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157-631: Fan Shengzhi shu ("Fan Shengzhi's book" or "Fan Shengzhi's manual") was a Chinese agricultural text from the Han dynasty , written by Fan Shengzhi in the first century BC. The book was lost in the 11th- or 12th-century Song dynasty , possibly during the Jurchen invasion . Several fragments of the text have survived as quotations in other books including Qimin Yaoshu , Beitang Shuchao [ de ] , Yiwen Leiju , and Taiping Yulan . Fan Shengzhi
314-644: A limited engagement at Mayi involving the assassination of the Chanyu would throw the Xiongnu realm into chaos and benefit the Han. When this plot failed in 133 BC, Emperor Wu launched a series of massive military invasions into Xiongnu territory. The assault culminated in 119 BC at the Battle of Mobei , when Han commanders Huo Qubing ( d. 117 BC ) and Wei Qing ( d. 106 BC ) forced
471-647: A series of military campaigns to quell the Xiongnu. The Xiongnu were eventually defeated and forced to accept a status as Han vassals , and the Xiongnu confederation fragmented. The Han conquered the Hexi Corridor and Inner Asian territory of the Tarim Basin from the Xiongnu, helping to establish the Silk Road . The lands north of the Han's borders were later overrun by the nomadic Xianbei confederation. Emperor Wu also launched successful conquests in
628-595: A Greek sailor had visited. Emperor Zhang 's ( r. 75–88 AD ) reign came to be viewed by later Eastern Han scholars as the high point of the dynastic house. Subsequent reigns were increasingly marked by eunuch intervention in court politics and their involvement in the violent power struggles of the imperial consort clans . In 92 AD, with the aid of the eunuch Zheng Zhong ( d. 107 AD ), Emperor He ( r. 88–105 AD ) had Empress Dowager Dou ( d. 97 AD ) put under house arrest and her clan stripped of power. This
785-463: A change which debased the value of coinage. Although these reforms provoked considerable opposition, Wang's regime met its ultimate downfall with the massive floods of c. 3 AD and 11 AD. Gradual silt build-up in the Yellow River had raised its water level and overwhelmed the flood control works . The Yellow River split into two new branches: one emptying to the north and
942-448: A coalition of former officials and officers against Dong, who burned Luoyang to the ground and resettled the court at Chang'an in May 191 AD. Dong Zhuo later poisoned Emperor Shao. Dong was killed by his adopted son Lü Bu ( d. 198 AD ) in a plot hatched by Wang Yun ( d. 192 AD ). Emperor Xian fled from Chang'an in 195 AD to the ruins of Luoyang. Xian
1099-416: A coup against the eunuchs Hou Lan ( d. 172 AD ), Cao Jie ( d. 181 AD ), and Wang Fu ( 王甫 ). When the plot was uncovered, the eunuchs arrested Empress Dowager Dou ( d. 172 AD ) and Chen Fan. General Zhang Huan ( 張奐 ) favoured the eunuchs. He and his troops confronted Dou Wu and his retainers at the palace gate where each side shouted accusations of treason against
1256-527: A descendant of Emperor Jing ( r. 157–141 BC ), attempted to restore the Han dynasty and occupied Chang'an as his capital. However, he was overwhelmed by the Red Eyebrow rebels who deposed, assassinated, and replaced him with the puppet monarch Liu Penzi . Gengshi's distant cousin Liu Xiu, known posthumously as Emperor Guangwu ( r. 25–57 AD ), after distinguishing himself at
1413-454: A horizontal waterwheel which rotated large toothed gears and a horizontal axis beam. Their primary use was for lifting water into irrigation ditches, but chain pumps were also used in public works programs, such as when Zhang Rang (d. 189) had an engineer build several of them to lift water into pipes that provided the capital Luoyang and its palaces with clean water. While acting as administrator of Nanyang in 31 CE, Du Shi invented
1570-489: A message came soon afterwards that an earthquake had indeed struck 400 to 500 km (250 to 310 mi) northwest of Luoyang (in what is now modern Gansu ). Zhang called his device the 'instrument for measuring the seasonal winds and the movements of the Earth' (Houfeng didong yi 候风地动仪), so-named because he and others thought that earthquakes were most likely caused by the enormous compression of trapped air. As described in
1727-664: A number of limited institutional innovations. To finance its military campaigns and the settlement of newly conquered frontier territories, the Han government nationalised private salt and iron industries in 117 BC, creating government monopolies that were later repealed during the Eastern period. There were significant advances in science and technology during the Han period, including the emergence of papermaking , rudders for steering ships, negative numbers in mathematics , raised-relief maps , hydraulic -powered armillary spheres for astronomy , and seismometers that discerned
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#17327754902131884-460: A process in 105 where mulberry tree bark, hemp, old linens, and fish nets were boiled together to make paper pulp. The oldest known piece of paper with writing on it comes from the ruins of a Chinese watchtower at Tsakhortei, Alxa League , Inner Mongolia, dated to 110 CE when the Han garrison abandoned the area following a nomadic Xiongnu attack. By the 3rd century, paper became one of China's chief writing mediums. The Han ceramics industry
2041-611: A professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong , Fan Hongye, a research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Sciences , and Liu Qingfeng, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, assert that the latter part of the Han dynasty was a unique period in the history of premodern Chinese science and technology . They compare it to the incredible pace of scientific and technological growth during
2198-578: A request by Kushan ruler Vima Kadphises ( r. c. 90 – c. 100 AD – ) for a marriage alliance with the Han was rejected in AD ;90, he sent his forces to Wakhan (modern-day Afghanistan) to attack Ban Chao. The conflict ended with the Kushans withdrawing because of lack of supplies. In AD 91, the office of Protector General of the Western Regions
2355-428: A series of reforms that limited the power of these kingdoms in 145, dividing their former territories into new commanderies under central control. Kings were no longer able to appoint their own staff; this duty was assumed by the imperial court. Kings became nominal heads of their fiefs and collected a portion of tax revenues as their personal incomes. The kingdoms were never entirely abolished and existed throughout
2512-461: A single day. During the reign of Emperor Cheng of Han (r. 33–37 BCE), Fan Shengzhi wrote a manual (the Fan Shengzhi shu ) which described the pit field system ( aotian 凹田). In this system, every mou of farmland was divided into 3,840 grids which each had a small pit that was dug 13.8 cm (5.4 in) deep and 13.8 cm (5.4 in) wide and had good quality manure mixed into
2669-491: A single plow, which was exhausting work. The author Cui Shi ( Chinese : 催寔 ) (d. 170 CE) wrote in his Simin yueling ( Chinese : 四民月令 ) that by the Eastern Han Era (25–220 CE) an improved plow was invented which needed only one man to control it, two oxen to pull it, had three plowshares, a seed box for the drills, a tool which turned down the soil, and could sow roughly 45,730 m (11.30 acres) of land in
2826-552: A standard volume-measuring vessel dated 5 CE and used by the mathematician and astronomer Liu Xin (46 BCE – 23 CE). Yet the first book to feature decimal fractions was the Jiuzhang suanshu , as a means to solve equations and represent measurements. Gaussian elimination , an algorithm used to solve linear equations , was known as the Array Rule in the Jiuzhang suanshu . While the book used continued fractions to find
2983-409: A state pension and a territorial fiefdom . Holders of the rank immediately below, that of ordinary marquess, received a pension, but had no territorial rule. Scholar-bureaucrats who served in government belonged to the wider commoner social class and were ranked just below nobles in social prestige. The highest government officials could be enfeoffed as marquesses. Science and technology of
3140-545: A successful overthrow of her regime to enthrone Emperor Shun of Han ( r. 125–144 AD ). Yan was placed under house arrest, her relatives were either killed or exiled, and her eunuch allies were slaughtered. The regent Liang Ji ( d. 159 AD ), brother of Empress Liang Na ( d. 150 AD ), had the brother-in-law of Consort Deng Mengnü ( d. 165 AD ) killed after Deng Mengnü resisted Liang Ji's attempts to control her. Afterward, Emperor Huan employed eunuchs to depose Liang Ji, who
3297-487: A system. Han farmers in the Yangzi River region of southern China often maintained paddy fields for growing rice . Every year, they would burn the weeds in the paddy field, drench it in water, sow rice by hand, and around harvest time cut the surviving weeds and drown them a second time. In this system, the field lays fallow for much of the year and thus did not remain very fertile. However, Han rice farmers to
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#17327754902133454-437: A three-dimensional representation of such observations, Astronomer Geng Shouchang ( Chinese : 耿壽昌 ) provided his armillary sphere with an equatorial ring in 52 BCE. By 84 CE, the elliptical ring was added to the armillary sphere, while Zhang Heng's model of 125 added the celestial horizon ring and meridian ring. The Han Chinese used astronomical studies mainly to construct and revise their calendar . In contrast to
3611-474: A war to determine who would have hegemony over China, which had fissured into Eighteen Kingdoms , each claiming allegiance to either Xiang Yu or Liu Bang. Although Xiang Yu proved to be an effective commander, Liu Bang defeated him at the Battle of Gaixia (202 BC) in modern-day Anhui . Liu Bang assumed the title of Emperor at the urging of his followers and is known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu ( r. 202–195 BC ). Chang'an (modern Xi'an)
3768-470: A water-powered reciprocator which worked the bellows of the blast furnace and cupola furnace in smelting iron; before this invention, intensive manual labor was required to work the bellows. Although the astronomical armillary sphere (representing the celestial sphere ) had existed in China since the 1st century BCE, the mathematician and court astronomer Zhang Heng provided it with motive power by using
3925-516: Is approximate to 31 octaves . By calculating the difference at 177147 / 176776 , Jing reached the same value of 53 equal temperament duly discovered by the German mathematician Nicholas Mercator (1620–1687) (i.e. 3 / 2 3 / 2 , known as Mercator's comma ). Later, the prince Zhu Zaiyu (1536–1611) in Ming China and Simon Stevin (1548–1620) of
4082-574: Is concerned with the application of mathematics to astronomy . In one problem which sought to determine the height of the Sun from the Earth and the diameter of the Sun, Chen Zi ( Chinese : 陳子 ) instructs Rong Fang ( Chinese : 榮方 ) to wait until the shadow cast by the 8 chi tall gnomon is 6 chi (one chi during the Han was 33 cm), so that a 3-4-5 right-angle triangle can be constructed where
4239-752: Is now known to have been) a supernova in AD 185 . For various comets discussed in the Han-era history books Records of the Grand Historian and Book of Han , details are given for their position in the sky and direction they were moving, the length of time they were visible, their color, and their size. The Han-era Chinese also made star catalogues , such as historian Sima Qian 's (145–86 BCE) A Monograph on Celestial Officials ( Tianguanshu 天官書) and Zhang Heng's 2nd-century-CE star catalogue which featured roughly 2,500 stars and 124 constellations. To create
4396-493: Is now northern Sichuan and southern Shaanxi , was not quelled until 215 AD. Zhang Jue's massive rebellion across eight provinces was annihilated by Han forces within a year; however, the following decades saw much smaller recurrent uprisings. Although the Yellow Turbans were defeated, many generals appointed during the crisis never disbanded their assembled militias and used these troops to amass power outside of
4553-550: Is recorded in the Weilüe and Book of Later Han to have reached the court of Emperor Huan of Han ( r. 146–168 AD ) in AD 166, yet Rafe de Crespigny asserts that this was most likely a group of Roman merchants . In addition to Roman glasswares and coins found in China, Roman medallions from the reign of Antoninus Pius and his adopted son Marcus Aurelius have been found at Óc Eo in Vietnam. This
4710-633: The Book of the Later Han , the frame of the seismometer was a domed bronze vessel in the shape of a wine jar , although it was 1.8 m (5.9 ft) in diameter and decorated with scenes of mountains and animals. The trigger mechanism was an inverted pendulum (which the Book of the Later Han calls the "central column") that, if disturbed by the ground tremors of earthquakes located near or far away, would swing and strike one of eight mobile arms (representing
4867-538: The Battle of Kunyang in 23 AD, was urged to succeed Gengshi as emperor. Under Guangwu's rule, the Han Empire was restored. Guangwu made Luoyang his capital in 25 AD, and by 27 his officers Deng Yu and Feng Yi had forced the Red Eyebrows to surrender and executed their leaders for treason . From 26 until 36 AD, Emperor Guangwu had to wage war against other regional warlords who claimed
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5024-462: The Battle of Zhizhi , in modern Taraz , Kazakhstan. In 121 BC, Han forces expelled the Xiongnu from a vast territory spanning the Hexi Corridor to Lop Nur . They repelled a joint Xiongnu- Qiang invasion of this northwestern territory in 111 BC. In that same year, the Han court established four new frontier commanderies in this region to consolidate their control: Jiuquan , Zhangyi , Dunhuang , and Wuwei . The majority of people on
5181-743: The Buyeo Kingdom in Manchuria to the Ili River of the Wusun people. The Xianbei reached their apogee under Tanshihuai ( d. AD 181 ), who consistently defeated Chinese armies. However, Tanshihuai's confederation disintegrated after his death. Ban Chao ( d. AD 102 ) enlisted the aid of the Kushan Empire , which controlled territory across South and Central Asia, to subdue Kashgar and its ally Sogdiana. When
5338-816: The Chu–Han Contention , the resulting Han dynasty was named after the Hanzhong fief. China's first imperial dynasty was the Qin dynasty (221–207 BC). The Qin united the Chinese Warring States by conquest, but their regime became unstable after the death of the first emperor Qin Shi Huang . Within four years, the dynasty's authority had collapsed in a rebellion. Two former rebel leaders, Xiang Yu ( d. 202 BC ) of Chu and Liu Bang ( d. 195 BC ) of Han , engaged in
5495-660: The Flemish Region in Europe would simultaneously (but separately) discover the mathematical formula for equal temperament . The ancient Chinese made careful observations of heavenly bodies and phenomena since observations of the cosmos were used for astrology and prognostication. The astronomer Gan De (fl. 4th century BCE) from the State of Qi was the first in history to acknowledge sunspots as genuine solar phenomena (and not obstructing natural satellites as thought in
5652-707: The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom ); he also gathered information on Shendu (the Indus River valley) and Anxi (the Parthian Empire ). All of these countries eventually received Han embassies. These connections marked the beginning of the Silk Road trade network that extended to the Roman Empire , bringing goods like Chinese silk and Roman glasswares between the two. From c. 115 BC until c. 60 BC , Han forces fought
5809-736: The Julian calendar (46 BCE) and Gregorian calendar (1582) of the West (but like the Hellenic calendars of Classical Greece ), the Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar , meaning that it uses the precise movements of the Sun and Moon as time-markers throughout the year. During the spring and autumn periods of the 5th century BCE, the Chinese established the Sifen calendar (古四分历), which measured
5966-542: The Song dynasty (960–1279). However, they also argue that without the influence of proto-scientific precepts in the ancient philosophy of Mohism , Chinese science continued to lack a definitive structure: From the middle and late Eastern Han to the early Wei and Jin dynasties, the net growth of ancient Chinese science and technology experienced a peak (second only to that of the Northern Song dynasty) ...Han studies of
6123-610: The Xin dynasty (9–23 AD) established by the usurping regent Wang Mang , and is thus separated into two periods—the Western Han (202 BC – 9 AD) and the Eastern Han (25–220 AD). Spanning over four centuries, the Han dynasty is considered a golden age in Chinese history , and had a permanent impact on Chinese identity in later periods. The majority ethnic group of modern China refer to themselves as
6280-638: The Xiongnu , who were estranged from Han until their leader Bi ( 比 ), a rival claimant to the throne against his cousin Punu ( 蒲奴 ), submitted to Han as a tributary vassal in AD 50. This created two rival Xiongnu states: the Southern Xiongnu led by Bi, an ally of Han, and the Northern Xiongnu led by Punu, an enemy of Han. During the turbulent reign of Wang Mang, China lost control over
6437-575: The Yellow Turban Rebellion and Five Pecks of Rice Rebellion in 184 AD, largely because the court did not want to continue to alienate a significant portion of the gentry class who might otherwise join the rebellions. The Yellow Turbans and Five-Pecks-of-Rice adherents belonged to two different hierarchical Taoist religious societies led by faith healers Zhang Jue ( d. 184 AD ) and Zhang Lu ( d. 216 AD ), respectively. Zhang Lu's rebellion, in what
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6594-547: The belt drive was first used for a quilling device which wound silk fibers onto the bobbins of weaver shuttles. The invention of the belt drive was a crucial first step in the development of later technologies during the Song dynasty , such as the chain drive and spinning wheel . The inventions of the artisan and mechanical engineer Ding Huan ( Chinese : 丁緩 ) are mentioned in the Miscellaneous Notes on
6751-458: The blast furnace and cupola furnace to make pig iron and cast iron , respectively, the Han period saw the development of steel and wrought iron by use of the finery forge and puddling process . With the drilling of deep boreholes into the earth, the Chinese used not only derricks to lift brine up to the surface to be boiled into salt , but also set up bamboo-crafted pipeline transport systems which brought natural gas as fuel to
6908-532: The cosmology of later scholars such as Dong Zhongshu . The Han dynasty oversaw periods of economic prosperity as well as significant growth in the money economy that had first been established during the Zhou dynasty ( c. 1050 – 256 BC). The coinage minted by the central government in 119 BC remained the standard in China until the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD). The period saw
7065-435: The plowshare , pickaxe , spade , shovel , hoe , sickle , axe , adze , hammer , chisel , knife , saw , scratch awl , and nails . Common iron commodities found in Han dynasty homes included tripods, stoves , cooking pots , belt buckles , tweezers , fire tongs , scissors , kitchen knives, fish hooks , and needles . Mirrors and oil lamps were often made of either bronze or iron. Coin money minted during
7222-460: The roots of equations , Liu Hui built on this idea in the 3rd century when he increased the decimals to find the cube root of 1,860,867 (yielding the answer 123), the same method used in the Horner scheme named after William George Horner (1786–1837). For centuries, the Chinese had simply approximated the value of pi as 3, until Liu Xin approximated it at 3.154 sometime between 1–5 CE, although
7379-507: The tropical year at 365 ⁄ 4 days (like the Julian calendar of Rome). Emperor Wu replaced this with the new Taichu calendar ( Chinese : 太初历 ) in 104 BCE, which measured the tropical year at 365 ⁄ 1539 days and the lunar month at 29 ⁄ 81 days. Since the Taichu calendar had become inaccurate over two centuries, Emperor Zhang of Han (r. 75–88 CE) halted its use and revived use of
7536-400: The " Han people " or "Han Chinese". The spoken Chinese and written Chinese are referred to respectively as the "Han language" and " Han characters ". The Han emperor was at the pinnacle of Han society and culture . He presided over the Han government but shared power with both the nobility and the appointed ministers who came largely from the scholarly gentry class . The Han Empire
7693-550: The 1st century BCE (from perhaps multiple authors) and contained materials similar to those described by Yang Xiong in 15 BCE, yet the zhoubi school of mathematics was not explicitly mentioned until Cai Yong 's commentary of 180. A preface was added to the text by Zhao Shuang ( Chinese : 趙爽 ) in the 3rd century. There was also the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art ( Jiuzhang Suanshu ); its full title
7850-399: The 2nd century BCE. The semisubterranean walls of these furnaces were lined with refractory bricks and had bottoms made of refractory clay. Besides charcoal made of wood, Wang Zhongshu states that another furnace fuel used during the Han were "coal cakes", a mixture of coal powder, clay, and quartz . Donald B. Wagner writes that most domestic iron tools and implements produced during
8007-631: The 2nd century CE had invented the papermaking process which created a writing medium that was both cheap and easy to produce. The invention of the wheelbarrow aided in the hauling of heavy loads. The maritime junk ship and stern-mounted steering rudder enabled the Chinese to venture out of calmer waters of interior lakes and rivers and into the open sea. The invention of the grid reference for maps and raised-relief map allowed for better navigation. In medicine , they used new herbal remedies to cure illnesses, calisthenics to keep physically fit, and regulated diets to avoid diseases. Authorities in
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#17327754902138164-521: The 2nd century CE that people could be entertained by theatrical plays of artificial fish and dragons. Later, the inventor Ma Jun ( fl. 220–265) invented a theater of moving mechanical puppets powered by the rotation of a hidden waterwheel. From literary sources it is known that the collapsible umbrella was invented during Wang Mang's reign, although the simple parasol existed beforehand. This employed sliding levers and bendable joints that could be protracted and retracted. Modern archaeology has led to
8321-463: The 5th century BCE during the late Spring and Autumn period , yet the oldest discovered blast furnaces date to the 3rd century BCE and the majority date to the period after Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141–87 BCE) established a government monopoly over the iron industry in 117 BCE (most of the discovered iron works sites built before this date were merely foundries which recast iron that had been smelted elsewhere). Iron ore smelted in blast furnaces during
8478-504: The Chinese developed various uses for the waterwheel . An improvement of the simple lever -and- fulcrum tilt hammer device operated by one's foot, the hydraulic-powered trip hammer used for pounding, decorticating , and polishing grain was first mentioned in the Han dictionary Jijiupian of 40 BCE. It was also mentioned in the Regional Speech ( Fangyan ) dictionary written by Yang Xiong (53 BCE – 18 CE) in 15 BCE,
8635-499: The Confucian classics, which for a long time had hindered the socialization of science, were declining. If Mohism, rich in scientific thought, had rapidly grown and strengthened, the situation might have been very favorable to the development of a scientific structure. However, this did not happen because the seeds of the primitive structure of science were never formed. During the late Eastern Han, disastrous upheavals again occurred in
8792-611: The Earth to the central yolk of an egg , where the heavens are shaped as a celestial sphere around the earth. The latter astronomical theory was mentioned by Yang Xiong in his Model Sayings ( Fayan 法言) and expounded on by Zhang Heng in his Spiritual Constitution of the Universe ( Lingxian 靈憲) of 120 CE. Timber was the chief building material in Han architecture. It was used for grand palace halls, multi-story towers, multi-story residential halls, and humble abodes. However, due to wood's decay over time and susceptibility to fire,
8949-452: The Han as equal partners in a royal marriage alliance, but the Han were forced to send large amounts of tribute items such as silk clothes, food, and wine to the Xiongnu. Despite the tribute and negotiation between Laoshang Chanyu ( r. 174–160 BC ) and Emperor Wen ( r. 180–157 BC ) to reopen border markets, many of the Chanyu 's subordinates chose not to obey
9106-573: The Han dynasty The Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE) of early imperial China , divided between the eras of Western Han (206 BCE – 9 CE, when the capital was at Chang'an ), the Xin dynasty of Wang Mang (r. 9–23 CE), and Eastern Han (25–220 CE, when the capital was at Luoyang , and after 196 CE at Xuchang ), witnessed some of the most significant advancements in premodern Chinese science and technology . There were great innovations in metallurgy . In addition to Zhou-era China's ( c. 1046 – 256 BCE) previous inventions of
9263-493: The Han dynasty making grey pottery were able to reach firing temperatures above 1,000 °C (1,830 °F). However, hard southern Chinese pottery made from a dense adhesive clay native only in the south was fired at even higher temperatures during the Han. Glazed pottery of the Shang ( c. 1600 – c. 1050 BCE ) and Zhou ( c. 1050 – 256 BCE) dynasties were fired at high temperatures, but by
9420-497: The Han was made of either copper or copper and tin smelted together to make the bronze alloy. Modern archaeologists have unearthed Han iron farming tools throughout China, from Inner Mongolia in the north to Yunnan in the south. The spade, shovel, pick, and plow were used for tillage , the hoe for weeding , the rake for loosening the soil, and the sickle for harvesting crops. Depending on their size, Han plows were driven by one to two oxen. Oxen were also used to pull
9577-399: The Han was rarely if ever cast directly into permanent molds; instead, the pig iron scraps were remelted in the cupola furnace to make cast iron. Cupola furnaces utilized a cold blast traveling through tuyere pipes from the bottom and over the top where the charge of charcoal and pig iron was introduced. The air traveling through the tuyere pipes thus became a hot blast once it reached
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#17327754902139734-480: The Han were made of cheaper and more brittle cast iron, whereas the military preferred to use wrought iron and steel weaponry due to their more durable qualities. During the Han dynasty, the typical 0.5 m (1.6 ft) bronze sword of the Warring States period was gradually replaced with an iron sword measuring roughly 1 m (3.3 ft) in length. The ancient dagger-axe ( ge ) made of bronze
9891-587: The Han-era rammed earth Great Wall still exist in Gansu province, along with the Han frontier ruins of thirty beacon towers and two fortified castles with crenellations . Han walls of frontier towns and forts in Inner Mongolia were typically constructed with stamped clay bricks instead of rammed earth. Thatched or tiled roofs were supported by wooden pillars, since the addition of brick, rammed earth, or mud walls of these halls did not actually support
10048-726: The Imperial University on a dubious charge of treason. In 167 AD, the Grand Commandant Dou Wu ( d. 168 AD ) convinced his son-in-law, Emperor Huan, to release them. However, the emperor permanently barred Li Ying and his associates from serving in office, marking the beginning of the Partisan Prohibitions . Following Huan's death, Dou Wu and the Grand Tutor Chen Fan ( d. 168 AD ) attempted
10205-503: The Moon since the Earth obstructs the rays during a lunar eclipse . He also noted that a solar eclipse occurred when the Moon and Sun crossed paths to block sunlight from reaching earth. Zhao Shaung's 3rd-century commentary in the Zhoubi suanjing describes two astronomical theories: in one, the heavens are shaped as a hemi-spherical dome extending over the Earth, while the other compares
10362-487: The Sifen calendar. It was more than a millennium later that astronomer Guo Shoujing (1233–1316) would set the tropical year at 365.2425 days for his Shoushi calendar ( Chinese : 授時曆 ), the same value used in the Gregorian calendar. Besides the use of the calendar for regulating agricultural practices throughout the seasons, it was also used to mark important dates in the Sexagenary cycle —constructed by celestial stems ( gan 干) and Earthly Branches ( zhi 支), each of
10519-505: The Sun, and those parts not illuminated by the Sun would be dark on the other side. In his Balanced Discourse ( Lunheng ), Wang Chong wrote that some Han thinkers believed that rain fell from the Heavens (i.e. where the stars were located). Wang argued that, although rain fell from above, this common theory was false. He agreed with another theory that stated clouds were formed by the evaporation of water on Earth, and that since clouds disperse rain, clouds and rain are in fact one and
10676-443: The Tarim Basin, which was conquered by the Northern Xiongnu in AD 63 and used as a base to invade the Hexi Corridor in Gansu . Dou Gu ( d. 88 AD ) defeated the Northern Xiongnu at the Battle of Yiwulu in AD 73, evicting them from Turpan and chasing them as far as Lake Barkol before establishing a garrison at Hami. After the new Protector General of the Western Regions Chen Mu ( d. AD 75 )
10833-670: The West after Einhard 's observation in 807 CE), while the first precisely dated sunspot observation in China occurred on May 10, 28 BCE, during the reign of Emperor Cheng of Han (r. 33–7 BCE). Among the Mawangdui Silk Texts dated no later than 168 BCE (when they were sealed in a tomb at Mawangdui Han tombs site , Changsha , Hunan province), the Miscellaneous Readings of Cosmic Patterns and Pneuma Images ( Tianwen qixiang zazhan 天文氣象雜占) manuscript illustrates in writings and ink drawings roughly 300 different climatic and astronomical features, including clouds, mirages , rainbows , stars , constellations , and comets . Another silk text from
10990-499: The Western Capital . The official and poet Sima Xiangru hinted in his writings that the Chinese used a censer in the form of a gimbal , a pivot support made of concentric rings which allow the central gimbal to rotate on an axis while remaining vertically positioned. However, the first explicit mention of the gimbal used as an incense burner occurred around 180 CE when the artisan Ding Huan created his 'Perfume Burner for use among Cushions' which allowed burning incense placed within
11147-455: The Xiongnu court to flee north of the Gobi Desert , and Han forces reached as far north as Lake Baikal . After Wu's reign, Han forces continued to fight the Xiongnu. The Xiongnu leader Huhanye ( r. 58–31 BC ) finally submitted to the Han as a tributary vassal in 51 BC. Huhanye's rival claimant to the throne, Zhizhi Chanyu ( r. 56–36 BC ), was killed by Han forces under Chen Tang and Gan Yanshou ( 甘延壽 ) at
11304-542: The Xiongnu over control of the oasis city-states in the Tarim Basin. The Han was eventually victorious and established the Protectorate of the Western Regions in 60 BC, which dealt with the region's defence and foreign affairs. The Han also expanded southward . The naval conquest of Nanyue in 111 BC expanded the Han realm into what are now modern Guangdong , Guangxi , and northern Vietnam. Yunnan
11461-546: The Yuan brothers, Zhang committed suicide by jumping into the Yellow River. General Dong Zhuo ( d. 192 AD ) found the young emperor and his brother wandering in the countryside. He escorted them safely back to the capital and was made Minister of Works , taking control of Luoyang and forcing Yuan Shao to flee. After Dong Zhuo demoted Emperor Shao and promoted his brother Liu Xie as Emperor Xian, Yuan Shao led
11618-486: The advancements during Han of astronomy and calendrical sciences, the "beginnings of systematic botany and zoology ", as well as the philosophical skepticism and rationalist thought embodied in Han works such as the Lunheng by the philosopher Wang Chong . The most common writing mediums found in archaeological digs from ancient sites predating the Han period are shells and bones as well as bronzewares . In
11775-457: The ancient Chinese would achieve. Mathematics were also used in musical tuning and music theory . The 2nd-century BCE Huainanzi , compiled by eight scholars under the patronage of King Liu An (179–122 BCE), outlined the use of twelve tones on a musical scale . Jing Fang (78–37 BCE), a mathematician and music theorist, expanded these to create a scale of 60 tones. While doing so, Jing Fang realized that 53 just fifths
11932-419: The ball fell into any one of eight toad mouths, it produced a loud noise which gained the attention of those observing the device. While Wang Zhenduo ( Chinese : 王振铎 ) accepted the idea that Zhang's seismometer had cranks and levers which were disturbed by the inverted pendulum, his contemporary Akitsune Imamura argued that the inverted pendulum could have had a pin at the top which, upon moving by force of
12089-410: The base is 60,000 li (one li during the Han was the equivalent of 415 m or 1362 ft), the hypotenuse leading towards the sun is 100,000 li , and the height of the sun is 80,000 li . Like the Jiuzhang suanshu , the Zhoubi suanjing also gives mathematical proof for the "Gougu Theorem" ( Chinese : 勾股定理 ; i.e. where c is the length of the hypotenuse and a and b are the lengths of
12246-462: The beginning of the Han period, the chief writing mediums were bamboo (Chinese: 竹簡 ) and clay tablets , silk cloth, strips of soft wood, and rolled scrolls made of strips of bamboo sewn together with hempen string passed through drilled holes (册) and secured with clay stamps . The written characters on these narrow flat strips of bamboo were arranged into vertical columns. While maps drawn in ink on flat silk cloths have been found in
12403-470: The book of the Greek mathematician Diophantus written in about 275 CE. Negative numbers appeared as black counting rods , while positive numbers appeared as red counting rods . Although the decimal system existed in China since the Shang dynasty ( c. 1600 – c. 1050 BCE ), the earliest evidence of a decimal fraction (i.e. the denominator is a power of ten) is an inscription on
12560-473: The bottom of the furnace. Although Chinese civilization lacked the bloomery , the Han Chinese were able to make wrought iron when they injected too much oxygen into the cupola furnace, causing decarburization . The Han-era Chinese were also able to convert cast iron and pig iron into wrought iron and steel by using the finery forge and puddling process , the earliest specimens of such dating to
12717-528: The capital was moved eastward to Luoyang. The era from his reign until the fall of Han is known as the Eastern Han or Later Han (25–220 AD). The Eastern Han ( traditional Chinese : 東漢 ; simplified Chinese : 东汉 ; pinyin : Dōnghàn ), also known as the Later Han ( 後漢 ; 后汉 ; Hòuhàn ), formally began on 5 August AD 25, when Liu Xiu became Emperor Guangwu of Han . During
12874-428: The capital were warned ahead of time of the direction of sudden earthquakes with the invention of the seismometer that was tripped by a vibration-sensitive pendulum device. To mark the passing of the seasons and special occasions, the Han Chinese used two variations of the lunisolar calendar , which were established due to efforts in astronomy and mathematics . Han-era Chinese advancements in mathematics include
13031-491: The cardinal direction of distant earthquakes by use of inverted pendulums . The Han dynasty had many conflicts with the Xiongnu , a nomadic confederation centred in the eastern Eurasian steppe . The Xiongnu defeated the Han in 200 BC , prompting the Han to appease the Xiongnu with a policy of marriage alliance and payments of tribute, though the Xiongnu continued to raid the Han's northern borders. Han policy changed in 133 BC, under Emperor Wu , when Han forces began
13188-400: The central gimbal to remain constantly level even when moved. Ding had other inventions as well. For the purpose of indoor air conditioning , he set up a large manually operated rotary fan which had rotating wheels that were 3 m (9.8 ft) in diameter. He also invented a lamp which he called the 'nine-storied hill-censer', since it was shaped as a hillside. When the cylindrical lamp
13345-468: The choice observational writings of sometimes disinterested Confucian scholars. Professional artisan-engineers ( jiang Chinese : 匠 ) did not leave behind detailed records of their work. Han scholars, who often had little or no expertise in mechanical engineering, sometimes provided insufficient information on the various technologies they described. Nevertheless, some Han literary sources provide crucial information. As written by Yang Xiong in 15 BCE,
13502-434: The collapsing imperial authority. General-in-chief He Jin ( d. 189 AD ), half-brother to Empress He ( d. 189 AD ), plotted with Yuan Shao ( d. 202 AD ) to overthrow the eunuchs by having several generals march to the outskirts of the capital. There, in a written petition to Empress He, they demanded the eunuchs' execution. After a period of hesitation, Empress He consented. When
13659-466: The constant pressure head of an inflow water clock to rotate a waterwheel that acted on a set of gears . Zhang Heng was also the first to address the problem of the falling pressure head in the inflow water clock (which gradually slowed the timekeeping ) by setting up an additional tank between the reservoir and inflow vessel. The Han court was responsible for the major efforts of disaster relief when natural disasters such as earthquakes devastated
13816-532: The crank handle for silk-reeling, hemp-spinning, flour-sifting, and drawing water from a well using the windlass . To measure distance traveled, the Han-era Chinese also created the odometer cart. This invention is depicted in Han artwork by the 2nd century CE, yet detailed written descriptions were not offered until the 3rd century. The wheels of this device rotated a set of gears which in turn forced mechanical figures to bang gongs and drums that alerted
13973-725: The discovery of square roots , cube roots , the Pythagorean theorem , Gaussian elimination , the Horner scheme , improved calculations of pi , and negative numbers . Hundreds of new roads and canals were built to facilitate transport, commerce, tax collection, communication, and movement of military troops. The Han-era Chinese also employed several types of bridges to cross waterways and deep gorges, such as beam bridges , arch bridges , simple suspension bridges , and pontoon bridges . Han ruins of defensive city walls made of brick or rammed earth still stand today. Jin Guantao ,
14130-408: The discovery of Han artwork portraying inventions which were otherwise absent in Han literary sources. This includes the crank handle . Han pottery tomb models of farmyards and gristmills possess the first known depictions of crank handles, which were used to operate the fans of winnowing machines. The machine was used to separate chaff from grain, but the Chinese of later dynasties also employed
14287-407: The eight directions), each with a crank and catch mechanism. The crank and a right angle lever would raise one of eight metal dragon heads located on the exterior, dislodging a metal ball from its mouth that dropped into the mouth of one of eight metal toads below arranged like the points on a compass rose , thus indicating the direction of the earthquake. The Book of the Later Han states that when
14444-490: The emperor was often a minor, ruled over by a regent such as the empress dowager or one of her male relatives. Ranked immediately below the emperor were the kings who were of the same Liu family clan. The rest of society, including nobles lower than kings and all commoners excluding slaves, belonged to one of twenty ranks ( ershi gongcheng 二十公乘 ). Each successive rank gave its holder greater pensions and legal privileges. The highest rank, of full marquess , came with
14601-528: The empire . The Han dynasty came to an end in 220 AD when Cao Pi , king of Wei , usurped the throne from Emperor Xian . According to the Records of the Grand Historian , after the collapse of the Qin dynasty the hegemon Xiang Yu appointed Liu Bang as prince of the small fief of Hanzhong , named after its location on the Han River (in modern southwest Shaanxi ). Following Liu Bang's victory in
14758-489: The empresses and empresses dowager . Imperial authority was also seriously challenged by large Taoist religious societies which instigated the Yellow Turban Rebellion and the Five Pecks of Rice Rebellion . Following the death of Emperor Ling ( r. 168–189 AD ), the palace eunuchs were massacred by military officers, allowing members of the aristocracy and military governors to become warlords and divide
14915-640: The eunuchs discovered this, however, they had her brother He Miao ( 何苗 ) rescind the order. The eunuchs assassinated He Jin on 22 September 189. Yuan Shao then besieged Luoyang's Northern Palace while his brother Yuan Shu ( d. 199 AD ) besieged the Southern Palace. On September 25 both palaces were breached and approximately two thousand eunuchs were killed. Zhang Rang had previously fled with Emperor Shao ( r. 189 AD ) and his brother Liu Xie—the future Emperor Xian of Han ( r. 189–220 AD ). While being pursued by
15072-427: The family inheritance. His brothers Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi were killed in 207 AD by Gongsun Kang ( d. 221 AD ), who sent their heads to Cao Cao. After Cao's defeat at the naval Battle of Red Cliffs in 208 AD, China was divided into three spheres of influence, with Cao Cao dominating the north, Sun Quan (182–252 AD) dominating the south, and Liu Bei (161–223 AD) dominating
15229-601: The frontier were soldiers. On occasion, the court forcibly moved peasant farmers to new frontier settlements, along with government-owned slaves and convicts who performed hard labour. The court also encouraged commoners, such as farmers, merchants, landowners, and hired labourers, to voluntarily migrate to the frontier. Even before the Han's expansion into Central Asia, diplomat Zhang Qian 's travels from 139 to 125 BC had established Chinese contacts with many surrounding civilizations. Zhang encountered Dayuan ( Fergana ), Kangju ( Sogdiana ), and Daxia ( Bactria , formerly
15386-527: The furnaces. Smelting techniques were enhanced with inventions such as the waterwheel -powered bellows ; the resulting widespread distribution of iron tools facilitated the growth of agriculture. For tilling the soil and planting straight rows of crops, the improved heavy-moldboard plough with three iron plowshares and sturdy multiple-tube iron seed drill were invented in the Han, which greatly enhanced production yields and thus sustained population growth. The method of supplying irrigation ditches with water
15543-412: The ground vibrations, would enter one of eight slots and expel the ball by pushing a slider. Since the Book of the Later Han states that the other seven dragon heads would not subsequently release the balls lodged up into their jaws after the first one had dropped, Imamura asserted that the pin of the pendulum would have been locked into the slot it had entered and thus immobilized the instrument until it
15700-495: The latter associated with an animal of the Chinese zodiac . The Han-era Chinese discussed the illumination and shapes of heavenly bodies: were they flat and circular, or were they rounded and spherical? Jing Fang wrote in the 1st century BCE that Han astronomers believed the Sun, Moon, and planets were spherical like balls or crossbow bullets. He also wrote that the Moon and planets produce no light of their own, are viewable to people on Earth only because they are illuminated by
15857-406: The lives of commoners. To better prepare for calamities, Zhang Heng invented a seismometer in 132 CE, which provided instant alert to authorities in the capital Luoyang that an earthquake had occurred in a location indicated by a specific cardinal or ordinal direction . Although no tremors could be felt in the capital when Zhang told the court that an earthquake had just occurred in the northwest,
16014-434: The mathematical treatises. The Suan shu shu presents basic mathematics problems and solutions. It was most likely a handbook for day-to-day business transactions or affairs of government administration. It contains problems and solutions for field measurements of area , proportional exchange rates for agricultural millet and rice , distribution by proportion , short width division, and excess and deficiency. Some of
16171-431: The method he used to reach this value is unknown. Standard measuring vessels dating to the reign of Wang Mang (9–23 CE) also showed approximations for pi at 3.1590, 3.1497, and 3.167. Zhang Heng is the next known Han mathematician to have made an approximation for pi. Han mathematicians understood that the area of a square versus the area of its inscribed circle had an approximate ratio of 4:3, and also understood that
16328-595: The mid Western Han (206 BCE – 9 CE), a brown-glazed ceramic was made which was fired at 800 °C (1,470 °F), followed by a green-glazed ceramic which became popular in the Eastern Han (25–220 CE). Wang Zhongshu states that the light-green stoneware known as celadon was thought to exist only since the Three Kingdoms period (220–265 CE), but argues that ceramic shards found at Eastern Han (25–220 CE) sites of Zhejiang province can be classified as celadon. However, Richard Dewar argues that true celadon
16485-411: The nobility, Wang Mang claimed on 10 January that the divine Mandate of Heaven called for the end of the Han dynasty and the beginning of his own: the Xin dynasty (9–23 AD). Wang Mang initiated a series of major reforms that were ultimately unsuccessful. These reforms included outlawing slavery, nationalizing and equally distributing land between households, and introducing new currencies,
16642-528: The north around the Huai River practiced the more advanced system of transplantation . In this system, individual plants were given intensive care (perhaps in the same location as the paddy field), their offshoots separated so that more water could be conserved, and the field could be heavily fertilized since winter crops were grown while the rice seedlings were situated nearby in a plant nursery. Evidence of Han-era mechanical engineering comes largely from
16799-696: The oldest wooden buildings found in China (i.e. several temple halls of Mount Wutai ) date no earlier than the Tang dynasty (618–907). Architectural historian Robert L. Thorp describes the scarcity of Han-era archaeological remains, as well as the often unreliable Han-era literary and artistic sources used by historians for clues about non-existent Han architecture. What remains of Han-dynasty architecture are ruins of brick and rammed earth walls (including aboveground city walls and underground tomb walls), rammed earth platforms for terraced altars and halls, funerary stone or brick pillar-gates, and scattered ceramic roof tiles that once adorned timber halls. Sections of
16956-687: The other to the south of the Shandong Peninsula , though Han engineers managed to dam the southern branch by 70 AD. The flood dislodged thousands of peasant farmers, many of whom joined roving bandit and rebel groups such as the Red Eyebrows to survive. Wang Mang's armies were incapable of quelling these enlarged rebel groups. Eventually, an insurgent mob forced their way into the Weiyang Palace and killed Wang Mang. The Gengshi Emperor ( r. 23–25 AD ),
17113-460: The other two sides, respectively, a + b = c ), which is known as the Pythagorean theorem in the West after the Greek mathematician Pythagoras (fl. 6th century BCE). The Jiuzhang suanshu was perhaps the most groundbreaking of the three surviving Han treatises. It is the first known book to feature negative numbers , along with the Bakhshali manuscript (200? – 600? CE) of India and
17270-560: The other. When the retainers gradually deserted Dou Wu, he was forced to commit suicide. Under Emperor Ling ( r. 168–189 AD ) the eunuchs had the partisan prohibitions renewed and expanded, while also auctioning off top government offices. Many affairs of state were entrusted to the eunuchs Zhao Zhong ( d. 189 AD ) and Zhang Rang ( d. 189 AD ) while Emperor Ling spent much of his time roleplaying with concubines and participating in military parades. The Partisan Prohibitions were repealed during
17427-444: The philosophical Xinlun 新論 written by Huan Tan (43 BCE – 28 CE) in 20 CE, the poetry of Ma Rong (79–166 CE), and the writings of Kong Rong (153–208 CE). In his Balanced Discourse ( Lunheng ), the philosopher Wang Chong was the first in China to describe the square-pallet chain pump used to lift water (and other substances). Although some models were operated manually by foot pedals, some chain pumps were powered by
17584-494: The problems found in the Suan shu shu appear in the later text Jiuzhang suanshu ; in five cases, the titles are exact matches. However, unlike the Jiuzhang suanshu , the Suan shu shu does not deal with problems involving right-angle triangles, square roots , cube roots , and matrix methods , which demonstrates the significant advancements made in Chinese mathematics between the writings of these two texts. The Zhoubi suanjing
17741-606: The process of social transformation, leading to the greatest social disorder in Chinese history. One can imagine the effect of this calamity on science. Joseph Needham , a professor from the University of Cambridge and author of the Science and Civilisation in China series, stated that the "Han time (especially the Later Han) was one of the relatively important periods as regards the history of science in China." He noted
17898-426: The ratio of the volume of the cube to the inscribed sphere at 8:5, the ratio of the area of a square to the inscribed circle is √ 8 : √ 5 . With this formula, Zhang was able to approximate pi as the square root of 10, or 3.162. After the Han, Liu Hui approximated pi as 3.14159, while the mathematician Zu Chongzhi (429–500) approximated pi at 3.141592 (or ⁄ 113 ), the most accurate approximation
18055-603: The remainder of Western and Eastern Han. To the north of China proper , the nomadic Xiongnu chieftain Modu Chanyu ( r. 209–174 BC ) conquered various tribes inhabiting the eastern portion of the Eurasian Steppe . By the end of his reign, he controlled the Inner Asian regions of Manchuria , Mongolia , and the Tarim Basin , subjugating over twenty states east of Samarkand . Emperor Gaozu
18212-621: The roof. Stone and plaster were also used for domestic architecture. Tiled eaves projecting outward were built to distance falling rainwater from the walls; they were supported by dougong brackets that were sometimes elaborately decorated. Molded designs usually decorated the ends of roof tiles, as seen in artistic models of buildings and in surviving tile pieces. Valuable clues about Han architecture can be found in Han artwork of ceramic models, paintings, and carved or stamped bricks discovered in tombs and other sites. The layout of Han tombs were also built like underground houses, comparable to
18369-616: The salt and iron monopolies were eventually abolished in the early Eastern Han. The issuing of coinage remained a central government monopoly throughout the rest of the Han dynasty. The government monopolies were eventually repealed when a political faction known as the Reformists gained greater influence in the court. The Reformists opposed the Modernist faction that had dominated court politics in Emperor Wu's reign and during
18526-610: The same site reports the times and locations of the rising and setting of planets in the night sky from the years 246–177 BCE. The Han-era Chinese noted the passage of the same comet seen in Persia for the birth of Mithridates II of Parthia in 135 BCE, the same comet the Romans observed close to the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE, Halley's comet in 12 BCE, the same comet noted by Roman historian Cassius Dio ( c. 155 – c. 229 CE ) for 13 CE, and (what
18683-433: The same; in essence, he accurately described the water cycle . In the 2nd century CE, Zhang Heng drew a similar comparison to Jing's by stating that the Sun is like fire and the Moon and planets are like water, since fire produces light and water reflects it. He also repeated Jing's comment that the side of the Moon not illuminated by the Sun was left in darkness. However, Zhang noted that sunlight did not always reach
18840-516: The scenes of courtyard houses found on tomb bricks and in three-dimensional models. Han homes had a courtyard area (and some had multiple courtyards) with halls that were slightly elevated above it and connected by stairways. Multi-story buildings included the main colonnaded residence halls built around the courtyards as well as watchtowers . The halls were built with intersecting crossbeams and rafters that were usually carved with decorations; stairways and walls were usually plastered over to produce
18997-553: The soil, and provided a stable annual yield. Zhao Guo first experimented with this system right outside the capital Chang'an , and once it proved successful, he sent out instructions for it to every commandery administrator, who were then responsible for disseminating these to the heads of every county , district , and hamlet in their commanderies. Rich families who owned oxen and large heavy moldboard iron plows greatly benefited from this new system. However, poorer farmers who did not own oxen resorted to using teams of men to move
19154-452: The soil. Twenty seeds were sowed into each pit, which allegedly produced 0.6 L (20 oz ) of harvested grain per pit, or roughly 2,000 L (67,630 oz) per mou . This system did not require oxen-driven plows or the most fertile land, since it could be employed even on sloping terrains where supplying water was difficult. Although this farming method was favored by the poor, it did require intensive labor, so only large families could maintain such
19311-479: The south , annexing Nanyue in 111 BC and Dian in 109 BC . He further expanded Han territory into the northern Korean Peninsula , where Han forces conquered Gojoseon and established the Xuantu and Lelang commanderies in 108 BC. After 92 AD, palace eunuchs increasingly involved themselves in the dynasty's court politics, engaging in violent power struggles between various consort clans of
19468-479: The subsequent regency of Huo Guang ( d. 68 BC ). The Modernists argued for an aggressive and expansionary foreign policy supported by revenues from heavy government intervention in the private economy. The Reformists, however, overturned these policies, favouring a cautious, non-expansionary approach to foreign policy, frugal budget reform, and lower tax-rates imposed on private entrepreneurs. Wang Zhengjun (71 BC – 13 AD)
19625-428: The summer, the loose soil of the ridges ( long 壟) on either side of the furrows would gradually fall into the furrows, covering the sprouting crops and protecting them from wind and drought. Since the position of the furrows and ridges were reversed by the next year, this process was called the alternating fields system. This system allowed crops to grow in straight lines from sowing to harvest, conserved moisture in
19782-535: The three-legged iron seed drill (invented in Han China by the 2nd century BCE), which enabled farmers to plant seeds in precise rows instead of casting them out by hand . While artwork of the Wei (220–266 CE) and Jin (266–420) periods show use of the harrow for breaking up chunks of soil after plowing, it perhaps first appeared in China during the Eastern Han (25–220 CE). Irrigation works for agriculture included
19939-461: The title of emperor; when these warlords were defeated, China reunified under the Han. The period between the foundation of the Han dynasty and Wang Mang's reign is known as the Western Han ( 西漢 ; 西汉 ; Xīhàn ) or Former Han ( 前漢 ; 前汉 ; Qiánhàn ) (206 BC – 9 AD). During this period the capital was at Chang'an (modern Xi'an ). From the reign of Guangwu
20096-493: The tomb of the Marquess of Dai (interred in 168 BCE), the earliest known paper map found in China, dated 179–141 BCE and located at Fangmatan , is incidentally the oldest known piece of paper. Chinese hempen paper of the Western Han and early Eastern Han eras was of a coarse quality and used primarily as wrapping paper . The papermaking process was not formally introduced until the Eastern Han court eunuch Cai Lun created
20253-400: The travelers of the distance traveled (measured in li ). From existing specimens found at archaeological sites, it is known that Han-era craftsmen made use of the sliding metal caliper to make minute measurements. Although Han-era calipers bear incised inscriptions of the exact day of the year they were manufactured, they are not mentioned in any Han literary sources. By the Han dynasty,
20410-472: The treaty and periodically raided Han territories south of the Great Wall for additional goods. In a court conference assembled by Emperor Wu ( r. 141–87 BC ) in 135 BC, the majority consensus of the ministers was to retain the heqin agreement. Emperor Wu accepted this, despite continuing Xiongnu raids. However, a court conference the following year convinced the majority that
20567-654: The use of water wells , artificial ponds and embankments, dams , canals , and sluice gates. During Emperor Wu's (r. 141–87 BCE) reign, the Grain Intendant Zhao Guo ( Chinese : 趙過 ) invented the alternating fields system ( daitianfa 代田法). For every mou of land—a thin strip of land measuring 1.38 m (4.5 ft) wide and 331 m (1,086 ft) long, or an area of roughly 457 m (0.113 acres) —three low-lying furrows ( quan 甽) that were each 0.23 m (0.75 ft) wide were sowed in straight lines with crop seed. While weeding in
20724-404: The volume of a cube and the volume of its inscribed sphere would be 4 :3 . With D as diameter and V as volume, D :V = 16:9 or V= ⁄ 16 D , a formula Zhang found fault with since he realized the value for diameter was inaccurate, the discrepancy being the value taken for the ratio. To fix this, Zhang added ⁄ 16 D to the formula, thus V = ⁄ 16 D + ⁄ 16 D = ⁄ 8 D . Since he found
20881-517: The war with Chu, Emperor Gaozu enfeoffed some of them as kings. By 196, the Han court had replaced all of these kings with royal Liu family members, with the lone exception of Changsha . The loyalty of non-relatives to the emperor was questioned, and after several insurrections by Han kings—with the largest being the Rebellion of the Seven States in 154—the imperial court began enacting
21038-487: The west. Cao Cao died in March 220 AD. By December his son Cao Pi (187–226 AD) had Emperor Xian relinquish the throne to him and is known posthumously as Emperor Wen of Wei . This formally ended the Han dynasty and initiated an age of conflict between the Three Kingdoms : Cao Wei , Eastern Wu , and Shu Han . In the hierarchical social order, the emperor was at the apex of Han society and government. However,
21195-411: The widespread rebellion against Wang Mang , the state of Goguryeo was free to raid Han's Korean commanderies ; Han did not reaffirm its control over the region until AD 30. The Trưng Sisters of Vietnam rebelled against Han in AD 40. Their rebellion was crushed by Han general Ma Yuan ( d. AD 49 ) in a campaign from AD 42 to 43. Wang Mang renewed hostilities against
21352-495: Was a Han dynasty official, possibly from Shandong , who served in the Guanzhong region first as court gentleman for consultation (議郎), then as agricultural development commissioner (勸農使) and commissioner of charioteers (輕車使者). The highest office he attained was that of censor-in-chief (御史). This Chinese literature-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Han dynasty The Han dynasty
21509-467: Was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) and a warring interregnum known as the Chu–Han Contention (206–202 BC), and it was succeeded by the Three Kingdoms period (220–280 AD). The dynasty was briefly interrupted by
21666-438: Was appointed regent as Marshall of State on 16 August under Emperor Ping ( r. 1 BC – 6 AD). When Ping died on 3 February 6 AD, Ruzi Ying ( d. 25 AD ) was chosen as the heir and Wang Mang was appointed to serve as acting emperor for the child. Wang promised to relinquish his control to Liu Ying once he came of age. Despite this promise, and against protest and revolts from
21823-903: Was brought into the Han realm with the conquest of the Dian Kingdom in 109 BC, followed by parts of the Korean Peninsula with the Han conquest of Gojoseon and establishment of the Xuantu and Lelang commanderies in 108 BC. The first nationwide census in Chinese history was taken in 2 AD; the Han's total population was registered as comprising 57,671,400 individuals across 12,366,470 households. To pay for his military campaigns and colonial expansion, Emperor Wu nationalised several private industries. He created central government monopolies administered largely by former merchants . These monopolies included salt, iron, and liquor production, as well as bronze coinage . The liquor monopoly lasted only from 98 to 81 BC, and
21980-552: Was chosen as the new capital of the reunified empire under Han. At the beginning of the Western Han ( traditional Chinese : 西漢 ; simplified Chinese : 西汉 ; pinyin : Xīhàn ), also known as the Former Han ( 前漢 ; 前汉 ; Qiánhàn ), thirteen centrally-controlled commanderies —including the capital region—existed in the western third of the empire, while the eastern two-thirds were divided into ten semi-autonomous kingdoms . To placate his prominent commanders from
22137-490: Was convinced by the accusations of the eunuchs Li Run ( 李閏 ) and Jiang Jing ( 江京 ) that Deng and her family had planned to depose him. An dismissed Deng's clan members from office, exiled them, and forced many to commit suicide. After An's death, his wife, Empress Dowager Yan ( d. 126 AD ) placed the child Marquess of Beixiang on the throne in an attempt to retain power within her family. However, palace eunuch Sun Cheng ( d. 132 AD ) masterminded
22294-442: Was divided into areas directly controlled by the central government called commanderies , as well as a number of semi-autonomous kingdoms . These kingdoms gradually lost all vestiges of their independence, particularly following the Rebellion of the Seven States . From the reign of Emperor Wu ( r. 141–87 BC ) onward, the Chinese court officially sponsored Confucianism in education and court politics, synthesized with
22451-487: Was first empress, then empress dowager , and finally grand empress dowager during the reigns of the Emperors Yuan ( r. 49–33 BC ), Cheng ( r. 33–7 BC ), and Ai ( r. 7–1 BC ), respectively. During this time, a succession of her male relatives held the title of regent. Following the death of Ai, Wang Zhengjun's nephew Wang Mang (45 BC – 23 AD)
22608-501: Was found on two bronze standard measurers dated 179 CE (with speculation that its material existed in earlier books under different titles) and was provided with detailed commentary by Liu Hui (fl. 3rd century) in 263. It is worth noting in this context that many of the documents excavated from Qin and Han sites contain evidence of the practical mathematics used by administrators for inventories and taxes, as well as for calculating labor needed for public works projects, just as described in
22765-470: Was improved with the invention of the mechanical chain pump powered by the rotation of a waterwheel or draft animals, which could transport irrigation water up elevated terrains. The waterwheel was also used for operating trip hammers in pounding grain and in rotating the metal rings of the mechanical-driven astronomical armillary sphere representing the celestial sphere around the Earth. The Han Chinese had hempen-bound bamboo scrolls to write on, yet by
22922-446: Was in revenge for Dou's purging of the clan of his natural mother— Consort Liang —and then concealing her identity from him. After Emperor He's death, his wife Empress Deng Sui ( d. 121 AD ) managed state affairs as the regent empress dowager during a turbulent financial crisis and widespread Qiang rebellion that lasted from 107 to 118 AD. When Empress Dowager Deng died, Emperor An ( r. 106–125 AD )
23079-650: Was killed by allies of the Xiongnu in Karasahr and Kucha , the garrison at Hami was withdrawn. At the Battle of Ikh Bayan in AD 89, Dou Xian ( d. AD 92 ) defeated the Northern Xiongnu chanyu who then retreated into the Altai Mountains . After the Northern Xiongnu fled into the Ili River valley in AD 91, the nomadic Xianbei occupied the area from the borders of
23236-533: Was lit, the convection of rising hot air currents caused vanes placed on the top to spin, which in turn rotated painted paper figures of birds and other animals around the lamp. When Emperor Gaozu of Han (r. 202–195 BCE) came upon the treasury of Qin Shi Huang (r. 221–210) following the downfall of the Qin dynasty (221–206), he found an entire miniature musical orchestra of puppets 1 m (3.3 ft) tall who played mouth organs if one pulled on ropes and blew into tubes to control them. Zhang Heng wrote in
23393-611: Was near the commandery of Rinan where Chinese sources claim the Romans first landed, as well as embassies from Tianzhu in northern India in 159 and 161. Óc Eo is also thought to be the port city " Cattigara " described by Ptolemy in his Geography ( c. 150 AD ) as lying east of the Golden Chersonese ( Malay Peninsula ) along the Magnus Sinus (i.e. the Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea ), where
23550-442: Was not created in China until the early Song dynasty (960–1279) when Chinese kilns were able to reach a minimum furnace temperature of 1,260 °C (2,300 °F), with a preferred range of 1,285 to 1,305 °C (2,345 to 2,381 °F) for celadon. A blast furnace converts raw iron oxide into iron , which can be remelted in a cupola furnace to produce cast iron . The earliest specimens of cast iron found in China date to
23707-450: Was persuaded by Cao Cao (155–220 AD), then Governor of Yan Province in modern western Shandong and eastern Henan , to move the capital to Xuchang in 196 AD. Yuan Shao challenged Cao Cao for control over the emperor. Yuan's power was greatly diminished after Cao defeated him at the Battle of Guandu in 200 AD. After Yuan died, Cao killed Yuan Shao's son Yuan Tan (173–205 AD), who had fought with his brothers over
23864-595: Was reinstated when it was bestowed on Ban Chao. Foreign travellers to the Eastern Han empire included Buddhist monks who translated works into Chinese , such as An Shigao from Parthia, and Lokaksema from Kushan-era Gandhara . In addition to tributary relations with the Kushans, the Han empire received gifts from sovereigns in the Parthian Empire , as well as from kings in modern Burma and Japan . He also initiated an unsuccessful mission to Rome in AD 97 with Gan Ying as emissary. A Roman embassy of Emperor Marcus Aurelius ( r. 161–180 AD )
24021-674: Was reset. One of the earliest surviving mathematical treatises of ancient China is the Book on Numbers and Computation ( Suan shu shu ), part of the Zhangjiashan Han bamboo texts dated 202 to 186 BCE and found in Jiangling County , Hubei . Another mathematical text compiled during the Han was The Arithmetical Classic of the Gnomon and the Circular Paths of Heaven ( Zhoubi Suanjing ), dated no earlier than
24178-413: Was still used by Han soldiers, although it was gradually phased out by iron spears and iron ji halberds . Even arrowheads , which were traditionally made of bronze, gradually only had a bronze tip and iron shaft, until the end of the Han when the entire arrowhead was made solely of iron. Farmers, carpenters , craftsmen, stonemasons , and rammed earth builders had at their disposal iron tools such as
24335-413: Was then forced to commit suicide. Students from the imperial university organized a widespread student protest against the eunuchs of Emperor Huan's court. Huan further alienated the bureaucracy when he initiated grandiose construction projects and hosted thousands of concubines in his harem at a time of economic crisis. Palace eunuchs imprisoned the official Li Ying ( 李膺 ) and his associates from
24492-399: Was troubled about the abundant Han-manufactured iron weapons traded to the Xiongnu along the northern borders, and he established a trade embargo against the group. In retaliation, the Xiongnu invaded what is now Shanxi , where they defeated the Han forces at Baideng in 200 BC. After negotiations, the heqin agreement in 198 BC nominally held the leaders of the Xiongnu and
24649-427: Was upheld by private businesses as well as local government agencies. Ceramics were used in domestic wares and utensils as well as construction materials for roof tiles and bricks . Han dynasty grey pottery —its color derived from the clay that was used—was superior to earlier Chinese grey pottery due to the Han people's use of larger kiln chambers, longer firing tunnels, and improved chimney designs. Kilns of
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