KEY TERMS DEFINED:)
1.) Liu Bang-
- During the civil war after Shi Huangdi's death, many rival kings wanted to regain control over the areas that they had before. Xiang Yu who was an aristocratic general allowed the warlords to keep their territories if they would accept him as their feudal lord.
- One of his generals Liu Bang rebelled and fought against him.
- Liu Bang won and named himself the first emperor of the Han Dynasty.
- He created a centralized governement, lowered taxes, and made the harsh punishments not so harsh.
- The peace and stability he brought to China was appreciated by people throughout the emperor.
- When Liu Bang became emperor he established a centralized government
- In a centralized government a central authority controls the ruling of the state.
- This meant that all of the provincials had to report to Liu Bang's central government.
- The people in the central government were called commanderies.
- The Han Dynasty begun when Liu Bang named himself the emperor after winning against Xiang Yu.
- The Han Dynasty was broken into two periods: The Former Han and the Later Han.
- Many Chinese call themselves "the people of the Han" because how much the Han Dynasty has influenced China.
- The emperor Wudi, who was Liu Bang's great grand-son set up civil service jobs because it would help him rule.
- Civil service is when the civilians can obtain government jobs when they take certain examinations/tests.
- These tests included topics history, law, literature, and Confucianism.
- Only the sons of wealthy landowners could do civil service because peasants did not have enough money to educate their sons by sending them to a school.
- A monopoly happens when a group has absolute authority over the production and distribution of particular goods.
- In China, the government established monopolies on the mining of salt, the making/forging of iron, the minting of coins, and the fermentation of alcohol.
- The trade routes/caravan trails used to trade silk and other goods were called the silk roads.
- The silk went from China to the West.
- To make the empire unified, the Chinese government allowed captured people to be part of Chinese culture.
- Farmers were sent to the conquered areas and encouraged to intermarry with the people already living there.
- Also, the Chinese government set up schools to teach Confucian philosophy so that the local people could understand what China valued.
- The mandate of heaven is the concept that a good and just ruler has divine approval.
- If the ruler is wicked or foolish they could lose the divine approval and lose the right to rule.
- For example, if the emperor did his job well, China had peace and prosperity. If he didn't do his job correctly then there would be national disaster because the heavens were unhappy.