INTRODUCTION

The Han Dynasty was one of the longest of china's major dynasties, being the second-largest
dynasty of China. It lasted over four centuries and was considered a golden age and had a
dominant effect on Chinese history and culture. All subsequent Chinese dynasties looked back
to Han Dynasty days and emulate its cultural, governmental, and technological achievements.
The Han Dynasty rule came to an end after a period of chaos, from which centre of political
power emerged. This report will focus on the Rise and Fall of the Han Dynasty Civilization. It
will briefly explain the history, social and cultural advancement, the economic achievements,
the science and technological developments/inventions, and the collapse of the Han Dynasty.
HISTORY OF THE HAN DYNASTY
The Han Dynasty was founded by Liu Bang, the successful rebel leader emerging from the
wars after the downfall of the Qin Dynasty. The Han Dynasty prevailed for a long time between
206 BCE and 220 CE, referred to as the Golden Age, when developments in commerce, natural
sciences, and the arts reached new heights. The Han Dynasty was one of the most powerful
and important dynasties in China’s history. The Han dynasty gave the Chinese people their
name: Today, 90% of the population is listed as “Han Chinese” ethnicity in official statistics.
In this imperial dynasty, the emperors belonged to the Liu family. The reign of the Han Dynasty
extended over two distinctive periods: The western Han (206 BCE – 9CE) and The Eastern
Han (25 CE – 220 CE). The brief disruption between these periods (9 CE – 25 CE) was taken
over by Wang Mung during a period of imperial decline. However, his Xin Dynasty lasted for
a short period. Emerging victorious from a protracted war, the Han proceeded to take over Qin
structures with superficial changes such as renaming offices and abolishing the most gruesome
punishments, (Kim, 2015). The Han Dynasty was known for starting the Silk Road trade and
connecting China with Central Asia and Europe. In the Han Dynasty, a bureaucratic system in
which promotion was based on merit was established and Confucianism was adopted by the
state for national governance. Also, agriculture, handicrafts, and commerce developed rapidly.
The Han territory expanded because of trade and technological advancement. The dynasty had
a dominant effect on Chinese history and culture, and its governmental, cultural, and
technological achievements were emulated by the dynasties that followed. By the end of the
second century CE, three centres of political power emerged, plunging the Han Dynasty into
chaos and its subsequent decline.

Emperor Wu of Han: Notable among the numerous Emperors of the Han Dynasty was
Emperor Wu, who reigned from 141 BC to 87 BC. During the reign of Emperor Wu, the Han
Dynasty prospered the most. The various ethnic divisions became more
united during Wu’s regime. The basic political outlook of the empire changed for the
better while expanding their sphere far into Central Asia. The military and political expansion
was undertaken by Emperor Wu, made the empire very powerful which led to the setting up of
new administrative outposts from modern Sichuan and Yunnan to Hainan island in the south
and Korea in the North and parts of Vietnam (Kim, 2015). Emperor Wu also made
Confucianism the empire’s official religion. He even founded China’s first civil service on
Confucian ideals, where only skilled people would govern a state, making education very
important throughout the empire. Towards the end of Emperor Wu’s reign, the expansion gave
way to retrenchment. The remainder of the century was politically indecisive with short reigns
and weak emperors.

1
RISE OF THE CIVILIZATION
Society and Culture: Han Dynasty, also known as the second imperial dynasty of China,
cherished the legalistic nature of the Qin dynasty while abolishing their swingeing
punishments. The social structure was rigid and classified into three tiers. The top comprising
of aristocrats and bureaucrats, and then comes the farmers, blacksmith while the servants and
slaves in the bottom tier. Emperor being at the top and only the empress dowager is the second
in power. Empress can issue commandments, pardons and even name the new emperor upon
the death of the current emperor. At first, famous generals were named kings with semi-
autonomous states under them but then it was succeeded by male heirs of the emperor. Nobles,
scholars, and government officials enjoyed certain advantages like immunity, few even got
positions like eunuchs and regents. Farmers and peasants, next in the hierarchy were treated
well as the others depend on them for products. Although artisans and craftsmen are
in the second tier they come after farmers. But still, they weren't barred from wearing fancy
clothes, riding horses, or becoming officials. Merchants were included in the bottom tier along
with servants and slaves and wore white clothing as an indicator of their status. Government-
owned slaves worked in palaces whereas the private slaves were forced into domestic
services. This social hierarchy system which depicts the status not based on wealth or
power was followed for a long time even after the end of the Han Dynasty.
The Han dynasty emperors were supportive of literary works, unlike the Qin dynasty. This era
was known for its famous works like Records of Grand Historian and Confucius related
works. Classical education was based on these Confucian philosophies which were recognized
throughout the imperial history of China. From this era, the Chinese dynasties had more
involvement in worship and rituals, to maintain cosmic balance. Religions like Buddhism and
Taoism gained significance in this period.
Government: The Han dynasty is the result of a rebellion that started after the death of the first
emperor. The system of the government was constituted based on the Qin
dynasty, distinguished by the feudal structures and central bureaucracy. The emperor had
absolute and unlimited power, which lead to control all over China. There were
3 Counsellors of the state: The Chancellor (drafts the government budget); the Imperial
Counsellor (conducts disciplinary procedures for government officials), and the Grand
Commandant (to command the military). They were followed by nine other ministers, each
governing a ministry. Initially, the officials were dominated by the bloodlines of the emperor
but later, the system was abolished by the emperor and started nurturing future administrative
officials. However, partiality corrupted the system. The governors ruled over the 12 provinces,
who inspected and evaluated the commanderies and officials. Commanderies comprised of
counties, which were the smallest division. Even though the system was constituted based on
legalities from the Qin dynasty, it was during this era, that the system was refined which was
established as a paradigm for all successive imperial dynasties.

Military: The Armies during this era was raised by the conscription in which the male
commoner of age 23, must join the service for 2 years. Later, the system was modified allowing
commoners to avoid conscription by paying commutable tax. Thus, the army was comprised
of volunteered soldiers. Advancements on swords and crossbows were made, enabling more
accuracy and power. These military achievements made the Han dynasty more powerful and
expanded their reign over Asia.

2
Economy: Through the period of 206BCE to 220AD several factors were involved in the
economic prosperity of The Han Dynasty. Trade around this time was largely impacted by the
Silk Road which connected China to other countries they were not in touch within the past.
Export of silk, gunpowder, gold, and spices in exchange for horses, wines, fruits, and other
commodities groomed their economy. Apart from these, cultural connections with Asia and
Europe helped to enrich their cultural. Exchange of technology like paper-printing, agricultural,
medicine and art were mutual and helped countries which were connected through the silk road.
The economy in the time of Han’s was defined by the growth of population, urbanization,
trading and if we account these factors both capital cities of Han’s were prosperous. Circulation
of coin currency and minting helped to inform of the stable monetary system for their economy.
Growth of commercial sector with the development of infrastructures like road and bridges
helped growing the government businesses and improved technology ensured
their domination and monopolizing of iron and salt industries. A heavy tax on wealthy
class created that much-needed market balance. But this dominance over the economy of
private sector resulted in the downfall of the merchant class, wealthy landowners grew stronger
which turned the stage for the government. Reportedly by 180AD government got badly
impacted amid these economic and political crises.

Science and Technology: Han’s were well known for their warfare technology, scientific
inventions, medicine advancement and agricultural diversity. The invention of seismograph
(132AD) to track the direction of the earthquake, Celestial sphere, the south-pointing spoon
compass for navigation and various other inventions were accredited to this time. Technology
which transformed the industrial sector like printing paper, blast furnace, foot fibered machine,
iron-tipped bamboo drilling for mining of salt and natural gas helped in booming their
economy. Trades were largely impacted by these inventions and not only for Han’s but the rest
of the world as well. However, from a sustainability point of view, (Hillman, et al. 2014) argued
that eutrophication of Chinese lakes can be traced to ancient dynasty’s anthropogenic activities
in their quest for technological advancement. The Han Dynasty undoubtedly fall into this
category.

COLLAPSE OF THE HAN DYNASTY

Being a powerful empire made the Hans despise other non-Han Chinese tribes bordering the
empire, which resulted in constant struggles, which exhausted more of Han’s resources. The
empire was influenced by internal matters such as taxation. More taxes were imposed on
farmers while big estate owners contributed less to the empire, even forced the farmers to work
in estates or become slaves. Most of the emperors at this period were all young and thereby
they were influenced by either empress dowager or other officials. This even led to the power
struggle between eunuchs and elite officials. As a result of all these disputes within, many
revolts started up. One of the major rebellions was the Yellow Turban Revolt of 184 CE, in
which peasants rebelled in response to the outbreaks of a plague and they kept flaring new riots
for about a decade.
The end of the mighty Han Dynasty was from 189 to 220 A.D. (about the time of its last ruler,
the Emperor Xian). The dynasty was about to fall apart as there were so many factions fighting
for the throne. These factions composed of Warlords and different nobles and even officials
from the imperial court. Warlord Cao Cao took control of the empire under the rule of Emperor
Xian, to unify China. However, he sustained a major defeat at the Battle of Red Cliffs against
the southern forces and retreated to his base. The Han dynasty formally ended in 220 A.D.
When Cao Pi, the son of Cao Cao, dethroned Emperor Xian and assumed the throne for himself.
Thus, began a new period in China called the Three Kingdoms.

3
Therefore, major theories that formulated on the collapse of the Dynasty were bad rulers, the
influence of either Empress dowager or the eunuchs and the Yellow Turban Revolt. There were
few more theories like a split between scholars and the emperor, empire and wealthy Elites,
strong peripheral provinces etc.
Another consequential theory to be considered for the collapse of the Dynasty is the drought
events that were identified in the period of the Han Dynasty, which led to famine (Liu et al.,
2020). There were major droughts that occurred at the early period of the Han era, but it was
suppressed by efficient food transportation. However, the famine in Henan Province at the end
of the Western Han and Eastern Han periods resulted in social instability, and in course of time,
it led to the demise of the Dynasty.
The Han Dynasty ruled for over two hundred years. Its rise and fall are all part of what makes
China the country that it is today. Chinese civilization and culture owe a lot to the mighty Han
Dynasty.
CONCLUSION
This report has explained the rise and fall of the Han dynasty civilization. Han dynasty which
lasted from 206BCE - 220CE, was one of the most powerful dynasties in China. 90% of today’s
Chinese ethnic groups originated from the Han dynasty. Han had a great culture and society
which other dynasties that followed emulated. The economy of Han dynasty flourished
throughout its existence, even till this day. The technological advancement of the Han dynasty
leads to the invention of the seismograph. Han’s technological development helped transform
its industrial sector which helped to keep economic growth. However, these technological
advancements came at a cost. The causes of the environmental problem as in the case of
deforestation and land degradation of the modern-day china has been dated back to over two
thousand years ago as early as the Han Dynasty. Some scholars argue that the deterioration and
exploitation of china’s environment are because of economic development during Han Dynasty
era; and that the effects of anthropogenic activities of The Han Dynasty are being felt in
modern-day China. Han dynasty had a stable government until 189CE when chaos rose within
the Han dynasty ruling family, which resulted at the end of the Han Dynasty Rule. The time of
the Han dynasty was an era of peace and prosperity which allowed China to expand to a major
world power today. Even though Han dynasty era has been a period of inspiration and
emulation for modern-day china, its development, Technological advancement, and economic
growth wasn’t sustainable enough to preserve resources; as a result, the modern-day china
suffers its consequences.

4
REFERENCES

[1] Totally History, “End of the Han Dynasty”, [Online]. Available:

https://totallyhistory.com/end-of-the-han-dynasty/
[2] Khan Academy, “The Fall of the Han Dynasty”, [Online]. Available:
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/whp-origins/era-4-regional/41-systems-
collapse-betaa/a/read-the-fall-of-the-han-dynasty-beta
[3] Britannica, “Han Dynasty”, [Online]. Available:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Han-dynasty
[4] China Highlights, “The History of China”, [Online]. Available:
https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/culture/china-history.htm
[5] China & Asia Cultural Travel, “Cultural Impact of the Han Dynasty”, [Online].
Available: https://www.asiaculturaltravel.co.uk/cultural-impact-of-the-han-dynasty/
[6] History, “10 Inventions from China’s Han Dynasty”, [Online]. Available:
https://www.history.com/news/han-dynasty-inventions
[7] “Han Dynasty”, [Online]. Available:
https://hunterhandynasty.weebly.com/economy.html
[8] The Met, “Han Dynasty”, [Online]. Available:
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/hand/hd_hand.htm
[9] Silk Road, “Han Dynasty”, [Online]. Available:
https://you.stonybrook.edu/silkroad/han-dynasty/
[10] Kim, Nanny. (2015). The last 3000 years in China. Chapter 3: The formation of empire:
The Qin and Han Dynasties (221 BC - 220 AD). 10.13140/RG.2.1.1673.6806.
https://you.stonybrook.edu/silkroad/han-dynasty/
[11] Liu, Y., Yan, X., Comparison of regional droughts impacts and social responses in the
historical China: A case study of the Han dynasty. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth
117 (2020) 102854. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pce.2020.102854
[12] Aubrey L. Hillman, JunQing Yu, Mark B. Abbott, Colin A. Cooke, Daniel J. Bain,
Byron A. Steinman, Rapid environmental change during dynastic transitions in Yunnan
Province, China, Quaternary Science Reviews, Volume 98, 2014, Pages 24-32,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.05.019