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Imperial China
221 BCE-220 CE
Agriculture and Human Labor
 Production of wealth and taxes support China
 Fund gov’t activities military, daily tasks
 Large populations need increase in food
production canal construction and surplus during
times of shortage
 Human labor=fundamental commodity, free peasants
and taxes
 Donate 1 month labor to public works
 2 years military service
 Expanded at expense of ethnic groups
The Qin Dynasty
(221–206 BCE)
 The Qin dynasty
emerged in 221 BCE
from China’s bloody
civil wars between
400 BCE and 200
BCE
 Qin Shi Huangdi
established the
dynasty.
The Qin Dynasty (221–206 BCE)
 The Qin made the central government stronger.
 The government was divided into three ministries:
the civil, the military, and the censorate.
 Members of the censorate checked on government
officials to make sure they were doing their jobs.
 Future Chinese dynasties adopted this practice and
kept this structure.
The Qin Dynasty (221–206 BCE)
 Qin Shi Huangdi unified the Chinese world
 Monetary system
 Road system
 Standardized weights and measures
 Standardized Chinese written language
He extended the empire south to
modern-day Vietnam.
 He burned books by and about Confucius and
promoted learning only about military matters
and economics.
Problems with Invasion
 The Xiongnu (SHE-OONG-
nu) had mastered warfare
from horseback.
 They attacked the Chinese
living in the north.
 To protect these people,
Qin Shi huangdi built a
system of walls called the
Great Wall of China.
Han Dynasty
 The Han dynasty was
one of China’s
greatest dynasties.
 It emerged in 202 B.C.
and was founded by
Liu Bang, who was of
peasant origin.
 Liu Bang replaced Legalism
with Confucianism
 Hierarchy
 Patriarchy
 Moral government
 Filial piety (family)
 He kept the division of the
central government into
three ministries and the
division of the empire into
provinces.
 Han rulers chose
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government officials by
merit, not birth.
Gentry
Instituted the civil
service examination.
Established schools to
train candidates for
government service.
Students learned
Confucius’s teachings,
Chinese history, and
Chinese law.
Han Dynasty
 The free peasants suffered during the Han period.
 Military service and a month’s forced labor each
year were required.
 The tripling of the population shrank the size of the
individual farm plot to about one acre a person—
barely enough to survive.
 Free farmers became tenant farmers.
Han Dynasty
 Technology progressed under the Han.
 There were advances in textile manufacturing, water
mills, and iron casting, the latter leading to the
invention of steel.
 The invention of the rudder and fore-and-aft rigging
made sailing into the wind possible for the first time.
 Chinese traders were able to sail into the Indian
Ocean, expanding trade tremendously.
Water Mill
 Importance to success of






empire
Paper was developed in the
Han period.
Horse collar
Roads
Courier system of boats,
horses and footpaths.
Canals
Silk production, monopoly on
silk, sought to control Silk
Road campaigns into Asia
Inventions
Decline of the Han Dynasty
 Over time, Han rulers too involved with pleasure
weakened the government.
 The aristocratic families took over the power void,
often corruptly and brutally.
 Peasant revolts became common.
 Hired foreign soldiers not loyal
 Burdened by military expenditures, nomadic attacks
 The Han dynasty fell in A.D. 220. Civil wars
followed, and the next dynasty was not established
for four hundred years.
How effective were the Qin and
Han authorities in maintaining
control over the Chinese?
Effective
Ineffective