Top Highlights

• The Han dynasty ruled over a united China from 206 BCE to 220 CE, although within those 400 years, there are other points of division. The Western Han ruled over China from 202 BCE to 9 CE, a tenure that began with the peasant Liu Bang, known to history as Emperor Gaozu. Soon, however, the power of the Western Han rulers began to recede as court in...
• For China, the Western Han was a time of expanded Chinese power and influence and territory: Emperor Wu extended the borders of China, bringing Tibet, parts of the Korean peninsula, and Vietnam under Chinese control. In doing so, Wu was able to open up the Silk Road to expanded travel and trade, which reached as far as the Roman Empire in Europe. C...
• The governing philosophy under which it operated, legalism, was designed to perform in an authoritarian manner that was contrary to the tenets of Confucianism, which would later become dominant under the Han leaders. Until Zheng came of age in 238 BCE, his kingdom was under the control of his mother’s lover, Lu Buwei. Upon becoming king of Qin, Zhe...
• He ordered the standardization of the written language, the laws, and even weights and measures.
• The series of fortresses that Qin Shi Huang commissioned in order to provide a defense against the barbarians who invaded from the north would eventually form the Great Wall of China. The construction of a network of canals and roads also began during his reign. It was an ambitious agenda that would hew the rough edges of the country into a more co...