Western Jin Dynasty Research Paper

China during the classical period, a span of time stretching from 1000 B.C.E.-500 C.E., was ruled by many families, each having their own dynasty. The very first dynasty of this period was the Zhou, coming into power after overthrowing the Shang. The last Shang emperor, Di Xin, had essentially abandoned matters of the state in favor of hedonistic activities, using tax money to fund them and therefore becoming very unpopular. This caused the Zhou uprising which led to the establishment of the Mandate of Heaven, a concept that not only allowed the Zhou to gain and maintain cultural power of the Chinese people, but led to widespread notions in Chinese society of the validity of autocracy and a need for extremely centralized government that would

    Emperor Gaozu unified China by doing many things.  He conquered regions near the Tang, expanding the Dynasty.  He also implemented rules put in place by Emperor Wen of Sui that were replaced when Emperor Yang came to power.  Under his ruling, a new coin was minted and trade was promoted. (Totally History)

In the period 1046B.C- 256B.C the Zhou Dynasy ruled. Next, during 221B.C -206B.C, the Qin Dynasty ruled. Finally from 400 years to 220C.E, the Han Dynaty ruled. Throughout all these dynasties, political, economical, social,and religion, were problems which led to different scenerious.

Emperor Wudi’s greatest achievement was his vast territorial expansion, taking over other empires and tribes, but that success came at the expense of his country’s welfare because he abused his power to protect himself and fund his military. His perspective on a great dynasty is a dynasty with a lot of power and a thriving economy. Wudi was somewhat successful because he conquered a lot of lands and boosted the economy. In the long run and along the process, however, he hurt his economy and people along the way and in the long run. Emperor Wudi’s powerful authority combined with a rich government to fund the strong military led to extensive campaigns at the expense of his country’s welfare.

The Song dynasty came in to power in 960 and ended in 1279. It consisted of the Northern Song and Southern Song. Northern Song was founded by Zhao Kaungyin, a military

Finally uprisings and economic decline plunged the Qing Dynasty into failure because of the rebellions, peasant discontentment, which both resulted in resentment of the dynasty. Another factor influencing the economic decline was natural disasters.

Despite being the shortest ruling dynasty at fifteen years, the Qin dynasty served a vital role in the development of China’s civilization (51). The Qin dynasty was prefaced by a period of instability caused by an ineffective political system and war between several regions all vying to overtake the others. After the Qin kingdom rose as the victor, King Cheng established for himself the title of Shi huangdi, or emperor, and looked to create a political system that would prevent the empire from fragmenting again. To achieve such a centralized government, Shi Huangdi sacrificed his people’s intellectual freedom and lives and produced a connected and standardized China, whose efficiency and strength still impacts the vision

Before 221 BC, China was separated into different states, and there was great conflict between them. This was the Warring States Period (475 - 221 BC) Qin Shi Huangdi, then known as Ying Zheng, was made ruler of the Qin district, and made many great changes to society. He created a fair military system, built one of the worlds most iconic national structures, and unified the warring states that would come to be known as China. Qin was a highly regarded leader, and changed China for the better.

There was many dynasties and empires to come about between 200 BCE and 600 CE. One specific dynasty was the Han dynasty. This dynasty was involved in the unification of China. This dynasty was formed by Lia Bang and lasted from 206 BCE to 220 CE, with an interruption phase from 9 CE to 23 CE.The Han dynasty was between decentralized and centralized. Han Wudi was the greatest emperor of this dynasty, who pursued centralization and expansion. There was constant attacks from Xiongnu nomads of C. Asia; however, Han Wudi briefly came to control Xiongnu. Wang Mang, the regent for a two year old emperor, took power himself. He tried to redistribute land, but the wealthier people that did not want to get some of their land taken away assassinated him. In the later Han dynasty, emperors manage with struggles to control resentment. Another succession to come about was the Roman empire. The Roman empire started out as a republic, but soon Julius Caesar Seized Rome in 49 B.C.E. Julius Caesar centralized control but was eventually assassinated in 44 B.C.E. After Julius came Octavian, who ran a monarchy that was disguised as a republic. Octavian continued expansion and integration of the empire. There was an extreme amount of poor people; in fact, one third of the population was in slavery. One of the only things that was attempted was giving them bread and circuses to distract them. There was no policy developed for them. The Roman empire went through many rulers. Although these

Qin Shi Huangdi, the first Qin emperor, was a proactive and ambitious emperor who implemented a central bureaucratic system that oversaw the evolution and unification of China at the cost of public sentiment. The Qin Dynasty is considered among the most influential dynasties as it laid the foundation for the massive cultural and economic development of China that took place during the Han Dynasty, but it also failed to achieve many of its pro-commoner ideological goals. In fact, socioeconomic disparity was not alleviated and despite the notion of enriching the lives of the common people, it was under Qin rule in which public resentment of the authoritarian government peaked as there were countless peasant revolts against the iron-handed bureaucratic rule of China. Because a paranoid emperor alone wielded political clout and influence, the tumultuous few years of Qin reign was rife with paranoia and suspicion among the masses. Although the Qin Dynasty is seldom thought as possessing the same glaring discrepancy between ideology and state that the Communist regime in post-World War II China had despite the similarities, the failure of the flawless egalitarian state models in socioeconomic and political aspects during the Qin Dynasty mirrored the developments in early Communist China.

Originally there were six Chinese kingdoms (Warring States Period), Qin ended this and brought them all under one kingdom. In 230 BC, Ying Zheng started his conquest of the Warring States. The Han State was conquered first in 230 BC. In 228 BC, Qin occupied the territory of the Zhao State. In 226 BC, Qin occupied the capital Ji (now Beijing) of the Yan State. Then the King of Yan moved the capital to Liaodong. In 225

The Han dynasty was a golden era for China. It saw the greatest land confiscation of the nation’s history and economic success. In this paper I will be focusing on the structure of the national government, the monopolizing of iron and salt, the Yumen Pass and the Yellow Turban rebellion. Join me as we take a trip back in time to visit a time in Chinas history that is highly revered.

Both dynasty’s expanded their previous borders to greater the strength of the state since the size of a dynasty’s land was directly proportional to the power of the dynasty. The warring states period started out with every state constantly fighting each other in order to conquer land. One of the warring states was the state of Qin, of which used impressive military tactics to progressively helped them conquer more land. Eventually the state of Qin took over the other warring states and united them as a whole, therefore creating an empire. After the amalgamation of the seven warring states, one single government was established to rule the entire domain. Under its new strict rules and draconian policies, the empire consolidated and led to an avant-garde: flourishing in art, literature, transportation and weaponry, which proves the power of a unified empire. One source stated that after the unification of the seven warring states, the Qin became so dominant and advanced that “iron tools and weapons

To combat landlordism, he employed various strategies such as heavy taxation on the largest landowners of Jiang-nan (Brook, p. 79). However, these attempts were not enough to undermine the gentry’s landholding power (Brook, p. 79). With his late-Ming perspective, Zhang Tao would later write, “the rich get richer and the poor, poorer” (Brook, p. 79). This reflection would further gain relevance and legitimacy as the Ming dynasty advanced.

Before the Qin Dynasty, China was composed of a network of city states that were loyal to the Chinese king. The seven Warring States had their own institutions that were run by aristocrats. The Qin Dynasty took initiative to expand their territory and to unite the Chinese empire together. Through their ruthless military techniques the Qin Dynasty was able to conquer the city states in China. The Qin Dynasty ruled from 221 BCE – 206 BCE; during their regime, Emperor Qin’s primary goal was to unify the Chinese people. Even though the Qin Dynasty was a short-lived empire, it played a major role in unifying the Chinese empire and provided a foundation for succeeding regimes through a centralized government, standardized systems, and through infrastructure.