Civilization · 206 BCE – 220 CE
Han Dynasty
China's classical age — Silk Road, Confucian bureaucracy, paper.
Capital: Chang'an, Luoyang · East Asia
Overview
The Han consolidated Qin's unification into a lasting Chinese civilizational model: Confucian civil service, Silk Road commerce, and technologies (paper, seismograph, wheelbarrow) that outpaced the contemporary Mediterranean world.
Timeline
- 202 BCELiu Bang founds the Han
- 141 – 87 BCEEmperor Wu expands the empire
- c. 130 BCEZhang Qian opens the Silk Road
- 9 – 23 CEWang Mang's Xin interregnum
- 220Fall into the Three Kingdoms
Rulers
Founder
Silk Road, imperial university
Restored the Han
Wars & conflicts
- Han–Xiongnu wars
- Conquest of Nanyue
- Three Kingdoms wars
Architecture
Rammed-earth city walls, tomb complexes, wooden palaces on stone terraces.
Religion
State Confucianism with Daoist and folk traditions; Buddhism arrives in the 1st century.
Economy
State monopolies on iron and salt; silk exports along the caravan routes.
Technology
Paper (Cai Lun, 105 CE), seismograph, blast furnace, water-powered bellows.
Art
Lacquerware, tomb figurines, jade burial suits, silk banners.
Influence
The dominant ethnic group of China (Han) is named for the dynasty.
Decline
Court eunuchism, land concentration, Yellow Turban rebellion, warlord fragmentation.
Key sites
- Mawangdui tombs
- Han Yangling
- Great Wall Han-era sections