared power with both the nobility and appointed ministers who came largely from the scholarly gentry class. The Han Empire was divided into areas directly controlled by the central government using an innovation inherited from the Qin known as commanderies, and a number of semi-autonomous kingdoms. Science and technology during the Han period saw significant advances, including the process of papermaking, the nautical steering ship rudder, the use of negative numbers in mathematics, the raised-relief map, the hydraulic-powered armillary sphere for astronomy, and an inverted pendulum that could be used to discern the cardinal direction of distant earthquakes. After 92 AD, the palace eunuchs increasingly involved themselves in court politics, engaging in violent power struggles between the various consort clans of the empresses and empresse dowager, causing the Han’s ultimate downfall. After the death of Emperor Ling, warlords, including Cao Pi, usurped the throne from Emperor Wei. According to the Historian Records of the Grand Historian, after the collapse of the Qin dynasty, the dynasty ceased to exist. The Qin united the Chinese Warring States, but their regime became unstable after the first death of the emperor Huang Shi.
Within four years, the first dynasty was named Hanzhong, named after its location on the small fief of Han River. Within the first four years of Qin’s conquest, their regime was unstable and their first emperor was the first Qin Shi Huang. After Qin Shi’s death, the resulting dynasty was called the Qin Dynasty, and it lasted until the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912 AD. It was succeeded by the Three Kingdoms period, which lasted for almost 100 years. The reign of Emperor Wu was the longest of the dynasty, lasting until the end of the Tang dynasty in the Tang Dynasty in the 7th century AD. The coinage issued by thecentral government mint in 119 BC remained the standard coinage of China until theTang dynasty. The Han dynasty saw an age of economic prosperity and witnessed a significant growth of the money economy first established during the Zhou dynasty. In 117 BC, the government nationalized the private salt and iron industries, but these government monopolies were repealed during the Eastern Han dynasty. The Xiongnu, a nomadic steppe confederation, defeated the Han in 200 BC and forced the Han to submit as a de facto inferior and vassal partner for several decades, but continued their military raids on the Han borders. Emperor Wu launched several military campaigns against them. These campaigns expanded Han sovereignty and control into the Tarim Basin of Central Asia, divided the Xiongni into two separate confederations, and helped establish the vast trade network known as the Silk Road.
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This page is based on the article Han dynasty published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 03, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
