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Four ancient Chinese dynasties ruled from 1600 BCE to 220 CE. Read the descriptions of each dynasty.
Oracle Bones, Confucius, and the Great Wall!
Read about some of the famous features of the first four Chinese dynasties:
The first examples of Chinese writing, known as oracle bones, were made in the Shang Dynasty.
Many famous philosophers, such as Confucius and Laozi, lived during the Zhou Dynasty.
Many famous monuments, such as the first Great Wall and the Terracotta Soldiers, were created during the Qin Dynasty.
The Han Dynasty continued to build parts of the Great Wall and large cities.
The Han (pronounced HAHN) Dynasty controlled territory that is now part of present-day China. The map below shows Han territory and several empires that existed around the year 50 CE.
How large was the Han Dynasty's territory?
The Han Dynasty ruled for around 400 years. Over this time, its boundaries changed. The map below shows the Han Dynasty's territory in three different periods. The gray line shows the borders of present-day China. What do you think caused the Han Dynasty's borders to change?
Read the passage about the Han Dynasty's formation. Then follow the instructions below.
Before the Han Dynasty, the Qin (pronounced CHIN) Dynasty ruled for only about 15 years. But in 207 BCE, people began to rebel. Many of the rebels claimed to be kings and wanted to establish new, independent states. In 206 BCE, one rebel succeeded. His name was Liu Bang (lio BAHNG). Liu Bang established a new dynasty: the Han Dynasty.
Liu Bang faced two major challenges. First, he was born to poor farmers. Because Liu Bang's parents were farmers, many people did not believe that he could be a real ruler. Second, Liu Bang needed his former rivals, or people who fought against him, to agree that he was a real king.
From farmer to emperor
Liu Bang was born to poor farmers. Before he rebelled against the Qin Dynasty, he worked as a low-ranking government official. He filed paperwork for the local office in his county.
After Liu Bang became emperor, he returned to his home and wrote this poem:
Now that my power rules all within the seas, I have returned to my old village.
Where will I find brave men
To guard the four corners of my land?
In this poem, Liu Bang suggested that he could find brave soldiers from his home town to help guard his new empire. Why do you think Liu Bang wanted soldiers from his home town?
The Han founder, Liu Bang, built a capital city for the Han Dynasty. He called this city Chang'an (chahng-AHN).
What did Chang'an look like?
Small parts of Chang'an's mud and stone city walls have survived. But most buildings in ancient China were made out of wood. Wooden buildings don't often last as long as stone ones. So, most of these ancient buildings do not exist today. However, some ancient clay models of Han buildings still exist. They help historians understand what buildings in Chang'an looked like.
Chang'an: ancient capital, modern city
Chang'an was the capital of several other Chinese dynasties after the Han, such as the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE). During the Tang Dynasty, almost one million people lived in Chang'an! Today, the city is called Xi'an (SHEE-ahn), and almost 9 million people live there.
Building cities such as Chang'an in the Han Empire required thousands of workers. Read the passage about the construction of Han cities. T
Thousands of workers were needed for large projects such as building cities or canals. The Han government required people in their territory to work for at least 30 days a year on these projects.
One important project was a new city wall. Between 194 and 190 BCE, the first Han emperor ordered workers to build a large wall around the new capital city. The wall was almost 40 feet high, over 50 feet thick, and almost 16 miles long. That's about as tall as a house with 4 floors!
Different groups of people played different roles in these projects. People who had committed crimes were forced to do physical labor. Other people helped with planning and decoration. For example, architects, or people who design buildings, were in charge of planning the layout of cities. Craftsmen decorated the city walls and the doors and roofs of Han buildings.
Forced labor
During the Han Dynasty, many people who had committed crimes did not go to jail. Instead, they were forced to work in some of the most difficult jobs.
This image is from a wall carving in a Han tomb. The man holding the long knife is about to cut off a criminal's hair. This man has already shaved the other criminal's head.
For a Han person, having a shaved head was embarrassing. A person with a shaved head was also easy to spot, making it harder for criminals to run away.
The city of Chang'an grew to have over 200,000 people around 1 CE. At that time, both the Han and the Roman Empires had almost the same population! The graph below shows the estimated population of the Han Dynasty between 200 BCE and 157 CE.
Changes in agricultural practices helped farmers in Han territory grow more food. This extra food helped the population grow, too. So, by the year 2 CE, almost 60 million people were living under the Han Dynasty!
How do historians know what crops Han people grew?
To learn about the crops grown by Han farmers, historians use different kinds of evidence. In addition to Han carvings, here are two other types of evidence:
This Han Dynasty dictionary is the first known dictionary of written Chinese. It lists crops such as wheat, millet, beans, rice, and soy.
Preserved seeds, such as millet, are found throughout Han territory. Millet is a grass with small yellow seeds that are often boiled, steamed, or made into thick soups.
In addition to growing crops for food, farmers also grew crops to sell for money. One important crop farmers could sell was silk. The silk came from silkworms on Han farms. Farmers planted mulberry trees, and silkworms ate those leaves. Other people from different parts of Han society were also involved in producing and selling silk.
"Men Plow and Women Weave"
In early China, there was a common phrase that stated "men plow and women weave." This phrase referred to the different kinds of work done by men and women in early China. Often, men worked outside the home, while women wove fabric. Weaving fabrics, such as silk, was highly skilled work!
Han silk and the Silk Road
In the ancient world, China was the only region where people produced silk! People traded silk and other luxury goods between Europe and Asia. They traded on a route that was eventually called the Silk Road. People across Europe and Asia were willing to pay a high price for silk.
People in ancient China guarded mulberry trees and silkworms so that no one could export them.
Han silk was dyed to have many colors and was woven into many patterns.
In the early part of the Han Dynasty, farmers often owned their own land. Sons would inherit, or receive, pieces of their father's land after the father died. Women did not usually inherit land.
What happened if a family had no land?
Poor farmers did not always have enough land to leave to their sons. In those cases, a son could live with his wife's family members instead.
Did women inherit land during the Han Dynasty?
In China, women did not usually inherit land. However, they sometimes inherited valuable items, such as jewelry and furniture.
In the Han Dynasty, fathers divided their land equally to pass down to their sons. This pattern continued from generation to generation. Look at the diagram of land inheritance over three generations.
Divided fields
The Chinese language is made up of characters, some of which are pictograms. A pictogram is a symbol that looks like the object or idea it is meant to represent. The Chinese character for "field" is a pictogram.
Over several generations, the amount of land that Han men inherited decreased. That trend affected the lives of many Han farmers.
The lives of Han farmers
Clay models found in Han tombs help historians understand more details about the lives of Han farmers. Explore the models below to learn more about Han life.
Models show Han farmers working in a rice paddy. A paddy is a piece of farmland that has been flooded to plant rice.
Pottery models of a mill, or a tool used to grind grain. Mills grind grain into flour.
Clay models of a pig pen. Han models show animals like chickens, geese, pigs, and goats.
Wealthy Han families could afford to own large amounts of land. Some wealthy Han people also worked for the Han government. But, the emperors didn't want only wealthy people working in the government. Instead, they wanted the most intelligent people, regardless of background. So, one emperor decided to have schools set up across the empire.
At local schools, students read Confucian texts. Emperors supported this system because it helped them find good people for government jobs and allowed them to decide which books students could study. If students did well in local schools, they had opportunities to get government jobs or study at the Imperial Academy. Students supported this system because it gave them new opportunities.
Was everyone able to go to school?
Not all students in the Han Dynasty could go to school. Some had to stay home and help their families farm instead. Others did not live near a school. However, students who did attend Han schools had more opportunities.
Only boys were allowed to study in Han schools. Read this passage by Ban Zhao (ban JAOW), a famous female historian and writer from the Han Dynasty.
[Confucian teachings say that] it is the rule to begin to teach children to read at eight years old, and by fifteen years old they should then be ready for [further learning]. Why shouldn't girls' education, as well as boys' [education], happen in this way?
Ban Zhao, cited in Hansen, 139
Wealthy Han families built large tombs for their relatives who had passed away. They built tombs into the sides of mountains or underneath small hills.
Think like an archaeologist!
Han tombs are often studied by archaeologists (ahr-kee-AHL-uh-jists), or people who study ancient materials to learn more about ancient communities.
Archaeologists think that many of the Han tomb hills were shaped like pyramids. But today, erosion has worn down many of these hills. But some, like the tomb of Emperor Ping, still show some of their original pyramid shape.
The walls of Han tombs were often covered with paintings or carvings. The image below shows a carving of a banquet, or large party with food. Archaeologists discovered this carving in the tomb of a wealthy family.
Han jugglers and the "hundred entertainments"
Juggling was a popular activity during the Han Dynasty. It was part of what Han people called the "hundred entertainments." The hundred entertainments included performances by dancers, jugglers, and acrobats.
Even people in foreign countries knew that Han people liked to watch jugglers! The passage below describes jugglers who traveled to Han territory from present-day Syria, a country in the Middle East:
. . . [the Parthians] sent forth an embassy to follow the Han embassy to come and see the size and greatness of the Han Dynasty. They offered the Han court large birds' eggs and jugglers from Syria.
Parthians: people from an ancient Middle Eastern empire called Parthia
embassy: people sent by one government to visit another
Book of Han, 90 CE
Han people believed that each person had a spirit. They believed that after a person died, his or her spirit lived on. They also believed that spirits could live in three different levels of the universe: heaven, the world of human spirits, and an underworld. Objects in Han tombs often showed these three levels.
Han people believed that spirits needed to take objects with them to use in the afterlife. The small objects below were found in Han tombs.
Why were Han people buried with statues?
Han people believed that the spirits of the dead continued to live in the afterlife. They wanted the spirits to be happy. To be happy, spirits needed the afterlife to resemble the human world. So, Han people buried their dead with models of objects from daily life.
What if Han spirits were unhappy?
Han people believed that if spirits were unhappy, they would return to the human world to frighten or bother living people. The Han wanted humans and spirits to be separated, so they built heavy walls and doors on their tombs to keep living people out and to keep spirits in.
Historians use both written sources and objects to learn about the Han Dynasty. Present-day historians can use ancient objects, like those found in Han tombs, to understand if the writings of ancient historians are true. The two passages show how both kinds of sources can be used together.
The first passage has a description of Han trade from the Book of Han, a history text written between 60 and 92 CE. The second passage lists objects found in Han tomb. Both passages relate to an ancient city near the modern-day town of Hepu (HEH-pu) on the coast of southern China.
The Maritime Silk Road
Han sailors brought back beads, glass, and many other goods from across Europe and Asia. They often traded silk for these expensive goods. Han people sometimes traded these goods overland on a route known as the Silk Road. When they traded goods by sea, they traveled on what is called the Maritime Silk Road. Maritime (MAYR-uh-time) describes trading or traveling on the sea.
Several rebellions weakened the Han government, and the dynasty ended in 220 CE. However, many features of the Han Dynasty are still remembered today!
The legacy of the Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty ruled for over 400 years! It built large cities, expanded its territory, built schools, traded with foreign countries, and constructed elaborate tombs.
Han emperors were also the first Chinese rulers to promote the teachings of Confucius. The teachings of Confucius and his followers continue to influence people today, especially in China and other parts of East Asia!
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