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.