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Chinese Empires Qin and Han Dynasties

Chinese Empires

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Chinese Empires. Qin and Han Dynasties. Chronology. Qin Dynasty (221- 206 B.C.E). Important Figures. Li Si: Prime Minister Legalist Argued that those who used the past to oppose the present (Confucians) had to be exterminated. Chief Deputy to Shi Huangdi (first emperor of China) - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Page 1: Chinese Empires

Chinese EmpiresQin and Han Dynasties

Page 2: Chinese Empires

Chronology

Page 3: Chinese Empires

Qin Dynasty (221- 206 B.C.E)

Page 4: Chinese Empires

Important FiguresLi Si: Prime Minister Legalist Argued that those who used the past to oppose the present (Confucians) had to

be exterminated. Chief Deputy to Shi Huangdi (first emperor of China)

Shi Huangdi: First Emperor of China Son of a Qin prince and his concubine. Quite young (not yet 40) when he became emperor. Lived in guarded privacy. Superstitious and searched for an elixir of immortality. Believed in military extension. Fostered general hatred. Died in 210 B.C.E. Buried with life-sized terracotta horses and warriors with bronze armour. Death caused revolt and the beginning of the Han dynasty.

Page 5: Chinese Empires

Economy State monopolies over state

commodities. High taxes and forced labor on

government projects.

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Government Legalist Government Population was regimented and

militarized. Military expansion, monolithic state Most terrible period in Chinese history

because of strict laws and hard labor. High taxes

› Construction of the Great Wall was a tax obligation.

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Ideology Legalism- Legalists believed that

morality was meaningless and obedience to the state was the supreme good. The state had the right to enforce laws under threat of the harshest penalties.

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Legacy Standardized weights and measurements. Unified economic and agricultural  practices and codified

rules. Construction of roads, bridges, dams, and canals to aid

communication. Made sure wheel axles to be the same length for universal

use. Standardized the written language. Express "postal service" was created that conveyed

documents written on strips of bamboo around the country. Had harsh laws that ended crime. Construction of the Great Wall of China

› Established territorial boundaries and protected the Qin territory from Central Asian warriors like the Huns. 

Page 9: Chinese Empires

Han Dynasty (206 B.C.E-220 C.E.)

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Important FiguresHan Wudi -Emperor of Han China -Ruled for more than 50 years -Restored Confucianism as the State Philosophy -Ordered military campaigns as a defense against invaders (Xiongnu)

Wei Qing -Chinese general -Led many successful campaigns against the Xiongnu -Convinced some of them to join the Chinese army -His campaigns led to a temporary halt the Xiongnu attacks Han Zhao (General) -Chinese general -Led campaigns against the Xiongnu after Wei Qing -Turned nomads against each other to save Chinese lives -Led other rising states to fight the Xiongnu

Han Zhao (Writer) -One of the first few Chinese female writers 

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Economy Landowning and farming-basis for main

economy Upper class owned land and made

loans; peasants farmed the land Traded goods using the Silk Road

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Government/Politics Legalism and Confucianism (less harsh than

Qin)› Confucianism:

- moral men make good rulers and virtue is one of the most important properties that an official can have. 

- Virtue can be attained by following the proper way of behaving. 

Central government: law, order, and border defense

Bureaucrats: collected taxes, administered legal system, and officiated military

Page 13: Chinese Empires

Geography Empire grows a little between the Qin

and Han Dynasties Closeness to the Xiongnu affect

military Silk Road allows connections to other

empires through trade

Page 14: Chinese Empires

Rise of Qina. State-Level gov’t The Qin had a highly authoritarian central government due to their legalist ruling and the state controlled the

economy, establishing government monopolies over many trade goods, helping unify China for the first time. This centralized government replaced the old multistate Zhou system, setting a pattern for the centuries to follow.

b. High Agricultural Potential in the Area The Qin had great agricultural potential but the environment mosaic of China left lacking resources. It was

located along the northwest borders, close to the tian mts, therefore rich soil, the takla makan desert, and the Mongolian steppe. Their ever-normal granary system caused them not to worry too much about agricultural success.

 c. An Environmental Mosaic Even though China’s environment mosaic left lacking resources, it took advantage of its control of various

zones in the environmental mosaic with an ever-normal granary system, a system where the gov’t collected grain from all over the empire into warehouses and redistributed it to the people, creating a more or less constant total supply, not depending on the agricultural success of any zone in the mosaic.

d. Several Small States with no clearly Dominant State (Power Vacuum) There were several Zhou states conquered by the Qin over time and no real dominant state because there

were mutually competitive powers with no really strong power. They did have a monolithic state, having a central government that could be considered to have dominant power but didn’t particularly have a dominant state.

e. Mutual antagonisms among those states  They used a legalist system, which is antagonistic. Also, the warring states period established a series of

mutually antagonistic states, with some having considerable military power and none of them were clearly dominant.

f. Adequate military resources Qin emperors forced military involvement and strict labor. The population was regimented and militarized,

making the men serve as citizen-warriors, providing military help. One of the Qin’s new dramatic policies was military expansion, sending armies to incorporate much of southern China and Vietnam into the empire. The Great Wall served as a barrier to the encroachment of Central Asian warriors into China, and when properly manned it was an effective defense.

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Fall of Qina. The Ideology of Expansion and Conquest fuels attempts at conquest

beyond practical limits At first they slowly conquered states, but when Shi Huangdi started ruling, his

high prestige and ego caused him to implement dramatic policies, since the dynasty wasn’t content with conquering just the Chinese heartland. They started conquering southern China and Vietnam, them all of China was reordered along Legalist lines, controlling all aspects of Chinese life. Shi Huangdi’s expansionist policies provoked conflict w/ neighboring peoples. When he died, revolts broke, with those rebel armies defeating the Qin forces, creating the Han Empire.

b. Failure to continue conquest indefinitely and to continue to bring home its economic fruits erodes faith in the ideology that supports the empire

Because of their military, conquest, and unification ideologies influenced by the Legalism, Shi  Huangdi’s and others who followed the Qin orders went overboard with defeating other empires, creating strict orders and laws which everyone had to live under. These laws and orders caused rebels who lost faith in the ideology because it was too harsh. 

c. revolutions topple the empire Death of Shi Huangdi caused an immediate fall because of all the people who

rebelled.

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Rise of Hana. State-level Government  They built a strong state but modified the Qin’s harsh Legalist structure and mixed it with

Confucianism, because Confucianism could maintain stability in the wake of momentous change, therefore learning from their Mistakes. Wu Di introduced imperialism, and the Han combined many elements of Qin authoritarianism but used less repression and coercion and retained a strong central government while also respecting local political power. 

b. High Agricultural Potential in the Area  they were along the yellow river, which had rich soil and a good place for crops, like rice, to grow c. Environmental Mosaic  the silk road linked China with India, the Middle East, and southern Europe, and was a lively

caravan route. Many goods, like bamboo and silk, were carried by each caravan, therefore improving the Chinese’s supply of goods and resources. The Silk Road affected populations because people would mix together and sparked a rapid growth of commerce.

d. Several Small States with no clearly Dominant State  There was no clearly dominant state, and the civil service only allowed the imperial administration

to have a restricted role, so no dominant state could really exist.e. Mutual antagonisms among those states                The rise of the scholar-gentry, or Chinese social class of learned officeholders and landowners in

the Han dynasty, frequently met together in teahouses to discuss local affairs and forge common positions on government policies, so there wouldn’t be any tension and riots wouldn’t occur between states.

f. Adequate Military Resources  They used military strategies in search of allies against threatening nomads, including the Huns,

which the Great Wall in part was meant to deflect them, and they used diplomacy, conducting negotiations with empires to get support in war.

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Fall of Hana. With economic prosperity, China was better able to wage war.

Wudi believed that he was strong enough to stop payments to the Xiongnu begun by Liu Bang. Wudi's wars of expansion and his maintenance of large armies of occupation were a burden on China's economy.  They more than offset the benefits from the increase in trade that followed his conquests.

b. Han emperors were successful at the wars, however, the economic decline caused the emperors to levy more taxes. Confucian scholars, who believe that leaders should rule for the people, claimed that the Han Dynasty had lost the Mandate of Heaven.

c. During the reign of Shundi (125-144), rumor spread among China's peasants that the Han emperors had again lost the Mandate of Heaven. Peasant rebellions reappeared.