Rome and Han China Tracy Rosselle, M.A.T. Newsome High School, Lithia, FL

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Rome and Han ChinaTracy Rosselle, M.A.T.Newsome
High School, Lithia, FL
Pantheon

• An Age of Empires 753 BCE 600 CE

Colosseum
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A new kind of empire

• The Roman Empire included all the lands around
  the Mediterranean and stretched from continental
  Europe to the Middle East.
• Its contemporary (though arising somewhat later
  and ending sooner), the Han Empire, spanned from
  the Pacific Ocean to the oases of Central Asia.
• They were the largest empires the world had yet
  seen, in both land and population. They were
• centralized to a greater degree than earlier
  empires.
• more culturally influential on the land and
  peoples they dominated.
• remarkably stable and long-lasting.

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Eurasia, 116 CE
Han
Kushan
Roman
Parthian
The Roman Empire and Han China were separated by
thousands of miles, and neither influenced the
other. But they were linked by a far-flung
international trading network, so they were
vaguely aware of each others existence.
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Romes Mediterranean Empire

• Italys climate (long growing seasons, wide
  variety of crops) and geography (numerous
  navigable rivers, well forested and rich in iron
  and other metals) were conducive to sustaining a
  large population.
• Rome lay at the midpoint of the peninsula, and
  the peninsula was a crossroads in the
  Mediterranean.
• Vast majority of early Romans were
  self-sufficient independent farmers owning small
  plots of land small number of families able to
  acquire large tracts of land ? heads of these
  wealthy families were members of the Senate a
  Council of Elders dominating Roman politics.

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The Roman Republic

• According to tradition seven kings of Rome
  between 753 and 507 BCE when senatorial class
  vowing never again to be ruled by a harsh tyrant
  deposed the king and instituted a res publica,
  a public possession or republic.
• republic a form of government in which power
  rests with citizens who have the right to vote
  for their leaders. (The United States today is a
  republican form of democracy.)
• The Roman Republic (507-31 BCE) unlike the
  direct democracy of the Greeks, sovereign power
  rested in several assemblies all male citizens
  eligible to attend, but votes of wealthy classes
  counted more than votes of the poor citizens.
• Real center of power ? Roman Senate technically
  an advisory council, but increasingly made
  policy, governed self-perpetuating body whose
  members served for life and nominated their sons
  for public offices.

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Conflict of the Orders

• Inequalities in Roman society periodically led to
  unrest and conflict between the elite (wealthy
  landowners called patricians) and the majority of
  the population (common farmers, artisans and
  merchants called plebeians).
• Plebeian gains
• Twelve Tables (c. 450 BCE) laws carved on 12
  tablets, hung in the Forum (laws now written,
  published ? patrician officials now cant
  interpret law to suit themselves) became basis
  of later Roman law.
• tribunes new officials drawn from and elected
  by the lower classes had power to veto, or
  block, actions of the Assembly or patrician
  officials.

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The class-conscious Roman family

• Roman society extremely conscious of status
  (determined by achievements of ancestors, living
  members of family).
• The Roman family, made of several generations
  plus domestic slaves, was basic unit of society.
• Absolute authority in family exercised by
  paterfamilias the oldest living male ? could
  sell children into slavery or have them killed
  but this began to change by second century CE.

Statue of a Roman carrying busts of his ancestors
(c. first century BCE).
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Institutionalized inequality

• In Rome, inequality was accepted and turned into
  a system of mutual benefits and obligations.
• patron/client relationship Senator to middle
  class, middle class to poor
• Men of wealth and influence might have dozens,
  hundreds of clients (lower status men he provided
  guidance, protection, money in return for
  loyalty in politics and war, work on land and
  even money for daughters dowry).
• Large retinues of clients brought prestige
  clients would await their patrons in morning,
  accompany them to Forum for the days business.

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The Roman Forum
Built on the site of an old cemetery, the Roman
Forum was the central area around which ancient
Rome developed. It contained many buildings,
including temples and basilicas. People would
come to conduct commerce, and political leaders
carried out public affairs and administrated
matters of justice.
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Institutionalized inequalityWomen in Roman
society

• Girls in some upper-class families received a
  primary education but were pushed into marriage
  (arranged by fathers) commonly by the time they
  were 14 (12 was the legal minimum).
• Nearly everything we know of Roman women pertains
  to the upper classes.
• In early times, women never ceased to be a child
  in eyes of the law ? needed male guardian
  advocates.
• Over time, gained greater personal protections
  and freedoms ? could own, inherit and dispose of
  property unlike Greek women, werent segregated
  from husbands but rather appreciated at the
  center of the household, could attend races, the
  theater, events in the amphitheater.

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Institutionalized inequalitySlavery

• Common throughout the ancient world, but Romans
  relied on slave labor more than any other people
  ? peaked at perhaps 1/3 of population by the last
  two centuries of the Republic as empire expanded
  through warfare (prisoners of war became slaves).
• Large gangs of slaves worked huge agricultural
  tracts under pitiful conditions
• branded, beaten, inadequately fed, worked in
  chains and housed at night in underground
  prisons.
• periodic slave revolts took up to 17,000 men and
  several years to suppress ? most famous led by
  Thracian gladiator Spartacus, who managed to
  defeat several Roman armies with 70,000
  rebellious slaves before he was finally captured
  and killed (6,000 of his followers executed by
  crucifixion).

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Institutionalized inequalitySlavery (cont.)

• Greek slaves were in much demand as tutors,
  musicians, doctors, artists.
• Many slaves of all nationalities used as menial
  household workers (cooks, valets, gardeners,
  etc.).
• Businessmen would employ slaves as shop
  assistants and artisans.
• Being attended to by many slaves became badge of
  prestige in Roman society.

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A vaunted military

• Unlike Greeks, the Romans granted the political,
  legal and economic privileges of Roman
  citizenship to conquered populations ? this
  relative leniency helped establish long-lasting
  empire.
• Demanded soldiers from its Italian subjects ?
  manpower advantage a key to its military success
  (could tolerate high casualties).
• Two consuls chosen by Assembly for one-year terms
  were chief executives of the government and
  commanders-in-chief of the army (each could veto
  the other) ? structure of the state thus
  encouraged war because consuls had limited time
  to gain military glory.

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Expansion through force

• Between 264 and 146 BCE fought and won three wars
  with Carthage (Punic Wars) for mastery of western
  Mediterranean.

The Carthaginian general Hannibal led a brilliant
rear-flank invasion (using elephants!) crossing
the Alps but Rome eventually prevailed in the
Second Punic War.
Rome
Carthage
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Expansion through force (cont.)

• First territorial acquisition in Europes
  heartland between 59 and 51 BCE ? conquest of the
  Celtic peoples of Gaul (modern France) by Romes
  most brilliant general, Julius Caesar.
• As he gained popularity, Caesars rivals urged
  him to disband his legions and return home.
• Instead, he and his men defied the Senate,
  crossed the Rubicon River (the southern limit of
  his command) and headed for Rome where he would
  assume dictatorial power in a military coup.

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The failure of the Republic

• Romes success in creating a vast empire
  unleashed forces that eventually destroyed its
  republican system of government. Caesar became
  dictator in 46 BCE and dictator for life in 44
  BCE. Heres the bigger picture of how it
  happened
• In the third and second centuries BCE, while
  Italian peasant farmers were away from home
  serving in the military, it was easy for
  investors to take possession of their farms
  through deception or intimidation.
• Growing empires wealth became concentrated in
  hands of upper classes with broad estates (which
  replaced the small, self-sufficient farms run by
  peasant owners now part of Roman legions units
  of 6,000 soldiers).

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The failure of the Republic (cont.)

• Owners of large estates found it more profitable
  to graze herds and make wine instead of grow the
  staple crop of wheat ? dependence on grain
  imports thus rose.
• Cheap slave labor (from increasing numbers of war
  prisoners) ? peasants whod lost farms couldnt
  find work in countryside or in growing cities
  like Rome, where the idle poor were increasingly
  prone to riot.
• Soon a shortage of men who owned the minimum
  amount of property required for military service
  ? until a leader at the end of the second century
  BCE promised farms upon military retirement to
  poor, propertyless men he now accepted into the
  Roman legions.
• Over time, then, armies became more loyal to the
  leaders of the armies than the state itself ?
  series of bloody civil wars eventually developed
  between military factions.

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The Death of Julius Caesar by Vincenzo Camuccini
J.C.s legacy
New Julian calendar based on solar year instead
of moon cycles (extra day every four years, and
July named for him).
Julius Caesars ascent to power was part of this
political and military infighting, and 44 BCE
the year marking the start of his perpetual
dictatorship is seen by some as the end of the
Roman Republic. The dictator for life gig
didnt last long He was assassinated by members
of the Senate (including his friend Marcus Brutus
Et tu, Brute? on March 15 of that same year.
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The end of republic but not empire

• Caesars grandnephew and adopted son, Octavian
  (63 BCE 14 CE), eliminated all rivals by 31
  BCE.
• A military dictator in fact, Octavian claimed to
  be princeps, first among equals in a restored
  Republic ? period following Roman Republic thus
  the Roman Principate.
• Octavian best known to us as Augustus, one of his
  honorary titles that means exalted one.

The reign of Augustus began a 207-year period of
peace and prosperity known as the Pax Romana
Roman peace.
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Augustus and his urban empire

• Augustus ruthless, patient, frugal, religious
  and family-oriented (banished his only child,
  Julia, from Rome for adultery) aligned himself
  with the equites (EH-kwee-tays), the class of
  well-to-do Italian merchants and landowners
  second only to senatorial class.
• This group became backbone of the civil service
  system Augustus instituted workers paid to
  manage affairs of government (grain supply, tax
  collection, postal system) ? key to stability and
  smooth functioning of expansive empire.
• The Roman Empire of the first three centuries CE
  was urban 80 of its 50-60 million people
  still lived in countryside but empire
  administered through network of towns and cities
  (Romes population was perhaps 1 million some
  other cities, like Alexandria and Carthage, had
  several hundred thousand people most had far
  less than that).

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All roads lead to Rome

• A complex network of roads, originally built by
  the legions for military purposes, linked the
  empires cities and helped communication and
  trade.
• Roads also helped spread Roman culture (Latin
  language, way of life ? Greco-Roman tradition the
  foundation of Western civilization.
• Ultimately, though, the roads also eased the way
  for barbarian invasions!

A surviving Roman road in Britain. Main roads
were up to 25 feet wide (for two-way traffic),
while more remote roads were 6-10 feet wide.
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Rich and poor

• The upper classes lived in elegant villas with an
  atrium, interior gardens, a well-stocked kitchen,
  floors with pebble mosaics, and perhaps a private
  bath.
• The poor lived in crowded slums wooden tenements
  that were dark, smelly and poorly furnished,
  prone to catching fire.

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Bath, England
Public baths and the communal act of gathering to
bathe served an important social function for
many Romans from neighborhood gossip to
business transactions.
To read more about public Roman baths, go
to http//www.vroma.org/bmcmanus/baths.html
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Amusing the masses

• Cities and towns that sprang up all over empire
  were little replicas of the capital city in
  political organization, physical layout and
  appearance.
• Town council and two annually elected officials
  drawn from prosperous members of community
  maintained law and order, collected taxes.
• These municipal aristocracies endowed their
  cities with elements of Roman urban life a forum
  (open plaza serving as a civic center),
  government buildings, temples, gardens, baths,
  theaters, amphitheaters, and games and
  entertainments of all sorts.

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Gladiator games

• To distract and control the poor masses,
  government provided free games, races, mock
  battles and gladiator contests (150 holidays a
  year by 150 CE).
• Gladiators fought one another or with exotic wild
  animals often until death.
• Spectacles combined bravery and cruelty, honor
  and violence.

Thumbs up or down? Roman crowds would often help
decide the life-or-death fate of fighters in the
50,000-seat Colosseum.
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Pax Romana (31 BCE 180 CE)

• Aside from some skirmishes with tribes along its
  borders, this period was a secure time when even
  some urban dwellers got rich from manufacture and
  trade.
• Glass, metalwork, delicate pottery and other fine
  manufactured products were exported throughout
  the empire (Roman armies stationed on the
  frontiers not only ensured safety and prosperity
  of border provinces but were a large market
  themselves) while other merchants imported
  luxury items from abroad, especially silk from
  China and spices from India and Arabia.
• Grain, meat, vegetables and other bulk foodstuffs
  limited to mostly local trade because
  transportation was expensive and perishables
  spoiled quickly.

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Technology
Scholars can estimate the population of an
ancient city by calculating the amount of water
available to it. Roman aqueducts channeled water
from a source, sometimes many miles away, to an
urban complex, using only the force of gravity.

• The Romans invented concrete a mixture of sand,
  gravel and water which allowed them to create,
  among other things, vast vaulted and domed
  interior spaces.
• Engineering expertise seen in surviving remnants
  of roads, fortification walls, aqueducts,
  buildings Some of the best engineers served in
  the army, working on construction projects during
  peacetime.

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The rise of Christianity

• Christianity is a child of Judaism, and the two
  faiths often troubled relationship forms the
  Judeo-Christian tradition, which is cited along
  with the Greco-Roman tradition as the bedrock
  of Western culture.
• The founder of Christianity was Jesus of Nazareth
  (c. 4 BCE 29 CE). Born into a humble Jewish
  family in northern Israel, he had a career as a
  carpenter before gathering an inner circle of
  disciples and a growing number of followers
  during a three-year ministry as a wandering
  teacher during a time when the Roman Empire
  dominated the region.
• Scholars agree that his portrait in the Bibles
  New Testament reflects the viewpoint of his
  followers a half-century after his death.

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The rise of ChristianityThe New Testament says

• Jesus taught that obeying rabbis and observing
  customs not enough to please God ? sincerity of
  ones belief mattered more than giving money,
  wearing proper dress, following strict dietary
  guidelines.
• charity, compassion, forgiveness matter most.
• reinforced his message with Sermon on the Mount
  (Blessed are the poor in spirit ), which
  contains one of several of the New Testaments
  iterations of what came to be known as the Golden
  Rule (Do unto others as you would have them do
  unto you).
• spoke of himself as the Son of God, claimed to
  be the Messiah (the Annointed One) foretold by
  the Hebrew prophecy.
• attracted large crowds because of his reputation
  for wisdom, power to heal the sick.
• his teachings would redeem those who followed his
  words.

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The rise of ChristianityWho was the historical
Jesus?

• Scholars, however, find it difficult to assess
  the motives and teachings of the historical
  Jesus. Varying views
• He was a teacher as described in the Gospels,
  offended by and intent on reforming contemporary
  Jewish practices.
• He was connected to the apocalyptic fervor found
  in certain circles of Judaism ? a fiery prophet
  warning people to prepare for the end of the
  world.
• He was a political revolutionary, advocate of the
  poor and downtrodden, committed to driving out
  the Roman occupiers (the Jewish homeland, Judea,
  had been put under direct Roman rule in 6 CE) and
  their elite Jewish collaborators.

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The rise of ChristianitySeen as a threat to the
Romans

• The charismatic Jesus eventually attracted the
  attention of Jewish authorities in Jerusalem, who
  regarded popular reformers as potential
  troublemakers.
• They turned him over to the Roman governor,
  Pontius Pilate, who accused Jesus of blasphemy
  and treason.
• His followers, the Apostles, carried on after his
  death and sought to spread among their fellow
  Jews his teachings and their belief that he was
  the Messiah and had been resurrected (returned
  from death to life).

Jesus was imprisoned, condemned and executed by
crucifixion, a punishment usually reserved for
common criminals. The instrument of his death
the cross is the most important symbol in the
Christian faith.
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The rise of ChristianitySpreading the word

• Key Disciples Peter (considered the first pope)
  and the authors of the Four Gospels (Matthew,
  Mark, Luke and John).
• Paul an early persecutor turned convert, he was
  most responsible for the early spread of
  Christianity ? widened appeal by decreeing that
  Christians neednt observe Jewish diet and
  circumcision laws which made it easier to
  convert Greeks and other non-Jewish peoples.

Paul
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The rise of ChristianityOvercoming early
persecution

• Monotheistic Christians held meetings in secret,
  refused to worship Roman gods and abstained from
  public festivals honoring them, and wouldnt
  recognize the emperor as a deity ? all of which
  seen as threat to public order by Romans
  otherwise tolerant of different religions.
• Some Roman rulers used Christians as scapegoats
  for political and economic troubles, occasionally
  launching campaigns of suppression that led to
  spontaneous mob attacks.
• Despite this, or maybe in part because of it, the
  young Christian movement gained converts so that
  by 300 CE Christians many of them educated and
  prosperous, with jobs in the local and imperial
  governments could be found as a significant
  minority throughout the Roman Empire.

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The rise of ChristianityAppealing to the
powerless

• The widespread appeal of Christianity the good
  news of which was spread by missionaries on
  Roman roads was due to a variety of reasons.
  Christianity
• embraced all people men and women, enslaved
  persons, the poor and nobles.
• gave hope to the powerless.
• appealed to those repelled by the extravagances
  of imperial Rome.
• offered a personal relationship with a loving
  God.
• promised eternal life after death.
• __________________________________________________
  _________
• Although it later became male dominated
  (original sin blame placed on Eve, and Paul
  wrote that women must obey men and must not
  occupy churchs highest positions of leadership),
  the early church gave women a sense of belonging
  and, within limits, influential roles within
  missionary communities.

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Christianitys Growth From 1 to more than
2,000,000,000
A number of mystery cults claiming to provide
secret information about life and death, and
promising adherents a blessed afterlife, spread
throughout the eastern Mediterranean and
Greco-Roman lands during the Hellenistic and
Roman periods presumably in response to a
growing spiritual and intellectual hunger not
satisfied by traditional pagan practices.
Historical circumstances helped Christianity win
out over these rival cults.
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The third-century crisis

• Following the Pax Romana, the Roman state began
  to falter a third-century crisis hit from 235
  to 284 CE ? empire nearly destroyed by political,
  military and economic problems.
• Twenty-plus men claimed office of emperor, most
  reigning for only a few months or years before
  being toppled by rivals or killed by their own
  troops.
• Germanic invaders took advantage of the civil
  wars and generally destabilized conditions to
  raid deep into the empire, while pirates
  disrupted trade on the Mediterranean Sea.

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Troubles lead to money woes

• Political and military difficulties stressed the
  economy ? troops loyalty needed to be purchased
  (government sought out mercenaries) and
  protective walls built, but taxes fell because of
  fighting-induced reductions in commerce.
• Short of cash, emperors devalued the currency
  (put less precious metal in Roman coins) ?
  inflation ensued, so many people resorted to
  barter, which further curtailed commerce.
• Because of the political and economic upheaval,
  average citizens lost their sense of patriotism,
  became indifferent to the empires fate.
• It somehow managed to survive, however, for
  another 200 years.

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A split, east and west

• Diocletian took power in 284, bringing empire
  back from brink of destruction
• set fixed prices for goods and froze many people
  into their jobs to ensure adequate supply of
  labor in key areas (which worked short-term but
  contributed long-term to common view that
  government was oppressive, no longer deserving of
  loyalty).
• divided the sprawling, difficult-to-manage empire
  into Greek-speaking East (Greece, Anatolia, Syria
  and Egypt) and Latin-speaking West (Italy, Gaul,
  Britain and Spain), taking the far wealthier East
  for himself and appointing a co-ruler for the
  West.

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An edict and a major move

• Constantine (r. 306-337) won the struggle for
  power after Diocletian resigned in 305
• continued many of his predecessors coercive
  policies.
• issued Edict of Milan, which in 313 made
  Christianity an approved religion of the emperor
  (Theodosius would make it the empires official
  religion in 380).
• reunited entire empire under own rule by 324.
• moved capital from Rome to Byzantium (renamed
  Constantinople and now Istanbul), an easily
  defendable city strategically located on the
  Bosporus strait linking the Mediterranean and
  Black seas.

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The Fall of the Roman EmpireWest falls, east
lives on

• The eastern realm of the Roman Empire lived on
  for a thousand years as the Byzantine Empire, but
  the West fell in the fifth century CE
• Short-term cause In the late fourth century,
  Mongol nomads from central Asia, the Huns (led by
  Attila), began terrorizing the region ? the
  various Germanic peoples forced to flee, pushing
  into and invading the Roman Empire (German group
  called the Franks attacked Gaul and northeastern
  part of Spain ? gave their name to France
  Scandinavian tribe called the Saxons sailed into
  English channel, raiding coastal villages and
  becoming part of English history). Visigoths
  sacked Rome itself in 410, and the last Roman
  emperor was deposed in 476.

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The Fall of the Roman EmpireLong-term causes
Click on the icon below to see an interactive
illustration of the short-term Germanic invasions

• Scholars believe there may be numerous causes
  that in the long run contributed to the fall of
  the Western Roman Empire

Social Decline in interest in public affairs.
Low confidence in empire. Disloyalty, lack of
patriotism, corruption. Large inequality
between rich and poor. Decline in population
due to disease and food shortage.
Political Office seen as
burden, not reward. Military interference in
politics. Civil war and unrest. Division of
empire. Moving of capital to Byzantium.
Economic Poor harvests. Trade
disruption. No more war plunder. Gold and
silver drain. Inflation. Crushing taxes.
Gap between rich and poor and increasingly poor
West.
Military Threat from northern European
tribes. Low funds for defense. Problems
recruiting Roman citizens recruiting of
non-Roman mercenaries. Decline in patriotism
and loyalty among soldiers.
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The legacy of the Romans

• With the economy of the region and its urban
  centers in shambles, the Western Roman Empire had
  fragmented into a handful of kingdoms run by
  Germanic rulers by 530.
• Romes population fell precipitously, its
  political importance disappeared.
• But, significantly, it retained its prominence as
  the home of the Wests most important churchman.
  Local nobility competed for control of this
  position, the name of which came to be Pope, who
  held supreme power in the Latin-speaking church.
• Language Among uneducated masses formerly under
  Roman rule, Latin quickly evolved into Romance
  dialects (Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian
  and Romanian) and Latin further influenced other
  languages (more than half the words in English
  have a basis in Latin).

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The legacy of the RomansLaw and a
reconstituted tradition

• In addition to language, engineering and
  architecture, the preservation and building upon
  of the Greek legacy (hence the term Greco-Roman)
  in government, philosophy, art and literature
  Romes most lasting and widespread contribution
  was law. Some of the most important principles it
  established
• All persons had the right to equal treatment
  under the law.
• A person was considered innocent until proven
  guilty.
• The burden of proof rested with the accuser.
• A person should be punished only for actions, not
  thoughts.
• Any law that seemed unreasonable or grossly
  unfair could be set aside.

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Not so dark, not so middle

• The period following the fall of the Western
  Roman Empire in Europe was once commonly referred
  to as the Dark Ages (c. 500-1000 CE) and the
  Middle Ages (c. 500-1500 CE) terms that have
  fallen from favor in light of more recent
  scholarship revealing more vitality to what was
  going on in Europe between this middle period
  between the fall of the Roman Empire and the
  Renaissance, the so-called rebirth of art and
  learning.
• From the Roman point of view, the rise of the
  Germanic kingdoms was a triumph of barbarianism
  at a time when the continuing imperial heritage
  of the Romans was still being preserved in the
  Byzantine Empire to the east but in the long
  run, the West would prove to be much more dynamic
  and creative.

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The origins of imperial China

• As weve seen earlier this year, the Shang
  (1750-1027 BCE) and Zhou (1027-221 BCE) dynasties
  ruled over a relatively small region in
  northeastern China and the last 250 years or so
  of nominal Zhou rule the Warring States Period
  was characterized by clashes of small states
  with somewhat different languages and cultures.
• In the second half of the third century BCE, the
  Qin (pronounced chin, from which we get China)
  state of the Wei (way) Valley emerged victorious
  from the wars and created Chinas first empire.
• The Qin Empire lasted just 15 years (221-206 BCE)
  but was important for several reasons, and it set
  the stage for a new dynasty, the Han (hahn),
  which ruled China from 206 BCE to 220 CE
  beginning an imperial tradition of remarkably
  unified political and cultural heritage that
  lasted into the early 20th century.

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Qin up! Its the law!

• Qin Empire founded by Qin Shi Huangdi, who
  adopted Legalism (highly authoritarian,
  centralized rule) as his official ideology
• opponents of regime punished, sometimes executed.
• books burned.
• central bureaucracy established and divided into
  three primary ministries civil authority,
  military authority, and censorate (whose
  inspectors surveyed the efficiency of officials
  throughout the system ? later standard
  administrative practice for subsequent Chinese
  dynasties).

Qin Shi Huangdi The First Emperor of China
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Qin EmpireRuthless and expansive

• Shi Huangdi
• unified system of weights and measures,
  standardized monetary system and the written
  forms of Chinese characters, and ordered
  construction of road network throughout the
  empire.
• eliminated potential rivals and raised tax
  revenues by dividing the estates of landed
  aristocrats among the peasants, who were now
  taxed directly by the state.
• required members of aristocratic clans to live in
  the capital city at Xianyang so his court could
  keep an eye on their activities.
• viewed merchants as parasites ? severely
  restricted and heavily taxed private commerce,
  and monopolized vital industries like mining,
  wine making and distribution of salt.

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Qin EmpireConcerns to the north and south

• Shi Huangdi
• was aggressive with foreign policy ? armies
  (modernized with iron weapons) continued the
  gradual advance southward begun during the Zhou
  era, extending Chinas border to Red River in
  present-day Vietnam.
• ordered a canal dug to support his armies in the
  south ? direct inland navigation from Yangtze
  River in central China.
• built 44 walled district cities and ramparts
  spanning more than 3,000 miles to defend against
  nomadic incursions from the north ? the origins
  of the Great Wall of China, the massive granite
  blocks of which were put in place 1,500 years
  later by the Ming dynasty.

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Qin EmpireCentralizing power alienates

• Rivalry between the inner imperial court and
  the outer court of bureaucratic officials led
  to tensions in China for millennia, and Shi
  Huangdi was aware of the dangers of this
  factionalism ? established a class of eunuchs
  (which later became standard feature of Chinese
  imperial system) as personal attendants for
  himself and female members of the royal family,
  probably to restrict influence of male courtiers.
• Totalitarian zeal meant to ensure a rule to be
  enjoyed for 10,000 generations of Shi Huangdis
  heirs ? but it alienated practically everyone
  Just four years after his death in 210 BCE, which
  triggered infighting among the factions formerly
  under his rule, the Qin Empire was overthrown.

51
Shi Huangdis terracotta army, excavated in the
1970s.
More than 15,000 terracotta sculptures
including magnificently detailed soldiers, horses
and weapons have been unearthed in recent
decades from the area around Shi Huangdis tomb.
They were placed there to protect the emperor
after his death.
52
Advance under the Han (206 BCE 220 CE)

• Although later rulers denounced the overly
  authoritarian Legalism practiced by the Qin and
  instead enthroned Confucianism as the new state
  orthodoxy, they still kept key tenets of Legalism
  to administer the empire and control behavior
  among subjects.
• In 202 BCE, Liu Bang (LEE-oo bahng) outlasted his
  rivals in civil war and declared himself the
  first emperor of the Han Dynasty, which except
  for a brief interruption between 9 and 23 CE
  endured for more than 400 years.

Liu Bang, founder of the Han Empire
53
The Chinese People of Han
A contemporary of the Roman Empire during the Pax
Romana, the Han dynasty is so closely associated
with the advancement of Chinese civilization that
even today the Chinese sometimes refer to
themselves as the people of Han and their
language as the language of Han.
Yellow River
Yangzi River
54
Resources and population

• Intensive agriculture (needed to feed
  increasingly large populations in Chinas capital
  cities) spread into the Yangzi River Valley ?
  canals were built to connect the Yangzi with the
  Yellow River to the north so southern crops could
  reach northern capital cities.
• Main tax to fund government was percentage of a
  peasant familys annual harvest surplus grains
  also stored by government to be sold at
  reasonable prices during harvest shortages.
• Chinese census figures 2 CE ? 12 million
  households, 60 million people (estimated to be a
  trebling of the population since the beginning of
  the Han dynasty) but 140 CE ? 10 million
  households, 49 million people vast majority
  living in east, beginning to shift
  demographically from the Yellow River Valley and
  North China Plain to the Yangzi River Valley in
  the south.

55
Resources and population (cont.)

• Every able-bodied man donated one month of labor
  annually for public works projects building
  palaces, temples, roads, fortifications, canals
  working on imperial estates or in mines.
• The state also demanded two years of service to
  the military.
• Han Chinese gradually expanded, bringing into new
  regions their social organization, values,
  language and other cultural practices at the
  expense of the ethnic groups they displaced or
  absorbed ? imperial expansion through war to
  northern Vietnam and Korea under Han Wudi (the
  Martial Emperor, who ruled from 141 to 87 BCE).
• The basic unit of society was the family ?
  absolute power rested with father, who presided
  over rituals of ancestor worship.

56
Confucianism becomes very influential

• Each person had a place and responsibilities
  within family hierarchy, based on gender, age,
  relationship with other family members.
• Family taught basic values of Chinese society
  loyalty, obedience to authority, respect for
  elders, concern for honor and right conduct.
• Hierarchy of the state mirrored hierarchy of the
  family, so family attitudes carried over into the
  relationship of individuals and the state.

57
Civil service examination

• The Han continued the Qin system of selecting
  government officials on the basis of merit rather
  than birth ? idea is to ensure competence among
  bureaucrat administrators.
• In 165 BCE, the first known civil service
  examination was given to candidates for positions
  in the bureaucracy and according to tradition,
  an academy for training future civil servants in
  the tenets of Confucianism was soon set up and
  serving as many as 30,000 students.
• In theory, young men from any class could rise in
  the state hierarchy through merit but in
  practice, sons of the gentry had an advantage in
  that they were most likely to afford and receive
  necessary educational prerequisites (hence,
  emergence of scholar-gentry).

58
Gentry like the equites

• Han emperors allied themselves with the gentry
  the class next in wealth below the aristocrats
  so as to limit the political influence of the
  rural aristocracy, which was a threat to their
  centralized rule.
• These moderately prosperous and often educated
  landowners were like the Roman equites Augustus
  favored ? made government more efficient.
• Still, the alliance with the gentry did not
  prevent the recurrence of economic inequities
  that characterized the last years of the Zhou As
  the population exploded, average size of an
  individual farm plot shrank to 1 acre, barely
  enough for survival ? many peasants eventually
  forced to sell their land, become tenant farmers
  and the land increasingly came to be
  concentrated in powerful landed clans.

59
Trade and technology

• These clans often owned thousands of acres worked
  by tenants and mustered their own military forces
  to bully free farmers into becoming tenants.
• Although these economic difficulties would
  eventually be a primary reason for the fall of
  the Han dynasty, in general the era was
  productive and prosperous.
• Despite viewing private commerce with outright
  disdain and merchants generally as parasites,
  trade began to flourish along what came to be
  called the Silk Roads the overland caravan
  routes leading westward into Central Asia and
  ultimately linking China with India and the
  Mediterranean (much more on that very important
  subject to come soon!).

60
Trade and technologyMore advanced than elsewhere

• New technology often centuries or even a
  millennium ahead of what eventually came to
  Europe contributed to the economic prosperity
  of the Han era
• at a time when Roman blacksmiths produced
  wrought-iron tools and weapons by hammering
  heated iron, the Chinese hammered ores with a
  higher carbon content to produce steel and were
  using heat-resistant clay in the walls of their
  blast furnaces to raise temperatures above 1500
  degrees Celsius ? artisans could then cast
  liquefied iron into molds (cast iron).

61
Trade and technologyPaper, a horse collar and
more

• Paper was invented under the Han perhaps by the
  second century BCE soaked plant fibers and bark
  were pounded with a mallet, and the resulting
  mixture was then poured through a porous mat
  leaving a residue on the mat surface that, when
  dried out, was relatively smooth, lightweight
  medium for writing.

The trace harness, a strap running across the
horses chest so that its breathing wasnt
constricted, was a Chinese invention that allowed
Chinese horses to pull much heavier loads than
European horses.
62
Trade and technologySmooth as silk

• Other inventions included
• the crossbow.
• the watermill (to turn a grindstone).
• the wheelbarrow.
• a more efficient plow with two blades.
• the sternpost rudder.
• fore-and-aft rigging (permitting ships to sail
  into the wind for the first time, meaning Chinese
  ships could sail throughout the islands of
  Southeast Asia and into the Indian Ocean).
• Chinas most valuable export commodity was silk,
  the making of which sericulture was a closely
  guarded state secret for millennia dating back as
  far as the Neolithic era.

63
Gathered cocoons, left, and a modern silk
production line, bottom.
A silk moth lays 500 or more eggs in four to six
days before dying. From an ounce of eggs come
about 30,000 worms, which eat a ton of mulberry
leaves and produce 12 pounds of raw silk. The
worms are carefully kept on stacked trays until
theyve stored up enough energy to enter the
cocoon stage their silk glands produce a
jelly-like substance that hardens when it
contacts air, and they spend several days
spinning a cocoon around themselves.
At this stage they look like puffy white balls.
Theyre stored warm and dry for 8-9 days and then
steamed or baked to kill the worms, or pupa. Then
theyre dipped in hot water to loosen the tightly
woven filaments, which are then unwound onto a
spool. The super-fine filament around each cocoon
can approach 3,000 feet in length, and 5-8
strands are twisted together to make a single
silk thread.
64
Trade and technologyA monopoly on much

• For a time the Han government ran huge silk
  mills, competing with private weavers in making a
  luxurious cloth that was increasingly a
  high-demand product as far away as Rome.
• The government established monopolies on the
  mining and distribution of salt, the forging of
  iron, the minting of coins and the brewing of
  alcohol.
• Because there were so many mouths to feed,
  agriculture was considered the most honored
  occupation but despite the official bad
  mouthing of merchants, commerce remained very
  important to the Han.

65
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66
Han women

• Confucian ethics stressed the impropriety of
  women participating in public life
• A womans duties are to cook the five grains,
  heat the wine, look after her parents-in-law,
  make clothes, and that is all! (She) has no
  ambition to manage affairs outside the house
  She must follow the three submissions. When she
  is young, she must submit to her parents. After
  her marriage, she must submit to her husband.
  When she is widowed, she must submit to her son.
• an account of the life of the mother of
  Confucian philosopher Mencius, from Chinese
  Civilization and Society A Sourcebook (quoted in
  Bulliet et al.)

67
Han womenPressure to conform

• The experiences of women in ancient China
  especially those from the lower classes are
  hard to determine because contemporary written
  records dont reveal much. Furthermore, they were
  written by men from the upper classes, so they
  were perpetuating an ideal most likely felt more
  acutely by upper-class females. Ironically,
  lower-class women more removed from Confucian
  ways of thinking may have had somewhat more
  freedom than the more privileged Chinese women.
• After a pre-arranged marriage by parents, a young
  bride would have to go off and prove herself (an
  ability to produce sons was key) to her new
  family ? competing with mother-in-law and
  sisters-in-law for influence with the males of
  the household and greater share of familys
  economic resources often produced dissension.

68
Divinity in nature

• Like early Romans, the ancient Chinese believed
  that divinity resided in nature. They therefore
  worshipped and tried to appease its forces.
• The state built shrines to the lords of rain, the
  winds, rivers and mountains.
• People gathered at mounds or alters where the
  local spirit of the soil was thought to reside.
  There they sacrificed sheep and pigs, and beat
  drums to promote the fertility of the soil.

69
The much-admired horse

• The Chinese had domesticated the smaller
  Mongolian pony as early as 2000 BCE, but they
  didnt acquire horses until the end of the first
  millennium BCE as a result of Han military
  expeditions into Central Asia. Admired for their
  power and grace, horses made of terracotta or
  bronze were often placed in Qin and Han tombs a
  fact that suggests the Chinese viewed horses as
  possessing divine power.

Han artwork a terracotta horse head.
70
The decline of the Han Empire

• The Han Empire generally controlled lands
  occupied by farming peoples but was bedeviled by
  barbarian nomads including a group known as
  the Xiongnu (shee-UNG-noo) living off their
  herds to the northwest (see Bentley map, p. 196).
• These nomads had lethal archery skills from
  horseback and were often militarily more than a
  match for the Chinese when peaceful trade broke
  down, they would raid settled villages and take
  what they wanted.
• Early Han rulers tired to buy them off with gifts
  of silk, rice, alcohol and money to no avail.
• In the end, continuous military vigilance along
  the frontier burdened Han finances and worsened
  the economy.

71
The decline of the Han EmpireMultiple long-term
causes

• Several factors led to the fall of the Han Empire
  in 220 CE
• the cost of defending the frontier.
• factional intrigues within the ruling clan.
• official corruption and inefficiency.
• the ambitions and influence of rural warlords,
  independent of imperial control, who emerged from
  the large landed estate owners.
• the breakdown of military conscription, which
  forced the government to turn to foreign soldiers
  and officers lacking loyalty to the Han state.
• uprisings of hungry and desperate peasants (e.g.,
  Yellow Turban Rebellion).

72
Four centuries of disunity

• With a productive economy stimulated by many
  technological advancements, the Han had completed
  the project begun by the Qin of unifying China
  at least while they held the Mandate of Heaven.
• Han rulers projected a set of distinctive
  traditions that politically and culturally shaped
  China and its neighbors (including Vietnam, Korea
  and Central Asia) over the long term.
• When the Han central government finally
  collapsed, ushered in was a period of more than
  three centuries of divided China, in which
  regional kingdoms vied for power.

73
Sources

• The Earth and Its Peoples A Global History
  (Bulliet et al.)
• Traditions Encounters A Global Perspective on
  the Past (Bentley Ziegler)
• World History (Duiker Spielvogel)
• Patterns of Interaction (McDougal Littell,
  publisher)
• AP World History review guides The Princeton
  Review, Kaplan and Barrons