13-11-5 End of the Han Dynasty

End of the Han Dynasty..

Emperor Ling died in 188 or 189, at the age of thirty-three, while military governors were clinging to the greater independence that they had acquired during the war against the Yellow Turbans. A military general who was a popular figure and the half-brother of the dowager empress tried to assert leadership at the palace. He schemed against the court eunuchs and their supporters, and to combat them he invited to the capital general Dong Zhuo and his army from around the Great Wall in the north. But before Dong Zhuo arrived, fighting broke out at the palace. A eunuch murdered the general. The general's allies struck back and burned the palace, killing every eunuch they could find – or anyone who looked like a eunuch because of lack of beard. And more than 2,000 eunuchs, and supposed eunuchs, died.

Soon after, Dong Zhuo arrived in the capital and put to death both the reigning emperor, Shao, and the empress dowager. He chose a nine year-old prince as emperor and as a front for his rule, the boy acquiring the title Emperor Xian. Dong Zhuo swaggered about the court with his sword, behaving in a manner described as debauched and bestial, while his troops, many of whom were Xiongnu, ran about the capital, pillaging and murdering as they pleased.

Then Dong Zhuo went off to do battle with rival generals. The child emperor, Xian, and his following, including those who belonged to what had been an ineffective palace militia, burned Luoyang and began a trek westward to Chang'an.They took with them – the story goes – more than a million civilians, most of whom are said to have died of exhaustion and starvation along the way.

Dong Zhuo's lack of concern for hearts and minds worked against him. His bloodthirstiness and fits of temper alienated his subordinate officers, and in the year 192 his officers assassinated him and threw his corpse to a mob that hated him.

A war for supremacy was taking place among China's generals, and in 196 CE, another general, Cao Cao, found the boy emperor and declared himself the boy's "imperial minister." He declared himself the protector of the empire, and, in the name of Emperor Xian, Cao Cao drafted more men into his army.

Cao Cao was a vigorous, bright and able leader – and a poet. His army is said to have numbered as many as a million men. In bloody battles in northern China he defeated warlord after warlord and restored order there. In 208, Cao Cao marched south in an effort to reunify China. The ensuing battle of Jiangling, along the Yangzi River, became one of the best known in China's history. In that battle, Cao Cao confronted the allied armies of Liu Bei and Sun Juan, and that alliance defeated him, driving Cao Cao back north.

Liu Bei was a member of the Han royal family, and he was a man with a kindly disposition. He might have united China, but his ally, Sun Quan, broke with him, fearing that if Liu Bei were successful he would dominate him. Sun Quan established the kingdom of Wu in the south of China, and he allied with Cao Cao, who ruled the kingdom of Wei in the north (named after the Wei kingdom of the Warring States Period). Liu Bei built the kingdom of Shu, in Sichuan Province. The phase in China's history called the Three Kingdoms had begun.

Meanwhile, along the Yangzi River near Sichuan, a surviving Taoist cult with its own army had established a theocratic state. The cult's founder, Zhang Lu, miracle healings and he preached the message of physical and moral well-being, claiming that diseases were punishments for evil deeds and that diseases could be cured by remorse and ceremonial confessions. Zhang Lu's community had communal "friendship" meals, and he had a welfare system for his community and storage for grain and meat. He encouraged equality. His community offered the traveling homeless a place to stay and a meal. And it offered leniency to criminals.

Another Taoist, Zhang Xiu set up an independent state nearby. Despite their mutual devotion to Taoism, the communities of Zhang Lu and Zhang Xiu warred against each other – much as would Christians. And Zhang Lu, it is said, killed Zhang Xiu.

Soon thereafter, Zhang Lu had a more formidable opponent, Cao Cao. With his army, Cao Cao overran Zhang Lu's territory. Zhang Lu surrendered to Cao Cao and was rewarded with a fiefdom. It is said that Zhang Lu died shortly thereafter – in 217. And it came to be legend that twenty-six years after his death he was seen by many witnesses ascending to heaven. The legend held that when his grave was opened, in the year 259, his body was found wholly intact, meaning that he had died only in the sense that he had detached from his corpse and had entered paradise.

13-11-4 Emperor Shun of Han DYNASTY

Emperor Shun of Han

In the year 125, Emperor Shun succeeded his father, Emperor An. There was expectation that Shun-di would govern better than his father, but Shun-di turned out to be just as incompetent as his father. Corruption continued without abatement among eunuchs and officials, and word was spreading among China's peasants that Han emperors had again lost the Mandate of Heaven.

Shun-di died in 144, followed by Emperor Huan, age fourteen, 146, and political decline continued. In 159 the dowager empress died, and eunuchs around the emperor sensed opportunity and moved to eliminate rival influence by arranging the extermination of members of the empress' clan. Emperor Huan became dependent on the eunuchs. He delegated powers to them, and the eunuchs filled government positions with their kinsmen, receiving payoffs in gold

Emperor Huan died in 168, and the next day his young wife, now the empress dowager, agreed to the selection of a twelve-year-old from out of town as Emperor Huan's successor. The boy was a great-great-grandchild of Emperor Zhang, and he became Emperor Ling. During his reign, centralized governance continued to deteriorate.

A clash erupted between the eunuchs and Confucianist gentry-bureaucrats. The Confucianists had a long-standing dislike of the eunuchs, seeing them as lacking in education and as interfering with good government. War erupted between the eunuchs and the Confucianists over the influence of a Taoist magician. The magician prophesied that a general clemency was forthcoming, and he had his son murder someone to demonstrate his confidence in the prophecy. The magician's son was a henchman of the eunuchs, and the eunuchs stayed the magician's execution. The governor of the province executed the son anyway. The eunuchs accused the governor of violating an imperial decree and of conspiring with students and scholars to form an illegal alliance against the government. The eunuchs obtained a decree from Emperor Ling ordering arrests of the students who had been demonstrating and who had been attempting to deliver petitions to the emperor. And soon, many students died in prison.

In the provinces, men commanding troops were growing more independent. And local magistrates and governors were losing their authority to local men of wealth who often had influence through bribery with eunuchs at the emperor's court.

Adding to the political chaos was a movement led by a Taoist named Zhang Jue, who called himself "The Good Doctor of Great Wisdom." He had been moving about in the countryside offering magical healing, treating ailments with water and words. He called his method of healing the "Way of the Highest Peace." The good doctor spoke of Han rulers as having lost the Mandate of Heaven, and he proclaimed their imminent fall. Within ten years, his movement had grown to hundreds of thousands and had divided into districts, each led by a "deputy doctor." Zhang Jue's power and his view of the Han rule as weak and Han emperors as having lost the mandate of heaven inspired him to overthrow the Han dynasty.

The year of decision for Zhang Jue was 184. The fifth day of the third moon was fixed as the time for a general uprising in Luoyang and surrounding regions. But word of the plan was heard at the imperial court, and the authorities picked up local leaders of the revolt and executed them. Zhang Jue changed his plans and called for an immediate uprising, calling on his followers to burn down official residences and to loot towns. This was to be known as the Yellow Turban Rebellion, named after the headdresses of Zhang Jue's movement (yellow signifying their association with the element earth as opposed to the element of fire, which they associated with Han rule). The Yellow Turban Rebellion spread, and people from all corners of the empire began robbing, killing and heading toward the capital.

The eunuchs and intellectual bureaucrats in Luoyang forgot their differences in their mutual fear and opposition to the Yellow Turbans. Government forces erected fortifications around Luoyang, and the government authorized governors to organize their own armies to combat the rebels. Wealthy landowners also organized armies to defend themselves. But town after town fell to the Yellow Turbans, with governors and local magistrates fleeing before them to avoid being sacrificed to the god of the rebels.

With China weakened by chaos, the Xiongnu began making raids against the Chinese again. And in Korea, tribal warriors on horseback from the hills pushed against the Chinese there. The government in Luoyang sent no help, and the Koreans overran that portion of Korea ruled by Chinese.

In attempting to defend themselves, Han palace authorities drafted people into the military, establishing armies at great expense. The Han armies were weakened by inefficiency and corruption, but the Yellow Turbans were disorganized and ineffective. They had been led to believe that their gods had elected them as a force for good and were, therefore, invulnerable. They matched their lack of weapons with their belief that they didn't need weapons – a view not conducive to an efficient military operation.

For more than a decade war against the Yellow Turbans continued. Eight of China's provinces were devastated. Yellow Turban gangs were cut down one after the other. By the year 205 (21 years after it had begun) the Yellow Turban Rebellion was over, and rule by the Han family was shattered and at its end.

Peasant supporters of the Yellow Turbans had been returning to the business of surviving through work. Having lost hope in their uprising, they put their hope for a coming paradise in the world beyond.

Emperor Shun of Han (simplified Chinese: 汉顺帝; traditional Chinese: 漢順帝; pinyin: Hàn Shùn Dì; Wade–Giles: Han Shun-ti; 115–144) was an emperor of the Chinese Han Dynasty and the seventh emperor of the Eastern Han. He reigned from 125 to 144 AD.

Emperor Shun was the only son of Emperor An of Han and after Emperor An died in 125, the Empress Dowager Yan was childless but yearning to hold on to power, forced Prince Bao (whose title of crown prince she had wrongly caused Emperor An to strip in 124) to give up the throne in favour of Liu Yi, the Marquess of Beixiang. Liu Yi died after reigning less than 7 months and eunuchs loyal to Prince Bao, led by Sun Cheng, carrying out a successful coup d'etat against the Empress Dowager, Prince Bao was finally declared emperor at age 10.

The people had great expectations for Emperor Shun, whose reign followed his incompetent and violent father. However, while Emperor Shun's personality was mild, he was just as incompetent as his father in general, and corruption continued without abatement among eunuchs and officials. He also overly entrusted government to his wife Empress Liang Na's father Liang Shang (梁商) -- a mild-mannered man with integrity but little ability—and then Liang Shang's son Liang Ji -- a corrupt and an autocratic man. In general, Emperor Shun's reign was still somewhat of an improvement over his father's, but this minor improvement was unable to stem Eastern Han Dynasty's continued degradation.

Emperor Shun died at the age of 30 after reigning for 19 years. He was succeeded by his son Emperor Chong.

13-11-3 Emperor He of Han DYNASTY

Emperor He of Han

Emperor Zhang, who ruled from the year 75 to 88. He was succeeded by Emperor He, who ruled from 88 to 106. Despite Hedi's mediocrity, China continued to enjoy a rising prosperity. The university at Luoyang grew to 240 buildings and 30,000 students. China's trade reached a new height. Silk from China was becoming familiar to people as far as the Roman Empire – which was then in its so-called golden age. And in return, China was receiving glass, jade, horses, precious stones, tortoise shell and fabrics.

With prosperity came another attempt at expansion westward. A commander of a Chinese army, Ban Chao, led an army of 60,000 unopposed to the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea. He wished to send an envoy to make contact with the Romans. But the Parthians feared an alliance between Rome and China. They discouraged Ban Chao with tales of danger, so he turned back.

By the second century, China had caught up with and in some areas had surpassed Europe and West Asia in science and technology. Paper was coming into use in China. China had a water clock with an accuracy that Europeans would be without for more than a thousand years. China had a lunar calendar that would be consulted into the twentieth century. It had a seismograph that was invented in the year 132 – eight feet wide and made of bronze. The Chinese observed sun spots, which would not be observed by Europeans until Galileo in 1612. The Chinese charted 11,520 stars and measured the elliptical orbit of the moon. China had a machine that sowed seeds and a machine for husking grain. It had water pumps. And, unlike the Romans, the Chinese had wheel barrows. The Chinese had horse collars and by 322 at least a few had saddles with stirrups. They were improving their use of herbal medicines and learning more about human anatomy and the diagnosis of physical disorders. They were using minor surgery and acupuncture, and they were aware of the benefits of a good diet.

But life continued to be hard for China's common people – its peasants. Too much was still being taken from them in taxes. They still had to labor once a month for the emperor. Punishments were still harsh. For the sake of order a poor peasant could be executed for using the central part of a highway, which was reserved for the emperor. And not enough grain was being stored for emergencies.

China's prosperity had risen under Emperor He (reign 88-106), and the court of Emperor He had become in size and luxury equal to the courts of previous Han emperors. At He's court, hundreds of wives and concubines were accompanied by a great many eunuchs to guard them. Under Emperor He, eunuchs and family consorts had acquired greater influence, with eunuchs having the ear of the emperor.

Those involved in choosing who was to be a successor to the throne preferred children because children could be dominated more than an adult, leaving considerable power with those who did the choosing. All Han emperors since Emperor Ming (reign 58-75) had become emperors when adolescents, two of them as young as two, and most had begun their rule with their dowager empress mother serving as regent. These women remained isolated and dependent upon men – usually their male relatives. As an emperor grew into adulthood, if he rejected his mother's relatives as advisors he usually turned to the only other males with which he had contact – the eunuchs – and he appointed them to high positions as a counter to his mother's influence.

With succeeding child emperors and powerful eunichs more trouble was on the way

Emperor He of Han (Chinese: 漢和帝; pinyin: Hàn Hé Dì; Wade–Giles: Han Ho-ti; 79 – February 13, 105) was anemperor of the Chinese Han Dynasty who ruled from 88 to 105. He was the 4th emperor of the Eastern Han.

Emperor He was the son of Emperor Zhang. He ascended the throne at the age of nine and reigned for 17 years. It was during Emperor He's reign that the Eastern Han began its decline. Strife between consort clans and eunuchsbegan when the Empress Dowager Dou (Emperor He's adoptive mother) made her own family members important government officials. Her family was corrupt and intolerant of dissension. In 92, Emperor He was able to remedy the situation by removing the empress dowager's brothers with the aid of the eunuch Zheng Zhong and his brother Liu Qing the Prince of Qinghe. This in turn created a precedent for eunuchs to be involved in important affairs of state. These trend would continue to escalate for the next century contributing to the fall of the Han dynasty. Further, whileQiang revolts, spurred by corrupt and/or oppressive Han officials, started during his father Emperor Zhang's reign, they began to create major problems for the Han during Emperor He's reign and would last until the reign of Emperor Ling.

Emperor He himself appeared to be a largely kind and gentle man who, however, lacked his father's and grandfather Emperor Ming's acumen for governance and for judgment of character. Although Emperor He's reign arguably began Han's long decline, notable scientific progresses were made during this period including the invention of paper by the eunuch Cai Lun in 105.

One additional trend that started with Emperor He was the lack of imperial heirs—Emperor He continuously lost sons while in childhood, and at his death he had only two live male children, neither of whom survived him long. Whereas many dynasties had succession issues involving the emperors' many sons, the Eastern Han Dynasty had the succession issues involving the lack of direct line male heirs, which further added to the instability.

13-11-2 Emperor Zhang of Han DYNASTY

Emperor Zhang of Han

Emperor Zhang of Han (Chinese: 漢章帝; pinyin: Hàn Zhāng Dì; Wade–Giles: Han Chang-ti; 57–88) was an emperor of the Chinese Han dynasty from 75 to 88. He was the third emperor of the Eastern Han.

Emperor Zhang was a hardworking and diligent emperor. He reduced taxes and paid close attention to all affairs of state. Zhang also reduced government spending as well as promoted Confucianism. As a result, Han society prospered and its culture flourished during this period. Along with his father Emperor Ming, Emperor Zhang's reign has been highly praised and was regarded as the golden age of the Eastern Han period, and their reigns are collectively known as the Rule of Ming and Zhang.

During his reign, Chinese troops under the leadership of General Ban Chao, progressed far west while in pursuit of Xiongnu insurgents harassing the trade routes now collectively known as the Silk Road.

The Eastern Han Dynasty, after Emperor Zhang, would be plagued with internal strife between royal factions and eunuchs struggling for power. The people for the coming century and a half would yearn for the good days of Emperors Ming and Zhang. (However, part of the strife came from the power obtained by consort clans – and the precedent was set by Emperor Zhang's bestowing of power on both his adoptive mother Empress Dowager Ma's clan and his wife Empress Dou's clan.)

13-11-1 EMPEROR Mingdi HAN DYNASTY

Mingdi, Wade-Giles romanization Ming-ti, personal name (xingming) Liu Zhuang, temple name (miaohao) (Han) Xianzong (born ad 27, China—died 75, China) posthumous name (shi) of the second emperor of the Dong (Eastern) Han dynasty(ad 25–220), during whose reign (ad 57–75) Buddhism is thought to have been introduced into China.

Legend recounts that Mingdi (“Enlightened Emperor”) was visited in a dream by a golden image of the Buddha Shakyamuni, seeking to be worshiped in China. The emperor is said to have responded by recruiting two Buddhist monks from Indiaand erecting the first Buddhist temple at Luoyang, the capital of the Dong Han.

Mingdi launched a military campaign to destroy the Xiongnu tribes plaguing China’s northwest frontier. Through intrigue as well as military might, the Han armies under the general Ban Chao succeeded in reestablishing Chinese influence in Inner Asia. Mingdi was succeeded by his son Zhangdi.

13-11 Return of the Han

Return of the Han...

In the five years following the death of Wang Mang, millions died fighting as rival factions vied with each other for power. The most successful of the rival factions was led by a member of the Han family, a prince by the name of Liu Xiu. He surrounded himself with educated men, and he was popular among his troops. His army was the only force that did not loot when capturing towns, and this helped him win hearts and minds. Liu Xiu took control of the ruined capital, Chang'an. He proclaimed himself emperor, restoring the Han dynasty – to be known as the Later Han, or East Han. He moved the capital eastward to Luoyang, and for eleven more years he had to combat rivals. He absorbed some bands of Red Eyebrow rebels into his army, and his army killed other Red Eyebrows in great numbers.

What had not been accomplished by reforms was accomplished by violence: so many had died in the upheaval that land had become available to anyone who wanted it, and with many money lenders among the dead, many more peasants had become free of debt. Liu Xiu helped the economy by lowering taxes, as much as he thought possible: to a tenth or thirteenth of one's harvest or profits. During his reign of thirty-two years, he attempted improvements by promoting scholarship and by curtailing the influence of eunuchs and some others around the royal family. He defended China's western and northern borders by launching successful military campaigns on these frontiers, pushing back the Xiongnu, enabling him to take control of Xinjiang (the extreme northwest of modern China). Also, he tightened China's grip on the area around the Liao River and northern Korea, and he was able to expand control over all that had been China. The restored Han dynasty appeared to have won back the Mandate of Heaven.

Mingdi

In 57 CE, Liu Xiu died. He took the posthumous title of Guangwu-di (di, as mentioned before, signifying emperor), and he was succeeded by his son Mingdi, who reigned eighteen years while China's economy continued to recover. Emperor Ming's rule has been regarded as harsh. He associated himself with Taoism and theological Confucianism, and he declared himself a prophet. He supported growth in what was considered education, and he lectured on history at Luoyang's new imperial university – a lecture attended by many thousands.

Emperor Zhang

Emperor Ming was succeeded by Emperor Zhang, who ruled from the year 75 to 88. He was succeeded by Emperor He, who ruled from 88 to 106. Despite Hedi's mediocrity, China continued to enjoy a rising prosperity. The university at Luoyang grew to 240 buildings and 30,000 students. China's trade reached a new height. Silk from China was becoming familiar to people as far as the Roman Empire – which was then in its so-called golden age. And in return, China was receiving glass, jade, horses, precious stones, tortoise shell and fabrics.

With prosperity came another attempt at expansion westward. A commander of a Chinese army, Ban Chao, led an army of 60,000 unopposed to the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea. He wished to send an envoy to make contact with the Romans. But the Parthians feared an alliance between Rome and China. They discouraged Ban Chao with tales of danger, so he turned back.

y the second century, China had caught up with and in some areas had surpassed Europe and West Asia in science and technology. Paper was coming into use in China. China had a water clock with an accuracy that Europeans would be without for more than a thousand years. China had a lunar calendar that would be consulted into the twentieth century. It had a seismograph that was invented in the year 132 – eight feet wide and made of bronze. The Chinese observed sun spots, which would not be observed by Europeans until Galileo in 1612. The Chinese charted 11,520 stars and measured the elliptical orbit of the moon. China had a machine that sowed seeds and a machine for husking grain. It had water pumps. And, unlike the Romans, the Chinese had wheel barrows. The Chinese had horse collars and by 322 at least a few had saddles with stirrups. They were improving their use of herbal medicines and learning more about human anatomy and the diagnosis of physical disorders. They were using minor surgery and acupuncture, and they were aware of the benefits of a good diet.

But life continued to be hard for China's common people – its peasants. Too much was still being taken from them in taxes. They still had to labor once a month for the emperor. Punishments were still harsh. For the sake of order a poor peasant could be executed for using the central part of a highway, which was reserved for the emperor. And not enough grain was being stored for emergencies.

China's prosperity had risen under Emperor He (reign 88-106), and the court of Emperor He had become in size and luxury equal to the courts of previous Han emperors. At He's court, hundreds of wives and concubines were accompanied by a great many eunuchs to guard them. Under Emperor He, eunuchs and family consorts had acquired greater influence, with eunuchs having the ear of the emperor.

Those involved in choosing who was to be a successor to the throne preferred children because children could be dominated more than an adult, leaving considerable power with those who did the choosing. All Han emperors since Emperor Ming (reign 58-75) had become emperors when adolescents, two of them as young as two, and most had begun their rule with their dowager empress mother serving as regent. These women remained isolated and dependent upon men – usually their male relatives. As an emperor grew into adulthood, if he rejected his mother's relatives as advisors he usually turned to the only other males with which he had contact – the eunuchs – and he appointed them to high positions as a counter to his mother's influence.

With succeeding child emperors and powerful eunichs more trouble was on the way.

13-10 emperor Wu Failed Reform and Chaos

Failed Reform and Chaos//

In 91 BCE, as Emperor Wu's fifty-four year reign neared its end, around the capital violent warfare erupted over who would succeed him. On one side was Wudi's empress and on the other was the family of one of Wudi's mistresses. The two families came close to destroying each other. Then, just before Emperor Wu's death, a compromise heir was chosen: an eight-year-old to be known as Emperor Zhao, who was put under the regency of Huo Guang, a former general.

Huo Guang sponsored a conference to inquire into the grievances of his emperor's subjects. Invited to the conference were government officials of the Legalist school and worthy representatives of Confucianism. The Legalists argued for maintaining the status quo. They argued that their economic policies helped maintain China's defenses against the continued hostility of the Xiongnu and that they were protecting the people from the exploitation of traders. They argued in favor of the government's policy of western expansion on the grounds that it brought the empire horses, camels, fruits and various imported luxuries, such as furs, rugs and precious stones. The Confucianists, on the other hand, made a moral issue of peasant grievances. Also they argued that the Chinese had no business in Central Asia and that China should stay within its borders and live in peace with its neighbors. The Confucianists argued that trade is not a proper activity of government, that government should not compete with private tradesmen, and they complained that the imported goods spoken of by the Legalists had found their way only into the houses of the rich.

Under Huo Guang's regency, taxes were reduced and peace negotiations began with the Xiongnu chieftains. Emperor Zhao died in 74 BCE at the age of twenty, and conflict erupted again at the palace. Zhaodi's successor was emperor for only twenty-seven days when Huo Guang replaced him with someone he thought he could control: Emperor Xuan, age seventeen. Six years later, the regent Huo Guang died peaceably, but palace rivalry led to charges of treason against Huo Guang's wife, son and many of Huo Guang's relatives and family associates, and they were executed

Emperor Xuan ruled for twenty-six years, during which he tired to reduce the corruption that had crept into government, and he tried to provide help in eliminating the suffering among the peasants. But his attempts were ineffective, and his son and heir, Emperor Yuan (age 27) in 48 BCE became the first of a string of dysfunctional monarchs – the chance of an inept monarch inheriting power again manifesting itself. Emperor Yuan was a timid intellectual who spent much time with his numerous concubines. Rather than govern, he left power in the hands of his eunuch secretaries and members of his mother's family.

Emperor Yuan's son became emperor Cheng in 32 BCE at the age of nineteen, and he also also had little enthusiasm for governing and was most concerned with personal pleasures, including visiting houses of prostitution at night. During Emperor Cheng's twenty-seven-year reign he sought guidance from omens, and to satisfy the jealousy of one of his women, he murdered two of his sons born to other women

n 6 BCE, Emperor Cheng was succeeded by Emperor Ai, age twenty, who lived in the company of homosexual boys, one of whom he appointed commander-in-chief of his armies. With the decline in quality of monarchs following the reign of Wudi, some Confucian scholars declared that the Han dynasty had lost its Mandate from Heaven, and this became widely believed.

In the year 1 CE Emperor Ai was succeeded by a two year-old, Emperor Ping. Domination of the palace was under the widow of Emperor Yuan, and she made her nephew, Wang Mang, regent. Emperor Ping died in the year 6, and Wang Mang named his successor, Emperor Ruzi, the last of the dynastic chain of emperors created by Liu Bang 200 years earlier.

Wang Mang. He didn't know how to make a revolution

Wang Mang was a Confucianist, and many Confucianists looked to him with hope that China would be ruled again with moral purpose, and some looked to him to found a new dynasty. Encouraged by widespread support, in the year 9 CE Wang Mang declared himself emperor, ending rule by the Han dynasty. And Wang began a struggle for recognition of his legitimacy.

Wang Mang hoped that with reforms he could win more support. Like the Yawhist priesthood during the reign of king Josiah, Wang announced the discovery of important writings. These were books claimed to have been written by Confucius, supposedly discovered when Confucius' house had been torn down more than 200 years before. The discovered works contained declarations supporting the very kind of reform that Wang sought.

Wang defended his policies by quoting from the discovered works. Following what was portrayed as Confucian scripture, he decreed a return to the golden times when every man had his measure of land to till, land that in principle belonged to the state. He declared that a family of less than eight that had more than fifteen acres was obligated to distribute the excess to the landless. He moved to reduce the tax burden on poor peasants, and he devised a plan to have state banks lend money to whomever needed it at an interest of ten percent per year, in contrast to the thirty percent that was the going rate by private lenders. In order to stabilize the price of grain, he made plans for a state granary, hoping that this would discourage the wealthy from hoarding grain and profiting from price fluctuations. Wang also delegated a body of officials to regulate the economy and to fix prices every three months, and he decreed that critics of his plan would be drafted into the military.

Wang claimed that he was doing the will of Confucius. He announced that his rule was a restoration of the rule of the early Zhou kings – an age that the Confucian scholar Mencius had claimed was supposed to return every 500 years. It was about one thousand years since the beginning of Zhou rule and 500 years since Confucius had been at the peak of his powers.

Wang believed that his subjects would obey his decrees, but again gentry-bureaucrats gave less importance to their Confucianism than to their wealth. They and other owners of good-sized lands failed to cooperate in implementing Wang's reforms. Without newspapers or television, local people remained unaware of the reforms. Wealthy merchants that Wang Mang's government employed to pursue implementation of the reforms succumbed to bribery and proved interested mainly in enriching themselves. Wang needed a broad base of support and a force willing to move against those violating his land reform laws, but he didn't have it. The power of money was defeating Wang's reforms.

In the year 11 the Yellow River broke its banks, creating floods from Shandong north to where the river empties into the sea. The usual failure to store enough grain for hard times left people without food. In the year 14 came cannibalism. Believing that his reform program was a failure, Wang withdrew it. But already armed resistance to his rule had arisen. Rather than Wang having mobilized a peasant army to enforce his reforms, armies of peasants were mobilized against him.

In Shandong province, near the mouth of the Yellow River, Wang faced an organized movement of disciplined bands of peasants called the Red Eyebrows, led by a former brigand chief. In the neighboring province just to the north, another rebellion arose, and rebellion spread across China. In some places, rebel peasants were led by landlords. Some rebel groupings described Wang's rule as illegitimate. And one of the rebel groupings placed at its head a Han prince by the name of Liu Xiu.

Peasant armies murdered and plundered. They marched to the capital, killing officials as they went. The troops that Wang sent against the rebel armies joined the rebels or went on sprees of plundering, taking what little food they could find. The basic goodness of people that Confucianists had believed in appeared to have vanished. In the year 23, a rebel army invaded and burned China's great capital, Chang'an. Its soldiers found Wang Mang in his throne-room reciting from his collection of Confucian writings. He was silenced by a soldier cutting off his head.

13-09 Emperor Wu HAN DYNASTY

Emperor Wu of Han (30 June 156 BC – 29 March 87 BC), born Liu Che, courtesy name Tong, was the seventh emperor of the Han dynasty of China, ruling from 141–87 BC

156 BCE, a son of Emperor Wen succeeded his father and became Emperor Jing. He ruled sixteen years and attempted to extend his family's domination over noble families. War between these nobles and Emperor Jing ended in compromise, the nobles keeping some of their privileges and powers but no longer permitted to appoint ministers for their fiefs.

In 141 BCE, Emperor Jing was succeeded by his son, Emperor Wu, a bright and spirited sixteen year-old who enjoyed risking his life hunting big game. Emperor Wu prolonged the Han dynasty's good times. He began his rule with a hands-off approach to commerce and economic opportunity which allowed the growth of the economy's private sector.

Emperor Wu altered laws of inheritance. Instead of a family's land remaining under the eldest son, he gave all the sons of a family an equal share of their father's land, which did much to break great estates into smaller units.

Emperor Wu made Confucianism China's official political philosophy. Confucianism became dominant in the civil service. Examinations for China's 130,000 or so civil service positions tested an applicant's knowledge of Confucian ideology, knowledge of ancient writings and rules of social grace rather than technical expertise. Theoretically these examinations were open to all citizens, but in reality they were open only to those with adequate respectability, which excluded artisans, merchants and others of lesser status than the gentry.

Emperor Wu, meanwhile, sent China's first known explorer, Zhang Qian, to Parthia (today, northeastern Iran), to establish relations with the Kushan (Yuzhi). With economic prosperity, Emperor Wu believed he could be more assertive in foreign policy. He believed that he was strong enough to stop payments to the Xiongnu begun by Liu Bang. He was concerned that the Xiongnu might send an army into northern China's sparsely populated steppe lands or that they might ally themselves with the Tibetans, and he wished to make trade routes for commerce with Central Asia secure from assault. So Emperor Wu launched a series of military campaigns.

Emperor Wu's drive against the Xiongnu was costly in manpower but it pushed most of the Xiongnu back from China's northern frontier. Perhaps as many as two million Chinese migrated into the newly conquered territory, and there Emperor Wu created colonies of soldiers and civilians. Those Xiongnu who stayed behind were converted to farming, drafted for construction labor and employed as farm laborers. And some of them were drafted into China's army while their families were considered hostages to assure against treason.

The war against the Xiongnu stimulated exploration farther westward. After a thirteen-year absence and ten years of captivity by the Xiongnu, the explorer Zhang Qian returned to Emperor Wu's court and brought with him the first reliable description of Central Asia. Emperor Wu ordered Zhang Qian and assistants back to Central Asia, and they gathered information about India and Persia and explored the fertile farmlands of Bactria. Their explorations and China's success against the Xiongnu brought an exchange of envoys between China and states to the west, and it opened for the Chinese the 4000-mile trade route that would become known as the Silk Road. China began importing a superior breed of horses, and it began growing alfalfa and grapes. For additional revenue he demanded that neighboring states pay his empire to sell their goods to the Chinese, and he began military campaigns to force them to do so.

In 108 BCE, for the sake of control in the northeast, Emperor Wu conquered an iron-using kingdom in northern Korea. This was a kingdom equal in many ways to the Chinese states before the unification of China in 221 BCE, and it was a kingdom with many Chinese refugees from the previous century.

Emperor Wu sent his armies southward and conquered territory that China had lost during the civil war that had brought the Han dynasty to power. This included regaining the port town of Guangzhou. And Chinese migrants followed Emperor Wu's army.

Then, with heavy fighting, Emperor Wu's army conquered northern Vietnam, an area the Chinese called Annam, meaning "pacified south." Here, too, Chinese migrants came, and some would settle near the Annamite Mountains in the center of Vietnam. The Chinese introduced Vietnam to the water buffalo, metal plows and other tools, and they brought to Annam their written language. The Chinese began to change the people of Annam from slash and burn cultivators into a more settled life. They divided Annam into administrative areas, each administration responsible for collecting taxes and supplying soldiers for the central government. But Chinese rule in Annam would remain tenuous, its jungles and mountains giving sanctuary to Vietnamese who would conduct continuous raids and skirmishes against the Chinese.

The cycle of economic prosperity and wars of expansion added to other concerns that weighed on China. Emperor Wu's maintenance of large armies of occupation more than offset the benefits from the increase in trade that followed his conquests. China's imports were contributing more to the pleasures of the wealthy than they were to China's economic vitality. Non-Confucianist government officials made matters worse. They were hostile to private tradesmen, and they led a drive for government control of the economy. Under their influence the government levied a new tax on boats and carts and took over trade in China's two most profitable industries: salt and iron. And with the rise of government involvement, the economy suffered.

The same move to larger land holdings that changed Roman agriculture was changing Chinese agriculture, except that in China the number of people in the countryside had been growing. With the size of lands of the wealthy increasing and the peasant population also increasing, a shortage of land developed. Gentry bureaucrats sought a hedge against insecurity by buying land and often taking advantage of their office to do so, and often they enjoyed tax exemption for their land, while ordinary peasants were paying a larger share in taxes, resulting in their greater need to borrow money, at usurious rates. Farming productivity declined. Many peasants were evicted or were forced to leave farming, making more land available for the gentry. Some were forced to leave farming, and they resorted to banditry, and some struggling peasants sold their children into slavery.

Conscription into the military and conscription for labor added to the peasantry's discontent. China's most renowned Confucian scholar, Dong Zhongshu, was outraged by the plight of the peasants, and he led the way in expressing concern about a class conflict that he identified as social decay. He complained about the vast extent of lands owned by the wealthy while the poor had no spot to plant their two feet. He complained of those who tilled the land of others compelled to give up as much as fifty percent of the harvests they produced. Dong Zhongshu recognized the disadvantage faced by those farmers who could not afford to buy iron tools, who had to till with wood and to weed with their hands. He complained that common peasants had to sell their crops when prices were low and then had to borrow money in the spring in order to start sowing when interest rates were high. And he complained about the thousands put to death every year for banditry.

Dong Zhongshu proposed to Emperor Wu a remedy for the economic crisis: reduce the taxes on the poor; reduce the unpaid labor that peasants had to perform for the state; abolish the government's monopoly on salt and iron; and improve the distribution of farm lands by limiting the amount of land that any one family could own. Nothing came of Dong Zhongshu's suggestions. Emperor Wu wanted peasants to prosper, but he was often deceived by the gentry bureaucrats who governed at the local level. The drive for reform was being led by a Confucianist, but the Confucianist gentry did not rally against their own economic interests. Emperor Wu's only substantial response to the economic decline was to levy higher taxes on the wealthy and to send spies around to catch attempts at tax evasion. He chose to ignore land redistribution, not wishing to offend wealthy landowners, believing that he needed their cooperation to finance his military campaigns.

13-08 Emperor Wen , Han Dynasty

Emperor Wen of Han (202–157 BC) was the fifth emperor of the Han Dynasty 

Wendi, Wade-Giles romanization Wen-ti, temple name (miaohao) (Sui) Gaozu, personal name (xingming) Yang Jian (born 541, China—died 604, China) posthumous name (shi) of the emperor (reigned 581–604) who reunified and reorganized China after 300 years of instability, founding the Sui dynasty (581–618). He conquered southern China, which long had been divided into numerous small kingdoms, and he broke the power of the Turks in the northern part of the country.

Early life

Yang Jian was born into a powerful family that had held high office under the non-Chinese dynasties that controlled northern and central China in the period of fragmentation. His ancestors had married into prestigious non-Chinese clans, and the culture of such families was as mixed as their descent. Until he reached the age of 13, Yang was brought up by a Buddhist nun. He then briefly attended the school maintained by the state for the education of sons of nobles and officials; it is doubtful that he acquired more than the mere rudiments of composition, a bit of history, and some maxims of Confucian morality, for young men of his class devoted themselves chiefly to horsemanship, the hunt, falconry, archery, and military exercises.

He received his first military appointment at 14 and rose rapidly in the service of the Yuwen, the non-Chinese ruling house of the Bei (Northern) Zhou dynasty (557–581), who, with their military prowess, would soon control all of North China. Wendi held a command in the campaign against the dynasty that controlled the northern plain and a post in the administration of the conquered territory. He had done well for the Bei Zhou, and, as part of his reward, he was permitted to marry one of his daughters to the Zhou crown prince.

Seizure of the throne

When the Bei Zhou emperor unexpectedly became ill and died at age 35 and the successor’s sanity became doubtful, Yang Jian, his wife, and their confidants decided to seize the throne. The summer of 580 was crucial, for rival contenders and Zhou loyalists rose in many places. But, with luck, ruthlessness, superior military force, and discord among his rivals, Yang prevailed. He assumed the imperial title, held an audience on March 4, 581, and the Sui dynasty was founded.

The Wendi emperor surrounded himself with able men, mostly of mixed descent and mostly from backgrounds similar to his own. An early move was the building of a new capital on a new site southeast of the Han capital of Chang’an (present-day Xi’an); it was built on a scale unprecedented inChinese history. The Sui evidently meant to replace the weak regimes of the age of disunion with strong centralized government, to unify China by eliminating the feeble “legitimate” Chinese regime at Nanjing.

The emperor moved into his half-built capital in 583, and he immediately set his grand design in motion. Centralization required drastic reforms on many levels—for example, the entrenched families that held local office by hereditary right had to be replaced by a bureaucracy answerable to the throne. The hereditary rights and the institutions that supported them were quickly abolished; a method of selecting new men by examination and recommendation was devised; appointment powers were vested in the Board of Civil Office (Chinese: Libu); and the “rule of avoidance” was instituted, forbidding officials to serve in their native places. Wendi planned the conquest of the south with his usual care and attention to detail. The eight-pronged assault by land and water overwhelmed the southerners; the integration of this culturally different area into the Sui empire began and was greatly facilitated by the canal system that Wendi had begun.

Foreign affairs

Beyond China proper Sui power was less easily asserted against the formidable empires of the western and the eastern Turks, but fortune and Sui intrigues brought success; the Turkish empires were weakened by internal rivalries, and by 603 the Sui had broken Turkish power in the areas most vital to them: Turkistan and Mongolia. A Sui attempt to administer Vietnam was a failure, but, toward the close of the Wendi emperor’s reign, Korea and Japan were beginning to notice the new paramount power in eastern Asia.

In the year 601, when Wendi was 60, he had solid grounds for satisfaction: the empire was reunified and at peace; the people were productive, and the officials—carefully selected, frequently rotated, and under constant checks—collected taxes, saw that the granaries were filled, and carried out imperial orders at the local level. Looking about him in his spacious capital city, Wendi could see a large and increasing population, the opulent mansions of his nobles and ministers, temples, and thriving marketplaces. Moreover, the arrival of tribute missions reminded him that Sui power was being felt by neighbouring peoples.

Yet, for all his accomplishments, the Wendi emperor was deeply unhappy. Henpecked by his aging wife, on bad terms with his sons, deprived of many of his life-long confidants by death or by his wife’s jealousy of them, haunted by feelings of guilt and nameless fear, he turned against state Confucianismand ever more ardently to Buddhism. On his birthday in 601, he began an elaborate empire-wide series of observances. Shrines were built in key cities and towns; then the emperor himself sealed holy relics in jars, which delegations of eminent monks carried into the provinces. At a set time throughout the empire, the relics were simultaneously enshrined with appropriate ceremony. By this act of grandiose public piety, Wendi followed in the footsteps of the great 3rd-century-bc Indian emperorAshoka, who was, like himself, a unifying emperor. At the time he assuaged his feelings of fear and guilt and laid in a great store of spiritual merit (karma) to see him through the lives to come.

Three years later—at the end of one of the great reigns in Chinese history—he fell ill and died. It has been said that he was killed by his son Yang Guang, who succeeded him as the Yangdi emperor.