A Han descendant named Liu Xiu, who owned a huge domain
near Nanyang, in 25 CE founded the Later Han dynasty, also known as the Eastern
Han because he moved the capital to Luoyang in the east from Chang'an in the
Wei valley, where the irrigation system had been destroyed. As Guang Wu Di he
represented Henan and other landowners and ruled for 32 years by suppressing
the Red Eyebrows and other rebels, freeing those who had fallen into slavery
during the revolutionary era, and re-instituting a strong central administration.
With fewer great landowners and a smaller imperial clan and ruling class, tax
returns enabled the Chinese empire to recover gradually and prosper. Under
General Ma Yuan they reconquered the south and northern Vietnam in 43 CE.
Whereas the Former Han dynasty had only three uprisings in the southwest during
two centuries, in the next two centuries Yue people in the south revolted 53
times, as the Chinese migrated there.
During the reigns of Ming Di (57-75) and Zhang Di (75-88)
China reconquered Central Asia and the northern nomads. In 65 CE Ming Di
pardoned for subversion his brother, the king of Chu, because he had recited
the subtle words of Lao-zi and
honored the humane cult of the Buddha.
It was also said that after a dream Ming Di sent a mission to the west, and two
Indian monks brought back Buddhist scriptures. Yet more than half of 500
officials imprisoned were killed by flogging. In 73 a Chinese army led by Dou
Gu defeated the Xiongnu, and the historian Ban Gu's brother Ban Chao had
shamans murdered to prevent them from helping the enemy. In 89 after they had
13,000 killed, 81 Xiongnu tribes totaling 200,000 people surrendered to the Han
army. Ban Chao was appointed protector-general of the Western Regions in 91 and
kept order there until his death in 102. More than fifty states sent hostages
to Luoyang with tribute in 94 CE; as hostages sons of prominent barbarian
leaders could be educated in Chinese culture. The Chinese emperor sent gold and
silk, and the Xiongnu tribute included jade, horses, and wine. In 110 a large
Qiang revolt in Liangzhou caused Han forces to withdraw from that area. After
twenty years military service Ban Chao's son Ban Yung gained control over the
Turfan depression and got the Kucha, Khotan, and Yarkand to submit in 127. Han
garrisons occupied the Gansu corridor until the middle of the 2nd century when
Han power began to decline.
At the beginning of the first century a hundred men a
year entered government by passing civil service examinations. A great
conference of Confucian scholars was held in 79 CE to discuss interpretation of
the Confucian classics. Wang Chong (27-c. 97) believing in a natural order was
not afraid to criticize Confucius, Mencius,
and other philosophers. From a poor family and having to read books in a
bookstore, he condemned the superstitions involved in omens and portents,
suggesting natural explanations for natural phenomena. He wrote that saying
human nature is neither good nor evil is like saying a person's capacity is
neither high nor low. In 83 Wang Chong summarized in Balanced
Discussion (Lunheng) previous Confucian philosophers' views on good
and evil in human nature and concluded that Menciusdescribed
those above average as good, Xun-zi those
below average as evil, and Yang Xiong the average as a mixture.
Wang Chong ridiculed ideas of life after death and the
fear of spirits as unscientific, though his ideas had little influence on
Chinese culture until recently. He summarized his teaching as hating falsehood
and wrote, "In things there is nothing more manifest than having results,
and in argument there is nothing more decisive than having evidence."1
Wang Chong did not blame Confucians for political failures if their character
was cultivated and their moral standards were high. He believed that misfortune
is often the result of fate rather than a divine punishment for moral wrong.
Able-bodied men could be drafted into the army at age 23
for one year of training and a year of garrison duty before being assigned to a
local militia for service when needed until the age of 56. So much silk was
exported by Han China that Rome noticed a drain on their gold and silver to the
east, though the Han government tried to prevent the smuggling of iron and
weapons. Chinese iron work was so sophisticated they could produce some steel.
The shoulder collar for draft animals was used very efficiently as was the
wheelbarrow. Porcelain is called china because it was invented and propagated
by the Chinese at this time; it was more sanitary and useful than wood. The
great literary culture of China led to the important invention of paper in 105
CE.
Han land taxes were usually only one-thirtieth of the yield,
but rent was about half. In the Earlier Han era there had been nearly 60
million taxpayers; in 57 CE only 21 million paid taxes, but by 105 it was back
up to 53 million. Although the bureaucracy was supposed to be based on merit,
officials usually achieved their positions by family and the patronage of
influential landowners. The burden of taxes on northern peasants caused some to
flee to the less-taxed south and others to rob or revolt. Once again powerful
families were weakening the financial system. As powerful relatives of
empresses, during the reign of Ho Di (88-106) the land-owning family of Dou
Xian became dominant at court; but he was killed. An Di (r. 106-125) allowed a
eunuch's adopted son to inherit a fief, and nineteen eunuchs were made marquises
when they helped Shun Di (r. 126-44) to the throne by liquidating the Yan
faction. In 133 Zuo Xiong's complaint ended the flogging of high officials
begun in Ming Di's reign, and the same year astrologer Zhang Heng, the first to
use a seismograph, after an earthquake criticized the corruption of the
eunuch-dominated court. After 135 CE eunuchs were able to pass on their wealth
and power to adopted sons.
Earthquakes also stimulated criticism during the reign of
Huan Di (146-68). In 146 the number of students in the imperial academy was
increased to 30,000. A royal Parthian named An Shigao gave up his throne to
become a Buddhist; he spent twenty years at Chang'an translating texts and
propagating the religion. Liang Ji was executed and his family wiped out in 159
by five court eunuchs, who were ennobled and given huge fiefs of 76,000
families each; the sale of the Liang estate was equal to half the grain taxes
for a year. Cui Shi (d. 170) worked on the annals in the Dongguan library but
was dismissed because he was a client of Liang Ji. Cui Shi found regional
officials disobeying imperial edicts and changing orders, but he also
criticized drastic administrative measures as cruel, oppressive, and
fault-finding. Nonetheless his Treatise on Politics in 151 was
more Legalist than Daoist in urging stricter laws regardless of privileges.
Daoist Zhu Mu (100-163) observed that violating natural virtue leads to
honoring humanity (ren) and justice (i); but when
propriety (li) and law (fa) are upheld, human
innocence is lost. He suggested this social degeneration to Confucian and
Legalist methods could be reversed by individuals cultivating depth of feeling
for other people and being more liberal and generous and less fault-finding.
Wang Fu (c. 90-165) failed in his official career because
he could not compromise his integrity; so he retired and commented on political
and commercial corruption in his Remarks of a Hermit. Believing
that evil conditions are created by people, he suggested they could be
corrected by rational and effective human effort, although what has accumulated
over generations can not be remedied by short-term measures. In his evil time
he felt that individuals needed tremendous effort to resist temptations and
pressures. Those in government must not be biased, narrow-minded, self-willed,
nor self-interested as a private person might be, but must act with social
intelligence to uphold public laws. Preservation of the state, which is
responsible for order, depends on the enlightened choice of officials. To
attain the great peace (taiping)the fundamentals of agriculture and
essential goods should be emphasized instead of the secondary luxuries and
refinements. He complained that increased concentration of wealth decreased
public revenues and caused poverty.
A cult of the Buddha associated
with Lao-zi was
formally introduced at the Luoyang court in 166. The same year attempts by
Confucian officials to stop the corruption led to hundreds of them being
arrested, as one memorandum advised a reduction of the palace women, who
numbered more than five thousand plus attendants. During the reign of Ling Di
(168-89) more eunuchs were ennobled, and thousands of officials barred from
office formed a league of literati and were killed by the great proscription.
In 175 it was decreed that all palace directors of departments would be
eunuchs; within three years all high offices were sold for cash.
In the propitious year 184 two great rebellions led by
Daoist faith healers erupted in the east and in Sichuan. In the east 360,000
armed followers of Zhang Jue's "great peace" that promised equality
and common ownership wore yellow turbans to represent the earth in their
struggle against the red fire of Han rule. They joined in feasts and fasts
lasting several days during which they confessed their sins and used amulets to
ward off disease they believed was caused by sin, as floods in the Yellow River
valley had led to epidemics. Zhang Jue and his two brothers were killed along
with half a million people that year, but the Yellow Turban rebellion went on
to devastate eight provinces in the next six years. The Sichuan rebels were
called the Five Bushels of Rice band for the dues they paid to master magician
Zhang Daoling and others. They also identified disease with sin, used amulets,
practiced confession, and abolished private property; but one of their leaders,
Zhang Lu, finally came over to the side of Cao Cao in 215.
As the tax-paying peasantry declined, so did the imperial
army that drafted them. Professional armies soon came under the control of
their commanders, who were usually rich landowners that became local warlords
as they fought the rebels. In 188 the imperial court tried to appoint
commissioners called shepherds stationed in rebellious areas with absolute
authority over all local officials. The next year general Yuan Shao of the
Henan family gained control of Luoyang and massacred more than two thousand
court eunuchs. General Dong Zhuo with support from the Qiang made Xian Di the
last Han emperor, and the next year his army sacked and burned the capital,
destroying the imperial library. Dong Zhuo moved the capital back to Chang'an;
but notorious for cruelty, he was assassinated in 192.
That year Cao Cao of a eunuch family incorporated 300,000
Yellow Turbans into his army, enabling him eventually to gain control of the
north by eliminating Yuan Shao's cousin Yuan Shu, who had founded a kingdom in
197. The Qiang maintained an independent kingdom in Liangzhou for thirty years
until they were conquered by Cao Cao's forces in 214. To explain why Cao Cao
overcame Yuan Shao a document described ten character faults of the latter
while crediting Cao Cao with having the way, justice, order, judgment,
strategy, virtue, humanity, and administrative and military skill. Yet a
contemporary physiognomist described Cao Cao as "a vile bandit in times of
peace, a heroic leader in a world of turmoil."2 While campaigning against
Zhang Lu in 215 Cao Cao composed Daoist poetry. Cao Cao was advised by the
"mad" Daoist Zhongchang Tong, who observed huge domains with
thousands of slaves and recommended ending the aristocracy with land reform and
strong laws. Instead Cao Cao put abandoned land under state control and divided
it among his veterans and dispossessed peasants in military colonies that would
give the new Wei kingdom a tax base as half tenants' crops went to the state,
which provided agricultural tools and draft animals.
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