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202 BC: Liu Bang proclaims himself emperor. (Gaozu)
195 BC: Death of Gaozu.
198-188 BC: Reign of Huidi. (Hán Huệ Đế)
188-180 BC: Regency of Lu Hou (Lữ Hậu)
180-157 BC: Reign of Wendi. (Hán Văn Đế)
157-141 BC: Reign of Jindi. (Hán Cảnh Đế)
154 BC: Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms.
141-87 BC: Reign of Wudi. (Hán Vũ Đế)
87-74 BC: Reign of Zhaodi. (Hán Chiêu Đế)
80-68 BC: Regency of General Huo Guang
74 BC: 27-day reign of Liu He, deposed emperor.
74-48 BC: Reign of Xuandi. (Hán Tuyên Đế)
48-33 BC: Reign of Yuandi. (Hán Nguyên Đế)
33-7 BC: Reign of Chengdi (Hán Thành Đế)
7-1 BC: Reign of Aidi. (Hán Ai Đế)
1 BC – 5 AD: Reign of the young emperor Pingdi, poisoned by Wang Mang. (Hậu Phế Đế)
Once in power, Wang Mang (Vương Mãng) initiated a series of monetary (three times in 9, 10, and 14 AD) and economic reforms in the country. The classes most affected were the nobles and merchants because with each currency change, the old coins were exchanged for new ones at a less favorable rate, which led people to produce counterfeit coins instead of losing value during the exchange. Counterfeiting was severely punished. However, the peasants were not affected by this reform because they sold their grains in small quantities to buy necessary goods in the market and had no concerns regarding cash. From then on, Wang Mang earned the hatred of the nobles and wealthy merchants, but according to the Swedish sinologist H. Bielenstein, at the time the economic reforms were implemented, the real cause of his downfall was a series of natural disasters (drought, flooding, locusts) leading first to famine, then banditry, rebellion, and finally civil war. The flooding caused a large migration of populations living in the disaster-stricken areas.
This disaster led the starving refugees to band together in groups, pillaging the regions they passed through and rising up against the government troops supposed to suppress them. Known as the Red Eyebrows (Xích Mi) because they dyed their eyebrows red, these hordes soon achieved their first victory in the year 22 and began to invade other western regions. Meanwhile, there were revolts led by the Han aristocracy, but they were all suppressed and harshly crushed because they lacked popular support. It took thirteen years of civil war for the Liu clan to regain confidence in Liu Xiu (or Lưu Tú), a talented and magnanimous figure later known as Guangwu (Hán Quang Vũ Đế) to restore the empire and the Han dynasty.
This marks the beginning of the Eastern Han period (Đông Hán). Upon his rise to power, he continuously acted in favor of the poor and slaves. Unlike Wudi, he pursued a policy of non-intervention in vassal states. Yet it was he who later sent Ma Yuan (Mã Viên) to suppress the rebellion of the Trưng sisters, Trưng Trắc and Trưng Nhị, in the territory of the Yue. He was considered one of the great emperors of the Han dynasty alongside Wudi by historians.
During archaeological excavations, it is known that the Han descendants were ahead of the Romans in several fields at that time. They were the first to invent a product that allowed them to convey their thoughts and knowledge. They often called it « zhi » or (giấy or paper in French). In 105 AD, a eunuch named Cai Lun (Thái Luân) from the imperial court, observing how wasps used to chew wood fibers in building their cardboard nests, had the idea to imitate them and thus invented paper, which was later presented to Emperor Hedi (Hán Hòa Đế) of the Eastern Han dynasty (Đông Hán). Archaeology has recently contradicted this version because fragments of paper made from plant fibers have been found that are clearly older than Cai Lun’s time, some dating back to the reign of Wudi and others excavated from tombs at the end of the Western Han and the beginning of the Eastern Han. It is very common to find chronological inconsistencies that the Chinese deliberately wanted to introduce into their traditional history established until then by the dynasties, particularly those of Qin and Han, in Confucian orthodoxy and in the period of conquest and annexation of new territories if one continues to have a Cartesian mindset.
Chinese demiurges such as Fuxi (Phục Hi), Nuwa (Nữ Oa), Pangu (Bàn Cổ), Shennong (Thần Nông) were borrowed from southern populations. This is the case of the great Chinese scholar Ruey Yih-Fu, who sees in Fuxi and Nuwa a specific cultural trait of the Nan Man (Man Di) (Southern Barbarians), or that of Le Blanc, the translator of Huainanzi (Hoài Nam Tử). For the latter, the Fuxi-Nuwa cycle is a tradition of the kingdom of Chu (Sỡ Quốc). The sons of Han even introduced into their literature a creation myth of Pangu collected from the ancestors of Yao (Baptandier). The Chinese archaeologist Yan Wenming describes this as the unique product of multiple origins, or one must be like the famous sinologist Chang Kwang-Chih to speak of a phenomenon within a sphere of cultural interaction.
Until then, the sons of Han wrote with a brush or ink made from soot on wooden tablets, silk boards, or bamboo. It seems that according to some archaeologists, the manufacturing method that Cai Lun presented to Emperor Heidi in the year 105 was only the synthesis and improvement of previous experiences aimed at facilitating the gradual replacement of silk and bamboo by paper, which was less expensive in the face of increasing demands of that time.
Structure of the Tombs
At the beginning of the Western Han period, vertical pit tombs were still numerous. This architectural tradition is illustrated by the tombs of the Marquise Dai at Mawangdui, near Changsha (Hunan), those of Dabaotai near Beijing, and Fenghuangshan near Jiangling (Hebei). These were gradually replaced over the years by the horizontal tomb model that spread throughout the Han empire.
Many factors contributed to this change and gave funerary art a new brilliance. Besides the imposing dimensions of the burials, there is the richness of their funerary furnishings and the religious beliefs linked to the Han’s transition to the afterlife. For this reason, princes, nobles, large landowners, army officers, and wealthy merchants did not hesitate to display the privileges of their social position and function, which they hoped to maintain in the afterlife (renxun), and to show their fervor of piety and devotion towards the deceased by attempting to provide everything needed through funerary objects (or mingqi) (spiritual objects) (Minh Khí). Those produced under the Han reign were particularly refined. Endowed with symbolic meaning, they included miniature models of ritual vessels and musical instruments intended for rites and ceremonies, as well as agricultural buildings or dwellings.
Techniques and inventions under the Han
Under the Han, the Chinese wrote a lot: government reports, poems, historical accounts, a gigantic dictionary, and a nationwide census in the year 2 AD with 57,671,400 inhabitants. At the beginning of the Eastern Han, hemp paper, of poor quality, was used to wrap fish. From the 3rd century onwards, paper became the main writing medium in China. When the emperor traveled on his chariot, he was protected from the sun and rain by a circular canopy that could be closed thanks to a system of sliding metal ribs.
It is known that the sons of the Han used the wheelbarrow and pulley to move goods, while in agriculture, they used the treadle hammer to grind grains and ores. It was under the Han reign that the Chinese used water wheels for various purposes. Thanks to contact with the northern barbarians, the Xiongnu, Chinese artisans borrowed techniques from them, which they managed to master and produce objects of exceptional quality. This was discovered during excavations in princely tombs with chariot ornaments, tableware, jewelry, belt buckles, etc.
To guard against calamities such as earthquakes, the Chinese scholar Zhang Heng invented in 132 AD the world’s first seismometer to alert the Han court and indicate the direction of the earthquake’s epicenter. The invention of the odometer also belonged to him, along with the first rotating celestial globe. Porcelain was born in China, whose purity and whiteness justify the name given to it by the Italians in the 15th century as « la coquille nacrée (porcellana). » The main element in the composition of porcelain is kaolin, known during the Eastern Han period. Under their reign, porcelain began to experience significant growth. During the Western Han and earlier periods (the Warring States), the Chinese were able to create geographic maps painted on silk and stored in boxes. Sent by Prince Dan of Yan during the Spring and Autumn period (Xuân Thu), the hero Jing Ke planned to use a folded map to conceal a dagger and assassinate Qin Shi Huang Di. It was only in 1973 that the existence of these maps was discovered in tomb No. 3 of Mawangdui (168 BC). These (2 maps and a city plan) thus constitute the oldest maps in China and in the world. In the field of astronomy, Han China experienced remarkable development.
The astronomy text discovered in tomb 3 of Mawangdui (168 BC) accurately reports observations related to the movement of the five planets during the period 246-177 BC. The complete journey of Saturn across the sky is counted as 30 years, a figure not far from the 29.46 years given by today’s astronomers.
Jade is one of the most difficult stones to work with. Yet since the Neolithic period, Chinese lapidaries managed to skillfully carve jade, probably using quartzite pastes or garnets, which gives it exceptional artistic value with rings, circles, representations of dragons, etc. During the Shang period (Thương Ân dynasty), jade was intended purely for ornamental purposes. This is what archaeologists discovered in the tomb of Queen Fu Hao (755 jades found).
Then during the Western Zhou period, it became customary to cover the deceased with masks and breastplates made of several pieces. This is a sign of distinction or nobility by placing breastplates on the body of the deceased dressed in decorated silk. The masks and shrouds were not intended for decorative purposes but had a religious function in the quest for immortality under the Han.
Small jade amulets were used to seal the nine orifices of the deceased’s body to allow their spirit to live in the afterlife. However, the role of the jade bi, placed on the forehead of the King of Nanyue, Zhao Mo (Triệu Muội), is unknown. The shrouds of Emperor Wudi’s brother, Liu Shen, and his wife, Princess Dou Wan, found in Mancheng and composed of 2,498 jade plaques of various sizes sewn with gold thread, testify to the perfect mastery of Chinese lapidaries in creating such shrouds and luxurious ornamental objects from the Han period.
The Chinese were accustomed to lacquering a wide variety of supports. Some lacquered objects, notably a red wooden cup found in a tomb in Zhejiang, reveal their extraordinary craftsmanship as early as the Neolithic period (5th-4th millennia BCE). It should be noted that this region belonged to the kingdom of Wu (Ngô Việt), part of the ancient territory of the Baiyue before being annexed by the kingdom of Chu, which was later conquered by Qin Shi Huang Di during the unification of the empire. Is this their craftsmanship or that of the Bai Yue? In any case, following the example of the kingdom of Chu, the sons of Han demonstrate perfect mastery in the art of bending wood, creating original and stylized works of high quality that leave archaeologists speechless with admiration during their excavations.
These lacquers recall the motifs and intricate designs found on bronze vessels. They succeeded in making lacquer the flagship product under the Han dynasty. It is known that lacquered objects buried in tombs can be preserved for tens of centuries thanks to the presence of an enzyme acting as a protein catalyst (urushiol) on the thin film of the objects, which is heat-resistant and impermeable to water and corrosive acids. More than a hundred lacquered objects (trays, cups with ear-shaped handles (erbei), vases, etc.) have been unearthed at Mawangdui near Changsha (Hunan). Other original works in very good condition were recovered from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng at Leigudun (Hubei).
Bibliographic references:
- La Chine des Han. Histoire et civilisation. Office du Livre. 1982
- Splendeur des Han. Essor de l’empire céleste. Editeur Flammarion. 2014
- Chine ancienne. Des origines à la dynastie des Tang. Maurio Scarpari. Gründ.
- Trésors de Chine millénaires mais intacts. National Geographic. Octobre 2001
- La dynastie des Han. Vingt siècles d’influence sur la société chinoise. National Geographic. Février 2004.
- Chine. La gloire des empereurs. Paris Musées. Editions Findakly.
- La Chine des premiers empereurs. Editions Atlas. 1991
- Splendeurs des Han. Essor de l’empire céleste. Editions des Beaux Arts. 2014.
Chronologie des Han orientaux