Craig10e ch07 ppt_ops_final

Copyright © 2016, 2011, 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
The Heritage of World Civilizations
Tenth Edition
Chapter 7
China’s First Empire
and Its Aftermath,
221 B.C.E.–589 C.E.

Han Dynasty Aristocrat

Learning Objectives
7.1 Qin Unification of China
• Discuss how the Qin unified China and why the dynasty fell soon after.
7.2 Former Han Dynasty (206 B.C.E.–8 C.E.)
• Discuss the rise and fall of the Former Han Dynasty and the significance
of trade along the Silk Road.
7.3 Later Han (25–220 C.E.) and Its Aftermath
• Trace the history of the Later Han Dynasty and the aftermath of the
empire.
7.4 Han Thought and Religion
• Discuss Han Confucianism and historical writings, and the Neo-Daoist
and Buddhist traditions under the Han.

Introduction
• One hallmark of Chinese history is its striking
continuity of culture, language, and
geography.
• The continuities in its history do not mean
that China was unchanging.
• The history of China’s first empire is composed
of three segments: the Qin Dynasty, the
Former Han Dynasty, and the Later Han
Dynasty.

Global Perspective: China’s First Empire
(1 of 2)
• The Han built on Zhou thought (Legalism and
Confucianism), just as Rome used Greek thought
and the Maurya Empire used Buddhist thought.
• In China the pervasive culture was Chinese, even
before the first empire arose.
• China was largely landlocked. It was composed of
several regional economic units.
• Government in Han China was more orderly,
more complex, and more competent than that of
Rome.

Global Perspective: China’s First Empire
(2 of 2)
1. What challenges did the Roman, Han, and
Maurya empires face in conquering and
integrating new territories? How did they
meet these challenges?
2. Compare and contrast the Roman and Han
empires. What did they have in common?
How did they differ?

7.1 Qin Unification of China (1 of 3)
Learning Objective:
Discuss how the Qin unified China and
why the dynasty fell soon after.

• In 221 B.C.E., the Qin unified China through
conquest.
• The First Qin Emperor set about applying to all
of China the reforms he had established in his
own territory, which were based on Legalism.
• The most significant reform extended the Qin
system of bureaucratic government to the
entire empire.

• In addition, roads and the Great Wall were
built, a uniform system of weights and
measures was established, the Chinese writing
system was unified, along with other reforms.
• The Qin Dynasty collapsed in 206 B.C.E.

Map 7–1: The Unification of China
by the Qin State

The Great Wall of China

A Closer Look: The Terra-Cotta Army
of the First Qin Emperor

7.2 Former Han Dynasty (206 B.C.E.–8 C.E.)
Learning Objective:
Discuss the rise and fall of the Former
Han Dynasty and the significance of
trade along the Silk Road.

7.2.1 The Dynastic Cycle
• Confucian historians have seen a pattern in
Chinese dynasties that they call the dynastic
cycle.
• The stages of the cycle are interpreted in
terms of the “Mandate of Heaven.”

7.2.2 Early Years of the
Former Han Dynasty
• After the collapse of the Qin, one rebel
general went on to unify China. He became
the first emperor of the Han Dynasty.
• It took the emperor and his immediate
successors many years to consolidate their
power.

7.2.3 Han Wudi
• Emperor Wudi established new economic
policies.
• State monopolies became a regular part of
Chinese government finance, leading to the
“Salt and Iron Debate.”
• Wudi also aggressively expanded Chinese
borders into Vietnam and Manchuria.

7.2.4 The Xiongnu
• The principal threat to the Han was from the
Xiongnu, a nomadic pastoral people who lived
to the north.
• Wudi destroyed Xiongnu power south of the
Gobi Desert in southern Mongolia.
• Chinese influence was extended over the rim
oases of Central Asia, establishing the Silk
Road that linked Chang’an with Rome.

7.2.5 Government during the Former Han
• The Han continued the Qin form of centralized
bureaucratic administration.
• Officials were organized by grades and were paid
salaries in grain, plus cash or silk.
• During the Han Dynasty, this “Legalist” structure
of government became partially Confucianized.
• Gradually the Confucian classics were accepted as
the standard for education.
• All authority centered on the emperor, the all-
powerful “son of heaven.”

Map 7–2: The Han Empire
206 B.C.E.–220 C.E.

Document: Chinese Women among
the Nomads
• What does the fate of the women in these
poems suggest about the foreign policy of the
rulers of ancient China?

7.2.6 The Silk Road
• The Silk Road connected China and Rome, but
individual merchants did not travel the entire
route.
• Very few of the goods meant for Chang’an or
Rome made the full journey.
• Most Chinese foreign trade was with their
immediate steppe neighbors.
• The significance of the Silk Road was as a
transmission belt for goods, technologies, ideas
and disease.

Funerary Figure

Chinese Galloping Horse

7.2.7 Decline and Usurpation
• During the last decade of Wudi’s rule, military
expenses ran ahead of revenues.
• State revenues declined, and the tax burden
on smaller landowners and free peasants grew
heavier.
• In 22 B.C.E. rebellions broke out in several
parts of the empire.
• Dynastic disputes weakened the empire.

7.3 Later Han (25–220 C.E.) and its Aftermath
Learning Objective:
Trace the history of the Later Han
Dynasty and the aftermath of the
empire.

7.3.1 First Century
• By the end of the first century, China was as
prosperous as it had been during the good
years of the Former Han.
• During the reign of the first emperor, southern
China and Vietnam were retaken.
• The Chinese expansion in inner Asia facilitated
the camel caravans that carried Chinese silk to
merchants in Iran, Palestine, and Rome.

7.3.2 Decline during the Second Century
• After 88 C.E. the Later Han emperors were
ineffectual and short-lived.
• In the countryside, large landowners grew
more powerful and even harbored private
armies. Farmers on the estates of the mighty
were reduced to serfs.
• In 220 C.E. the last Han emperor was deposed.

7.3.3 Aftermath of Empire
• For more than three and a half centuries after
the fall of the Han, China was not united.
• Chinese history during the post-Han centuries
had two characteristics.
• The first was the dominant role played by the
great aristocratic landowning families.
• The second characteristic was that northern
and southern China developed in different
ways.

A Green Glazed Pottery Model of a Later
Han Dynasty Watchtower

Document: Ban Zhao’s
Admonitions for Women
• Given the range of female personalities in
Chinese society, what are some of the likely
responses to this sort of moral education?
• Are self-control and self-discipline more likely
to be associated with weakness or with
strength of character?

Chronology: The Dynastic History of China’s
First Empire

7.4 Han Thought and Religion (1 of 2)
Learning Objective:
Discuss Han Confucianism and
historical writings, and the Neo-Daoist
and Buddhist traditions under the Han.

7.4 Han Thought and Religion (2 of 2)
• A wealth of written records conveys the
sophistication and depth of Han culture,
particularly in philosophy and history.

7.4.1 Han Confucianism (1 of 2)
• A major accomplishment of the Former Han
was the recovery of texts that had been lost
during the Qin persecution of scholars.
• In 51 B.C.E. and again in 79 C.E., councils were
held to determine the true meaning of the
Confucian classics. In 175 C.E. an approved,
official version of the texts was inscribed on
stone tablets.

7.4.1 Han Confucianism (2 of 2)
• In about 100 C.E. the first dictionary was
compiled.
• During the Han, the Chinese invented paper,
the wheelbarrow, the stern-post rudder, and
the compass.

Han Dynasty Tomb Painting

7.4.2 History
• The Chinese were the greatest historians of
the pre-modern world.
• The practice of using actual documents and
firsthand accounts of events began with Sima
Qian (d. 85 B.C.E.).

A Chinese Seismograph

A Mendicant Friar of the Tang Dynasty

Document: Sima Qian on the Wealthy
• What economic “principles” can you derive
from this passage?
• Can you detect an echo of Sima Qian’s
perspectives in present-day debates on
economic policy?

7.4.3 Neo-Daoism
• In the Later Han Dynasty, some scholars
abandoned Confucianism altogether in favor
of Neo-Daoism.
• Among the common people, there arose
popular religious cults.
• Local Daoist temples and monasteries
continued until modern times. With many
Buddhist accretions, they formed the religious
beliefs of the bulk of the Chinese population.

Document: The Peach Blossom Spring
• Utopias are often based on religion, but this
one is not. What does this suggest regarding
the Chinese view of human nature?

7.4.4 Buddhism
• Central Asian missionaries brought Buddhism
to China in the first century.
• Buddhist ideas, such as Nirvana, began to
spread, affected by Daoist concepts.
• As the Han sociopolitical order collapsed in
the third century, Buddhism spread rapidly.
• By the fifth century Buddhism had spread over
all of China, despite facing some persecution.

Map 7–3: The Spread of Buddhism and
Chinese States in 500

Craig10e ch07 ppt_ops_final

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