The Western Han Dynasty

Having soundly defeated Xiang Yu in the Chu-Han Contention, Han Liu Bang established the Han Dynasty. Considered one of the high points of Chinese civilisation, the Han Dynasty has left its mark on Chinese history and culture. The majority ethnic group in China today is the Han. The language of China is known as 汉语 or the language of the Han. Chinese characters are known as 汉字 or Han characters.

Despite having decried the Qin Dynasty as being overly cruel and harsh to the people, the early Han law codes borrowed heavily from the Qin Legalist system. When Liu Bang overthrew Xiang Yu and set up the Han Dynasty, he instituted a system of 13 commanderies ruled directly by him and his court, and established 10 semi-autonomous kingdoms in the East of his empire, rewarding land to those who had assisted him in his conquests. However, over the course of his reign and the reign of his successors, these independent kingdoms were induced to rebellion, and were slowly brought back into the fold, their kings replaced by members of the Liu family. By the time of Liu Bang's death in 195 BCE, his Empire consisted of 16 commanderies.

The Empire in 87 BCE

The high point of the Western Han Dynasty came during the rule of Liu Che, or Han Wudi, who ascended the throne in 141 BCE. Initially his grandmother ruled the Empire in his stead, but upon her death in 135 BCE, Han Wudi proceeded to make his own mark on the Empire.

Han Wudi

The first thing he did was take Dong Zhongshu into his confidence, and proceeded to overturn the old Legalist system, replacing it with a Confucian variant. Initially Confucianism had been a simple secular ruling philosophy, teaching filial piety and respect for authority. Under Dong Zhongshu, Confucianism was mixed with aspects of Daoism and Legalism, fusing the ethical though of Confucianism with the ideas of Yin and Yang, along with a cosmological framework into which fit Heaven, Earth, the Empire and the Emperor.

Having thus reformed the civil service, Han Wudi also expanded upon institutions made by Liu Bang. He formed the precursors to the later civil administration exams, ensuring that it was possible for promotion by merit, rather than birth.

The biggest legacy left by Han Wudi, however, was his military expansion. From 133 BCE until the end of his life, Han Wudi launched a series of campaigns aimed at expanding Han China's borders to the north and west, fighting the Xiongnu Confederation, a nomadic people of the steppe. Over a series of campaigns stretching from 133 BCE to 108 BCE the Han scored a series of victories that firmly established Han dominance of the North and West.

The campaigns continued until well after Han Wudi's death, ending in 89 CE.

Ultimately, the campaigns launched by Han Wudi ended up stretching the national treasury, and following his death in 87 BCE, the Western Han Dynasty began a long decay that ended in Wang Mang's Xin (or new) Dynasty.

Next week, we examine Wang Mang's Xin Dynasty!

(P.S. The reign of Han Wudi also saw the works of Sima Qian, known as the Grand Historian, published. He is the first historian in Chinese history)

The Spring and Autumn Period

The Spring and Autumn period represents the zenith of Chinese philosophy and political thought. The decline in power of the Zhou Kings and the resultant rise of many disparate states formed an atmosphere where political and philosophical thought would be able to flourish in ways that would not be seen in China for centuries.

The Spring and Autumn is the period of Confucius, Laozi, Mozi and Sunzi. It saw the rise of the four main schools of philosophical thought that dominated the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States periods; Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism and Legalism. Of the two, only Confucianism and Taoism survive in recognisable form today.

Following the sacking of the Zhou capital at Zongzhou near modern day Xi'an by the Marquess of Shen and his Quanrong barbarian allies, the Zhou moved their capital eastwards, to Chengzhou in the Yellow River valley. This marked the ending of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and with it the ending of central Zhou authority. During the period in which the Zhou had consolidated their power upon ascending to primacy in China, states in the East had been carved up and given to members of the royal family. Though this had kept those potentially volatile states under Zhou control, by the fall of Zongzhou states that had once been ruled by royal brothers were now ruled by third and even fourth cousins.

Further complicating matters for the Zhou was the fact that their new capital was removed from their traditional power base in the Wei river valley. This double blow of a military defeat, combined with the removal of their power base meant that the Zhou were essentially reduced to a figurehead ruler of China.

The shifting of the capital occurred in 771BCE, and that is typically the date that historians associate with the beginning of the Spring and Autumn period. The name of the period comes from the Spring and Autumn Annals, a chronicle of the state of Lu between 772 and 479BCE. Traditionally, this piece of literature is ascribed to Confucius, but in reality was likely put together by chroniclers from the state of Lu.

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Over the course of the Spring and Autumn period, some 148 states rose, though were eventually unified by one of the seven major states that would arise by the Warring States period. The Spring and Autumn saw several important changes to the traditional Chinese methods of governing.

Firstly, the Feng Jian or Feudal system that had been in place during the Western Zhou dynasty was rendered obsolete. The rendering of the King of Zhou to a figurehead meant that real power lay in the rulers of the various states that were now vying for hegemony in China.

Secondly, the rise of these various states led to the development of a hierarchical alliance system. In it, the strongest state leader would be given the title of Hegemon or ba, who would be obliged to protect the weaker Zhou states and the Zhou royalty from intruding armies. Whilst this still had shades of the old Feng Jian system, in reality the Zhou royalty were not as important in the determination of the hegemon as might be implied.

Thirdly, the rise to power of the first hegemon, Duke Huan of Qi (Qi Huan Gong) was due largely to reforms passed by his adviser, Guan Zhong. Among these was the centralisation of power in the hands of the state, direct levies applied to the villages to bypass the reliance on the aristocracy for manpower, he devised a better method for choosing talent to be governors. During his tenure, Qi shifted from a traditional model whereby the aristocracy was responsible for governing to a system of professional bureaucrats. He also created sponsored government brothels to fund the government treasury. He also created a uniform tax code and used state power to encourage the production of salt and iron.

The success of Guan Zhong led to the emulation of his policies, which contributed further to the decline of the Feng Jian system.

Somewhat unique among the major states in the period was the state of Chu, which was not considered to be part of the Zhou cultural group, and as such were regarded as barbarians. Indeed, the state of Chu was not subservient to the Zhou at all, declaring that its king was equal, if not superior to, the King of Zhou. Many of the wars waged by the hegemons were against the state of Chu.

Following the death of the second hegemon, Duke Wen of Jin in 628BCE, tensions that had been simmering in the central plans area began to rise, and constant skirmishing erupted between Qi, Qin, Jin and Chu. By the time those four states sat down to discuss disarmament, it had become readily apparent that the traditional role of hegemon was outdated, as each state had acquired their own spheres of influence. The integration of non-Zhou peoples into various states, combined with the occupation by Chu of various areas recognised as Zhou blurred the line between Zhou and non-Zhou peoples.

When Jin and Chu backed off each other, Wu in modern Jiangsu and Yue in modern Zhejiang rose. In 583BCE Jin negotiated an alliance with Wu, which meant that even as Jin and Chu agreed to a truce in 546BCE, Jin was able to fight a proxy war via Wu, peaking in a full scale invasion of Chu by Wu in 506BCE.

Even as this was developing, the power of the Jin dukes was declining, resulting in a civil war in 497BCE, which lasted until 453BCE, the results of which were the elimination of most noble lines. The remaining families divided Jin into three states: Han Wei and Zhao.

This left seven major powers in the Zhou world: the three partitioned states of Jin, the three remaining powers of Qin, Chu and Qi, and the weaker state of Yan near Beijing. This set the stage for the Warring States period, which will not be covered next. Instead, I will be examining a few of the major characters of the Spring and Autumn period, namely Confucius, Laozi and Sunzi.