1. Libertyville High School
Qin and Han Dynasties
Libertyville High School

2. The Qin (Chin) Dynasty (242-202 BC)
Arose out of the Time of Warring States
Took title of Shi Huangdi (First Emperor)
Applied legalist philosophical methods to run state

3. Qin Dynasty Strategy Destroy power of other warlords
“Strengthen the trunk, weaken the branches”
Commanded nobility to live in capital city
Confiscated lands, weapons of nobility

4. Qin Dynasty Silenced criticism Centralized government power
Murdered hundreds of Confucian scholars
Burned books NOT about medicine and farming
Centralized government power
Massive forced labor on road building project
Strict regulation of currency, law – even length of wagon axis

5. Qin Dynasty: Results Unified virtually all of modern day China
Building projects
Great Wall
Massive tomb

6. Great Wall of China Zhou rulers had built many small walls vs. nomads
Shi Huangdi was determined to link walls
Built by forced labor of 100,000s of peasants
Choice: work or die
Many who died became “fill” for wall
Over 1,400 miles long (long way to go around!)

7. Huangdi’s Tomb Terra Cotta soldiers created to serve emperor in death
Individualized faces, based on real soldiers of army
Location lost until 1974

8. Fall of Qin Dynasty Regime was horribly unpopular
High taxes & repressive government
Scholars were either killed or forced into hiding
Poor were worked to death on public projects
Shi Huangdi died and a peasants revolt broke out; Han Dynasty set up in 202 BC

9. Han Dynasty (202 BC-220 AD)
Considered the greatest period of Chinese history
Liu Bang, a former Qin policeman, became leader of peasant revolt
202 BC: revolt successful, Bang set self up as emperor

10. Han Government Based on Confucian principles
Goal was the unification of China
Accomplishments
Lowered taxes
Established civil service
Han Officials (above); nobles (below)

11. Han Government Civil service created
Jobs no longer depended on who you knew
Initiated civil service exam, based on Confucian ideas
Now, best person got job, not best connected
Today, Chinese refer to selves as “People of Han”

12. Han Technology Paper, based on wood pulp (105 AD)
Hydraulic power (bellows of steel mill)
Steel, combining wrought and cast iron
Scientific explanations of lunar & solar eclipses

13. Silk Road
From 138 BC, Han emperors ordered patrols of trade routes into Central Asia
Began sending diplomats to other states
Received envoys from Romans!
Trade route reached Mediterranean shore

14. Fall of Han Dynasty Emperors became weak, disinterested in fairness
Peasant rebellions, nobles joined in
Han lost control
Civil war for next 350 years