Eastern (Later) Han 25-220 CE

Liu Xiu (5 BCE-56 CE)

Emperor Guangwu (r. 25-56 CE)

Historical Writing

Earliest Historical Works

Compilations of political documents

Shujing (The Book of Documents), ca. 9th to 6th c. BCE

Chronicles or Annals

*Spring and Autumn Annals, 722-481 BCE

*Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji)

Sima Tan (d. 110 BCE)

*Sima Qian (145-87? BCE)

Innovations

Attempt at objectivity
Thematic organization

1. Annals
2. Tables
3. Treatises
4. Hereditary houses of pre-imperial period
5. Biographies/Descriptions of Foreign Peoples

Model for later dynastic histories

Historical Writing Institutionalized

History of Western Han Dynasty

Ban Biao (d. 54), private history
Ban Gu (32-92), court historian
*Ban Zhao (45-120)

Eastern (Later) Han 25-220 CE

Capital in Luoyang

Political Conflicts at Capital

Emperor Huan (r. 146-168)

Consort family

Empress Liang (d. 159)

Liang Ji (d. 159), Regent

Eunuch coup d’état in 159

Theories of Han Decline

Traditional

Poor administration

Emperors, Women, Eunuchs

Present standard interpretation

Rise of Great Families decentralizes power

Political power

System of recommending officials

Economic power

Concentration of land in hands of provincial elite

Decline of small farming

Avoidance of taxes

Over-taxation of peasants leading to rebellion

Environmental Causes of Instability?

Natural disasters

Cooling climate

Epidemics, 173 and 179 CE

Floods and locusts, 175

Breakdown of central control

Popular Daoist religion and rebellions

Change in focus

Laozi as deity, not philosopher

Lay community, not individual

Healing, not immortality

“Five Pecks of Rice” or Celestial Master Daoists

Founded, ca. 142 CE

SW China

Zhang Daoling

*Yellow Turbans or Way of Great Peace (Taiping)

Eastern and central China

Millenarian uprising in 184 CE

Tradition of syncretic religion and millenarian uprisings persists in China to present

Taiping Rebellion (Christian) mid-19th century

Falungong (Buddhist-Daoist healing)

Presently banned in China

Rise of regional generals

Central rule limited, 184-220

Cao Cao (ca. 155-220)

Controls Luoyang and Eastern Han Dynasty court, 192-220

*The Three Kingdoms

Wei (220-65)

*Cao Cao

Han “Regent” in 192-220

*Cao Pi, d. 226

Founded Wei Dynasty

Imitates Wang Mang’s pattern of usurpation

(Shu) Han (221-63)

Liu Bei, d. 223

Wu (222-80)

Sun Quan, d. 252

Significance

Decentralization of power

Personalization of politics

Source of fame

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Attributed to Luo Guanzhong (ca. 1330-1400)

Published 1522

Goodman, "Lives and Times of the Political Public at the End of the Han”

Members of leading families

Sima Yi (179-251)

“Five Pecks of Rice” or Celestial Master Daoists

Zhang Daoling

Zhang Lu (d. 217)

Wangs of Donghai (SW Shandong)

Wang Lang (ca. 165-228)

Wang Su (195-256)

Yus of Guji

Yu Fan (164-233)