10/24/12

[2nd Brooke]

early china-
the qin dynasty were very harsh on taxes. labor quotas, and strict punishments
the people of the qin dynasty rebelled and a war of rival kings started throughout all of china
two powerful people emerged, xiang yu & liu bang
HAN DYNASTY-
these two leaders ended up hating each other and fought their last battle in 202 BC - liu bang won and declared himself the first emporer of the han dynasty
the han dynasty ruled china of more than 400 years. however their rule was broken up into 2 parts because there was a time were they lost their power for a short period of time
veryinfluential, even today people from china refer to themselves as people of the han.
Bangs steps to unified china-
first goal was to destroy the rival kings' power
he was going to do this by establishing CENTRALIZED GOVERNMENT.
this is where the central authority controls the running of the state
lowered taxes and softened harsh legal punishment
Empress Lu-
when bang died his son became emporer, but not really
the real ruler was the son's mother. one of the bang's wives
when Lu died the peope that supported bang were upset and they executed the people who lu had put into power
WUDI-
after 30-40 years of turmoil and poor leadership, Bang's great grandson took control of the hans and his name was wudi
he is known throughout history as the "MARTIAL EMPORER" because his idea of expanding china was throughout war
the first set of people that he had to deal with were the XIONGNU.
XIONGNU-
were fierce nomads known for their deadly archery from horseback
usually attacked chinas farms and would take people hostage and steal goods
early han emporers would try to send them gifts to stop but they usually would not quit
PYRAMID-
top tier- emporer
2nd tier-kind, governer
3rd tier-state officials, nobles, and scholers
4th tier- pheasants
5th tier- artisans, merchants
6th tier- soldiers
7th tier- slaves
Han technology- advancements included paper. paper was invented in 105 ad. before this book written in silk
silk is very expensive compared to paper
so this allowed for many more people to get an education
RESEARCH
great wall of china--- 2 paragraphs