Economy of the Han Dynasty
Encyclopedia
The Han Dynasty
(206 BC – 220 AD) of ancient China
experienced contrasting periods of economic prosperity and decline. It is normally divided into three periods: Western Han (206 BC – 9 AD), the Xin Dynasty
(9–23 AD), and Eastern Han (25–220 AD). The Xin Dynasty, established by the former regent Wang Mang
, formed a brief interregnum between lengthy periods of Han rule. Following the fall of Wang Mang, the Han capital was moved eastward from Chang'an
to Luoyang
. In consequence, historians have named the succeeding eras Western Han and Eastern Han respectively.
The Han economy was defined by significant population growth
, increasing urbanization, unprecedented growth of industry and trade, and government experimentation with nationalization
. In this era, the levels of minting and circulation of coin currency grew significantly, forming the foundation of a stable monetary system
. The Silk Road
facilitated the establishment of trade and tributary exchanges with foreign countries
across Eurasia
, many of which were previously unknown to the people of ancient China
. The imperial capitals of both Western Han (Chang'an) and Eastern Han (Luoyang) were among the largest cities in the world at the time, in both population and area. Here, government workshops manufactured furnishings for the palaces
of the emperor
and produced goods for the common people. The government oversaw the construction of roads and bridges, which facilitated official government business and encouraged commercial growth. Under Han rule, industrialists, wholesalers, and merchants—from minor shopkeepers to wealthy businessmen—could engage in a wide range of enterprises and trade in the domestic, public, and even military spheres.
In the early Han period, rural peasant farmers were largely self-sufficient, but they began to rely more heavily upon commercial exchanges with the wealthy landowners of large agricultural estates. Many peasants fell into debt and were forced to become either hired laborers or rent-paying tenants
of the land-owning classes. The Han government continually strove to provide economic aid to poor farmers, who had to compete with powerful and influential nobles, landowners, and merchants
. The government tried to limit the power of these wealthy groups through heavy taxation and bureaucratic regulation. Emperor Wu's
(r. 141–87 BC) government even nationalized the iron and salt industries; however, these government monopolies were repealed during Eastern Han. Increasing government intervention in the private economy during the late 2nd century BC severely weakened the commercial merchant class. This allowed wealthy landowners to increase their power and to ensure the continuation of an agrarian-dominated economy. The wealthy landlords eventually dominated commercial activities as well, maintaining control over the rural peasants—upon whom the government relied for tax revenues—military manpower, and public works labor. By the 180s AD, economic and political crises had caused the Han government to become heavily decentralized, while the great landowners became increasingly independent and powerful in their communities.
(403–221 BC), the development of private commerce, new trade routes, handicraft industries, and a money economy
led to the growth of new urban centers. These centers were markedly different from the older cities, which had merely served as power bases for the nobility
. The use of a standardized, nationwide currency during the Qin Dynasty
(221–206 BC) facilitated long-distance trade between cities. Many Han cities grew large: the Western Han capital, Chang'an
, had approximately 250,000 inhabitants, while the Eastern Han capital, Luoyang
, had approximately 500,000 inhabitants. The population of the Han Empire, recorded in the tax census
of 2 AD, was 57.6 million people in 12,366,470 households. The majority of commoners who populated the cities lived in extended urban and suburban areas outside the city walls
and gatehouse
s. The total urban area of Western-Han Chang'an—including the extensions outside the walls—was 36 km² (13.9 sq mi). The total urban area of Eastern-Han Luoyang—including the extensions outside the walls—was 24.5 km² (9.5 sq mi). Both Chang'an and Luoyang had two prominent marketplaces; each market had a two-story government office demarcated by a flag and drum at the top. Market officials were charged with maintaining order, collecting commercial taxes, setting standard commodity prices on a monthly basis, and authorizing contracts between merchants and customers.
in favor of coin currency produced by the private sector
. Gaozu's widow Empress Lü Zhi
, as grand empress dowager
, abolished private minting in 186 BC. She first issued a government-minted bronze coin weighing 5.7 g (0.201061583999138 oz), but issued another, weighing 1.5 g (0.0529109431576679 oz), in 182 BC. The change to the lighter coin caused widespread inflation, so in 175 BC Emperor Wen of Han
(r. 180–157 BC) lifted the ban on private minting; private mints were required to mint coins weighing exactly 2.6 g (0.0917123014732911 oz). Private minting was again abolished in 144 BC during the end of Emperor Jing of Han
's (r. 157–141 BC) reign. Despite this, the 2.6 g (0.0917123014732911 oz) bronze coin was issued by both central and local commandery governments until 120 BC, when for one year it was replaced with a coin weighing 1.9 g (0.0670205279997127 oz). Other currencies were introduced around this time. Token money
notes made of embroidered white deerskin, with a face value of 400,000 coins, were used to collect government revenues. Emperor Wu also introduced three tin-silver alloy coins worth 3,000, 500, and 300 bronze coins, respectively; all of these weighed less than 120 g (4.2 oz).
In 119 BC, the government issued the bronze wushu (五銖) coin weighing 3.2 g (0.112876678736358 oz); the coin remained the standard currency in China until the Tang Dynasty
(618–907 AD). During the brief interruptive Xin Dynasty
(9–23 AD) of Wang Mang
(45 BC – 23 AD), the government introduced several new denominations in 7, 9, 10, and 14 AD. These new units (including bronze knife money
, gold, silver, tortoise, and cowry shell currencies) often had a market price unequal to their weight and debased the value of coin currency. Once the widespread civil wars following Wang's overthrow abated, the wushu coin was reintroduced by Emperor Guangwu of Han
(r. 25–57 AD) in 40 AD at the instigation of Ma Yuan (14 BC – 49 AD). Since commandery-issued coins were often of inferior quality and lighter weight, the central government closed all commandery mints in 113 BC and granted the central government's Superintendent of Waterways and Parks the exclusive right to mint coins. Although the issue of central government coinage was transferred to the office of the Minister of Finance (one of Nine Ministers
of the central government) by the beginning of Eastern Han, the central government's monopoly over the issue of coinage persisted.
Gary Lee Todd (Ph.D. in History from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
and Professor of History at Sias International University in Xinzheng
, Henan, China) provides the following images of coins issued during the Western Han and Xin periods on his website:
paid property and poll taxes in coin cash and land taxes with a portion of their crop yield. Peasants obtained coinage by working as hired laborers for rich landowners, in businesses like breweries or by selling agricultural goods and homemade wares at urban markets. The Han government may have found collecting taxes in coin the easiest method because the transportation of taxed goods would have been unnecessary.
From 118 BC to 5 AD, the government minted over 28,000,000,000 coins, with an annual average of 220,000,000 coins minted (or 220,000 strings of 1,000 coins). In comparison, the Tianbao period
(天寶) (742–755 AD) of the Tang Dynasty produced 327,000,000 coins every year while 3,000,000,000 coins in 1045 AD and 5,860,000,000 coins in 1080 AD were made in the Song Dynasty
(960–1279 AD). Coin cash became the common measure of wealth during Eastern Han, as many wages were paid solely in cash. Diwu Lun (第五倫) (fl.
40–85 AD), Governor of Shu Province (modern Sichuan
), described his subordinate officials' wealth not in terms of landholdings, but in the form of aggregate properties worth approximately 10,000,000 coin cash. Commercial transactions involving hundreds of thousands of coins were commonplace.
Angus Maddison
estimates that the country's gross domestic product
was equivalent to $450 per head in 1990 United States dollar
s—a sum that was above subsistence level, and which did not significantly change until the beginning of the Song Dynasty in the late 10th century. Sinologist Joseph Needham
has disputed this and claimed that China's GDP per capita exceeded Europe by substantial margins from the 5th century BCE onwards, holding that Han China was much wealthier than the contemporary Roman Empire
. The widespread circulation of coin cash enriched many merchants, who invested their money in land and became wealthy landowners. The government's efforts to circulate cash had empowered the very social class which it actively tried to suppress through heavy taxes, fines, confiscations, and price regulation schemes.
After Shang Yang
(d. 338 BC) of the State of Qin
abolished the communal and aristocratic well-field system
in an effort to curb the power of nobles, land in China could be bought and sold. Historical scholars of the Han Dynasty like Dong Zhongshu
(179–104 BC) attributed the rise of the wealthy landowning class to this reform. The Han Feizi
describes these landowners' use of hired labor in agriculture, a practice dating back to the 3rd century BC, possibly earlier. Some landowners owned small numbers of slaves, but many relied on peasant tenant farmers who paid rent with a portion of their agricultural produce. More numerous than tenants, small landowner-cultivators lived and worked independently, but often fell into debt and sold their land to the wealthy. The court official Chao Cuo
(d. 154 BC) argued that if the average independent landowning family of five could cultivate no more than 4.57 hectares (11.3 acre) of land and produce no more than 2000 litres (528.3 US gal) of grain annually, then natural disasters and high taxation rates would force many into debt, to sell their land, homes, and even children, and to become dependent upon work as tenant farmers for the wealthy.
Officials at the court of Emperor Ai of Han
(r. 7–1 BC) attempted to implement reforms limiting the amount of land nobles and wealthy landowners could own legally, but were unsuccessful. When Wang Mang
took control of the government in 9 AD, he abolished the purchase and sale of land in a system called King's Fields (王田). This was a variation of the well-field system, where the government owned the land and assured every peasant an equal share to cultivate. Within three years, complaints from wealthy landowners and nobles forced Wang Mang to repeal the reform. After Gengshi
(r. 23–25 AD) and Guangwu
(r. 25–57 AD) restored the Han Dynasty, they relied on the service of great landholding families to secure their position in society. Many of their government officials also became wealthy landowners.
By the late Eastern Han period, the peasantry had become largely landless and served wealthy landowners. This cost the government significant tax revenue. Although the central government under Emperor He of Han
(r. 88–105 AD) reduced taxes in times of natural disaster and distress without much effect upon the treasury, successive rulers became less able to cope with major crises. The government soon relied upon local administrations to conduct relief efforts. After the central government failed to provide local governments with provisions during both a locust swarm and the flooding of the Yellow River
in 153 AD, many landless peasants became retainer
s of large landowners in exchange for aid. Patricia Ebrey writes that the Eastern Han was the "transitional period" between the Western Han—when small independent farmers were the vast majority—and the Three Kingdoms
(220–265 AD) and later Sixteen Kingdoms
(304–439 AD), when large family estates used unfree labor
.
The Yellow Turban Rebellion
of 184 AD, the slaughter of the eunuchs
in 189 AD, and the campaign against Dong Zhuo
in 190 AD destabilized the central government, and Luoyang was burnt to the ground
. At this point, "… private and local power came to replace public authority."
The Han Chancellor
and King of Wei
Cao Cao
(155–220 AD) made the final significant attempt to limit the power of wealthy landowners. Cao Cao established government-managed agricultural colonies
for landless commoners; in exchange for land and cheap equipment, the farmers paid a portion of their crop yield. In the 120s BC, Emperor Wu had attempted to establish agricultural colonies in the northwestern frontier of the newly conquered Hexi Corridor
(in modern Gansu
). 600,000 new settlers farmed on these state lands using seeds, draft animals and equipment loaned by the government. An imperial edict in 85 AD ordered the local governments of commanderies and subordinate kingdoms to resettle landless peasants onto state-owned lands, where they would be paid wages, provided with crop seeds, loaned farming tools and exempted from rent payments for five years and poll taxes for three years. The edict also allowed peasants to return to their native counties at any time. Subsequent governments of the Three Kingdoms established agricultural colonies on these models.
s and crop seed loans encouraged displaced peasants to return to their land. An edict in 94 AD excused displaced peasants from paying land and labor service taxes for a year upon returning to their own farms. The land tax
on agricultural production was reduced in 168 BC from a rate of one-fifteenth of crop yield to one-thirtieth, and abolished in 167 BC. However, the tax was reinstated in 156 BC at a rate of one-thirtieth. At the beginning of the Eastern Han, the land tax rate was one-tenth of the crop yield, but following the stabilization following Wang Mang's death, the rate was reduced to the original one-thirtieth in 30 AD.
Towards the end of the Han dynasty, the land tax rate was reduced to one-hundredth, with lost revenue recouped by increasing the poll
and property tax rates. The poll tax for most adults was 120 coins annually, 240 coins for merchants, and 20 coins for minors aged between three and fourteen years. The lower taxable threshold age for minors increased to seven years during the reign of Emperor Yuan of Han
(r. 48–33 BC) and onwards. Historian Charles Hucker
writes that underreporting of the population by local authorities was deliberate and widespread, since this reduced their tax and labor service obligations rendered to the central government.
Though requiring additional revenue to fund the Sino-Xiongnu War
, the government during Emperor Wu of Han
's reign (141–87 BC) sought to avoid heavy taxation of small landowners. To increase revenue, the government imposed heavier taxes on merchants, confiscated land from nobles, sold offices and titles, and established government monopolies
over the minting of coins, iron manufacture
and salt mining. New taxes were imposed on the ownership of boats, carts, carriages, wheelbarrows, shops and other properties. The overall property tax for merchants was raised in 119 BC from 120 coins for every 10,000 coins-worth of property owned to 120 coins for every 2,000 coins-worth of property owned. Tax rates for almost all commodities are unknown, except for that of liquor. After the government monopoly on liquor was abolished in 81 BC, a property tax of 2 coins for every 0.2 litre (0.0528344074568369 US gal) was levied on liquor merchants.
The sale of certain offices and titles was reintroduced in Eastern Han by Empress Dowager Deng Sui
—who reigned as regent
from 105–121 AD—to raise government revenues in times of severe natural disasters and the widespread rebellion of the Qiang people in western China
. The sale of offices became extremely corrupt under the eunuch-dominated government of Emperor Ling of Han
(r. 168–189 AD), when many top official posts were sold at the highest bidder instead of being filled by vetted candidates who had taken Imperial examinations or attended the Imperial University
.
Two forms of mass conscription
existed during the Han period. These were civilian conscription (gengzu 更卒) and military conscription (zhengzu 正卒). In addition to paying their monetary and crop taxes, all peasants of the Western Han period aged between fifteen and fifty-six were required to undertake mandatory conscription duties for one month of each year. These duties were usually fulfilled by work on construction projects.
At the age of twenty-three years male peasants were drafted to serve in the military, where they were assigned to infantry
, cavalry
, or navy
service. After one year of training, they went on to perform a year of actual military service in frontier garrisons or as guards in the capital city. They remained liable to perform this year of service until the age of fifty-six. This was also the age when they were dismissed from their local militia
s, which they could join once they had finished their year of conscripted service. These non-professional conscripted soldiers comprised the Southern Army (Nanjun 南軍), while the Northern Army (Beijun 北軍) was a standing army
composed of paid career soldiers.
During the Eastern Han, peasants could avoid the month of annual conscripted labor by paying a tax in commutation (gengfu 更賦). This development went hand in hand with the increasing use of hired labor by the government. In a similar manner, because the Eastern-Han government favored the military recruitment of volunteers, the mandatory military draft for peasants aged twenty-three could be avoided by paying a tax in substitution.
Itinerant merchants were often wealthy and did not have to register. These itinerant merchants often participated in large-scale trade with powerful families and officials. Nishijima writes that most of the biographies of "wealthy men" in the Records of the Grand Historian
and Book of Han
were those of itinerant merchants.
In contrast, registered marketplace merchants had a very low social status and were often subject to additional restrictions. Emperor Gaozu passed laws levying higher taxes, forbidding merchants from wearing silk, and barring their descendants from holding public office
. These laws were difficult to enforce. Emperor Wu targeted both the registered and unregistered merchants with higher taxes. While registered merchants were not allowed to own land, if they broke this law their land and slaves would be confiscated. However, wealthy unregistered merchants owned large tracts of land. Emperor Wu significantly reduced the economic influence of great merchants by openly competing with them in the marketplace, where he set up government-managed shops that sold commodities collected from the merchants as property taxes.
the salt and iron industries by 117 BC.
The government also instituted a liquor monopoly in 98 BC. However, this was repealed in 81 BC in an effort to reduce government intervention in the private economy.
The Reformist Party supported privatization, opposing the Modernist Party, which had dominated politics during the reign of Emperor Wu and the subsequent regency
of Huo Guang
(d. 68 BC). The Modernists argued that state monopolies provided abundant raw materials, good working conditions, and high quality iron; the Reformists countered that state-owned ironworks produced large and impractical implements designed to meet quota
s rather than to be of practical use, were of inferior quality, and were too expensive for commoners to purchase. In 44 BC, the Reformists had both the salt and iron monopolies abolished, but the monopolies were reinstated in 41 BC after their abrupt closure resulted in significant losses of revenue for the government and disruption of the private economy.
Wang Mang preserved these central government monopolies. When Eastern Han began, they were once again repealed, the industries given to local commandery governments and private entrepreneurs. Emperor Zhang of Han
(r. 75–88 AD) briefly reintroduced the central government monopolies on salt and iron from 85 to 88 AD, but abolished them in the last year of his reign. After Emperor Zhang, the Han never returned the salt and iron industries to government ownership.
(d. 80 BC)—who was previously a merchant. Sang Hongyang was criticized by merchants for placing government officials in market stalls. This supply system was discontinued in Eastern Han, although it was briefly revived by Emperor Ming of Han
(r. 57–75). Emperor Ming also abolished the system in 68 AD, when he believed that the government's storage of grain increased prices and made wealthy landowners richer.
Ebrey argues that although most of Emperor Wu's fiscal policies were repealed during Eastern Han, their damage to the merchant class and the subsequent laissez-faire
policies of Eastern Han allowed the wealthiest landowners to dominate society, ensuring that China's economy would remain firmly agrarian-based for centuries. The Eastern Han central government lost an important source of revenue by relinquishing its salt and iron industries and purchasing its armies' swords and shields from private manufacturers. However, this loss of revenue was often compensated by higher taxes levied on the merchants.
The Office of Arts and Crafts, subordinate to the Minister Steward, produced weapons, bronze mirrors
, vessel wares, and other goods. The Office of Manufactures, also subordinate to the Minister Steward, made the cheaper weapons, utensils, and armor
. Textiles and clothing
worn by the emperor and royal family were made in the Weaving House of the West and Weaving House of the East; the latter was abolished in 28 BC, and the Weaving House of the West was renamed the Weaving House.
Workshops located in the commanderies made silks and embroidered fabrics, silver and gold luxury items, and weapons. One workshop, in modern Anhui
province, had a shipyard where battle ships were built. Although the government used the labor of state-owned slaves, corvée laborers, and convicts in its workshops, they also hired skilled craftsmen
who were well-paid.
Han lacquerware
s were privately made as well as being manufactured in government workshops. Hundreds of laborers could be employed to work on a single luxury item, such as a lacquer
ed cup or screen. Some lacquerwares were inscribed simply with the clan name
of the family who owned them. Others were inscribed with the titles of the owner, the specific type of the vessels, their capacities, the precise day, month, and year of manufacture (according to Chinese era name
s and their lunisolar calendar
), the names of the floor managers who oversaw the items' production and the names of the workers who made them. Even some iron implements made during the age of the monopoly bore inscriptions of the date they were made and the name of the workshop. Bronze Han Dynasty calipers, used for minute measurements, also carry an inscription of the day, month, and year of manufacture. Han lacquerwares bearing the imperial mark of the emperor have been found far beyond the Han capital regions by modern archaeologists, in places such as Qingzhen
(in Guizhou
), Pyongyang
(in North Korea
), and Noin Ula
(in Mongolia
).
, including the building of palaces and tombs.
During the Western Han period, conscripted peasants were organized into work teams consisting of over a hundred thousand laborers. About 150,000 conscripted workers, serving in consecutive periods of thirty days each over a total of five years, worked on the massive defensive walls of Chang'an, which were completed in 190 BC. Conscript laborers were commissioned to build and maintain shrines dedicated to various deities
and the spirits of the emperor's ancestors. Conscripts also maintained canal systems used for agricultural transport and irrigation. Some of the larger Han canal renovation projects included repairs to the Dujiangyan Irrigation System
and Zhengguo Canal
, built by the previous State of Qin and Qin Dynasty
(221–206 BC), respectively.
Nineteen stone inscriptions survive commemorating the building of new roads and bridges by the Eastern Han government. Archaeological excavations at Chang'an show that wooden bridges were built over the defensive moat and led to the gatehouses. Roadways also needed periodic repairs; in 63 AD the route leading from the Qilian Mountains, through Hanzhong
(modern southern Shanxi
), and towards the capital Luoyang underwent major repairs. For this project, 623 trestle
bridges, five large bridges, 107 km (66 mi) of new roadways, and 64 buildings—including rest houses
, post stations
, and relay stations
—were built. Those commissioned with military authority also built bridges. For example, during his campaign against the Xiongnu
in the Ordos Desert
in 127 BC, the general Wei Qing
(d. 106 BC) had a new bridge built over the Wujia River (a former tributary of the Yellow River
) in today's Inner Mongolia
. He used this bridge to move troops and supplies for an attack on the Xiongnu, northwest of modern Wuyuan County (五原县). Ebrey writes:
(145–86 BC) and Ban Gu
(32–92 AD), as well as the later historian Fan Ye
(398–445 AD), recorded details of the business transactions and products traded by Han merchants. Evidence of these products has also emerged from archaeological investigations.
The main agricultural staple foods during the Han Dynasty were foxtail millet, proso millet, rice (including glutinous rice), wheat, beans, and barley. Other food items included sorghum, taro, mallow, mustard plant, jujube, pear, plum (including prunus salicina
and Prunus mume), peach, apricot, and myrica
. Chicken, duck, goose, beef, pork, rabbit, sika deer
, turtle dove, owl, Chinese Bamboo Partridge
, magpie, common pheasant, crane, and various types of fish were commonly consumed meats.
The production of silk through sericulture
was profitable for both small-time farmers and large-scale producers. Silk clothing was too expensive for the poor, who wore clothes most commonly made of hemp. The rural women usually wove all the family's clothes.
Common bronze items included domestic wares like oil lamps, incense burners, tables, irons, stoves, and dripping jars. Iron goods were often used for construction and farmwork, such as plowshares, pickaxes, spades, shovels, hoes, sickles, axes, adze
, hammers, chisels, knives, saws, scratch awl
s, and nails. Iron was also used to make swords
, halberds
, arrowheads and scale armor for the military.
Other common goods included: consumables (liquor, pickles and sauces, sheep and pigs, grain, yeast for fermentation, bean relish, dried fish and abalone, dates, chestnuts, fruits and vegetables), raw materials (cattle hide, boat timber, bamboo poles, dyes, horns, cinnabar, raw lacquer, jade, amber), clothing and clothing materials (silk fabrics, fine and coarse cloth, sable and foxskin garments, felt and mats, deerskin slippers), eating utensils (bronze utensils and chopsticks, silver, wood and iron vessels, ceramic wares), art objects (lacquerware, ceramics), elegant coffins (made of catalpa, locust, juniper, and lacquered wood), vehicles such as light two-wheeled carts and heavy oxcarts, and horses.
In addition to general commodities, Han historians list the goods of specific regions. Common trade items from the region of modern Shanxi
included bamboo, timber, grain, and gemstones; Shandong
had fish, salt, liquor, and silk; Jiangnan
had camphor
, catalpa, ginger, cinnamon, gold, tin, lead, cinnabar, rhinoceros horn, tortoise shell, pearls, ivory, and leather. Ebrey lists items found in a 2nd century AD tomb in Wuwei, Gansu (along the Hexi Corridor
fortified by the Great Wall of China
), evidence that luxury items could be obtained even in remote frontiers.
In the early Eastern Han, Emperor Ming passed laws which prohibited those involved in agriculture from simultaneously engaging in mercantile trade. These laws were largely ineffective, since wealthy landowners and landlords made significant profits from the trading of goods produced on their estates. Cui Shi (催寔) (d. 170 AD), a local commandery administrator who later served as an official in the central government's secretariat, started a winery business in his home to pay for his father's funeral. His fellow gentry
criticized him, claiming the practice was immoral, but not illegal.
Cui Shi's book Simin yueling (四民月令) is the only significant surviving work on agriculture
from the Eastern Han period, though about 3,000 written characters
of the Fan Shengzhi shu (氾勝之書), dated to the reign of Emperor Cheng of Han
(33–7 BC), still survive. Cui Shi's book provides descriptions of rituals for ancestor worship, festival and religious holiday celebrations
, conduct for family and kinship relations
, farmwork, and the schooling season for boys. Cui Shi's book also provides detailed instructions on which months were the most profitable times to buy and sell certain types of farm-produced goods.
The following table is modelled on Ebrey's "Estate and Family Management in the Later Han as Seen in the Monthly Instructions for the Four Classes of People" (1974). Ebrey writes: "… the same item was often bought and sold at different times of the year. The rationale for this is very clearly financial: items were bought when the price was low and sold when it was high." The specific amounts for each commodity traded are not listed, yet the timing of sale and purchase during the year is the most valuable information for historians. Missing from Cui Shi's list are important items which his family certainly bought and sold at specific times of the year, such as salt, iron farm tools and kitchen utensils, paper and ink (the papermaking
process was invented by Cai Lun
in 105 AD), as well as luxury items of silk and exotic foods.
There was mass unemployment among landless peasants during the Eastern Han period. However, archaeological and literary evidence shows that those managing wealthy agricultural estates enjoyed great prosperity and lived comfortably. In addition to Cui's work, the inventor, mathematician
, and court astronomer
Zhang Heng
(78–139 AD) wrote a rhapsody
describing the rich countryside of Nanyang
and its irrigated rice paddies
. He mentions grain fields, ponds filled with fish, and estate gardens
and orchards filled with bamboo shoots, autumn leeks, winter rape-turnips, perilla
, evodia
, and purple ginger.
Bricks lining the walls of the tombs of wealthy Han were adorned with carved or molded reliefs and painted murals; these often showed scenes of the tomb occupant's estate, halls, wells, carriage sheds, pens for cattle, sheep, chickens, and pigs, stables for horses, and employed workers picking mulberry leaves, plowing crop fields, and hoeing vegetable patches.
Small and medium-sized estates were managed by single families. The father acted as the head manager, the sons as field workers. Wives and daughters worked with female servants to weave cloth and produce silk. Very wealthy landowners who had a large peasant following often used a sharecropping
system to similar to the government's system for state-owned lands. Under this system, peasants would receive land, tools, oxen, and a house in exchange for a third or a half of their crop yield.
Prior to the Han Dynasty, markets close to China's northern border engaged in trade with the nomadic tribes of the eastern Eurasian Steppe
. The heqin
agreement between the Han and nomadic Xiongnu
stipulated the transfer of tributary goods from China. The exact amount of annual tribute sent to the Xiongnu in the 2nd century BC is unknown. In 89 BC, when Hulugu Chanyu (狐鹿姑) (r. 95–85 BC) requested a renewal of the heqin agreement, he demanded an annual tribute of 400000 litre of wine, 100000 litre of grain, and 10,000 bales of silk. These amounts of wine, grain, and silk were considered to be a significant increase from earlier amounts of tribute, which must have been much less. Besides these arrangements, the most common commercial exchanges between the Xiongnu
and Han merchants consisted of the trading of Xiongnu horses and furs
for Han agricultural foodstuffs and luxury items, most notably silk. By means of the black market, the Xiongnu were also able to smuggle Han iron weapons
across the border.
The Han established a diplomatic presence in the Tarim Basin
of Central Asia
during Emperor Wu of Han
's reign (141–87 BC). Han envoys brought gifts of sheep, gold, and silk to the urban oasis city-states. The Chinese sometimes used gold as currency; however, silk was favored as a means to pay for food and lodging. Once the Han had subjugated the Tarim Basin and established a Protectorate there
, Han envoys in these states were given free food and lodging. These envoys were required to send tributary items of furs, precious stones, and delicacies such as Central Asian raisins to the Han court. The Arsacid court sent exotic animals including lions and ostriches to the Han court, and a king ruling in what is now Burma sent elephants and rhinoceroses. Han diplomatic missions to royal courts across Asia were usually accompanied by trade caravans which earned substantial profits.
The Han court received tributary submission from the Xiongnu leader
Huhanye (呼韓邪) (r. 58–31 BC), an important rival to Zhizhi Chanyu
(r. 56–36 BC, died at the Battle of Zhizhi
). Huhanye's tribute, exchange of hostages, and presence at Chang'an in the New Year
of 51 BC were rewarded with the following gifts from the emperor: 5 kg (160.8 ozt) of gold, 200,000 coins, 77 suits of clothes, 8,000 bales of silk fabric, 1500 kg (3,306.9 lb) of silk floss, 15 horses, and 680000 litre of grain. As shown in the table below, based upon Yü Ying-shih's "Han Foreign Relations" (1986), the Xiongnu leader's political submission was guaranteed only for as long as the Han could provide him with ever greater amounts of imperial largesse with each succeeding visit to the Chinese court.
The establishment of the Silk Road
occurred during Wu's reign, owing to the efforts of the diplomat Zhang Qian
. The increased demand for silk from the Roman Empire
stimulated commercial traffic in both Central Asia and across the Indian Ocean
. Roman merchants
sailed to Barbarikon
near present-day Karachi
, Pakistan
, and Barygaza
in present-day Gujarat, India
to purchase Chinese silks (see Roman trade with India
). When Emperor Wu conquered Nanyue
—in what is now Southwest China
and northern Vietnam
—in 111 BC, overseas trade was extended to Southeast Asia
and the Indian Ocean, as maritime merchants traded Han gold and silk for pearls, jade, lapis lazuli, and glasswares.
The Book of Later Han
states that Roman envoys sent by Emperor Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–180 AD), following a southern route, brought gifts to the court of Emperor Huan of Han
(r. 146–168 AD) in 166 AD. This Roman mission followed an unsuccessful attempt by the Han diplomat Gan Ying
to reach Rome
in 97. Gan Ying was delayed at the Persian Gulf
, by Arsacid authorities, and could only make a report on Rome based on oral accounts. Historians Charles Hucker
and Rafe de Crespigny
both speculate that the Roman mission of 166 AD involved enterprising Roman merchants instead of actual diplomats; Hucker writes:
The main trade route leading into Han China passed first through Kashgar
, yet Hellenized
Bactria
further west was the central node of international trade. By the 1st century AD, Bactria and much of Central Asia and North India
were controlled by the Kushan Empire
. Silk was the main export item from China to India
. Indian merchants
brought various goods to China, including tortoise shell, gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, tin, fine cloth, woolen textiles, perfume and incense, crystal sugar, pepper, ginger, salt, coral, pearls, glass items, and Roman wares. Indian merchants brought Roman styrax
and frankincense
to China, while the Chinese knew bdellium
as a fragrant item from Persia, although it was native to West India
. The tall Ferghana horse
s imported from Fergana
were highly prized in Han China. The newly introduced exotic Central Asian grape
s (i.e. vitis vinifera
) were used to make grape wine
, although the Chinese had rice wine
before this. Glass
luxury items from ancient Mesopotamia
have been found in Chinese tombs and dated to the late Spring and Autumn Period (771–476 BC). Roman glass
wares have been found in Chinese tombs dating to the early 1st century BC, with the earliest specimen found at the southern Chinese seaport of Guangzhou
. Silverwares
from Roman-
and Arsacid territories have also been found at Han tomb sites.
Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...
(206 BC – 220 AD) of ancient China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
experienced contrasting periods of economic prosperity and decline. It is normally divided into three periods: Western Han (206 BC – 9 AD), the Xin Dynasty
Xin Dynasty
The Xin Dynasty was a Chinese dynasty which lasted from AD 9 to 23. It followed the Western Han Dynasty and preceded the Eastern Han Dynasty....
(9–23 AD), and Eastern Han (25–220 AD). The Xin Dynasty, established by the former regent Wang Mang
Wang Mang
Wang Mang , courtesy name Jujun , was a Han Dynasty official who seized the throne from the Liu family and founded the Xin Dynasty , ruling AD 9–23. The Han dynasty was restored after his overthrow and his rule marks the separation between the Western Han Dynasty and Eastern Han Dynasty...
, formed a brief interregnum between lengthy periods of Han rule. Following the fall of Wang Mang, the Han capital was moved eastward from Chang'an
Chang'an
Chang'an is an ancient capital of more than ten dynasties in Chinese history, today known as Xi'an. Chang'an literally means "Perpetual Peace" in Classical Chinese. During the short-lived Xin Dynasty, the city was renamed "Constant Peace" ; yet after its fall in AD 23, the old name was restored...
to Luoyang
Luoyang
Luoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the central plain of...
. In consequence, historians have named the succeeding eras Western Han and Eastern Han respectively.
The Han economy was defined by significant population growth
Population growth
Population growth is the change in a population over time, and can be quantified as the change in the number of individuals of any species in a population using "per unit time" for measurement....
, increasing urbanization, unprecedented growth of industry and trade, and government experimentation with nationalization
Nationalization
Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...
. In this era, the levels of minting and circulation of coin currency grew significantly, forming the foundation of a stable monetary system
Monetary system
A monetary system is anything that is accepted as a standard of value and measure of wealth in a particular region.However, the current trend is to use international trade and investment to alter the policy and legislation of individual governments. The best recent example of this policy is the...
. The Silk Road
Silk Road
The Silk Road or Silk Route refers to a historical network of interlinking trade routes across the Afro-Eurasian landmass that connected East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean and European world, as well as parts of North and East Africa...
facilitated the establishment of trade and tributary exchanges with foreign countries
Foreign relations of Imperial China
Imperial China had a long tradition of foreign relations. From the Qin Dynasty until the Qing Dynasty, the Culture of China had an impact upon neighboring and distant countries, while gradually being transformed by outside influences as well....
across Eurasia
Eurasia
Eurasia is a continent or supercontinent comprising the traditional continents of Europe and Asia ; covering about 52,990,000 km2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres...
, many of which were previously unknown to the people of ancient China
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
. The imperial capitals of both Western Han (Chang'an) and Eastern Han (Luoyang) were among the largest cities in the world at the time, in both population and area. Here, government workshops manufactured furnishings for the palaces
Chinese Palaces
Chinese Palaces are elaborate structures. There is a long history of imperial rule in China, and the palaces were the sites where the royal court resided, as well as many government bureaucrats and functionaries....
of the emperor
Emperor of China
The Emperor of China refers to any sovereign of Imperial China reigning between the founding of Qin Dynasty of China, united by the King of Qin in 221 BCE, and the fall of Yuan Shikai's Empire of China in 1916. When referred to as the Son of Heaven , a title that predates the Qin unification, the...
and produced goods for the common people. The government oversaw the construction of roads and bridges, which facilitated official government business and encouraged commercial growth. Under Han rule, industrialists, wholesalers, and merchants—from minor shopkeepers to wealthy businessmen—could engage in a wide range of enterprises and trade in the domestic, public, and even military spheres.
In the early Han period, rural peasant farmers were largely self-sufficient, but they began to rely more heavily upon commercial exchanges with the wealthy landowners of large agricultural estates. Many peasants fell into debt and were forced to become either hired laborers or rent-paying tenants
Tenant farmer
A tenant farmer is one who resides on and farms land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management; while tenant farmers contribute their labor along with at times varying...
of the land-owning classes. The Han government continually strove to provide economic aid to poor farmers, who had to compete with powerful and influential nobles, landowners, and merchants
Four occupations
The four occupations or "four categories of the people" was a hierarchic social class structure developed in ancient China by either Confucian or Legalist scholars as far back as the late Zhou Dynasty and is considered a central part of the Fengjian social structure...
. The government tried to limit the power of these wealthy groups through heavy taxation and bureaucratic regulation. Emperor Wu's
Emperor Wu of Han
Emperor Wu of Han , , personal name Liu Che , was the seventh emperor of the Han Dynasty of China, ruling from 141 BC to 87 BC. Emperor Wu is best remembered for the vast territorial expansion that occurred under his reign, as well as the strong and centralized Confucian state he organized...
(r. 141–87 BC) government even nationalized the iron and salt industries; however, these government monopolies were repealed during Eastern Han. Increasing government intervention in the private economy during the late 2nd century BC severely weakened the commercial merchant class. This allowed wealthy landowners to increase their power and to ensure the continuation of an agrarian-dominated economy. The wealthy landlords eventually dominated commercial activities as well, maintaining control over the rural peasants—upon whom the government relied for tax revenues—military manpower, and public works labor. By the 180s AD, economic and political crises had caused the Han government to become heavily decentralized, while the great landowners became increasingly independent and powerful in their communities.
Urbanization and population
During the Warring States PeriodWarring States Period
The Warring States Period , also known as the Era of Warring States, or the Warring Kingdoms period, covers the Iron Age period from about 475 BC to the reunification of China under the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC...
(403–221 BC), the development of private commerce, new trade routes, handicraft industries, and a money economy
Chinese currency
The Renminbi is the official currency of the People's Republic of China . It is the legal tender in mainland China, but not in Hong Kong and Macau. It is abbreviated as RMB, and the units for the Renminbi are the Yuan , Jiao , and Fen : 1 Yuan = 10 Jiao = 100 Fen. Fen have almost disappeared, so...
led to the growth of new urban centers. These centers were markedly different from the older cities, which had merely served as power bases for the nobility
Chinese nobility
Chinese sovereignty and peerage, the nobility of China, were an important feature of traditional social and political organization of Imperial China. While the concepts of hereditary sovereign and peerage titles and noble families were featured as early as the semi-mythical, early historical...
. The use of a standardized, nationwide currency during the Qin Dynasty
Qin Dynasty
The Qin Dynasty was the first imperial dynasty of China, lasting from 221 to 207 BC. The Qin state derived its name from its heartland of Qin, in modern-day Shaanxi. The strength of the Qin state was greatly increased by the legalist reforms of Shang Yang in the 4th century BC, during the Warring...
(221–206 BC) facilitated long-distance trade between cities. Many Han cities grew large: the Western Han capital, Chang'an
Chang'an
Chang'an is an ancient capital of more than ten dynasties in Chinese history, today known as Xi'an. Chang'an literally means "Perpetual Peace" in Classical Chinese. During the short-lived Xin Dynasty, the city was renamed "Constant Peace" ; yet after its fall in AD 23, the old name was restored...
, had approximately 250,000 inhabitants, while the Eastern Han capital, Luoyang
Luoyang
Luoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the central plain of...
, had approximately 500,000 inhabitants. The population of the Han Empire, recorded in the tax census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2 AD, was 57.6 million people in 12,366,470 households. The majority of commoners who populated the cities lived in extended urban and suburban areas outside the city walls
Chinese city wall
Chinese city walls refer to civic defensive systems used to protect towns and cities in China in pre-modern times. The system consisted of walls, towers, and gates, which were often built to a uniform standard throughout the Empire....
and gatehouse
Gatehouse
A gatehouse, in architectural terminology, is a building enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a castle, manor house, fort, town or similar buildings of importance.-History:...
s. The total urban area of Western-Han Chang'an—including the extensions outside the walls—was 36 km² (13.9 sq mi). The total urban area of Eastern-Han Luoyang—including the extensions outside the walls—was 24.5 km² (9.5 sq mi). Both Chang'an and Luoyang had two prominent marketplaces; each market had a two-story government office demarcated by a flag and drum at the top. Market officials were charged with maintaining order, collecting commercial taxes, setting standard commodity prices on a monthly basis, and authorizing contracts between merchants and customers.
Variations in currency
During the early Western Han period, founding Emperor Gaozu of Han (r. 202–195 BC) closed government mintsMint (coin)
A mint is an industrial facility which manufactures coins for currency.The history of mints correlates closely with the history of coins. One difference is that the history of the mint is usually closely tied to the political situation of an era...
in favor of coin currency produced by the private sector
Private sector
In economics, the private sector is that part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is run by private individuals or groups, usually as a means of enterprise for profit, and is not controlled by the state...
. Gaozu's widow Empress Lü Zhi
Empress Lü Zhi
Empress Lü Zhi , commonly known as Empress Dowager Lü or formally as Empress Gao , courtesy name Exu , was the wife and empress of Emperor Gaozu of Han, founder of the Han Dynasty. They had two known children—the eventual Emperor Hui and Princess Luyuan...
, as grand empress dowager
Grand Empress Dowager
The title Grand Empress Dowager was given to the grandmother or a woman from the grandmother generation of the Chinese, Korean. Japanese dynastic ruler. Some grand empress dowagers held regency within the beginning years of reign of an underage or young emperor...
, abolished private minting in 186 BC. She first issued a government-minted bronze coin weighing 5.7 g (0.201061583999138 oz), but issued another, weighing 1.5 g (0.0529109431576679 oz), in 182 BC. The change to the lighter coin caused widespread inflation, so in 175 BC Emperor Wen of Han
Emperor Wen of Han
Emperor Wen of Han was the fifth emperor of the Han Dynasty in China. His given name is Heng.Liu Heng was a son of Emperor Gao of Han and Consort Bo, later empress dowager...
(r. 180–157 BC) lifted the ban on private minting; private mints were required to mint coins weighing exactly 2.6 g (0.0917123014732911 oz). Private minting was again abolished in 144 BC during the end of Emperor Jing of Han
Emperor Jing of Han
Emperor Jing of Han was an emperor of China in the Han Dynasty from 156 BC to 141 BC. His reign saw the limit and curtailment of power of feudal princes which resulted in the Rebellion of the Seven States in 154 BC. Emperor Jing managed to crush the revolt and princes were thereafter denied rights...
's (r. 157–141 BC) reign. Despite this, the 2.6 g (0.0917123014732911 oz) bronze coin was issued by both central and local commandery governments until 120 BC, when for one year it was replaced with a coin weighing 1.9 g (0.0670205279997127 oz). Other currencies were introduced around this time. Token money
Token money
Token money is money made from tokens of some form, as opposed to account money. Coins are token money, as are paper notes.Token money has a strong privacy feature in that it works as money without the intervention of any other party in each transaction between two parties. Privacy makes money...
notes made of embroidered white deerskin, with a face value of 400,000 coins, were used to collect government revenues. Emperor Wu also introduced three tin-silver alloy coins worth 3,000, 500, and 300 bronze coins, respectively; all of these weighed less than 120 g (4.2 oz).
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
(618–907 AD). During the brief interruptive Xin Dynasty
Xin Dynasty
The Xin Dynasty was a Chinese dynasty which lasted from AD 9 to 23. It followed the Western Han Dynasty and preceded the Eastern Han Dynasty....
(9–23 AD) of Wang Mang
Wang Mang
Wang Mang , courtesy name Jujun , was a Han Dynasty official who seized the throne from the Liu family and founded the Xin Dynasty , ruling AD 9–23. The Han dynasty was restored after his overthrow and his rule marks the separation between the Western Han Dynasty and Eastern Han Dynasty...
(45 BC – 23 AD), the government introduced several new denominations in 7, 9, 10, and 14 AD. These new units (including bronze knife money
Knife money
Knife money is the name of large, cast, bronze, knife-shaped coins produced by various governments and kingdoms in what is now known as China, approximately 2500 years ago. They had holes on the end to be easily strapped onto belts or rings. Known as jin cuo dao in Chinese, knife money circulated...
, gold, silver, tortoise, and cowry shell currencies) often had a market price unequal to their weight and debased the value of coin currency. Once the widespread civil wars following Wang's overthrow abated, the wushu coin was reintroduced by Emperor Guangwu of Han
Emperor Guangwu of Han
Emperor Guangwu , born Liu Xiu, was an emperor of the Chinese Han Dynasty, restorer of the dynasty in AD 25 and thus founder of the Later Han or Eastern Han...
(r. 25–57 AD) in 40 AD at the instigation of Ma Yuan (14 BC – 49 AD). Since commandery-issued coins were often of inferior quality and lighter weight, the central government closed all commandery mints in 113 BC and granted the central government's Superintendent of Waterways and Parks the exclusive right to mint coins. Although the issue of central government coinage was transferred to the office of the Minister of Finance (one of Nine Ministers
Nine Ministers
The Nine Ministers was the collective name for nine high officials in the imperial government of the Han Dynasty , who each headed a specialized ministry and were subordinates to the Three Councillors of State...
of the central government) by the beginning of Eastern Han, the central government's monopoly over the issue of coinage persisted.
Gary Lee Todd (Ph.D. in History from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
and Professor of History at Sias International University in Xinzheng
Xinzheng
Xinzheng is a small county-level city of Zhengzhou in the south of Henan province of Central China. The city has a population of 600,000 people and covers an area of .-History:...
, Henan, China) provides the following images of coins issued during the Western Han and Xin periods on his website:
Circulation and salaries
Merchants and peasant farmersFour occupations
The four occupations or "four categories of the people" was a hierarchic social class structure developed in ancient China by either Confucian or Legalist scholars as far back as the late Zhou Dynasty and is considered a central part of the Fengjian social structure...
paid property and poll taxes in coin cash and land taxes with a portion of their crop yield. Peasants obtained coinage by working as hired laborers for rich landowners, in businesses like breweries or by selling agricultural goods and homemade wares at urban markets. The Han government may have found collecting taxes in coin the easiest method because the transportation of taxed goods would have been unnecessary.
From 118 BC to 5 AD, the government minted over 28,000,000,000 coins, with an annual average of 220,000,000 coins minted (or 220,000 strings of 1,000 coins). In comparison, the Tianbao period
Chinese era name
A Chinese era name is the regnal year, reign period, or regnal title used when traditionally numbering years in an emperor's reign and naming certain Chinese rulers . Some emperors have several era names, one after another, where each beginning of a new era resets the numbering of the year back...
(天寶) (742–755 AD) of the Tang Dynasty produced 327,000,000 coins every year while 3,000,000,000 coins in 1045 AD and 5,860,000,000 coins in 1080 AD were made in the Song Dynasty
Economy of the Song Dynasty
The economy of China under the Song Dynasty of China was marked by commercial expansion, financial prosperity, increased international trade-contacts, and a revolution in agricultural productivity. Private finance grew, stimulating the development of a country-wide market network which linked the...
(960–1279 AD). Coin cash became the common measure of wealth during Eastern Han, as many wages were paid solely in cash. Diwu Lun (第五倫) (fl.
Floruit
Floruit , abbreviated fl. , is a Latin verb meaning "flourished", denoting the period of time during which something was active...
40–85 AD), Governor of Shu Province (modern Sichuan
Sichuan
' , known formerly in the West by its postal map spellings of Szechwan or Szechuan is a province in Southwest China with its capital in Chengdu...
), described his subordinate officials' wealth not in terms of landholdings, but in the form of aggregate properties worth approximately 10,000,000 coin cash. Commercial transactions involving hundreds of thousands of coins were commonplace.
Angus Maddison
Angus Maddison
Angus Maddison was a British economist and a world scholar on quantitative macroeconomic history, including the measurement and analysis of economic growth and development...
estimates that the country's gross domestic product
Gross domestic product
Gross domestic product refers to the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period. GDP per capita is often considered an indicator of a country's standard of living....
was equivalent to $450 per head in 1990 United States dollar
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
s—a sum that was above subsistence level, and which did not significantly change until the beginning of the Song Dynasty in the late 10th century. Sinologist Joseph Needham
Joseph Needham
Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham, CH, FRS, FBA , also known as Li Yuese , was a British scientist, historian and sinologist known for his scientific research and writing on the history of Chinese science. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1941, and as a fellow of the British...
has disputed this and claimed that China's GDP per capita exceeded Europe by substantial margins from the 5th century BCE onwards, holding that Han China was much wealthier than the contemporary Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
. The widespread circulation of coin cash enriched many merchants, who invested their money in land and became wealthy landowners. The government's efforts to circulate cash had empowered the very social class which it actively tried to suppress through heavy taxes, fines, confiscations, and price regulation schemes.
Landowners and peasants
Shang Yang
Shang Yang was an important statesman of the State of Qin during the Warring States Period of Chinese history. Born Wei Yang in the State of Wei, with the support of Duke Xiao of Qin Yang enacted numerous reforms in Qin...
(d. 338 BC) of the State of Qin
Qin (state)
The State of Qin was a Chinese feudal state that existed during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods of Chinese history...
abolished the communal and aristocratic well-field system
Well-field system
The well-field system was a Chinese land distribution method existing between the ninth century BCE to around the end of the Warring States Period...
in an effort to curb the power of nobles, land in China could be bought and sold. Historical scholars of the Han Dynasty like Dong Zhongshu
Dong Zhongshu
Dong Zhongshu was a Han Dynasty Chinese scholar. He is traditionally associated with the promotion of Confucianism as the official ideology of the Chinese imperial state.-History:...
(179–104 BC) attributed the rise of the wealthy landowning class to this reform. The Han Feizi
Han Feizi (book)
The Han Feizi is a work written by Han Feizi at the end of the Warring States Period in China, detailing his political philosophy. It belongs to the Legalist school of thought....
describes these landowners' use of hired labor in agriculture, a practice dating back to the 3rd century BC, possibly earlier. Some landowners owned small numbers of slaves, but many relied on peasant tenant farmers who paid rent with a portion of their agricultural produce. More numerous than tenants, small landowner-cultivators lived and worked independently, but often fell into debt and sold their land to the wealthy. The court official Chao Cuo
Chao Cuo
Cháo Cuò was a Chinese political advisor and official of the Han Dynasty , renowned for his intellectual capabilities and foresight in martial and political matters. Although not against the philosophy of Confucius , he was described by later Eastern Han scholars as a Legalist...
(d. 154 BC) argued that if the average independent landowning family of five could cultivate no more than 4.57 hectares (11.3 acre) of land and produce no more than 2000 litres (528.3 US gal) of grain annually, then natural disasters and high taxation rates would force many into debt, to sell their land, homes, and even children, and to become dependent upon work as tenant farmers for the wealthy.
Officials at the court of Emperor Ai of Han
Emperor Ai of Han
Emperor Ai of Han was an emperor of the Chinese Han Dynasty. He ascended the throne when he was 20, having been made heir by his uncle Emperor Cheng, who was childless, and he reigned from 7 BC to 1 BC....
(r. 7–1 BC) attempted to implement reforms limiting the amount of land nobles and wealthy landowners could own legally, but were unsuccessful. When Wang Mang
Wang Mang
Wang Mang , courtesy name Jujun , was a Han Dynasty official who seized the throne from the Liu family and founded the Xin Dynasty , ruling AD 9–23. The Han dynasty was restored after his overthrow and his rule marks the separation between the Western Han Dynasty and Eastern Han Dynasty...
took control of the government in 9 AD, he abolished the purchase and sale of land in a system called King's Fields (王田). This was a variation of the well-field system, where the government owned the land and assured every peasant an equal share to cultivate. Within three years, complaints from wealthy landowners and nobles forced Wang Mang to repeal the reform. After Gengshi
Emperor Gengshi of Han
Emperor Gengshi of Han, ch. 漢更始帝, py. gèng shĭ dì, wg. Keng-Shih-ti, , also known as the Prince of Huaiyang , courtesy name Shenggong , was an emperor of the restored Chinese Han Dynasty following the fall of Wang Mang's Xin...
(r. 23–25 AD) and Guangwu
Emperor Guangwu of Han
Emperor Guangwu , born Liu Xiu, was an emperor of the Chinese Han Dynasty, restorer of the dynasty in AD 25 and thus founder of the Later Han or Eastern Han...
(r. 25–57 AD) restored the Han Dynasty, they relied on the service of great landholding families to secure their position in society. Many of their government officials also became wealthy landowners.
Emperor He of Han
Emperor He of Han, ch. 漢和帝, py. hàn hé dì, wg. Han Ho-ti, was an emperor of the Chinese Han Dynasty who ruled from 88 to 105. He was the 4th emperor of the Eastern Han dynasty....
(r. 88–105 AD) reduced taxes in times of natural disaster and distress without much effect upon the treasury, successive rulers became less able to cope with major crises. The government soon relied upon local administrations to conduct relief efforts. After the central government failed to provide local governments with provisions during both a locust swarm and the flooding of the Yellow River
Yellow River
The Yellow River or Huang He, formerly known as the Hwang Ho, is the second-longest river in China and the sixth-longest in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai Province in western China, it flows through nine provinces of China and empties into...
in 153 AD, many landless peasants became retainer
Retainer agreement
A retainer agreement is a work for hire contract. It falls between a one-time contract and full-time employment. Its distinguishing feature is that the employer pays in advance for work to be specified later...
s of large landowners in exchange for aid. Patricia Ebrey writes that the Eastern Han was the "transitional period" between the Western Han—when small independent farmers were the vast majority—and the Three Kingdoms
Three Kingdoms
The Three Kingdoms period was a period in Chinese history, part of an era of disunity called the "Six Dynasties" following immediately the loss of de facto power of the Han Dynasty rulers. In a strict academic sense it refers to the period between the foundation of the state of Wei in 220 and the...
(220–265 AD) and later Sixteen Kingdoms
Sixteen Kingdoms
The Sixteen Kingdoms, or less commonly the Sixteen States, were a collection of numerous short-lived sovereign states in China proper and its neighboring areas from 304 to 439 AD after the retreat of the Jin Dynasty to South China and before the establishment of the Northern Dynasties...
(304–439 AD), when large family estates used unfree labor
Serfdom
Serfdom is the status of peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to Manorialism. It was a condition of bondage or modified slavery which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe and lasted to the mid-19th century...
.
The Yellow Turban Rebellion
Yellow Turban Rebellion
The Yellow Turban Rebellion, also translated as Yellow Scarves Rebellion, was a peasant revolt that broke out in 184 AD in China during the reign of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty...
of 184 AD, the slaughter of the eunuchs
Ten Attendants
The Ten Attendants were a group of eunuchs from the Eunuch Faction of the Han Imperial Court in China...
in 189 AD, and the campaign against Dong Zhuo
Campaign against Dong Zhuo
The Campaign against Dong Zhuo was a punitive expedition initiated by a coalition of regional officials and warlords against Dong Zhuo, Chancellor of State, in 190 during the late Han Dynasty of Chinese history...
in 190 AD destabilized the central government, and Luoyang was burnt to the ground
History of the Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty , founded by the peasant rebel leader Liu Bang ,From the Shang to the Sui dynasties, Chinese rulers were referred to in later records by their posthumous names, while emperors of the Tang to Yuan dynasties were referred to by their temple names, and emperors of the Ming and Qing...
. At this point, "… private and local power came to replace public authority."
The Han Chancellor
Chancellor
Chancellor is the title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the Cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the...
and King of Wei
Cao Wei
Cao Wei was one of the states that competed for control of China during the Three Kingdoms period. With the capital at Luoyang, the state was established by Cao Pi in 220, based upon the foundations that his father Cao Cao laid...
Cao Cao
Cao Cao
Cao Cao was a warlord and the penultimate chancellor of the Eastern Han Dynasty who rose to great power during the dynasty's final years. As one of the central figures of the Three Kingdoms period, he laid the foundations for what was to become the state of Cao Wei and was posthumously titled...
(155–220 AD) made the final significant attempt to limit the power of wealthy landowners. Cao Cao established government-managed agricultural colonies
Tuntian
The Tuntian or Duntian system was a system of government-encouraged agriculture originated in the Western Han Dynasty period of Chinese history...
for landless commoners; in exchange for land and cheap equipment, the farmers paid a portion of their crop yield. In the 120s BC, Emperor Wu had attempted to establish agricultural colonies in the northwestern frontier of the newly conquered Hexi Corridor
Hexi Corridor
Hexi Corridor or Gansu Corridor refers to the historical route in Gansu province of China. As part of the Northern Silk Road running northwest from the bank of the Yellow River, it was the most important route from North China to the Tarim Basin and Central Asia for traders and the military. The...
(in modern Gansu
Gansu
' is a province located in the northwest of the People's Republic of China.It lies between the Tibetan and Huangtu plateaus, and borders Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia to the north, Xinjiang and Qinghai to the west, Sichuan to the south, and Shaanxi to the east...
). 600,000 new settlers farmed on these state lands using seeds, draft animals and equipment loaned by the government. An imperial edict in 85 AD ordered the local governments of commanderies and subordinate kingdoms to resettle landless peasants onto state-owned lands, where they would be paid wages, provided with crop seeds, loaned farming tools and exempted from rent payments for five years and poll taxes for three years. The edict also allowed peasants to return to their native counties at any time. Subsequent governments of the Three Kingdoms established agricultural colonies on these models.
Tax reforms
Because small landowning families represented the mainstay of the Han tax base, the Han government attempted to aid and protect small landowners and to limit the power of wealthy landlords and merchants. The government reduced taxes in times of poor harvest and provided relief after disasters. Tax remissionTax break
Tax break is a slang term referring to any item which reduces tax, including any tax exemption, tax deduction, or tax credit. Tax break is also a pejorative term used in the United States to refer to purportedly favorable tax treatment of any class of persons, as in "individuals get a tax break...
s and crop seed loans encouraged displaced peasants to return to their land. An edict in 94 AD excused displaced peasants from paying land and labor service taxes for a year upon returning to their own farms. The land tax
Land value tax
A land value tax is a levy on the unimproved value of land. It is an ad valorem tax on land that disregards the value of buildings, personal property and other improvements...
on agricultural production was reduced in 168 BC from a rate of one-fifteenth of crop yield to one-thirtieth, and abolished in 167 BC. However, the tax was reinstated in 156 BC at a rate of one-thirtieth. At the beginning of the Eastern Han, the land tax rate was one-tenth of the crop yield, but following the stabilization following Wang Mang's death, the rate was reduced to the original one-thirtieth in 30 AD.
Towards the end of the Han dynasty, the land tax rate was reduced to one-hundredth, with lost revenue recouped by increasing the poll
Poll tax
A poll tax is a tax of a portioned, fixed amount per individual in accordance with the census . When a corvée is commuted for cash payment, in effect it becomes a poll tax...
and property tax rates. The poll tax for most adults was 120 coins annually, 240 coins for merchants, and 20 coins for minors aged between three and fourteen years. The lower taxable threshold age for minors increased to seven years during the reign of Emperor Yuan of Han
Emperor Yuan of Han
Emperor Yuan of Han was an emperor of the Chinese Han Dynasty. He reigned from 48 BC to 33 BC. Emperor Yuan was remembered for the promotion of Confucianism as the official creed of Chinese government. He appointed Confucius adherents to important government posts...
(r. 48–33 BC) and onwards. Historian Charles Hucker
Charles Hucker
Charles O. Hucker , was a Professor of Chinese language and history at the University of Michigan. He was regarded as one of the foremost historians of Imperial China and a leading figure in the promotion of academic programs in Asian Studies during the 1950s and 1960s.Born in St...
writes that underreporting of the population by local authorities was deliberate and widespread, since this reduced their tax and labor service obligations rendered to the central government.
Though requiring additional revenue to fund the Sino-Xiongnu War
Sino-Xiongnu War
The Sino-Xiongnu War is a name given to a series of battles between the Han Dynasty and the tribes of Xiongnu between 133 BC and 89 AD. The nature of these battles varied through time between Han conquest and the possession of city-states in central Asia. The war culminated in Geng Kui driving the...
, the government during Emperor Wu of Han
Emperor Wu of Han
Emperor Wu of Han , , personal name Liu Che , was the seventh emperor of the Han Dynasty of China, ruling from 141 BC to 87 BC. Emperor Wu is best remembered for the vast territorial expansion that occurred under his reign, as well as the strong and centralized Confucian state he organized...
's reign (141–87 BC) sought to avoid heavy taxation of small landowners. To increase revenue, the government imposed heavier taxes on merchants, confiscated land from nobles, sold offices and titles, and established government monopolies
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
over the minting of coins, iron manufacture
History of ferrous metallurgy
The history of ferrous metallurgy began far back in prehistory. The earliest surviving iron artifacts, from the 5th millennium BC in Iran and 2nd millennium BC in China, were made from meteoritic iron-nickel. It is not known when or where the smelting of iron from ores began, but by the end of the...
and salt mining. New taxes were imposed on the ownership of boats, carts, carriages, wheelbarrows, shops and other properties. The overall property tax for merchants was raised in 119 BC from 120 coins for every 10,000 coins-worth of property owned to 120 coins for every 2,000 coins-worth of property owned. Tax rates for almost all commodities are unknown, except for that of liquor. After the government monopoly on liquor was abolished in 81 BC, a property tax of 2 coins for every 0.2 litre (0.0528344074568369 US gal) was levied on liquor merchants.
The sale of certain offices and titles was reintroduced in Eastern Han by Empress Dowager Deng Sui
Empress Deng Sui
Empress Deng Sui , formally Empress Hexi was an empress during Han Dynasty. She was Emperor He's second wife. She later, as empress dowager, served as regent for his son Emperor Shang and nephew Emperor An, and was regarded as an able and diligent administrator...
—who reigned as regent
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...
from 105–121 AD—to raise government revenues in times of severe natural disasters and the widespread rebellion of the Qiang people in western China
Western China
Western China , refers to the western part of China. In the definition of the Chinese government, Western China covers six provinces: Gansu, Guizhou, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Yunnan; one municipality: Chongqing; and three autonomous regions: Ningxia, Tibet, and Xinjiang.-Administrative...
. The sale of offices became extremely corrupt under the eunuch-dominated government of Emperor Ling of Han
Emperor Ling of Han
Emperor Ling of Han, trad. ch. 漢靈帝;, sim. ch. 汉灵帝, py. hàn líng dì, wg. Han Ling-ti, was an emperor of the Chinese Han Dynasty. He was a great-great-grandson of Emperor Zhang. The Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out during Emperor Ling's reign.Emperor Ling's reign saw yet another repetition of...
(r. 168–189 AD), when many top official posts were sold at the highest bidder instead of being filled by vetted candidates who had taken Imperial examinations or attended the Imperial University
Taixue
Taixue , or sometimes called the "Imperial Academy", "Imperial School" , "Imperial University" or "Imperial Central University", was the highest rank of educational establishment in Ancient China between the Han Dynasty and Sui Dynasty. It was replaced by the Guozijian...
.
Conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
existed during the Han period. These were civilian conscription (gengzu 更卒) and military conscription (zhengzu 正卒). In addition to paying their monetary and crop taxes, all peasants of the Western Han period aged between fifteen and fifty-six were required to undertake mandatory conscription duties for one month of each year. These duties were usually fulfilled by work on construction projects.
At the age of twenty-three years male peasants were drafted to serve in the military, where they were assigned to infantry
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
, cavalry
Horses in East Asian warfare
Horses in East Asian warfare are inextricably linked with the strategic and tactical evolution of armed conflict. A warrior on horseback or horse-drawn chariot changed the balance of power between civilizations....
, or navy
Naval history of China
The naval history of China dates back thousands of years, with archives existing since the late Spring and Autumn Period about the ancient navy of China and the various ship types used in war. China was leading maritime power in the years 1405-1433, when Chinese shipbuilders began to build massive...
service. After one year of training, they went on to perform a year of actual military service in frontier garrisons or as guards in the capital city. They remained liable to perform this year of service until the age of fifty-six. This was also the age when they were dismissed from their local militia
Militia
The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
s, which they could join once they had finished their year of conscripted service. These non-professional conscripted soldiers comprised the Southern Army (Nanjun 南軍), while the Northern Army (Beijun 北軍) was a standing army
Standing army
A standing army is a professional permanent army. It is composed of full-time career soldiers and is not disbanded during times of peace. It differs from army reserves, who are activated only during wars or natural disasters...
composed of paid career soldiers.
During the Eastern Han, peasants could avoid the month of annual conscripted labor by paying a tax in commutation (gengfu 更賦). This development went hand in hand with the increasing use of hired labor by the government. In a similar manner, because the Eastern-Han government favored the military recruitment of volunteers, the mandatory military draft for peasants aged twenty-three could be avoided by paying a tax in substitution.
Merchants
There were two categories of Han merchants: those who sold goods at shops in urban markets, and the larger-scale itinerant traders who traveled between cities and to foreign countries. The small-scale urban shopkeepers were enrolled on an official register and had to pay heavy commercial taxes. Although these registered merchants were taxed, an edict of 94 AD ordered that landless peasants who had to resort to peddling were to be exempted from taxation.Itinerant merchants were often wealthy and did not have to register. These itinerant merchants often participated in large-scale trade with powerful families and officials. Nishijima writes that most of the biographies of "wealthy men" in the Records of the Grand Historian
Records of the Grand Historian
The Records of the Grand Historian, also known in English by the Chinese name Shiji , written from 109 BC to 91 BC, was the Magnum opus of Sima Qian, in which he recounted Chinese history from the time of the Yellow Emperor until his own time...
and Book of Han
Book of Han
The Book of Han, Hanshu or History of the Former Han Dynasty |Fan Ye]] . Various scholars have estimated that the earliest material covered in the book dates back to between 206 and 202 BCE...
were those of itinerant merchants.
In contrast, registered marketplace merchants had a very low social status and were often subject to additional restrictions. Emperor Gaozu passed laws levying higher taxes, forbidding merchants from wearing silk, and barring their descendants from holding public office
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
. These laws were difficult to enforce. Emperor Wu targeted both the registered and unregistered merchants with higher taxes. While registered merchants were not allowed to own land, if they broke this law their land and slaves would be confiscated. However, wealthy unregistered merchants owned large tracts of land. Emperor Wu significantly reduced the economic influence of great merchants by openly competing with them in the marketplace, where he set up government-managed shops that sold commodities collected from the merchants as property taxes.
Private manufacture and government monopolies
Iron and salt
At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, China's salt and iron enterprises were privately owned by a number of wealthy merchants and subordinate regional kings. The profits of these industries rivaled the funds of the imperial court. A successful iron or salt industrialist might have employed over a thousand peasants, causing a severe loss of agricultural tax revenue to the central government. To restrict the power of the industrialists, Emperor Wu had nationalizedNationalization
Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...
the salt and iron industries by 117 BC.
The government also instituted a liquor monopoly in 98 BC. However, this was repealed in 81 BC in an effort to reduce government intervention in the private economy.
The Reformist Party supported privatization, opposing the Modernist Party, which had dominated politics during the reign of Emperor Wu and the subsequent regency
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...
of Huo Guang
Huo Guang
Huo Guang , courtesy name Zimeng was a Western Han statesman who was a rare example in Chinese history of a powerful official who deposed an emperor for the good of the state rather than to usurp the throne...
(d. 68 BC). The Modernists argued that state monopolies provided abundant raw materials, good working conditions, and high quality iron; the Reformists countered that state-owned ironworks produced large and impractical implements designed to meet quota
Quota share
A quota share is a specified number or percentage of the allotment as a whole , that is prescribed to each individual entity ....
s rather than to be of practical use, were of inferior quality, and were too expensive for commoners to purchase. In 44 BC, the Reformists had both the salt and iron monopolies abolished, but the monopolies were reinstated in 41 BC after their abrupt closure resulted in significant losses of revenue for the government and disruption of the private economy.
Wang Mang preserved these central government monopolies. When Eastern Han began, they were once again repealed, the industries given to local commandery governments and private entrepreneurs. Emperor Zhang of Han
Emperor Zhang of Han
Emperor Zhang of Han, ch. 漢章帝, py. hàn zhāng dì, wg. Han Chang-ti, was an emperor of the Chinese Han Dynasty from 75 to 88. He was the third emperor of the Chinese Eastern Han Dynasty....
(r. 75–88 AD) briefly reintroduced the central government monopolies on salt and iron from 85 to 88 AD, but abolished them in the last year of his reign. After Emperor Zhang, the Han never returned the salt and iron industries to government ownership.
Grain
The grain trade was a profitable private enterprise during the early Western Han, yet Emperor Wu's government intervened in the grain trade when it established the equable marketing system (also known as the ever-normal granary system) in 110 BC. The government purchased grain when it was plentiful and inexpensive, shipping it to granaries for storage or to areas where grain was scarce. The system was intended to eliminate grain speculation, to create a standard price and to increase government revenue. The system was designed by civil servant Sang HongyangSang Hongyang
Sang Hongyang was a prominent official of the Former Han Dynasty, who served Emperor Wu of Han and his successor Emperor Zhao. He is most famed for his economic policies during the reign of Emperor Wu, the best known of which include the state monopolies over iron and salt - systems which would...
(d. 80 BC)—who was previously a merchant. Sang Hongyang was criticized by merchants for placing government officials in market stalls. This supply system was discontinued in Eastern Han, although it was briefly revived by Emperor Ming of Han
Emperor Ming of Han
Emperor Ming of Han, , was second emperor of the Chinese Eastern Han Dynasty.He was the second son of Emperor Guangwu. It was during Emperor Ming's reign that Buddhism began to spread into China. One night, he is said to have dreamed of a golden man or golden men...
(r. 57–75). Emperor Ming also abolished the system in 68 AD, when he believed that the government's storage of grain increased prices and made wealthy landowners richer.
Ebrey argues that although most of Emperor Wu's fiscal policies were repealed during Eastern Han, their damage to the merchant class and the subsequent laissez-faire
Laissez-faire
In economics, laissez-faire describes an environment in which transactions between private parties are free from state intervention, including restrictive regulations, taxes, tariffs and enforced monopolies....
policies of Eastern Han allowed the wealthiest landowners to dominate society, ensuring that China's economy would remain firmly agrarian-based for centuries. The Eastern Han central government lost an important source of revenue by relinquishing its salt and iron industries and purchasing its armies' swords and shields from private manufacturers. However, this loss of revenue was often compensated by higher taxes levied on the merchants.
Government workshops
Han government workshops produced common, luxury, and even artistic funerary items, such as the ceramic figurines and tomb tiles which adorned the walls of underground tombs. Imperial workshops were operated by the Minister Steward, whose ministry controlled the treasury and the emperor's private finances.The Office of Arts and Crafts, subordinate to the Minister Steward, produced weapons, bronze mirrors
TLV mirror
A TLV mirror is a type of bronze mirror that was popular during the Han Dynasty in China. They are called TLV mirrors because symbols resembling the letters T, L, and V are engraved into them...
, vessel wares, and other goods. The Office of Manufactures, also subordinate to the Minister Steward, made the cheaper weapons, utensils, and armor
Chinese armour
China has a long history of armour and weapons development. China has many varieties of armour, but the most were of the lamellar, coat of plates, brigandine and scaled varieties.-Ancient Armor: Shang to Han:Initially, armour was exclusively for nobles...
. Textiles and clothing
Han Chinese clothing
Hanfu or Han Chinese Clothing, also sometimes known as Hanzhuang , Huafu , and sometimes referred in English sources simply as Silk Robe or Chinese Silk Robe refers to the historical dress of the Han Chinese people, which was worn for millennia before the conquest by the Manchus and the...
worn by the emperor and royal family were made in the Weaving House of the West and Weaving House of the East; the latter was abolished in 28 BC, and the Weaving House of the West was renamed the Weaving House.
Workshops located in the commanderies made silks and embroidered fabrics, silver and gold luxury items, and weapons. One workshop, in modern Anhui
Anhui
Anhui is a province in the People's Republic of China. Located in eastern China across the basins of the Yangtze River and the Huai River, it borders Jiangsu to the east, Zhejiang to the southeast, Jiangxi to the south, Hubei to the southwest, Henan to the northwest, and Shandong for a tiny...
province, had a shipyard where battle ships were built. Although the government used the labor of state-owned slaves, corvée laborers, and convicts in its workshops, they also hired skilled craftsmen
Master craftsman
A master craftsman or master tradesman was a member of a guild. In the European guild system, only masters were allowed to be members of the guild....
who were well-paid.
Han lacquerware
Lacquerware
Lacquerware are objects decoratively covered with lacquer. The lacquer is sometimes inlaid or carved. Lacquerware includes boxes, tableware, buttons and even coffins painted with lacquer in cultures mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere.-History:...
s were privately made as well as being manufactured in government workshops. Hundreds of laborers could be employed to work on a single luxury item, such as a lacquer
Lacquer
In a general sense, lacquer is a somewhat imprecise term for a clear or coloured varnish that dries by solvent evaporation and often a curing process as well that produces a hard, durable finish, in any sheen level from ultra matte to high gloss and that can be further polished as required...
ed cup or screen. Some lacquerwares were inscribed simply with the clan name
Chinese surname
Chinese family names have been historically used by Han Chinese and Sinicized Chinese ethnic groups in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and among overseas Chinese communities. In ancient times two types of surnames, family names and clan names , existed.The colloquial expressions laobaixing...
of the family who owned them. Others were inscribed with the titles of the owner, the specific type of the vessels, their capacities, the precise day, month, and year of manufacture (according to Chinese era name
Chinese era name
A Chinese era name is the regnal year, reign period, or regnal title used when traditionally numbering years in an emperor's reign and naming certain Chinese rulers . Some emperors have several era names, one after another, where each beginning of a new era resets the numbering of the year back...
s and their lunisolar calendar
Chinese calendar
The Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar, incorporating elements of a lunar calendar with those of a solar calendar. It is not exclusive to China, but followed by many other Asian cultures as well...
), the names of the floor managers who oversaw the items' production and the names of the workers who made them. Even some iron implements made during the age of the monopoly bore inscriptions of the date they were made and the name of the workshop. Bronze Han Dynasty calipers, used for minute measurements, also carry an inscription of the day, month, and year of manufacture. Han lacquerwares bearing the imperial mark of the emperor have been found far beyond the Han capital regions by modern archaeologists, in places such as Qingzhen
Qingzhen
Qingzhen is a county-level city under the administration of Guiyang in Guizhou province of the People's Republic of China.-External links:*...
(in Guizhou
Guizhou
' is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the southwestern part of the country. Its provincial capital city is Guiyang.- History :...
), Pyongyang
Pyongyang
Pyongyang is the capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea, and the largest city in the country. Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River and, according to preliminary results from the 2008 population census, has a population of 3,255,388. The city was...
(in North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
), and Noin Ula
Noin-Ula kurgans
The Noin-Ula kurgans consist of more than 200 large burial mounds, approximately square in plan, some 2 m in height, covering timber burial chambers. They are located by the Selenga River in the hills of northern Mongolia north of Ulan Bator...
(in Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
).
Public construction projects
The Court Architect was charged by central government with overseeing all imperial construction and public works projectsChinese architecture
Chinese architecture refers to a style of architecture that has taken shape in East Asia over many centuries. The structural principles of Chinese architecture have remained largely unchanged, the main changes being only the decorative details...
, including the building of palaces and tombs.
Chinese folk religion
Chinese folk religion or Shenism , which is a term of considerable debate, are labels used to describe the collection of ethnic religious traditions which have been a main belief system in China and among Han Chinese ethnic groups for most of the civilization's history until today...
and the spirits of the emperor's ancestors. Conscripts also maintained canal systems used for agricultural transport and irrigation. Some of the larger Han canal renovation projects included repairs to the Dujiangyan Irrigation System
Dujiangyan Irrigation System
Dujiangyan is an irrigation infrastructure built in 256 BC during the Warring States Period of China by the Kingdom of Qin. It is located in the Min River in Sichuan province, China, near the capital Chengdu. It is still in use today to irrigate over 5,300 square kilometers of land in the region...
and Zhengguo Canal
Zhengguo Canal
The Zhengguo Canal, Zhengguoqu or Chengkuo Canal , named after its designer, Zheng Guo, is a large canal located in Shaanxi province, China. The canal irrigates the Guanzhong plain, north of Xi'an. Together with the Dujiangyan Irrigation System and Lingqu Canal, it is one of the three biggest water...
, built by the previous State of Qin and Qin Dynasty
Qin Dynasty
The Qin Dynasty was the first imperial dynasty of China, lasting from 221 to 207 BC. The Qin state derived its name from its heartland of Qin, in modern-day Shaanxi. The strength of the Qin state was greatly increased by the legalist reforms of Shang Yang in the 4th century BC, during the Warring...
(221–206 BC), respectively.
Nineteen stone inscriptions survive commemorating the building of new roads and bridges by the Eastern Han government. Archaeological excavations at Chang'an show that wooden bridges were built over the defensive moat and led to the gatehouses. Roadways also needed periodic repairs; in 63 AD the route leading from the Qilian Mountains, through Hanzhong
Hanzhong
Hanzhong is a municipality in southwest Shaanxi Province, China, occupying a historically significant valley in the mountains between the Xi'an area, home to many Chinese capitals, and the fertile but isolated Sichuan Basin...
(modern southern Shanxi
Shanxi
' is a province in Northern China. Its one-character abbreviation is "晋" , after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring and Autumn Period....
), and towards the capital Luoyang underwent major repairs. For this project, 623 trestle
Trestle
A trestle is a rigid frame used as a support, especially referring to a bridge composed of a number of short spans supported by such frames. In the context of trestle bridges, each supporting frame is generally referred to as a bent...
bridges, five large bridges, 107 km (66 mi) of new roadways, and 64 buildings—including rest houses
INN
InterNetNews is a Usenet news server package, originally released by Rich Salz in 1991, and presented at the Summer 1992 USENIX conference in San Antonio, Texas...
, post stations
Mail
Mail, or post, is a system for transporting letters and other tangible objects: written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post.In principle, a postal service...
, and relay stations
Courier
A courier is a person or a company who delivers messages, packages, and mail. Couriers are distinguished from ordinary mail services by features such as speed, security, tracking, signature, specialization and individualization of express services, and swift delivery times, which are optional for...
—were built. Those commissioned with military authority also built bridges. For example, during his campaign against the Xiongnu
Sino-Xiongnu War
The Sino-Xiongnu War is a name given to a series of battles between the Han Dynasty and the tribes of Xiongnu between 133 BC and 89 AD. The nature of these battles varied through time between Han conquest and the possession of city-states in central Asia. The war culminated in Geng Kui driving the...
in the Ordos Desert
Ordos Desert
The Ordos Desert is a desert and steppe region lying on a plateau in the south of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China . The soil of the Ordos is a mixture of clay and sand and, as a result, is poorly suited for agriculture. It extends over an area of...
in 127 BC, the general Wei Qing
Wei Qing
Wei Qing , born Zheng Qing in Linfen, Shanxi, was a famous general during Han Dynasty of China, whose campaigns against the Xiongnu earned him great acclaim. He was the younger half-brother of Empress Wei Zifu, making him the the Emperor Wu's brother-in-law...
(d. 106 BC) had a new bridge built over the Wujia River (a former tributary of the Yellow River
Yellow River
The Yellow River or Huang He, formerly known as the Hwang Ho, is the second-longest river in China and the sixth-longest in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai Province in western China, it flows through nine provinces of China and empties into...
) in today's Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the northern region of the country. Inner Mongolia shares an international border with the countries of Mongolia and the Russian Federation...
. He used this bridge to move troops and supplies for an attack on the Xiongnu, northwest of modern Wuyuan County (五原县). Ebrey writes:
There were, of course, numerous reasons for maintaining roads. A unified political system could be maintained only as long as the government had the means of quickly dispatching officials, troops, or messengers as needed. Such a system of transportation, once established, facilitated commerce. At the local level, road and bridge projects seem to have been initiated as much for the sake of traveling merchants as for officials.
Traded goods and commodities
Han-era historians like Sima QianSima Qian
Sima Qian was a Prefect of the Grand Scribes of the Han Dynasty. He is regarded as the father of Chinese historiography for his highly praised work, Records of the Grand Historian , a "Jizhuanti"-style general history of China, covering more than two thousand years from the Yellow Emperor to...
(145–86 BC) and Ban Gu
Ban Gu
Ban Gu , courtesy name Mengjian , was a 1st century Chinese historian and poet best known for his part in compiling the Book of Han. He also wrote in the main poetic genre of the Han era, a kind of poetry interspersed with prose called fu. Some are anthologized by Xiao Tong in his Selections of...
(32–92 AD), as well as the later historian Fan Ye
Fan Ye (historian)
Fan Ye , courtesy name Weizong , was a Chinese historian and the compiler of Book of Later Han of Liu Song. Fan came from an official family background, he was born in present-day Shaoxing, Zhejiang, his ancestry was from Nanyang, Henan. His father was Fan Tai .-References:*Tan, Jiajian, ....
(398–445 AD), recorded details of the business transactions and products traded by Han merchants. Evidence of these products has also emerged from archaeological investigations.
The main agricultural staple foods during the Han Dynasty were foxtail millet, proso millet, rice (including glutinous rice), wheat, beans, and barley. Other food items included sorghum, taro, mallow, mustard plant, jujube, pear, plum (including prunus salicina
Prunus salicina
Prunus salicina , commonly called the Chinese plum or Japanese plum, is a small deciduous tree native to China...
and Prunus mume), peach, apricot, and myrica
Myrica
Myrica is a genus of about 35–50 species of small trees and shrubs in the family Myricaceae, order Fagales. The genus has a wide distribution, including Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America, and missing only from Australasia...
. Chicken, duck, goose, beef, pork, rabbit, sika deer
Sika Deer
The Sika Deer, Cervus nippon, also known as the Spotted Deer or the Japanese Deer, is a species of deer native to much of East Asia and introduced to various other parts of the world...
, turtle dove, owl, Chinese Bamboo Partridge
Chinese Bamboo Partridge
The Chinese Bamboo Partridge is a small partridge native to eastern mainland China and Taiwan, and introduced successfully to Japan...
, magpie, common pheasant, crane, and various types of fish were commonly consumed meats.
The production of silk through sericulture
Sericulture
Sericulture, or silk farming, is the rearing of silkworms for the production of raw silk.Although there are several commercial species of silkworms, Bombyx mori is the most widely used and intensively studied. According to Confucian texts, the discovery of silk production by B...
was profitable for both small-time farmers and large-scale producers. Silk clothing was too expensive for the poor, who wore clothes most commonly made of hemp. The rural women usually wove all the family's clothes.
Common bronze items included domestic wares like oil lamps, incense burners, tables, irons, stoves, and dripping jars. Iron goods were often used for construction and farmwork, such as plowshares, pickaxes, spades, shovels, hoes, sickles, axes, adze
Adze
An adze is a tool used for smoothing or carving rough-cut wood in hand woodworking. Generally, the user stands astride a board or log and swings the adze downwards towards his feet, chipping off pieces of wood, moving backwards as they go and leaving a relatively smooth surface behind...
, hammers, chisels, knives, saws, scratch awl
Scratch awl
A scratch awl is a woodworking layout and point-making tool. It is used to scribe a line to be followed by a hand saw or chisel when making woodworking joints and other operations....
s, and nails. Iron was also used to make swords
Chinese swords
Swords have a long history in China. Stone swords were used in prehistoric times. Bronze swords have been traced back to the bronze daggers of the Shang period,. Bronze long swords suddenly appeared during the mid-third century BC. Later swords were made of iron or steel. These metals were...
, halberds
Ji (halberd)
The ji , the Chinese halberd, was used as a military weapon in one form or another from at least as early as the Shang dynasty until the end of the Qing dynasty. They are still used for training purposes by many Chinese martial arts...
, arrowheads and scale armor for the military.
Other common goods included: consumables (liquor, pickles and sauces, sheep and pigs, grain, yeast for fermentation, bean relish, dried fish and abalone, dates, chestnuts, fruits and vegetables), raw materials (cattle hide, boat timber, bamboo poles, dyes, horns, cinnabar, raw lacquer, jade, amber), clothing and clothing materials (silk fabrics, fine and coarse cloth, sable and foxskin garments, felt and mats, deerskin slippers), eating utensils (bronze utensils and chopsticks, silver, wood and iron vessels, ceramic wares), art objects (lacquerware, ceramics), elegant coffins (made of catalpa, locust, juniper, and lacquered wood), vehicles such as light two-wheeled carts and heavy oxcarts, and horses.
In addition to general commodities, Han historians list the goods of specific regions. Common trade items from the region of modern Shanxi
Shanxi
' is a province in Northern China. Its one-character abbreviation is "晋" , after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring and Autumn Period....
included bamboo, timber, grain, and gemstones; Shandong
Shandong
' is a Province located on the eastern coast of the People's Republic of China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history from the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and served as a pivotal cultural and religious site for Taoism, Chinese...
had fish, salt, liquor, and silk; Jiangnan
Jiangnan
Jiangnan or Jiang Nan is a geographic area in China referring to lands immediately to the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, including the southern part of the Yangtze Delta...
had camphor
Camphor
Camphor is a waxy, white or transparent solid with a strong, aromatic odor. It is a terpenoid with the chemical formula C10H16O. It is found in wood of the camphor laurel , a large evergreen tree found in Asia and also of Dryobalanops aromatica, a giant of the Bornean forests...
, catalpa, ginger, cinnamon, gold, tin, lead, cinnabar, rhinoceros horn, tortoise shell, pearls, ivory, and leather. Ebrey lists items found in a 2nd century AD tomb in Wuwei, Gansu (along the Hexi Corridor
Hexi Corridor
Hexi Corridor or Gansu Corridor refers to the historical route in Gansu province of China. As part of the Northern Silk Road running northwest from the bank of the Yellow River, it was the most important route from North China to the Tarim Basin and Central Asia for traders and the military. The...
fortified by the Great Wall of China
Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built originally to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire against intrusions by various nomadic groups...
), evidence that luxury items could be obtained even in remote frontiers.
… fourteen pieces of pottery; wooden objects such as a horse, pig, ox, chicken, chicken coop, and a single-horned animal; seventy copper cash; a crossbow mechanism made of bronze; a writing brush; a lacquer-encased inkstone; a lacquer tray and bowl; a wooden comb; a jade ornament; a pair of hemp shoes; a straw bag; the remains of an inscribed banner; a bamboo hairpin; two straw satchels; and a stone lamp.
Estate management and trade
Gentry (China)
As used for imperial China, landed gentry does not correspond to any term in Chinese. One standard work remarks that under the Ming dynasty, called shenshi or shenjin, meaning variously degree-holders, literati, scholar-bureaucrats or officials, they are loosely known in English as the Chinese...
criticized him, claiming the practice was immoral, but not illegal.
Cui Shi's book Simin yueling (四民月令) is the only significant surviving work on agriculture
Agriculture in China
Agriculture is an important economic sector of China, employing over 300 million farmers. China ranks first in worldwide farm output, primarily producing rice, wheat, potatoes, sorghum, peanuts, tea, millet, barley, cotton, oilseed, pork, and fish.-History:...
from the Eastern Han period, though about 3,000 written characters
Chinese character
Chinese characters are logograms used in the writing of Chinese and Japanese , less frequently Korean , formerly Vietnamese , or other languages...
of the Fan Shengzhi shu (氾勝之書), dated to the reign of Emperor Cheng of Han
Emperor Cheng of Han
Emperor Cheng of Han was an emperor of the Chinese Han Dynasty ruling from 33 BC until 7 BC.Under Emperor Cheng, the Han dynasty continued its slide into disintegration while the Wang clan continued its slow grip on power and on governmental affairs as promoted by the previous emperor...
(33–7 BC), still survive. Cui Shi's book provides descriptions of rituals for ancestor worship, festival and religious holiday celebrations
Traditional Chinese holidays
The traditional Chinese holidays are an essential part of Chinese culture. Many holidays are associated with Chinese mythology and folklore tales, but more realistically, they probably originated from ancient farmer rituals for celebrating harvests or prayer offerings...
, conduct for family and kinship relations
Chinese kinship
The Chinese kinship system is classified as a Sudanese kinship system used to define family. Identified by Lewis Henry Morgan in his 1871 work Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family, the Sudanese system is one of the six major kinship systems together with Eskimo, Hawaiian,...
, farmwork, and the schooling season for boys. Cui Shi's book also provides detailed instructions on which months were the most profitable times to buy and sell certain types of farm-produced goods.
The following table is modelled on Ebrey's "Estate and Family Management in the Later Han as Seen in the Monthly Instructions for the Four Classes of People" (1974). Ebrey writes: "… the same item was often bought and sold at different times of the year. The rationale for this is very clearly financial: items were bought when the price was low and sold when it was high." The specific amounts for each commodity traded are not listed, yet the timing of sale and purchase during the year is the most valuable information for historians. Missing from Cui Shi's list are important items which his family certainly bought and sold at specific times of the year, such as salt, iron farm tools and kitchen utensils, paper and ink (the papermaking
Papermaking
Papermaking is the process of making paper, a substance which is used universally today for writing and packaging.In papermaking a dilute suspension of fibres in water is drained through a screen, so that a mat of randomly interwoven fibres is laid down. Water is removed from this mat of fibres by...
process was invented by Cai Lun
Cai Lun
Cai Lun , courtesy name Jingzhong , was a Chinese eunuch. He is traditionally regarded as the inventor of paper and the papermaking process, in forms recognizable in modern times as paper...
in 105 AD), as well as luxury items of silk and exotic foods.
| Goods bought and sold throughout the year at the estate of Cui Shi (催寔) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Month of the year | Bought | Sold |
| 2 | Firewood and charcoal | Unhusked millet, glutinous millet, soya and lesser beans, hemp and wheat |
| 3 | Hempen cloth | glutinous millet |
| 4 | Huskless and regular barley, scrap silk wadding | |
| 5 | Huskless and regular barley, wheat, silk floss, hempen and silk cloth, straw | Soya and lesser beans, sesame |
| 6 | Huskless barley, wheat, thick and thin silk | Soya beans |
| 7 | Wheat and or barley, thick and thin silk | Soya and lesser beans |
| 8 | Leather shoes, glutinous millet | Seed wheat and or barley |
| 10 | Unhusked millet, soya and lesser beans and hemp seeds | Thick silk, silk, and silk floss |
| 11 | Non-glutinous rice, husked and unhusked millet, lesser beans and hemp seed | |
There was mass unemployment among landless peasants during the Eastern Han period. However, archaeological and literary evidence shows that those managing wealthy agricultural estates enjoyed great prosperity and lived comfortably. In addition to Cui's work, the inventor, mathematician
Chinese mathematics
Mathematics in China emerged independently by the 11th century BC. The Chinese independently developed very large and negative numbers, decimals, a place value decimal system, a binary system, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry....
, and court astronomer
Chinese astronomy
Astronomy in China has a very long history, with historians considering that "they [the Chinese] were the most persistent and accurate observers of celestial phenomena anywhere in the world before the Arabs."...
Zhang Heng
Zhang Heng
Zhang Heng was a Chinese astronomer, mathematician, inventor, geographer, cartographer, artist, poet, statesman, and literary scholar from Nanyang, Henan. He lived during the Eastern Han Dynasty of China. He was educated in the capital cities of Luoyang and Chang'an, and began his career as a...
(78–139 AD) wrote a rhapsody
Fu (poetry)
Fu is a kind of rhymed prose, or poetry style essay, popular in ancient China, especially during the Han Dynasty. The term fu is often used in a multiway contrast with the more purely poetic shi style, with the fixed-rhythm forms of poetry , and with various more explicitly prosaic forms of...
describing the rich countryside of Nanyang
Nanyang, Henan
Nanyang is a prefecture-level city in the southwest of Henan province, People's Republic of China. The city with the largest administrative area in Henan, Nanyang borders Xinyang to the southeast, Zhumadian to the east, Pingdingshan to the northeast, Luoyang to the north, Sanmenxia to the...
and its irrigated rice paddies
Paddy field
A paddy field is a flooded parcel of arable land used for growing rice and other semiaquatic crops. Paddy fields are a typical feature of rice farming in east, south and southeast Asia. Paddies can be built into steep hillsides as terraces and adjacent to depressed or steeply sloped features such...
. He mentions grain fields, ponds filled with fish, and estate gardens
Chinese garden
The Chinese garden, also known as a Chinese classical garden, is a style of landscape garden which has evolved for more than three thousand years, and which is inspired by Chinese literature, Chinese painting and Chinese philosophy...
and orchards filled with bamboo shoots, autumn leeks, winter rape-turnips, perilla
Perilla
Perilla is the common name of the herbs of the genus Perilla of the mint family, Lamiaceae. In mild climates, the plant reseeds itself. There are both green-leafed and purple-leafed varieties, which are generally recognized as separate species by botanists. The leaves resemble stinging nettle...
, evodia
Tetradium
Tetradium is a genus of nine species of trees in the family Rutaceae, occurring in temperate to tropical east Asia. In older books, the genus was often included in the related genus Euodia , but that genus is now restricted to tropical species...
, and purple ginger.
Bricks lining the walls of the tombs of wealthy Han were adorned with carved or molded reliefs and painted murals; these often showed scenes of the tomb occupant's estate, halls, wells, carriage sheds, pens for cattle, sheep, chickens, and pigs, stables for horses, and employed workers picking mulberry leaves, plowing crop fields, and hoeing vegetable patches.
Small and medium-sized estates were managed by single families. The father acted as the head manager, the sons as field workers. Wives and daughters worked with female servants to weave cloth and produce silk. Very wealthy landowners who had a large peasant following often used a sharecropping
Sharecropping
Sharecropping is a system of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crop produced on the land . This should not be confused with a crop fixed rent contract, in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a fixed amount of...
system to similar to the government's system for state-owned lands. Under this system, peasants would receive land, tools, oxen, and a house in exchange for a third or a half of their crop yield.
Foreign trade and tributary exchange
Eurasian Steppe
The Eurasian Steppe is the vast steppe ecoregion of Eurasia in the Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands Biome. It stretches from Hungary to Mongolia...
. The heqin
Heqin
Heqin was a term used in ancient China for an alliance by marriage. It usually referred to the Chinese Emperor marrying off a "princess" to an aggressive "barbarian" chieftain or ruler. The theory was that in exchange for the marriage, the chieftain would cease all aggressive actions toward China...
agreement between the Han and nomadic Xiongnu
Xiongnu
The Xiongnu were ancient nomadic-based people that formed a state or confederation north of the agriculture-based empire of the Han Dynasty. Most of the information on the Xiongnu comes from Chinese sources...
stipulated the transfer of tributary goods from China. The exact amount of annual tribute sent to the Xiongnu in the 2nd century BC is unknown. In 89 BC, when Hulugu Chanyu (狐鹿姑) (r. 95–85 BC) requested a renewal of the heqin agreement, he demanded an annual tribute of 400000 litre of wine, 100000 litre of grain, and 10,000 bales of silk. These amounts of wine, grain, and silk were considered to be a significant increase from earlier amounts of tribute, which must have been much less. Besides these arrangements, the most common commercial exchanges between the Xiongnu
Xiongnu
The Xiongnu were ancient nomadic-based people that formed a state or confederation north of the agriculture-based empire of the Han Dynasty. Most of the information on the Xiongnu comes from Chinese sources...
and Han merchants consisted of the trading of Xiongnu horses and furs
Fur clothing
Fur clothing is clothing made of the fur of animals. Fur is one of the oldest forms of clothing; thought to have been widely used as hominids first expanded outside of Africa. Some view fur as luxurious and warm; others reject it due to moral beliefs...
for Han agricultural foodstuffs and luxury items, most notably silk. By means of the black market, the Xiongnu were also able to smuggle Han iron weapons
History of ferrous metallurgy
The history of ferrous metallurgy began far back in prehistory. The earliest surviving iron artifacts, from the 5th millennium BC in Iran and 2nd millennium BC in China, were made from meteoritic iron-nickel. It is not known when or where the smelting of iron from ores began, but by the end of the...
across the border.
The Han established a diplomatic presence in the Tarim Basin
Tarim Basin
The Tarim Basin is a large endorheic basin occupying an area of about . It is located in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China's far west. Its northern boundary is the Tian Shan mountain range and its southern is the Kunlun Mountains on the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. The...
of Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
during Emperor Wu of Han
Emperor Wu of Han
Emperor Wu of Han , , personal name Liu Che , was the seventh emperor of the Han Dynasty of China, ruling from 141 BC to 87 BC. Emperor Wu is best remembered for the vast territorial expansion that occurred under his reign, as well as the strong and centralized Confucian state he organized...
's reign (141–87 BC). Han envoys brought gifts of sheep, gold, and silk to the urban oasis city-states. The Chinese sometimes used gold as currency; however, silk was favored as a means to pay for food and lodging. Once the Han had subjugated the Tarim Basin and established a Protectorate there
Protectorate of the Western Regions
The Protectorate of the Western Regions was a regional government established by the Han Dynasty to manage and to control the Western Regions, roughly today's Xinjiang ....
, Han envoys in these states were given free food and lodging. These envoys were required to send tributary items of furs, precious stones, and delicacies such as Central Asian raisins to the Han court. The Arsacid court sent exotic animals including lions and ostriches to the Han court, and a king ruling in what is now Burma sent elephants and rhinoceroses. Han diplomatic missions to royal courts across Asia were usually accompanied by trade caravans which earned substantial profits.
The Han court received tributary submission from the Xiongnu leader
Chanyu
Chanyu , was the title used by the nomadic supreme rulers of Middle and Central Asia for 8 centuries, starting...
Huhanye (呼韓邪) (r. 58–31 BC), an important rival to Zhizhi Chanyu
Zhizhi Chanyu
Zhizhi Chanyu was a Chanyu of the Xiongnu at the time of the first Xiongnu civil war, who held the north and west in contention with his younger brother Huhanye who held the south. His original name in Chinese transcription was Luanti Hutuwusi, i.e...
(r. 56–36 BC, died at the Battle of Zhizhi
Battle of Zhizhi
The Battle of Zhizhi was fought in 36 BC between the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu chieftain Zhizhi Chanyu. Zhizhi was defeated and killed. The battle was probably fought near Taraz on the Talas River in eastern Kazakhstan, which makes it one of the westernmost points reached by a Chinese army...
). Huhanye's tribute, exchange of hostages, and presence at Chang'an in the New Year
Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year – often called Chinese Lunar New Year although it actually is lunisolar – is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is an all East and South-East-Asia celebration...
of 51 BC were rewarded with the following gifts from the emperor: 5 kg (160.8 ozt) of gold, 200,000 coins, 77 suits of clothes, 8,000 bales of silk fabric, 1500 kg (3,306.9 lb) of silk floss, 15 horses, and 680000 litre of grain. As shown in the table below, based upon Yü Ying-shih's "Han Foreign Relations" (1986), the Xiongnu leader's political submission was guaranteed only for as long as the Han could provide him with ever greater amounts of imperial largesse with each succeeding visit to the Chinese court.
| Imperial Han gifts received by the Xiongnu Chanyu during trips of homage to the Han court in Chang'an | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year (BC) | Silk floss (measured in catties) | Silk fabric (measured in bales) |
| 51 | 1,500 | 8,000 |
| 49 | 2,000 | 9,000 |
| 33 | 4,000 | 18,000 |
| 25 | 5,000 | 20,000 |
| 1 | 7,500 | 30,000 |
The establishment of the Silk Road
Silk Road
The Silk Road or Silk Route refers to a historical network of interlinking trade routes across the Afro-Eurasian landmass that connected East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean and European world, as well as parts of North and East Africa...
occurred during Wu's reign, owing to the efforts of the diplomat Zhang Qian
Zhang Qian
Zhang Qian was an imperial envoy to the world outside of China in the 2nd century BCE, during the time of the Han Dynasty...
. The increased demand for silk from the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
stimulated commercial traffic in both Central Asia and across the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
. Roman merchants
Roman commerce
Roman trade was the engine that drove the Roman economy of the late Republic and the early Empire. Fashions and trends in historiography and in popular culture have tended to neglect the economic basis of the empire in favor of the lingua franca of Latin and the exploits of the Roman legions...
sailed to Barbarikon
Barbarikon
Barbarikon was the name of a sea port near the modern-day city of Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan, important in the Hellenistic era in Indian Ocean trade...
near present-day Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, and Barygaza
Bharuch
Bharuch , also known as Broach, is the oldest city in Gujarat, situated at the mouth of the holy river Narmada. Bharuch is the administrative headquarters of Bharuch District and a municipality of more than 1,50,000 inhabitants. As Bharuch is a major seaport city, a number of trade activities have...
in present-day Gujarat, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
to purchase Chinese silks (see Roman trade with India
Roman trade with India
Roman trade with India through the overland caravan routes via Anatolia and Persia, though at a relative trickle compared to later times, antedated the southern trade route via the Red Sea and monsoons which started around the beginning of the Common Era following the reign of Augustus and his...
). When Emperor Wu conquered Nanyue
Nanyue
Nanyue was an ancient kingdom that consisted of parts of the modern Chinese provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, and Yunnan and northern Vietnam. Nanyue was established in 204 BC at the final collapse of the Qin Dynasty by Zhao Tuo, who was the military commander of Nanhai Commandery at the time, and...
—in what is now Southwest China
Southwest China
Southwest China is a region of the People's Republic of China defined by governmental bureaus that includes the municipality of Chongqing, the provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou, and the Tibet Autonomous Region.-Provinces:-Municipalities:...
and northern Vietnam
Northern and southern Vietnam
Northern Vietnam and Southern Vietnam are two general regions within Vietnam.Of the two regions, the older is Northern Vietnam, where the Vietnamese culture originated over 2000 years ago in the Red River Delta, though Vietnamese people eventually spread south into the Mekong Delta...
—in 111 BC, overseas trade was extended to Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
and the Indian Ocean, as maritime merchants traded Han gold and silk for pearls, jade, lapis lazuli, and glasswares.
The Book of Later Han
Book of Later Han
The Book of the Later Han or the History of the Later Han is one of the official Chinese historical works which was compiled by Fan Ye in the 5th century, using a number of earlier histories and documents as sources...
states that Roman envoys sent by Emperor Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–180 AD), following a southern route, brought gifts to the court of Emperor Huan of Han
Emperor Huan of Han
Emperor Huan of Han, ch. 漢桓帝, py. hàn húan dì, wg. Han Huan-ti, was an emperor of the Chinese Han Dynasty. He was a great-grandson of Emperor Zhang....
(r. 146–168 AD) in 166 AD. This Roman mission followed an unsuccessful attempt by the Han diplomat Gan Ying
Gan Ying
Gan Ying , was a Chinese military ambassador who was sent on a mission to Rome in 97 CE by the Chinese general Ban Chao.Although Gan Ying never reached Rome, only travelling to as far as the Parthian coast of the Persian Gulf, he is, at least in the historical records, the Chinese who went the...
to reach Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in 97. Gan Ying was delayed at the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
, by Arsacid authorities, and could only make a report on Rome based on oral accounts. Historians Charles Hucker
Charles Hucker
Charles O. Hucker , was a Professor of Chinese language and history at the University of Michigan. He was regarded as one of the foremost historians of Imperial China and a leading figure in the promotion of academic programs in Asian Studies during the 1950s and 1960s.Born in St...
and Rafe de Crespigny
Rafe de Crespigny
Dr Rafe de Crespigny is a retired Adjunct Professor with the China and Korea Centre, Australian National University in Canberra, Australia...
both speculate that the Roman mission of 166 AD involved enterprising Roman merchants instead of actual diplomats; Hucker writes:
Tributary missions from vassal states were commonly allowed to include traders, who thus gained opportunities to do business in the capital markets. No doubt a large proportion of what the Chinese court chose to call tributary missions were in fact shrewdly organized commercial ventures by foreign merchants with no diplomatic status at all. This was unquestionably the case, most notably, with a group of traders who appeared on the south coast in 166 A.D. claiming to be envoys from the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.
The main trade route leading into Han China passed first through Kashgar
Kashgar
Kashgar or Kashi is an oasis city with approximately 350,000 residents in the western part of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Kashgar is the administrative centre of Kashgar Prefecture which has an area of 162,000 km² and a population of approximately...
, yet Hellenized
Hellenistic civilization
Hellenistic civilization represents the zenith of Greek influence in the ancient world from 323 BCE to about 146 BCE...
Bactria
Bactria
Bactria and also appears in the Zend Avesta as Bukhdi. It is the ancient name of a historical region located between south of the Amu Darya and west of the Indus River...
further west was the central node of international trade. By the 1st century AD, Bactria and much of Central Asia and North India
North India
North India, known natively as Uttar Bhārat or Shumālī Hindustān , is a loosely defined region in the northern part of India. The exact meaning of the term varies by usage...
were controlled by the Kushan Empire
Kushan Empire
The Kushan Empire originally formed in the early 1st century AD under Kujula Kadphises in the territories of ancient Bactria on either side of the middle course of the Oxus in what is now northern Afghanistan, Pakistan, and southern Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.During the 1st and early 2nd centuries...
. Silk was the main export item from China to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. Indian merchants
Economic history of India
The known Economic history of India begins with the Indus Valley civilization. The Indus civilization's economy appears to have depended significantly on trade, which was facilitated by advances in transport. Around 600 BC, the Mahajanapadas minted punch-marked silver coins. The period was marked...
brought various goods to China, including tortoise shell, gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, tin, fine cloth, woolen textiles, perfume and incense, crystal sugar, pepper, ginger, salt, coral, pearls, glass items, and Roman wares. Indian merchants brought Roman styrax
Styrax
Styrax is a genus of about 130 species of large shrubs or small trees in the family Styracaceae, mostly native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with the majority in eastern and southeastern Asia, but also crossing the equator in South America...
and frankincense
Frankincense
Frankincense, also called olibanum , is an aromatic resin obtained from trees of the genus Boswellia, particularly Boswellia sacra, B. carteri, B. thurifera, B. frereana, and B. bhaw-dajiana...
to China, while the Chinese knew bdellium
Bdellium
Bdellium is an aromatic gum like myrrh that is exuded from a tree. A medieval Arab writer first made the identification with gum guggul, the species Commiphora wightii, although "bdellium" has also been used to identify the African species C. africana and at least one other Indian species, C....
as a fragrant item from Persia, although it was native to West India
West India
West India or the Western region of India consists of the states of Goa, Gujarat and Maharashtra, along with the Union Territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. It is highly industrialized, with a large urban population. Most of Western India was part of the Maratha Empire before...
. The tall Ferghana horse
Ferghana horse
Ferghana horses were one of China's earliest major imports, originating in an area in Central Asia. These horses, as depicted in Tang Dynasty pottery representations of them, "resemble the animals on the golden medal of Eucratides, King of Bactria ."-Ancient history:Dayuan, north of Bactria, was...
s imported from Fergana
Fergana
Fergana is a city , the capital of Fergana Province in eastern Uzbekistan, at the southern edge of the Fergana Valley in southern Central Asia, cutting across the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan...
were highly prized in Han China. The newly introduced exotic Central Asian grape
Grape
A grape is a non-climacteric fruit, specifically a berry, that grows on the perennial and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis. Grapes can be eaten raw or they can be used for making jam, juice, jelly, vinegar, wine, grape seed extracts, raisins, molasses and grape seed oil. Grapes are also...
s (i.e. vitis vinifera
Vitis vinifera
Vitis vinifera is a species of Vitis, native to the Mediterranean region, central Europe, and southwestern Asia, from Morocco and Portugal north to southern Germany and east to northern Iran....
) were used to make grape wine
Wine in China
Wine in China refers to grape wines that are produced in China. Grape wine has a long history in China, along with other Chinese alcoholic beverages....
, although the Chinese had rice wine
Rice wine
Rice wine is an alcoholic beverage made from rice. Unlike wine, which is made by fermentation of naturally sweet grapes and other fruit, rice "wine" results from the fermentation of rice starch converted to sugars...
before this. Glass
Glass
Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...
luxury items from ancient Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
have been found in Chinese tombs and dated to the late Spring and Autumn Period (771–476 BC). Roman glass
Roman glass
Roman glass objects have been recovered across the Roman Empire in domestic, industrial and funerary contexts. Glass was used primarily for the production of vessels, although mosaic tiles and window glass were also produced. Roman glass production developed from Hellenistic technical traditions,...
wares have been found in Chinese tombs dating to the early 1st century BC, with the earliest specimen found at the southern Chinese seaport of Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
. Silverwares
Silver (household)
Household silver or silverware includes dishware, cutlery and other household items made of sterling, Britannia or Sheffield plate silver. The term is often extended to items made of stainless steel...
from Roman-
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
and Arsacid territories have also been found at Han tomb sites.