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 At the end of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC - 24 AD), Wangmang, a distant relative of the royal family, usurped the throne of the Liu family. Although condemned as a usurper, Wangmang wished to retrieve the glory of the Han by adopting policies described in the Confucian classics. However, despite his efforts, Wangmang was still unwelcome because of his inapposite policies. In 17 AD, a countrywide rebellion broke out. In 25 AD, the rebellion army of Liuxiu defeated the army of Wangmang, putting an end to the short-lived Xin Dynasty.
In the same year, Liuxiu re-established the Han Dynasty in Hebei Province, making Luoyang City, in present Henan Province, his capital city. Historians call the later Han Empire the Eastern Han Dynasty. The Eastern Han lasted for 195 years with twelve emperors in office.
Economy and Society
Emperor Guangwu, Liuxiu, concluded the upheaval of the former Han Dynasty and reunified the country.
At the beginning of the Eastern Han, the whole country was in deep poverty. Liuxiu tried his best to recover the economy by lowering taxes, abolishing inapposite laws and promulgating a series of laws to release slaves. In addition, Liuxiu ordered the construction of irrigation systems, promoting a quick recovery and development in agriculture. During his reign of thirty-two years, he attempted improvements by promoting scholarship and by curtailing the influence of eunuchs and some others around the royal family.
When Emperor He was in power (88-106), despite his mediocrity, China continued to enjoy a rising prosperity. Emperor He repealed the national monopolization of salt and iron and encouraged the development of bronze metallurgy and the textile industry. Under his management, China's trade reached a new height. Luoyang became the commercial center of the whole country. Other cities, such as Yangzhou (present Yangzhou City in Jiangsu Province), Jingzhou (present Shashi City in Hubei Province), and Yizhou (present Chengdu City in Sichuan Province) all witnessed prosperities in their handicraft industry and commerce.
During the reign of Emperor Zhang and Emperor He, silk from China was becoming familiar to people as far away as the Roman Empire. In return, China received glass, jade, horses, precious stones, tortoise shell, and fabrics.
Foreign Relationship
When Liuxiu was in power, he defended China's western and northern borders by launching successful military campaigns on these frontiers, pushing back the Xiongnu and putting Xinjiang (the extreme northwest of modern China) under his control. Also, he tightened China's grip on the area around the Liao River and northern Korea, and expanded his control over all that had been China.
During the reign of Emperor Zhang and Emperor He, with China's prosperity came another attempt at expansion westward. In 73 AD, for the purpose of building good relationship with western region tribes, a military officer, Banchao, younger brother of Bangu went westward on the diplomatic mission with a delegation of thirty-six men. He finally made those desert tribes tributaries of the Eastern Han Empire, which ensured the long peace and smoothness along the Silk Road. Furthermore, Banchao once remained in the Western Regions for 31 years, suppressing rebellions and establishing diplomatic relations with over 50 states there.
Science and Culture
In the field of science and culture, Eastern Han exceeded the former Western Han due to the maintained stableness of the society in its early period. In 105 AD, Cailun improved the old technique of paper making through the application of plant fibers, which became one of the four ancient Chinese inventions. The scientist Zhangheng invented seismography and the Armillary Sphere so as to observe the universe and predict earthquake. Bangu, Banchao's brother, worked out the first dynastic historical book, History of the Former Han Dynasty. Moreover, it is recorded that Huatuo, a famous physician of this time, first employed the method of anesthesia in his surgical operation. In this period, calligraphy and painting no longer merely served as picture writing, they began to develop into a kind of art. Pottery objects found their way into the daily life of the common people as they were in the families of privileged aristocrats.
Around first century, Buddhism was imported to China by Buddhist monks of Persia by way of the Silk Road. About the same time, Taoism, the only indigenous religion of China, came into being.
Decline
From the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty onwards, the empire fell into degeneration. Landlords and local tyrants came up as an increasingly stronger force. Hereditary big families controlled the central government. A gang of eunuchs, gaining favors from the emperors, traded the court posts in public. The corruption of the government resulted in an armed revolt in the end.
Emperor Huan died in 168 and quickly the 12-year-old Emperor Ling was selected out by the empress to inherit the kingship. During the reign of Emperor Ling, a clash erupted between the eunuchs and Confucianist gentry-bureaucrats, quickening up the disintegration of the ruling class.
The conflict inside the ruling class was soon followed by the peasant uprisings. In 184 a Daoist sect, Huangjin (Yellow Turbans) Army rose in revolt and quickly spread their influence throughout much of the empire. Since rebelling soldiers all tied yellow scarves on their heads, the army was called Yellow Turbans Army. Although the royal army put it down in the end, the Yellow Turbans Uprising inflicted a telling blow on the Eastern Han Empire.
In 189 AD, Emperor Ling died and the power fell into the hand of the queen mother. Dongzhuo, a general stationed in Liangzhou (a city near present Wuwei in Gansu Province), conquered Luoyang and killed the reigning emperor, Emperor Shao, and the queen mother. In order to deceive other people, Dongzhuo made nine-year-old Liuxie the emperor, who was known as Emperor Xian, while the real power was under his control.
Dongzhuo ruled the country ruthlessly and his bloodthirstiness finally led to his failure. In the year 192 his officers assassinated him and threw his corpse to a mob that hated him.
In 220, Emperor Xian formally abdicated in favor of Caopi, the son of Cao Cao. Caopi proclaimed himself the first emperor of the new Wei Dynasty (220 - 265). From then on, China fell apart again into another period of disunity - the Three Kingdoms Period, which lasted from 220 to 589.
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