Han dynasty

Legacy

Han rule defined Chinese identity so strongly that China's majority people still call themselves the Han.

Timeline of Han dynasty

1. 221 BCE
   Qin conquers Qi, its last rival; King Zheng becomes the First Emperor

   For centuries the Warring States had fought for supremacy while the old Zhou kings faded into figureheads, and Qin, secure in the mountain-ringed Guanzhong basin in the west, had built the most efficient army and state. From 230 BCE King Zheng conquered the six remaining states one by one: Han, Zhao, Yan, Wei, Chu and finally Qi, whose capital Linzi fell in 221 BCE. He took the new title Shi Huangdi, 'First Emperor', and governed through appointed officials instead of royal relatives. For the first time the Chinese heartland, from the Yellow River plains to the Yangtze, was a single empire.

2. 215 BCE
   Meng Tian takes the Ordos region from the Xiongnu

   Xiongnu herders in the Ordos, the grassland inside the great northern loop of the Yellow River, often raided Qin farmers. The First Emperor sent General Meng Tian north with an army said to number 300,000, and in 215 BCE he expelled the Xiongnu from the Ordos and drove them back onto the Mongolian Plateau. Qin settled farmers in the region and began the long chain of defences later remembered as the Great Wall. The empire's northern frontier now enclosed the Ordos, but after Qin fell the Xiongnu leader Modu retook it.

3. 210 BCE
   Qin Shi Huang dies on tour; Huhai is made Second Emperor

   Obsessed with immortality, the First Emperor died in 210 BCE while touring the eastern frontier, reportedly while seeking an elixir of eternal life. His chief eunuch Zhao Gao and chancellor Li Si hid his death, forged an order telling the heir, Prince Fusu, to kill himself, and had General Meng Tian put to death. They placed a younger son, Huhai, on the throne as the Second Emperor, hoping to rule through him. Huhai's purges, building projects and higher taxes soon set off revolts across the empire, and the newly united realm began to break apart.

4. 206 BCE
   Xianyang destroyed after Ziying's surrender: the Qin dynasty ends

   Rebellions spread from 209 BCE, and rebel leaders declared themselves kings of the old states. In 207 BCE Zhao Gao forced the Second Emperor to kill himself and installed Ziying, who ruled only as a king; Ziying had Zhao Gao killed but, after just 46 days, surrendered to the rebel general Liu Bang when he reached the capital, Xianyang. The Chu leader Xiang Yu then had Ziying executed and Xianyang destroyed in 206 BCE. The Qin dynasty ended after only 15 years, and its empire split into some eighteen rival kingdoms.

5. 202 BCE
   Liu Bang defeats Xiang Yu at Gaixia and founds the Han dynasty

   After Qin fell, Xiang Yu of Chu made himself overlord and gave Liu Bang, a man of humble birth, the small fief of Hanzhong. War between the two, the Chu–Han Contention, followed for four years. In the winter of 203–202 BCE Liu Bang's armies trapped Xiang Yu at Gaixia and destroyed his army, and Xiang Yu killed himself by the Wu River. A few months later Liu Bang proclaimed himself emperor of a new dynasty named Han, after his old fief; with one brief break, it would rule China for four centuries.

6. 200 BCE
   Xiongnu trap the emperor at Baideng; a heqin truce follows (198)

   Modu Chanyu had united the Xiongnu into a powerful steppe empire, and when a Han vassal king, Xin, defected to him, they captured Jinyang in the north. Emperor Gaozu led a large army to drive them back, but near Pingcheng (modern Datong) he and his vanguard were surrounded on Mount Baideng and cut off for seven days. He escaped, reportedly after his envoys persuaded Modu's wife to urge a withdrawal. In 198 BCE the Han agreed the heqin treaty, sending a princess and gifts of silk, food and wine, and until the 130s BCE they bought peace on the northern frontier rather than fighting.

7. 154 BCE
   Rebellion of the Seven States crushed; regional kings weakened

   Liu Bang had given his relatives large semi-independent kingdoms covering a third to a half of the empire, and by the 150s BCE princes such as Liu Pi of Wu minted coins, collected taxes and largely ignored the court. When Emperor Jing, advised by Chao Cuo, began cutting their lands, seven kings rose in revolt in 154 BCE. The imperial general Zhou Yafu let the loyal kingdom of Liang absorb the rebel attack while his cavalry cut their supply lines, and the revolt was crushed within three months. The kingdoms were reduced and imperial power grew sharply, preparing the way for Emperor Wu's expansion.

8. 119 BCE
   Battle of Mobei drives the Xiongnu north of the Gobi

   After years of Han offensives under Emperor Wu, the Xiongnu chanyu Yizhixie pulled his people north of the Gobi Desert, hoping the barren land would protect them. In early 119 BCE Wu sent two columns of 50,000 cavalry each, backed by over 140,000 infantry and supply troops, across the desert under Wei Qing and Huo Qubing. Wei Qing routed the chanyu's army in a sandstorm, while Huo Qubing crushed the eastern Xiongnu and pushed far north, reportedly as far as Lake Baikal. The Xiongnu lost much of their manpower and livestock and were driven from the lands south of the Gobi, though Han lost some 80 per cent of its horses in a decade of war.

9. 111 BCE
   Han conquers Nanyue in the far south

   As Qin collapsed, Zhao Tuo, a former Qin officer, had set himself up as king of Nanyue, covering modern Guangdong, Guangxi and northern Vietnam. In 113 BCE Nanyue's queen dowager, herself Chinese, proposed accepting Han overlordship, but the minister Lü Jia led the opposition and in 112 BCE had her executed. Emperor Wu sent six armies by sea, overland and down the Xi River, and in 111 BCE the capital Panyu (modern Guangzhou) fell and Nanyue surrendered. Han set up nine commanderies there, pushing its southern frontier to northern Vietnam and opening sea trade with Southeast Asia.

10. 108 BCE
    Han conquers Gojoseon in Korea

    Wiman Chosŏn, the kingdom of Gojoseon in northern Korea and southern Manchuria, under King Ugeo blocked envoys from other Korean chiefs from reaching the Han court. In 109 BCE Emperor Wu invaded with two forces: 50,000 men by sea across the Bohai and another army overland through Liaodong. Both suffered early defeats, and the capital Wanggeom (near modern Pyongyang) held out for months. In 108 BCE leading ministers surrendered and King Ugeo was assassinated, and Han created four commanderies in the northern half of the peninsula. The most important, Lelang, remained under Chinese control until 313 CE.

11. 60 BCE
    Protectorate of the Western Regions set up in the Tarim Basin

    After the wars with the Xiongnu, Han wanted to control the oasis kingdoms of the Tarim Basin, both to keep the Xiongnu away from China and to command the Silk Road trade that passed through them. In 60 or 59 BCE, after a Xiongnu prince, the Rizhu King, submitted to Han, the envoy Zheng Ji was made Protector-General of the Western Regions, overseeing both the northern and southern routes from a headquarters at Wulei near Kucha. It was the first direct rule by a Chinese government in the region. Han power now reached deep into what is today Xinjiang.

12. 9
    Wang Mang seizes the throne and founds the Xin dynasty

    In the last decades of the Western Han, the family of Empress Dowager Wang held the regency for a series of weak or child emperors. Her nephew Wang Mang became regent in 1 BCE and acting emperor for the infant heir Ruzi Ying in 6 CE, then in 9 CE claimed the Mandate of Heaven and founded his own Xin dynasty. His reforms, such as outlawing slavery, sharing out land and issuing new coins, met fierce opposition, and huge Yellow River floods drove peasants into rebel bands such as the Red Eyebrows. In 23 CE rebels stormed Chang'an and killed him, and Han control of the Tarim Basin was lost.

13. 25
    Emperor Guangwu restores the Han and moves the capital to Luoyang

    Liu Xiu, a distant descendant of the Han emperors, was one of several claimants who rose during the civil wars after Wang Mang's fall. He proclaimed himself emperor on 5 August 25 CE, taking the name Guangwu, and defeated the marauding Red Eyebrows and rival warlords, reunifying China by 36 CE. He made Luoyang, about 335 km east of the ruined Chang'an, his capital, which is why his dynasty is called the Eastern Han. His reforms gave the Han nearly two more centuries of rule over a restored empire.

14. 184
    Yellow Turban Rebellion; generals who crush it become warlords

    By the 180s CE the Eastern Han court was paralysed by power struggles, while peasants suffered heavy taxes and forced labour. The Taoist faith healer Zhang Jue built a vast following, the Way of Supreme Peace, and when his plot was betrayed the rising broke out early, in 184 CE, across eight provinces; the rebels wore yellow headscarves. Han armies crushed the main revolt within a year, but smaller uprisings went on until 205. Many generals raised to fight the rebels kept their troops and became warlords, and the empire's central authority never recovered.

15. 220
    Cao Pi takes the throne from Emperor Xian, ending the Han

    After 189 CE the warlord Dong Zhuo wrecked the Han court, and the empire split among rival warlords. Cao Cao took control of the young Emperor Xian in 196 and ruled in his name, but his drive to reunify China was stopped at the Battle of Red Cliffs in 208–209. In 220 his son Cao Pi pressured Emperor Xian to abdicate and founded the Wei dynasty, formally ending the Han. Liu Bei proclaimed the Shu Han dynasty in 221 and Sun Quan founded Wu in 222, so China was divided into the Three Kingdoms until 280.

Periods and reigns

• Qin Shi Huang (First Emperor) 221–210 BCE
• Qin Er Shi and Ziying 210–207 BCE
• Gaozu (Liu Bang) 202–195 BCE
• Emperor Hui, Empress Lü, Emperors Wen and Jing 195–141 BCE
• Emperor Wu 141–87 BCE
• Emperor Xuan 74–48 BCE
• Emperor Yuan 49–33 BCE
• Emperor Cheng 33–7 BCE
• Emperors Ai and Ping 7 BCE – 6 CE
• Wang Mang (Xin dynasty) 9–23
• Emperor Guangwu 25–57
• Emperor Zhang 75–88
• Emperor He 88–105
• Emperor Ling 168–189
• Emperor Xian 189–220

Rulers

• Emperor Gaozu (Liu Bang) 202 – 195 BCE

  Commoner who founded the dynasty

• Emperor Wu 141 – 87 BCE

  Fought the Xiongnu and opened the Silk Road

• Wang Mang 9 – 23 CE

  Usurper who founded the short-lived Xin dynasty

• Emperor Guangwu 25 – 57 CE

  Restored the dynasty as the Eastern Han

• Emperor Xian 189 – 220 CE

  Last emperor, a puppet of warlords

Realms on the map

• Han Dynasty 202 BCE – 220 CE
• Alliance between Han Dynasty and Xiongnu 50 BCE – 105 CE
• Xin Dynasty 9–23

Chapters

• The world in 200 BCE: Rome and Han Rise
• The world in 100 BCE: The Silk Road Opens
• The world in 1 BCE: The Augustan World
• The world in 100: Trajan's Rome, Han China
• The world in 200: Han China Crumbles