After four years war with his rival, Xiangyu, Liubang finally got command of the whole country and established his reign - Han Dynasty in 202 BC.

The new dynasty has been divided into two historical periods. The first period is called the Western Han (206 BC - 24 AD) as the capital was Chang'an (the present city of Xi'an in Shaanxi Province). The second period is known as the Eastern Han (25 AD - 220 AD) as Luoyang became the capital city.

The Han Dynasty ruled over the second unified Chinese empire. Based on the unification created by Emperor Qin Shi Huang, a variety of different cultures were integrated. This laid the foundation for what became the common culture of Han. It was during this period that the Han minority established itself as the core nation of China. It was as a consequence of their more advanced civilization that the Han people assumed a dominant position. This dominance still exists in China today, regardless of the many changes that have taken place over the centuries.

Western Han Dynasty (206 BC - 24 AD)

Throughout the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) the emperors lived in luxury while oppressing their people. This gave rise to wide opposition to the monarchy from within the country. The despotic rule was finally ended in 207 BC by an uprising led by Liubang, a minor official, which overthrew the Qin.

Four years later, Liubang defeated his chief rival Xiangyu and established the Han Dynasty, proclaiming himself Emperor Gaozu. Historians called this period the Western Han Dynasty, which made Chang'an as its capital city.

• The Earlier Period of the Western Han

Economy

At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Gaozu (Liubang), having learned a lesson from the fall of the Qin Dynasty, endeavored to bring prosperity to his people. He abolished harsh laws and enacted more humane policies. This included a sharp lowering of both taxes and rents and the reduction of corvee, the practice of giving unpaid labor to a feudal lord. In order to speed the recovery of agricultural production, he reduced conscription and ordered officers, soldiers, and refugees to return home, providing them with houses and fields. He also enacted a law to release slaves and restrict the annexation of the peasantry by the merchant classes.
When Emperors Wen and Jing were in power, they continued to encourage agricultural output by further reducing taxes and corvee. The historical records show that during these reigns the Han Dynasty prospered. Untroubled by wars or natural disaster, the people lived in peace. This resulted in an increase in the population and the development of manufacturing industries and commerce.

Political Policies

The Han retained most of the political systems created by Qin, including centralism, but made them less burdensome.
In the early years of the Han, in order to strengthen his influence, Emperor Gaozu had granted many virtually autonomous vassal states to his relatives and a few generals with military merits. Inevitably, over a period of time these vassal states grew powerful. During the reign of Emperor Jing they sought to change the political structure which resulted in the "Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms". However, the Emperor succeeded in quelling the rebellion. He took all necessary steps to ensure greater control from the center of empire while at the same time ensuring power within the fiefdoms was considerably weakened.

• The Reign of Emperor Wu
  
  Emperor Wu succeeded to the throne in 140 BC and his reign is one of the most celebrated in Chinese history.

Political Policies

Emperor Wu continued to weaken the power of the vassal states by eliminating many fiefdoms and restoring central control over the prefectures and counties in the country.

In addition, Emperor Wu pressed on with the cultural reform. With his adoption of advice offered by Dong Zhongshu (179-104 BC) he promoted Confucianism. Other philosophies were rejected. In this way Wu legitimized the new imperial state and elevated his position as emperor. He also encouraged the study of the five Confucian classics, namely the Shijing (Book of Poetry), the Shujing (Book of History), the Liji (Book of Rites), the Yijing (Book of Changes) and the Chunqiu (the Spring and Autumn Annals). He even founded royal schools in Chang'an to teach Confucianism and train government officials. When selecting his administrators, Emperor Wu, followed the Confucian principle of appointing men on the basis of merit rather than birth. He instituted a regular system of written examinations. In this manner he ensured that only those who were adept in Confucian principles were appointed to senior administrative posts.

Economy

Commerce flourished during the reign of Emperor Wu. The government unified the coinage and nationalized the mints. Furthermore, he levied a heavy tax on the merchants and established monopolies for the production of iron, salt and liquor. This had the effect of largely increasing the income of the court.

With the development of the smelting techniques, the iron-smelting industry grew appreciably in this period. Iron tools and weapons were widely used for agricultural and military purposes. The weaving of silk fabrics also excelled in this period. A variety of silk garments and fabrics unearthed at Mawangdui are preserved in the Hunan Provincial Museum, illustrating the highly developed techniques in the silk industry of those days.

Foreign policies

From the Qin Dynasty onwards, the Xiongnu, an ancient tribe that lived in North China, frequently harassed the northern border of the empire. In the earlier years of the Han, the rulers usually adopted a conciliatory attitude towards Xiongnu. When Emperor Wu came to power, substantial resources were available to him as a result of his own successful policies as well as those of his predecessors. Consequently, he was in a position to take an active and offensive stand against threats of invasion. He sent three expeditions against the Xiongnu in 127 BC, 121 BC and 119 BC respectively. By these actions, he drove them into the far north of Gobi, thus maintaining the safety of the Hexi Corridor.

Furthermore, Emperor Wu began to practice land reclamation and built the Great Wall as well as beacon towers on the northwestern frontier, strengthening the military defense against invasions.

At the same time, in order to seek allies to against Xiongnu's invasion, Emperor Wu twice sent diplomatic missions led by Zhangqian to the Western Regions. Thus he initiated the Silk Road that later served as the route not only for goods but also for the transmission of knowledge and ideas between east and west. With the opening of the Silk Road, envoys, merchants and missionaries gradually came to Chang'an, thereby contributing much to the prosperity of the culture and economy of Han.

With his northwest frontier secured, Emperor Wu then extended the empire in a northeasterly direction by conquering Manchuria. With the capture of an area south of the Yangtze River, the territory of Han far exceeded that of the former dynasties. The Han Dynasty then extended its political and cultural influence over Vietnam, Central Asia, Mongolia, Korea and other counties.

The rulers during the Han Dynasty all attached an importance to the relationship between Han and other minorities. Apart from the contribution of the Silk Road, Emperor Yuan, to further a good relationship between Xiongnu and Han people, married Wang Zhaojun, a beauty at that time, to a chief of the Xiongnu tribe. This action not only stabilized the relationship between the Han Dynasty and Xiongnu, but promoted economic and cultural exchanges between them.

Culture and Religion

During the Western Han Dynasty, people made many cultural achievements. For example, a state library was built to collect and store books. Sima Qian, a great historian who lived during the reign of Emperor Wu, completed Records of the Historian, the first chronicle of China recording the history from the Huangdi to the Emperor Wu.

Buddhism arrived from India and became an important religion although Confucianism became the established philosophy-cum-religion.

• Decline
  
  Emperor Wu's expansionist policies strengthened the empire, nevertheless they drained the imperial treasury. This resulted in sharp increases in taxes and tight control over the economy. In the long term, this had the effect of undermining the dynastic influence.

When Emperors Zhao and Xuan were in power, potential social crises began to surface despite economic growth. During the last decades of the Western Han Dynasty, a series of child emperors occupied the throne. These necessitated regencies and power fell into the hands of eunuchs and empresses' relatives. This led to corruption and greater class division resulting in frequent peasant uprisings. Ultimately, the Western Han Dynasty fell after the infant Emperor Cheng succeeded to the throne. In 8 AD Wangmang, one of the empress's relatives, deposed Cheng and proclaimed himself emperor of the Xin Dynasty (8-25).

Although condemned as a usurper, Wangmang was a learned Confucian scholar. He wished to retrieve the glory of Han by adopting policies described in the Confucian classics. He renamed offices, outlawed slavery, limited land holdings and monopolized both industry and commerce. He also reduced court expenses. However, Wangmang's unpopularity due to the issue of new coins, nationalization of gold reserves and frequent declarations of war finally led to more serious social turmoil. In 17 AD, a nationwide rebellion broke out. Six years later, in 23 AD Wangmang was killed by rebels.

Very soon after, Liuxiu, a member of the Han imperial family, re-established Han supremacy through what has become known as the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 - 220 AD).

Eastern Han Dynasty (25 - 220)

• General

At the end of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC - 24 AD), Wangmang, a distant relative of the royal family, usurped the throne of the Liu family. Although condemned as a usurper, Wangmang wished to retrieve the glory of the Han by adopting policies described in the Confucian classics. However, despite his efforts, Wangmang was still unwelcome because of his inapposite policies. In 17 AD, a countrywide rebellion broke out. In 25 AD, the rebellion army of Liuxiu defeated the army of Wangmang, putting an end to the short-lived Xin Dynasty.

In the same year, Liuxiu re-established the Han Dynasty in Hebei Province, making Luoyang City, in present Henan Province, his capital city. Historians call the later Han Empire the Eastern Han Dynasty. The Eastern Han lasted for 195 years with twelve emperors in office.

Economy and Society

Emperor Guangwu, Liuxiu, concluded the upheaval of the former Han Dynasty and reunified the country.

At the beginning of the Eastern Han, the whole country was in deep poverty. Liuxiu tried his best to recover the economy by lowering taxes, abolishing inapposite laws and promulgating a series of laws to release slaves. In addition, Liuxiu ordered the construction of irrigation systems, promoting a quick recovery and development in agriculture. 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.

When Emperor He was in power (88-106), despite his mediocrity, China continued to enjoy a rising prosperity. Emperor He repealed the national monopolization of salt and iron and encouraged the development of bronze metallurgy and the textile industry. Under his management, China's trade reached a new height. Luoyang became the commercial center of the whole country. Other cities, such as Yangzhou (present Yangzhou City in Jiangsu Province), Jingzhou (present Shashi City in Hubei Province), and Yizhou (present Chengdu City in Sichuan Province) all witnessed prosperities in their handicraft industry and commerce.
During the reign of Emperor Zhang and Emperor He, silk from China was becoming familiar to people as far away as the Roman Empire. In return, China received glass, jade, horses, precious stones, tortoise shell, and fabrics.

Foreign Relationship

When Liuxiu was in power, he defended China's western and northern borders by launching successful military campaigns on these frontiers, pushing back the Xiongnu and putting Xinjiang (the extreme northwest of modern China) under his control. Also, he tightened China's grip on the area around the Liao River and northern Korea, and expanded his control over all that had been China.

During the reign of Emperor Zhang and Emperor He, with China's prosperity came another attempt at expansion westward. In 73 AD, for the purpose of building good relationship with western region tribes, a military officer, Banchao, younger brother of Bangu went westward on the diplomatic mission with a delegation of thirty-six men. He finally made those desert tribes tributaries of the Eastern Han Empire, which ensured the long peace and smoothness along the Silk Road. Furthermore, Banchao once remained in the Western Regions for 31 years, suppressing rebellions and establishing diplomatic relations with over 50 states there.

Science and Culture

In the field of science and culture, Eastern Han exceeded the former Western Han due to the maintained stableness of the society in its early period. In 105 AD, Cailun improved the old technique of paper making through the application of plant fibers, which became one of the four ancient Chinese inventions. The scientist Zhangheng invented seismography and the Armillary Sphere so as to observe the universe and predict earthquake. Bangu, Banchao's brother, worked out the first dynastic historical book, History of the Former Han Dynasty. Moreover, it is recorded that Huatuo, a famous physician of this time, first employed the method of anesthesia in his surgical operation. In this period, calligraphy and painting no longer merely served as picture writing, they began to develop into a kind of art. Pottery objects found their way into the daily life of the common people as they were in the families of privileged aristocrats.

Around first century, Buddhism was imported to China by Buddhist monks of Persia by way of the Silk Road. About the same time, Taoism, the only indigenous religion of China, came into being.

• Decline
  
  From the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty onwards, the empire fell into degeneration. Landlords and local tyrants came up as an increasingly stronger force. Hereditary big families controlled the central government. A gang of eunuchs, gaining favors from the emperors, traded the court posts in public. The corruption of the government resulted in an armed revolt in the end.

Emperor Huan died in 168 and quickly the 12-year-old Emperor Ling was selected out by the empress to inherit the kingship. During the reign of Emperor Ling, a clash erupted between the eunuchs and Confucianist gentry-bureaucrats, quickening up the disintegration of the ruling class.

The conflict inside the ruling class was soon followed by the peasant uprisings. In 184 a Daoist sect, Huangjin (Yellow Turbans) Army rose in revolt and quickly spread their influence throughout much of the empire. Since rebelling soldiers all tied yellow scarves on their heads, the army was called Yellow Turbans Army. Although the royal army put it down in the end, the Yellow Turbans Uprising inflicted a telling blow on the Eastern Han Empire.

In 189 AD, Emperor Ling died and the power fell into the hand of the queen mother. Dongzhuo, a general stationed in Liangzhou (a city near present Wuwei in Gansu Province), conquered Luoyang and killed the reigning emperor, Emperor Shao, and the queen mother. In order to deceive other people, Dongzhuo made nine-year-old Liuxie the emperor, who was known as Emperor Xian, while the real power was under his control.

Dongzhuo ruled the country ruthlessly and his bloodthirstiness finally led to his failure. In the year 192 his officers assassinated him and threw his corpse to a mob that hated him.

In 220, Emperor Xian formally abdicated in favor of Caopi, the son of Caocao. Caopi proclaimed himself the first emperor of the new Wei Dynasty (220 - 265). From then on, China fell apart again into another period of disunity - the Three Kingdoms Period, which lasted from 220 to 589.