Pride of China

The four-century-long Han rule is divided into two accomplishments the Earlier or western Han and the Later or eastwardern Han. In between these two was the casual Hsin Dynasty (AD 9-23). The Chinese show their pride in Han accomplishments by calling themselves the Han citizenry. Philosophies and institutions that began in the Chou and Chin periods reached maturity under the Han. During Han times, the Chinese distinguished themselves in make scientific discoveries, umteen of which were not known to Westerners until centuries later. The Chinese were intimately go in astronomy.They invented sundials and water clocks, divided the day equally into ten and therefore into 12 periods, devised the lunar calendar that continued to be used until 1912, and pre dispense sunspots regularly. In mathematics, the Chinese were the first to use the place appreciate system, whereby the value of a component of a number is indicated by its placement. Other innovations were of a more practical nature wheelbarrows, locks to control water levels in streams and canals, and compasses. The Han Chinese were especially distinguished in the field of art.The famous sculpture of the Han truehearted horse and the carving of the jade burial suit found in Han period tombs are only two superb examples. The technique of make lacquer ware was also highly developed. The Chinese are proudest of the tradition of historic writing that began in the Han period. Ssu-ma Chien (145? -85? BC) was grand historian (an office that unite the duties of court recorder and astronomer) during the time of Wu Ti. His Historical Records, which took ten historic period to complete, complete the pattern and style followed by subsequent histories.In the Later Han, the historical tradition was continued by the cooking pan family. Pan Piao, the father, started to bring Ssu-ma Chiens Records up to date. The work was continued by his son Pan Ku (twin brother of the world-wide Pan Chao) and was completed by his daughter Pan Chao, chinawares earliest and most famous woman scholar. Unlike Ssu-ma Chien, the Pan family limited their work to 230 years of the Early Han. This was the first of the dynastic histories, subsequently written for every dynasty.Pan Chao also wrote a highly influential work on the commandment of women, Lessons for Women. Lessons emphasized the virtues of women, which restricted womens activities. The Confucianism that the Han Dynasty sophisticated differed from the original teachings of Confucius. The leading Han philosophers, Tung Chung-shu and others, used principles derived from the archeozoic Chinese school of sight of nature to interpret the ancient texts. The Chinese philosophy of nature explained the workings of the universe by the alternating forces of yin and yangdark and baselessand the five elements earth, wood, metal, fire, and water.The Han period was marked by a broad eclecticism. many an(prenominal) Han emperors favored Taoism, especially the T aoist idea of immortality. Earlier (Western) Han (202 BC-AD 9). The Han Kao Tsu preserved many features of the Chin imperial system, such as the administrative division of the country and the exchange bureaucracy. But the Han formulas lifted the Chin ban on philosophical and historical writings. Han Kao Tsu called for the operate of men of talent, not only to restore the destroyed classics but to serve as officials in the government.From that time, the Chinese Empire was governed by a system of officials theoretically selected on merit. Such a practice has few parallels elsewhere at this early date in human history. The new ruler who restored peace and order was a member of the house of Han, the original Liu family. His act was Kuang Wu Ti, Shining Martial Emperor, from AD 25 to 57. During the Later Han, which lasted another two hundred years, a concerted but unsuccessful effort was made to restore the glory of the former Han. The Later Han scored considerable success in conva lescent lost territories, however.Sent to befriend the tribes on the northwestern frontier in AD 73, a great diplomat-general, Pan Chao, eventually led an the States of 70,000 almost to the borders of eastern Europe. Pan Chao returned to China in 101 and brought backside information about the Roman Empire. The Romans also knew about China, but they thought of it only as the land where silk was produced. The Han Dynasty lasted four hundred years. The term The Han people comes from the name of this dynasty. (The English term for China comes from the name of the previous dynasty Chin). The Han dynasty is the East Asian counterpart of and contemporary with Rome in its golden age.During this dynasty, China officially became a Confucian state, prospered domestically, and extended its political and cultural decide over Vietnam, Central Asia, Mongolia, and Korea before finally collapsing under a miscellany of domestic and external pressures. The Han ruling line was briefly interrupted b y the usurpation of a famous reformer, Wang Mang, whose interlude on the throne from A. D. 9 to 23 in known as the Hsin dynasty. Historians therefore subdivide the Han period into two parts, Former (or Western) Han (capital at Chang-an, present day Xian) and Later (Eastern) Han (capital at Loyang).