Han Dynasty Research Paper

At the top of the social structure was the emperor. If any person was caught calling the emperor by name, they would have been punished by treason. Nobles were the class below the emperor. These are the only people who could get a government position. People with government positions could make clans and have more power than emperor. Nobles could not be arrested for anything unless the emperor’s permission was granted. Scholars were also the same tier as nobles, but only so many people could gain the positions. As such, scholars taught in private schools, supervised community projects, helped negotiate minor legal disputes, maintained local law and order, assisted in the government's collection of taxes

Although the foundation of both empires was built upon political integration, their organization of government differed. The Han Dynasty’s centralized power and administration was based on a bureaucratic system while the Roman Empire’s imperial power was based on a one-man sovereign. In order to improve Chinese society, which was under tyrannical rule under the Qin Dynasty, the Han Empire centralized their government with the synthesis between an imperial family and the new scholar-gentry class under a bureaucratic system. By securing power to overthrow the Qin Dynasty, Liu Bang provided lands to those military supporters who helped with the task. From the land grants given, the royal families and supporters were entitled

To begin with, both Imperial Rome and Han China were ruled under a bureaucracy. In Rome the emperor was the ultimate authority. The

Although this was a great accomplishment and is now considered a symbol of China, it actually lead to the fall of the Dynasty. Shi Huang Ti used forced labor to construct the wall. Many of the peasants that were forced to work on the wall died of exhaustion, exposure to the elements, and hunger. This made him very unpopular with the people of China. Also, to keep his building project underway, he was forced to raise taxes. The forced labor, high taxes, and many deaths while The Wall was constructed lead to a number of revolts after Shi Huang Ti’s death and ultimately the fall of the Qin Dynasty. Finally, although the Qin Dynasty may have begun the construction of this Chinese Symbol, the Han Dynasty actually continued building The Wall. This proves that despite the idea that the Qin Dynasty was more influential because of the construction of the Great Wall of China, the Han Dynasty actually was more important to the development of

The Han dynasty, instead, viewed their government bureaucracy in more high esteem. The origins of the Han dynasty bureaucracy were in the preceding Qin dynasty. This is described in one passage by Sima Qian, a Han historian, where he describes the first emperor of the Qin dynasty. In these writings he describes the first emperor, Qin Shihuangdi, as a very cruel despot who burned important writings, imposed cruel penalties, and was very arrogant.(FOOTNOTE). However, even Sima Qian acknowledges that he unified China through the appointment of officials to rule provinces, and standardizing their measurements and writing system.(FOOTNOTE). When the Qin dynasty ended in 202 BCE, however their bureaucratic system survived through the Han dynasty.(FOOTNOTE). This is significant because even though the Han viewed the Qin dynasty very poorly, they still enacted a bureaucracy that was very similar. The unique attributes of this bureaucracy was that it was more centralized, and cohesive then that of the Roman empire. Also, as mentioned earlier, it was better staffed and more equipped.

Political integration was a key in the development of both Imperial Rome and Han China. The organization of government within each empire was similar in that both empires administered its centralized power structure through the establishment of a bureaucracy. The bureaucratic system implemented by Han China was an alliance between the ruling imperial family and a new class, the scholar-gentry. To perpetrate its bureaucracy, the Han established a number of schools to educate the students in the principles necessary for political and social order. Upon graduation, the new

The Han dynasty tried to interpret confucian thoughts to fit the needs of the elite and even raising their status. The Han dynasty bureaucracy was far more sophisticated bureaucracy then Imperial Rome’s it relied heavily on the elites and slave labour. It was founded on Roman Law. It had a much greater emphasis on law codes even the emperors were follow to the law code. An example would be an emperor wanting to marry his niece so he changed the law so everyone can marry their nieces.

In Rome, the highest positions in the government were held by two leaders, who ruled the Roman Republic. A senate composed of citizens elected these leaders. This is different than the Han’s distribution of power because they believed in no citizen involvement in their government. The Han had a central control or supreme monarch which had total control over the people and gave citizens no influence towards leadership, unlike in Rome. They created social classes to bring together the people of the empire. In China, the leaders used a group of experienced bureaucrats while in Rome land was given to

Even though the Qin dynasty was seen as barbaric and brutal, the Han did implement some of the old Qin institutions into their new government. One of these institutions were the Commanderies. These were administrative divisions of land in which a governor would be appointed by the government and run it as the government or emperor wants it to be ran. This is institution is very useful for knowing how many people you have. When war comes and you need to draft able bodied men to go fight, you will know just how many you will be able to get. Another reason would be for tax purposes. It is also very useful to regulate the trade and growing of certain crops. Even more in depth than that the government can control what the children in the commanderies are taught and what propaganda they are seeing. Qin law is another thing that the Han used from the former dynasty. One example of this practice was the fact that women could bring up cases against men even though the women did not have the same rights as men. Punishments were also

The Han dynasty had a strong bureaucracy in its political control. Han Wudi strived to better the bureaucratic centralization. While doing so, they decreased the influence of nobles by announcing royal decree which broke up their large fiefs. In contrast, the Mauryan/Gupta Empires never accomplished a bureaucracy like the Han. Ashoka, the king of Mauryan Empire, tried to build an imperial bureaucracy; it later on failed to

The Qin and Han dynasties changed many things regarding how China was governed. Like when Qin Shi Huang standardized the units of measurement, currency, and the width of roads to ease trade within his country, strengthening the unity between areas. Another change is the Han dynasty’s usage of education. They let all boys receive an education to a certain extent, however, if they wanted to further their education more they would have to travel to the capital. One of the several changes Qin Shi Huang changed how dictators controlled China in many ways how he distributed his land and power. Many of the changes he implemented were used by Chinese rulers for over 2000 years, these changes created a lasting effect on how China was ruled. The Qin

The upper-levels of the government were staffed by highly educated scholar-officials who were selected by undergoing grueling writing examinations. Culturally, the Chinese started practicing a new philosophy called Confucianism ,which kind of served

This includes the three perfections calligraphy, poetry, and painting. Calligraphy is fancy writing. They traded and voyaged paintings, poems and calligraphy fonts. They also had block printing and porcelain. Block Printing is when a worker would use a piece of wood and start to carve out Chinese pictures, and text.

Also since it was cheaper, more people were able to afford it. The woodblock printing was also used to print Buddhist text. However some disagree, they claim the Song Dynasty was better because

The Ming Dynasty had created an empire. They had the government, the military, and the economic system to prove it. At different points in time, The Chinese Empire was the greatest in the world, for trade, military, and other key factors in a society.