33 Facts About Han Dynasty

Han Dynasty presided over the Han government but shared power with both the nobility and appointed ministers who came largely from the scholarly gentry class.

The Han Dynasty Empire was divided into areas directly controlled by the central government called commanderies, as well as a number of semi-autonomous kingdoms.

Science and technology during the Han Dynasty period saw significant advances, including the process of papermaking, the nautical steering ship rudder, the use of negative numbers in mathematics, the raised-relief map, the hydraulic-powered armillary sphere for astronomy, and a seismometer employing an inverted pendulum that could be used to discern the cardinal direction of distant earthquakes.

The Han Dynasty ultimately defeated the Xiongnu in these campaigns, and the Xiongnu were forced to accept vassal status as Han Dynasty tributaries.

The territories north of Han Dynasty's borders were later overrun by the nomadic Xianbei confederation.

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Han Dynasty expanded Han territory into the northern Korean Peninsula as well, where Han forces conquered Gojoseon and established the Xuantu and Lelang Commanderies in 108 BC.

Emperor Gaozu was troubled about the abundant Han Dynasty-manufactured iron weapons traded to the Xiongnu along the northern borders, and he established a trade embargo against the group.

In 121 BC, Han Dynasty forces expelled the Xiongnu from a vast territory spanning the Hexi Corridor to Lop Nur.

In that same year, the Han Dynasty court established four new frontier commanderies in this region to consolidate their control: Jiuquan, Zhangyi, Dunhuang, and Wuwei.

From roughly 115 to 60 BC, Han Dynasty forces fought the Xiongnu over control of the oasis city-states in the Tarim Basin.

Han Dynasty was eventually victorious and established the Protectorate of the Western Regions in 60 BC, which dealt with the region's defense and foreign affairs.

Han Dynasty created central government monopolies administered largely by former merchants.

The Yellow River split into two new branches: one emptying to the north and the other to the south of the Shandong Peninsula, though Han Dynasty engineers managed to dam the southern branch by 70 AD.

Foreign travelers to Eastern-Han Dynasty China include Buddhist monks who translated works into Chinese, such as An Shigao from Parthia, and Lokaksema from Kushan-era Gandhara, India.

Han Dynasty escorted them safely back to the capital and was made Minister of Works, taking control of Luoyang and forcing Yuan Shao to flee.

The Han dynasty made adjustments to slavery in China and saw an increase in agricultural slaves.

Han Dynasty abolished all academic chairs or erudites not dealing with the Confucian Five Classics in 136 BCE and encouraged nominees for office to receive a Confucian-based education at the Imperial University that he established in 124 BCE.

In each Han Dynasty county was several districts, each overseen by a chief of police.

Families throughout Han Dynasty China made ritual sacrifices of animals and food to deities, spirits, and ancestors at temples and shrines.

Han Dynasty could appoint officials below the salary-rank of 600 bushels.

Han Dynasty shared similar duties with the Chancellor, such as receiving annual provincial reports.

Han Dynasty empire, excluding kingdoms and marquessates, was divided, in descending order of size, into political units of provinces, commanderies, and counties.

Han Dynasty was the top civil and military leader of the commandery and handled defense, lawsuits, seasonal instructions to farmers and recommendations of nominees for office sent annually to the capital in a quota system first established by Emperor Wu.

The Han Dynasty emperors moved to secure a treaty with the Chanyu to demarcate authority between them, recognizing each other as the "two masters", the sole representatives of their respective peoples, cemented with a marriage alliance (heqin), before eliminating the rebellious vassal kings in 154 BC.

The Han Dynasty government enacted reforms in order to keep small landowner-cultivators out of debt and on their own farms.

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The heavy moldboard iron plow, invented during the Han dynasty, required only one man to control it, two oxen to pull it.

Han Dynasty farmers used the pit field system for growing crops, which involved heavily fertilized pits that did not require plows or oxen and could be placed on sloping terrain.

Monumental stone pillar-gates, twenty-nine of which survive from the Han Dynasty period, formed entrances of walled enclosures at shrine and tomb sites.

An Eastern-Han Dynasty vaulted tomb chamber at Luoyang made of small bricks.

The odometer cart, invented during Han Dynasty, measured journey lengths, using mechanical figures banging drums and gongs to indicate each distance traveled.

Account of this device in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty describes how, on one occasion, one of the metal balls was triggered without any of the observers feeling a disturbance.

Some of the earliest Han Dynasty maps discovered were ink-penned silk maps found amongst the Mawangdui Silk Texts in a 2nd-century-BC tomb.

Besides dieting, Han Dynasty physicians prescribed moxibustion, acupuncture, and calisthenics as methods of maintaining one's health.