Han Dynasty 

Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AC)

The birth of China

 

The new rebel-leader Liu Bang was one of the few dynasty founders in Chinese history who was born in a peasant family. Before coming to power, Liu Bang initially served as a minor patrol officer for the Qin Dynasty. After several final battles against rival leaders in 206 BC he unified most of China under his control, and established the Han dynasty with himself as the founding emperor Gaozu of Han.

 

The founder of the Han Dynasty Emperor Liu Bang

The Han Dynasty made treaties with the rebelling nomads in the north and developed the prosperous silk-route towards west. The Han-dynasty took over the lands ruled by the Qin and made great expansion controlling large parts of neighboring areas such as todays Vietnam, Korea, Mongolia and Central Asia. It is estimated that the total population was about 50 million.

Most Chinese consider Han-Dynasty as the first real dynasty in China and thereby the ethnic Chinese majority call themselves Han-Chinese.

The Han Dynasty was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty (9-23 AD) and this interregnum separates the Han dynasty into two periods: the Western Han or Former Han (206 BC – 9 AD) and the Eastern Han or Later Han (25–220 AD).

 

Spade Money Han/Xia Dynasty minted by Emperor Wang Mang (45 BC-23 AD) founder and the only Emperor of the short lived Xin Dynasty (AD 9.-23.). The Han dynasty was restored after his owerthrow and his intermesso marked the separation between the Western Han (before Xia) and the Eastern Han Dynasty (after Xia). Wang Mang was by some historians considered as a usurper, while others portrayed him as a visionary selfless social reformer who died with the dynasty in battle in 23 AD.

 

Contemporary with the Roman Empire in the west, the Han dynasty (206 BC- 220 AD) controlled a vast empire in the east. The two empires were also strongly connected through the silk-route without being really interfering. The Han dynasty was an age of economic prosperity, and saw a significant growth of the money economy. The coinage issued by the central government mint in 119 BC remained the standard coinage of China until the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD). With only minor interruptions it lasted a span of over four centuries and was considered a golden age in Chinese history especially in arts, politics and technology The empire was governed by a large

bureaucracy founded on Confucian ideology.

At the same time, Buddhism arrived in China along the Inner Asian trade route, but also from the south, where Persian merchants landed in Canton.

The Han Dynasty was one of the longest of China’s major dynasties. All subsequent Chinese dynasties looked back to the Han period as an inspiring model of a united empire and self-perpetuating government.