China. Elder Han Dynasty

The era of the Han Dynasty in the history of Chinese civilization is divided into two stages: Western Han (Older or Early Han: 206 BC-8 AD) and Eastern Han (Younger or Later Han: 25-220 AD) .). The Han Dynasty founded by Liu Bang got its name from the area where he defeated his opponents in the struggle for the imperial throne. In the Western Han period, the city of Chang'an (today's Xi'an, Shanxi province) became the capital of the emerging Han empire, with a population of up to half a million people. In the era of the Younger Han, its rulers moved the capital to the city of Luoyang. In the 1st century AD in China, a census was conducted, which showed that the Han Empire was approaching the Roman Empire in terms of population and had about 60 million people.

When, at the end of 207, the last emperor of the Qin dynasty surrendered to one of the leaders of the rebels, Liu Bang, the future founder of the Han dynasty, China was in deep crisis; political chaos reigned in the country; Nevertheless, China survived, organically developing the traditions of its civilization. For the era of the Han Dynasty, its specificity can be defined in three key words reforms, Confucianism as the dominant religion and foreign policy expansion.

It was not without difficulty that Liu Bang, the former headman of a small village, who became the Emperor of the Blue Sky, as the Han were called, managed to restore order in an exhausted country of many millions. Acting flexibly and cautiously, with a series of decrees, he abolished the Qin laws with their barracks discipline and cruel punishments, announced an amnesty, and reduced the tax on the peasants. However, the Qin administrative-bureaucratic system and basic economic institutions continued to exist. And although officials were still sharply distinguished by their status and place in society, Liu Bang relied on landowners, proclaiming agriculture the basis of the empire's economy and the most respected occupation. The heads of families received full citizenship with the assignment of the lowest of the 18 estate ranks to them.

Many rebel leaders who helped Liu Bang come to power were granted hereditary possessions. Part of the land, as a manifestation of the highest favor of the emperor, was given to some representatives of the nobility. This practice of granting allotments created a threat of separatism, which Liu Bang's successors, including Wu (140-87 BC), fought against.

The years of Wu-di's reign were the heyday of the Chinese civilization of the Han era. The central government managed to finally subjugate the new local aristocracy, improve the country's economy and raise public welfare. The number of cities with a population of up to 50,000 increased, and the slave trade reached unprecedented proportions. The monopoly on salt, iron and wine brought income to the empire. Foreign trade has received exceptionally great development. The northern trade route connecting China with Western countries was called the Great Silk Road.

Since the reign of Wu Di, the Han Empire has become a strong centralized state. The central government, which consisted of various departments, was subordinate to the regions (83), which, in turn, included districts, then counties and volosts. The country was ruled by an army of officials, whose number exceeded 130 thousand. Officials, or scientists, were divided into 9 ranks, depending on the degree awarded to them after passing the exams. A system of examinations for selecting the worthy and conferring on them the title of polymath of the corresponding degree was introduced in 136 BC.

Once every three years, the winners of the provincial tours gathered in the capital and took exams for the emperor himself. During the exams, they had to write an essay on a given topic. Applicants for the rank in the exams had to show knowledge of the books that formed the basis of the Confucian canon of the Pentateuch, which included Shujing (Book of Historical Documents), Shijing (Book of Songs), I Ching (Book of Changes), Li Ji (Records of Rites). The state copy of the Pentateuch was carved on stone. Those who passed the test were awarded academic degrees, which opened up the possibility of obtaining appointment to a position in central and local authorities.

The official's destination changed every 5 years. For their service, they received a salary or land allotment. An official could not inherit either his rank and rank or land. However, they had more opportunities than commoners to give their children an education that would allow them to pass the exam and get a position. Chinese civilization is indebted to these learned officials, the mandarins, both in terms of the consolidation of the ancient Chinese people (Han Chinese are the ethnic self-name of the Chinese), and in terms of the formation of a special model of state administration, a special Chinese class hierarchy.

In the II century. BC. The Han Empire recognized Confucianism and, in its person, acquired an official ideology with a distinct religious connotation. Violation of the Confucian precepts was punishable by death as the gravest crime. On the basis of Confucianism, an all-encompassing system of lifestyle and management organization was developed. The emperor in his reign had to be based on the principles of philanthropy and justice, and learned officials were supposed to help him pursue the right policy. Relations in society were to be regulated on the basis of rituals that determined the duties and rights of each group of the population. All people were to build relationships in the family on the basis of the principles of filial piety and brotherly love. It meant. That every person had to unquestioningly fulfill the will of his father. Obey older brothers, take care of your parents in old age. Since the era of the Elder Han, Chinese society has become class-based not only in the state, but also in the Confucian-moral sense of this concept. The obedience of juniors to seniors, inferiors to superiors, and all together to the emperor, is the basis for the development of Chinese civilization with its universal strict regulation of life down to the smallest detail.

The increased strength of Chinese civilization was also manifested in its foreign policy expansion, in the fight against an external enemy, primarily with the unification of nomadic tribes. Xiongnu, who lived on a vast territory near the northern borders of China. The rulers of the Han Empire sought to expand its territory by seizing foreign lands, take control of international trade routes and expand foreign markets for their goods.

One of the most important features of the civilization of Han China is continuous intensive interaction with the outside world, with the barbarian periphery inhabited by steppe nomads. The northern neighbors of the Han Chinese constantly threatened the security of the empire, whose troops mostly successfully held back their onslaught, gradually pushing them away from the Great Wall of China. But when the Han were unable to protect their borders from raids, the nomads not only invaded their lands, devastating cities and villages and taking the loot away to their headquarters, but also seized the ancestral lands of the Han Empire. The nomads often outnumbered the Han militarily, but always lagged behind culturally. They had to use the experience and laws of the Han people, adopt their language, traditions, and religion.

After the reconnaissance expedition of the traveler Zhang Qian to Central Asia (138-125 BC), the Han people headed for the conquest of the Western Territory (East Turkestan). Having forced out the Xiongnu, subjugated a number of city-states and established contacts with Central Asia, they took control of the Great Silk Road linking China with the West. The establishment of regular trade significantly affected the cultural interaction of the two great civilizations of the ancient world, Chinese and Roman. Chinese silks, lacquerware, precious metals, iron and nickel penetrated far to the west through Western and Central Asia, along the trade routes of the Roman East, reaching Rome. China imported glassware from the Mediterranean, jade from Khotan, horses and furs from nomads. The market as a meeting place of civilizations opened to China such crops as grapes, pomegranates, nuts, beans, saffron, alfalfa, supplied from Central Asia.

The Great Silk Road is a zone of contacts between different civilizations. Here, for centuries, not only goods were distributed, but innovative technologies, new religious ideas and art samples. Along this most famous transit trade route in the ancient world, separate peoples settled, determining the processes of ethnogenesis.

Almost simultaneously, the Han Empire expanded to the southwest and east. The ancient Korean state of Joseon was conquered. Active conquests were carried out south of China and in Southeast Asia with the capture of the ancient Vietnamese states of Au Pak and Nam Vien.

The expansionist aspirations of the Han Empire led to the depletion of state resources, an increase in taxes, extortions and forced labor, and a deterioration in the situation of people embraced by sadness. At court, the influence of the eunuchs and relatives of the emperor's wives increased. Waves of uprisings of the poor strata of the population rolled one after another across the weary country. Interests clashed rural houses and educated working class. Concluding the era of the Elder Han Dynasty, the brief interim reign of Wang Mang (AD 9-23), a relative of the wife of one of the emperors, led to the restoration of the Younger Han Dynasty. Having come to power, Wang Mang set about reforms in order to restore the happy order of antiquity. The reforms, reasonable in their direction, represented an attempt to use state power to control the economic life of the country: the transfer of land to state ownership, the prohibition of trade in land and slaves, the elimination of private slavery, the monopoly on wine, salt, and iron. However, the failure of the reforms, too rapid and vigorous implementation, led to an aggravation of social contradictions. Red Eyebrow Rebellion in 18 AD (the rebels painted their eyebrows red), civil war in the country and an ecological disaster (in 11 AD, a large-scale flood of the Yellow River that changed its course led to the death of hundreds of thousands of people) sealed the end of Wang Mang's reign.

In 25 AD a representative of the imperial family Guang Wu Di (25-57 AD) seized power and restored the Han dynasty. Desperate efforts were made to overcome the crisis in the country. Managed to re-establish influence in Westfall. As never before, the Han people developed foreign trade. The estates of powerful houses were widely spread, which gradually turned into economically closed farms, thereby reducing the level of state revenues. In the III century. officially abolished monetary circulation, using silk and grain as money. The population has decreased, and the number of cities has halved. This, along with the continuous struggle of cliques at court, led to the weakening of the central government, social destabilization (the Yellow Turbans in 184) and the fall of the dynasty. In 220, the Han Empire broke up into three kingdoms, thus ceasing to exist. Having existed thanks to a centralized system of government for more than four centuries, the Han Empire became a model for subsequent eras.

Civilization arose in the 23rd century. back.
Civilization stopped in the 18th century. back.
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The Han civilization replaced the Qin socioculture, but absorbed all the main civilizational features of the previous civilization. In 202 BC Liu Bang was proclaimed emperor and became the founder of the new Han Dynasty.

The Han period was a kind of culmination of the cultural achievements of Ancient China.

In the 2nd century AD The Han Chinese adopted the principles of Confucianism. The fall of civilization was due to the transition from slavery to feudalism, culminating in a popular uprising of the Yellow Turbans.

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Ancient Chinese Civilizations.

2nd century BC. - III century. AD

In 210 BC, at the age of 48, Qin Shi Huang died suddenly, immediately after his death, a powerful uprising broke out in the empire. The most successful of the rebel leaders, a native of ordinary community members, Liu Bang rallied the forces of the popular movement and attracted Qin's experienced enemies in military affairs from hereditary aristocracy to his side. In 202 BC Liu Bang was proclaimed emperor and became the founder of the new Han Dynasty.

The first ancient empire of China - Qin lasted only a decade and a half, but it laid a solid socio-economic foundation for the Han empire.

The first ancient empire of China - Qin lasted only a decade and a half, but it laid a solid socio-economic foundation for the Han empire. The new empire became one of the strongest powers of the ancient world. Its more than four centuries of existence was an important stage in the development of all of East Asia, which, within the framework of the world-historical process, covered the era of the rise and collapse of the slave-owning mode of production. For the national history of China, this was an important stage in the consolidation of the ancient Chinese people. To this day, the Chinese call themselves Hans, an ethnic self-designation originating from the Han Empire.

The history of the Han Empire is divided into two periods: the Elder (or Early) Han (202 BC-8 AD); Younger (or Later) Han (25-220 AD).

By the time of Wudi's reign, the Han state had turned into a strong centralized state. The expansion that unfolded under this emperor was aimed at seizing foreign territories, conquering neighboring peoples, dominating international trade routes and expanding foreign markets. From the very beginning, the empire was threatened by the invasion of the Xiongnu nomads. Their raids on China were accompanied by the deportation of thousands of prisoners and even reached the capital. Udi took a course for a decisive struggle against the Xiongnu. The Han armies managed to push them back from the Great Wall, and then expand the territory of the empire in the northwest and establish the influence of the Han Empire in the Western Territory (as Chinese sources called the Tarim River basin), through which the Great Silk Road passed. At the same time, Udi waged aggressive wars against the Vietnamese states in the south and in 111 BC. forced them to submit, annexing the lands of Guangdong and northern Vietnam to the empire. After that, the sea and land forces of the Han attacked the ancient Korean state of Joseon and forced it in 108 BC. recognize the power of Hanei.

The embassy of Zhang Qian (died in 114 BC) sent to the west at Wudi opened up to China a vast world of foreign culture. Zhang Qian visited Daxia (Bactria), Kangyue, Davan (Fergana), found out about Anxi (Parthia), Shendu (India) and other countries. Ambassadors from the Son of Heaven were sent to these countries. The Han Empire established ties with many states along the Great Silk Road - an international transcontinental route stretching for a distance of 7 thousand km from Chang'an to the Mediterranean countries. Along this path, caravans were drawn in a continuous line, according to the figurative expression of the historian Sima Qian (145-86 BC), "one did not lose sight of the other."

Iron, considered the best in the world, nickel, precious metals, lacquer, bronze and other art and handicraft products were brought from the Han Empire to the West. But the main export was silk, then produced only in China. International, trade and diplomatic relations along the Great Silk Road contributed to the exchange of cultural achievements. Of particular importance for Han China were crops borrowed from Central Asia: grapes, beans, alfalfa, pomegranate and walnut trees. However, the arrival of foreign ambassadors was perceived by the Son of Heaven as an expression of obedience to the Han Empire, and the goods brought to Chang'an were perceived as a "tribute" to foreign "barbarians".

Wudi's aggressive foreign policy required huge funds. Taxes and duties have increased greatly. Sima Qian notes: "The country is tired of continuous wars, the people are saddened, the reserves are depleted." Already at the end of Udi's reign, popular unrest broke out in the empire.

In the last quarter of the 1st c. BC. A wave of slave uprisings swept through the Han civilization. The most far-sighted representatives of the ruling class recognized the need for reforms in order to weaken class contradictions. Indicative in this regard is the policy of Wang Mang (9-23 AD), who carried out a palace coup, overthrew the Han dynasty and declared himself emperor of the New Dynasty.

Wang Mang's decrees prohibited the sale and purchase of land and slaves, it was supposed to allocate land to the poor by withdrawing its surplus from the rich community. However, three years later, Wang Mang was forced to cancel these establishments due to the resistance of the owners. Wang Mang's coin-melting and market-price rationing laws, an attempt by the state to intervene in the country's economy, also failed.

The reforms not only did not mitigate social contradictions, but also led to their even greater aggravation. Spontaneous uprisings swept across the country. Of particular scope was the Red Eyebrow movement, which began in 18 AD. e. in Shandong, where the disasters of the population were multiplied by the catastrophic flood of the Yellow River. Chang'an passed into the hands of the rebels. Wang Mang was beheaded.

The spontaneity of the protest of the masses, their lack of military and political experience led to the fact that the movement was led by representatives of the ruling class, who were interested in overthrowing Wang Mang and enthroning their protege. It was the offspring of the Han house, known as Guan Wudi (25-57 AD), who founded the Younger Han Dynasty. Guan Wudi began to rule the punitive campaign against the "Red Eyebrows". By 29, he managed to break them, and then suppress the rest of the centers of movement.

In 40 AD an uprising broke out against the Han authorities in North Vietnam under the leadership of the Trung sisters, which Guan Wudi managed to suppress with great difficulty only by 44 AD.

In the second half of the 1st century, using the split of the Xiongnu into northern and southern ones, the empire began to restore Han rule in the Western Territory, which, under Wang Mang, fell under the rule of the Xiongnu. The Han Empire succeeded by the end of the 1st century. establish influence in the Western Territory and assert hegemony on this segment of the Silk Road.

The Han governor of the Western Territory, Ban Chao, launched an active diplomatic activity at that time, setting the task of achieving direct contacts with Daqin (Great Qin, as the Hans called the Roman Empire). However, the embassy sent by him only reached Roman Syria, being detained by Parthian merchants.

From the second half of the 1st c. n. e. intermediary Han-Roman trade is developing. The ancient Chinese first saw the Romans with their own eyes in 120, when a troupe of wandering magicians from Rome arrived in Luoyang and performed at the court of the Son of Heaven. At the same time, the Han Empire established links with Hindustan through Upper Burma and Assam and established maritime communications from the port of Bakbo in North Vietnam to the east coast of India, and through Korea to Japan.

In 166, the first "embassy" from Rome, as the private Roman trading company called itself, arrived in Luoyang along the southern sea route in 166. From the middle of the 2nd century, with the loss of the hegemony of the empire on the Silk Road, the foreign trade of the Han people with the countries of the South Seas, Lanka and Khanchipura (South India) began to develop. The Han Empire is desperately and in all directions rushing to foreign markets. It seemed that the Han state had never reached such power. About 60 million people lived in it, which was more than 1/5 of the world's population at that time.

By this time, there were serious changes in its social and political system. Slave-owning farms continued to exist, but the estates of the so-called strong houses were becoming more widespread, where often, along with slaves, the labor of “those who do not have their own land, but take it from the rich and cultivate it” was widely used. This category of workers found themselves in personal dependence on landowners. Several thousand such families were under the patronage of strong houses.

The area of arable land was steadily declining, the number of the taxable population fell catastrophically: from 49.5 million people in the middle of the 2nd century. up to 7.5 million according to the census of the middle of the III century. The estates of strong houses became economically closed farms.

A rapid decline in commodity-money relations began. The number of cities compared to the border of our era has more than halved. At the very beginning of the III century. a decree was issued to replace cash payments in kind in the empire, and then the coin was officially abolished and silk and grain were introduced into circulation as commodity-money. From the second quarter of the 2nd c. almost every year chronicles note local uprisings - more than a hundred of them have been recorded in half a century.

In the context of a political and deep socio-economic crisis in the empire, the most powerful uprising in the history of ancient China, known as the Yellow Turbans, broke out. It was headed by the magician Zhang Jiao, the founder of a secret pro-Taoist sect that had been preparing an uprising for 10 years. Zhang Jiao created a 300,000-strong paramilitary organization. According to the reports of the authorities, "the whole empire accepted the faith of Zhang Jiao."

The movement broke out in 184 in all parts of the empire at once. The rebels wore yellow headbands as a sign of the victory of the righteous Yellow Sky over the Blue Sky - the unrighteous Han Dynasty. They destroyed government buildings, killed government officials.

The uprising of the "Yellow Turbans" had the character of a broad social movement with an undeniable eschatological overtones. The authorities were powerless to cope with the uprising, and then the armies of strong houses rose to fight the Yellow Turbans and, together, they brutally cracked down on the rebels.

To commemorate the victory, a tower of hundreds of thousands of severed heads of the "yellow" was built at the main gates of the capital. The division of power between the executioners of the movement began. Their internecine strife ended with the collapse of the Han Empire: in 220 it broke up into three kingdoms, in which the process of feudalization was actively going on.

The science.

The Han period was a kind of culmination of the cultural achievements of Ancient China. On the basis of centuries of astronomical observations, the lunisolar calendar was improved. In 28 BC Han astronomers first noted the existence of sunspots. An achievement of world significance in the field of physical knowledge was the invention of a compass in the form of a square iron plate with a magnetic “spoon” freely rotating on its surface, the handle of which invariably pointed south.

The scientist Zhang Heng (78-139) was the first in the world to design a prototype of a seismograph, build a celestial globe, describe 2500 stars, including them in 320 constellations. He developed the theory of the Earth and the infinity of the Universe in time and space. Han mathematicians knew decimal fractions, invented negative numbers for the first time in history, and refined the meaning of the number π. Medical catalog of the 1st century. lists 35 treatises on various diseases. Zhang Zhongjing (150-219) developed methods of pulse diagnostics and treatment of epidemiological diseases.

The end of the era of antiquity was marked by the invention of mechanical engines that use the power of falling water, a water-lifting pump, and the improvement of the plow. Han agronomists create essays describing bed culture, a system of variable fields and crop rotation, methods of fertilizing land and pre-sowing seed impregnation, they contain manuals on irrigation and melioration. The treatises of Fan Shenzhi (1st century) and Cui Shi (2nd century) summarized the centuries-old achievements of the ancient Chinese in the field of agriculture.

Ancient Chinese lacquer production is one of the outstanding successes of material culture. Lacquerware was an important item in the foreign trade of the Han Empire. Lacquer was used to coat weapons and military equipment to protect wood and fabrics from moisture, and metal from corrosion. They were trimmed with architectural details, items of grave goods, varnish was also widely used in fresco painting. Chinese varnishes were highly valued for their unique physical and chemical properties, such as the ability to preserve wood, resist acids and high temperatures (up to 500°C).

Silk.

Since the "opening" of the Great Silk Road, the Han Empire has become a world famous supplier of silk. China was the only country in the ancient world that mastered the silkworm culture. In the Han Dynasty, silkworm breeding was a domestic occupation of farmers. There were large private and state silk factories (some numbered up to a thousand slaves). The export of silkworms outside the country was punishable by death. But such attempts were nevertheless made. Zhang Qian, during his embassy mission, learned about the export of silkworms from Sichuan to India in a cache of bamboo staff by foreign merchants. And yet, no one managed to find out the secrets of sericulture from the ancient Chinese. Fantastic assumptions were made about its origin: Virgil and Strabo, for example, said that silk grows on trees and is “combed” from them.

Ancient sources mention silk from the 1st century BC. BC. Pliny wrote about silk as one of the most prized luxury goods by the Romans, because of which colossal sums of money were pumped out of the Roman Empire every year. The Parthians controlled the Han-Roman trade in silk, charging no less than 25% of its sale price for mediation. Silk, which was often used as money, played an important role in the development of international trade relations between the ancient peoples of Europe and Asia. India was also an intermediary in the silk trade. Relations between China and India develop until the Han era, but at this time they become especially lively.

Paper.

Its manufacture from the waste of silk cocoons began even before our era. Silk paper was very expensive, available only to the elite. The real discovery, which had a revolutionary significance for the development of human culture, was paper when it became a cheap mass material for writing. The invention of a publicly available method of producing paper from wood fiber is traditionally associated with the name of Cai Lun, a former slave from Henan who lived in the 2nd century, but archaeologists date the oldest samples of paper from the 2nd-1st centuries. BC.

The invention of paper and ink created the conditions for the development of the technique of prints, and then the appearance of the printed book. The improvement of Chinese writing was also associated with paper and ink: in the Han period, the standard writing style of kaishu was created, which laid the foundation for the modern outline of hieroglyphs. Han materials and means of writing were, together with hieroglyphics, adopted by the ancient peoples of Vietnam, Korea, Japan, which in turn influenced the cultural development of Ancient China - in the field of agriculture, in particular rice growing, navigation, and artistic crafts.

Story.

During the Han period, the collection, systematization and commenting of ancient monuments is carried out. In fact, everything that remains of the ancient Chinese spiritual heritage has come down to us thanks to the records made at that time. At the same time, philology, poetics were born, the first dictionaries were compiled. Large works of artistic prose, primarily historical, appeared. The brush of the "father of Chinese history" Sima Qian owns the fundamental work "Historical Notes" ("Shiji") - a 130-volume history of China from the mythical ancestor Huangdi to the end of Wudi's reign.

Sima Qian strove not only to reflect the events of the past and present, but also to comprehend them, trace their internal pattern, "penetrate into the essence of change." Sima Qian's work sums up the previous development of ancient Chinese historiography. At the same time, he deviates from the traditional style of weather chronicles and creates a new type of historical writing. "Shiji" is the only source on the ancient history of the peoples neighboring China.

An outstanding stylist, Sima Qian vividly and concisely gave descriptions of the political and economic situation, life and customs. For the first time in China, he created a literary portrait, which puts him on a par with the largest representatives of Han literature. "Historical Notes" became a model for subsequent ancient and medieval historiography in China and other countries of the Far East.

Sima Qian's method was developed in the official "History of the Elder Han Dynasty" ("Han shu"). Ban Gu (32-93) is considered the main author of this work. The "History of the Elder Han Dynasty" is written in the spirit of orthodox Confucianism, the presentation strictly adheres to the official point of view, often differing in assessments of the same events from Sima Qian, whom Ban Gu criticizes for adherence to Taoism. "Han shu" opened a series of dynastic histories. Since then, according to tradition, each of the dynasties that came to power compiled a description of the reign of their predecessor.

Poetry.

As the most brilliant poet among the galaxy of Han writers, Sima Xiangru (179-118) stands out, who sang the might of the empire and the most "great man" - the autocrat Wudi. His work continued the traditions of the Chu ode, which is typical for Han literature, which absorbed the song and poetic heritage of the peoples of South China. Ode "Beauty" continues the poetic genre begun by Song Yu in "Ode on the Immortal". Among the works of Sima Xiangru there are imitations of folk lyrical songs, such as the song "Fishing Rod".

The system of imperial administration included the organization of nationwide cults as opposed to aristocratic local ones. This task was pursued by the Music Chamber (Yuefu) created under Wudi, where folk songs were collected and processed, including “songs of distant barbarians”, and ritual chants were created. Despite its utilitarian nature, the Music Chamber has played an important role in the history of Chinese poetry. Thanks to her, the works of folk song art of the ancient era have been preserved.

Author's songs in the Yuefu style are close to folklore; for them, folk songs of various genres, including labor and love, served as the subject of imitation. Among the love lyrics, the creations of two poetesses stand out - “Lament for a Gray Head” by Zhuo Wenjun (II century BC), where she reproaches her husband, the poet Sima Xiangru, for infidelity, and “Song of my offense” by Ban Jieyu (I BC), in which the bitter fate of an abandoned beloved is presented in the form of an abandoned snow-white fan. Yuefu's poetry reached its peak during the Jian'an period (196-220), which is considered the golden age of Chinese poetry. The best of the literary yuefu of this time were created on the basis of folk works.

Only in the rarest cases were songs preserved that expressed the rebellious spirit of the people. Among them are “East Gate”, “East of Pinling Mound”, as well as ditties of the yao genre, in which social protest sounds up to the call to overthrow the emperor (especially in the so-called tunyao, obviously slave songs). One of them, attributed to the leader of the "Yellow Turbans" Zhang Jiao, begins with a proclamation: "Let the Blue Sky perish!", in other words, the Han Dynasty.

By the end of the Han Empire, the content of secular poetry increasingly became anacreontic and fairy-tale themes. Mystical and fantastic literature is spreading. The authorities encourage theatrical ceremonies and secular performances. The organization of spectacles becomes an important function of the state. However, the beginnings of stage art did not lead to the development of drama as a kind of literature in ancient China.

Architecture.

In the Qin-Han era, the main features of traditional Chinese architecture developed. Judging by the fragments of frescoes from the Han burials, the beginnings of portraiture appear in this period. The discovery of the Qin monumental sculpture was a sensation. Recent excavations of the tomb of Qin Shi Huang uncovered a whole "clay army" of the emperor, consisting of three thousand foot soldiers and horsemen, made in full size. This find allows us to speak about the appearance of portrait sculpture in the early imperial period.

Confucianism.

From the time of Wudi, the transformed Confucianism, which turned into a kind of state religion, became the official ideology of the Han Empire. In Confucianism, ideas about the conscious intervention of Heaven in people's lives are reinforced. The founder of Confucian theology, Dong Zhongshu (180-115), developed the theory of the divine origin of imperial power, proclaimed Heaven the supreme, almost anthropomorphic deity. He initiated the deification of Confucius. Dong Zhongshu demanded "to eradicate all one hundred schools" except Confucian.

The religious and idealistic essence of Han Confucianism was reflected in the teachings of Liu Xiang (79-8 BC), who argued that "the spirit is the root of heaven and earth and the beginning of all things."

The state is increasingly using Confucianism in its own interests, intervening in the struggle of its various interpretations. The emperor acts as the initiator of religious and philosophical disputes, seeking to end the split of Confucianism. Cathedral of the end of the 1st century. AD formally ended the divisions in Confucianism, declared all apocryphal literature to be false, and established the doctrine of the New Texts school as the official religious orthodoxy.

In 195 AD the state copy of the Confucian "Pentateuch" in the version of the New Texts school was carved on the stone. Since that time, the violation of the Confucian precepts, incorporated into the criminal law, was punishable up to the death penalty as "the gravest crime."

Secret Taoism.

With the beginning of the persecution of "false" teachings, secret sects of a religious and mystical persuasion began to spread in the country. Those who disagreed with the ruling regime were united by religious Taoism opposed to Confucianism, which dissociated itself from philosophical Taoism, which continued to develop ancient materialistic ideas.

At the beginning of the II century. Taoist religion took shape. Its founder is Zhang Daoling from Sichuan, who was called the Master. His prophecies about achieving immortality attracted crowds of the dispossessed who lived in a closed colony under his command, laying the foundation for secret Taoist organizations. By preaching the equality of all on the basis of faith and condemning wealth, the Taoist "heresy" attracted the masses. At the turn of II-III centuries. a movement of religious Taoism, led by the Five Measures of Rice sect, led to the creation of a short-lived theocratic state in Sichuan.

The trend towards the transformation of ancient philosophies into religious doctrines, manifested in the transformation of Confucianism and Taoism, was a sign of profound socio-psychological changes. However, not the ethical religions of ancient China, but Buddhism, having penetrated into China at the turn of our era, became for the agonized late Han world that world religion that played the role of an active ideological factor in the process of feudalization of China and the entire East Asian region.

Materialism

Achievements in the field of natural and humanitarian knowledge created the basis for that take-off of materialistic thought, which manifested itself in the work of the most prominent Han thinker Wang Chong (27-97). In an atmosphere of ideological pressure, Wang Chong had the courage to challenge Confucian dogma and religious mysticism.

In his treatise "Critical Reasoning" ("Lunheng"), a coherent system of materialistic philosophy is outlined. Wang Chong criticized Confucian theology from a scientific standpoint. The philosopher contrasted the deification of the sky with the essentially materialistic and atheistic assertion that "the sky is a body similar to the earth."

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China is the oldest civilization in existence today. Its experience in this regard requires special consideration in terms of historical viability. One of the discovered traditional bonds of the Chinese state is the national idea.

It is China, along with its other world inventions, that holds the lead in discovering the phenomenon of general civic ideology. Confucianism, Legalism and, with certain reservations, Taoism can be considered the oldest ideological doctrines in the history of mankind. Their identification as national ideas refutes the widespread point of view about ideology as an exclusive product of the modern era (industrialism, bourgeois society). Accordingly, the completion of the modernist phase of development does not mean the objectivity of de-ideologization.

The specificity of the structure of Chinese society lies in the special significance of the institution of clans (clan associations). If for Western countries the clan system is considered most often as an obstacle to social development, then for China it is a natural form of civilizational existence. To this day, clans play a structure-forming role for Chinese society. Understanding their fundamental importance as a factor in the viability of the social organism, the communist authorities of China never put forward the task of destroying the clan system. For comparison, in the USSR there was an active struggle against such traditionalist institutions, classified as a relic of pre-capitalist formations.

Clans in China act as carriers of the value traditions of the Chinese people. They are the link between the state and the individual. In this sense, the clan system provides the integration potential of the Chinese state, being one of the most important civilizational bonds of China.

The entry into the era of modernity put forward before China, as well as before other states, the task of self-determination of a civil nation. First of all, this was expressed in the policy of consolidation of the state-forming Han people. Today it makes up 92% of the Chinese population. However, a century ago, a single Han ethnic group did not actually exist. It united very different ethnic groups by the political will of the state. Significant differences between the dialects of dozens of groups united as Han are still manifest even at the level of vocabulary and grammar. And today, in everyday life, the Chinese communicate mainly in dialectical dialects.

Ethnically, the Chinese people were much more heterogeneous than the Russians. However

the Chinese managed to achieve ethnic cohesion in the twentieth century, while at the same time the Russian ethnos was finally split into Great Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians.

One of the main instruments of Chinese consolidation was a deliberate policy of supporting the generally accepted version of the official language - Putonghua [ Reshetov A.M. The Chinese (Han) in the light of the theory of ethnos // XXVIII Scientific Conference "Society and State in China". M., 1998. S. 265-270.].

The idea of China's nation-state was first theoretically formulated by the founder of the Kuomintang Party, Sun Yat-sen. Evaluation of him as "Confucius in Realpolitik" reflects the ideological succession in relation to the Confucian national tradition of the new doctrine formulated by him. Being a Congregationalist Protestant by religion, he brought categories and concepts characteristic of Western modernity into the traditional Chinese value arsenal. The "Three People's Principles" doctrine developed by Sun Yat-sen is the state ideology of the Republic of Taiwan to this day. It also includes the appeal in the preamble to the Constitution of the People's Republic of China. Three people's principles: nationalism, democracy and people's well-being - correlate, respectively, with the factors of national sovereignty, bottom-up state-political management and economic development based on socialist egalitarianism (culture, politics, economics) [ Sun Yatsen. Three folk principles ("San min zhong"). M., 1928; Senin I.G. Social - political and philosophical views of Sun Yat-Sen. M., 1956; Kuzmin I.D. Confucianism and the evolution of the ideology of the Kuomintang. L., 1975; Matveeva G.S. Father of the Republic: The Tale of Sun Yat-Sen. M., 1975; Sun Yatsen. Selected works. M., 1985.].

The consolidation of the Han was the first stage in the project to form a unified Chinese nation. At the second stage, the task of uniting other ethnic groups located on the periphery of the state around the state-forming people was realized. The Third Congress of the Kuomintang officially declared the program of rallying "400 million people into one state nation." To designate this format of consolidation, the concept of "zhonghua minzu" or "nation of China" was used. Today, its content is being modified in the direction of distribution not only to citizens of the PRC, but also to ethnic Chinese living outside their homeland (huaqiao). Their activities in the political, economic and cultural spheres are now largely coordinated from Beijing. The direct coordinators are the Committees for Overseas Chinese Affairs under the State Council of the People's Republic of China and the Overseas Chinese Association. Since 1991, the World Congress of Chinese Entrepreneurs has been held, positioned as the Chinese analogue of the forums in Davos. In parallel, such events as the World Forum of Chinese-speaking media representatives are organized.

Russian programs of interaction with compatriots abroad cannot be compared in this respect.

Overseas Chinese communities are officially considered in the PRC as a factor in the implementation of China's new world mission. If you call a spade a spade, then they constitute an external army in the strategy of the Chinese geopolitical offensive [ Gelbras V.G. People's Republic of China: the revival of the national idea // National idea: history, ideology, myth. M., 2004. S. 256-258.].

Recently, the point of view of China's cultural introversion has become widespread. According to it, being focused exclusively on itself, it does not carry, like the United States, the threat of global external expansion. However, only one component of Chinese civilization, culture, is characterized by introversion. In all other aspects of civilizational existence - ideology, economics, geopolitics - China is developing towards achieving the status of a world superpower.

In accordance with the Confucian tradition, China presents itself as the Celestial Empire or the Middle Empire. Through these names, the idea of Chinese national superiority is emphasized. The mental trauma to the imperial self-consciousness of the Chinese was inflicted in the 19th century. the transformation of the Celestial Empire into a semi-colony of Western states. A derivative of it at the level of people's memory was the intention to exterminate the "white barbarians" ("Boxer Rebellion")[ Myshlaevsky A.Z. Military operations in China. 1900-1901 Part 1. St. Petersburg, 1905.].

The memory of ethnocide is of fundamental importance for national identity. The tragedies of the peoples of Armenians and Jews are known. The motives of the psychological trauma of ethnocide are also kept in the memory of other peoples. This kind of trauma is present in national self-reflection in China as well. For the Chinese, this is the memory of the Opium Wars. The summer residence of the Qing emperors Yuanshinyuan, located on the territory of modern Beijing, which is still in a ruined state, is a symbol of European atrocities. The Chinese authorities deliberately do not restore it, keeping it as evidence of the cultural xenophobia of the West [ Selishchev A.S., Selishchev N.A. Chinese economy in the XXI century. SPb., 2004. S. 8-9.].

Reflection on the colonial past is reflected in the Constitution of the People's Republic of China. To this day, according to researchers, China's development strategy is largely implicitly motivated by the idea of "revenge for almost 100 years of humiliation by imperialist states, including Russia" [ Gelbras V.G. People's Republic of China: the revival of the national idea // National idea: history, ideology, myth. M., 2004. S. 256.].

Under Mao Zedong, the ideology of Chinese expansionism was presented in an undisguised form. It was expressed in the concept of a "paper tiger", according to which victory in the coming world war will be on the side of the PRC as a power that has a numerical superiority over its opponents. The United States and the USSR appeared to be "paper tigers", whose nuclear power, in the opinion of the Chinese leadership, was greatly exaggerated. Being absurd in military-strategic terms, this ideologeme had a high mobilization potential, instilling in the minds of the population of the PRC a sense of confidence in the ability to resist any opponent [ Burlatsky F.M. Mao Zedong: "our signature number is war, dictatorship." Moscow: International relations, 1976.].

In modern China, the idea of external expansion is presented to a greater extent in the form of an economic offensive. From the official rostrum, they speak of a "new great campaign." Specific gross indicators and dates of the PRC's conquest of a leading position in the world economy are known. China's foreign economic offensive has been described by President Jiang Zemin as "the main battlefield." The attitude of "going out" has become the new motto of Chinese politics. So that

the idea of China's introversion does not correspond to either the ideological or political realities of its historical and contemporary development.

Meanwhile, the territorial claims put forward in various Chinese-language media against Russia vary on a scale from 1.5 million to 5.88 million square kilometers [ Gelbras V.G. People's Republic of China: the revival of the national idea // National idea: history, ideology, myth. M., 2004. S. 254-256, 259.].

The state ideology of the People's Republic of China is enshrined in the Constitution. In modern China, the doctrine of socialism with national Chinese characteristics has been adopted. The idea of the specificity of the socialist model in the PRC was substantiated even within the framework of Maoism. However, under Mao, the emphasis was more on socialism than on national specifics. Maoism was an ultra-left ideology, the banner of radical left forces in various countries of the world. The Maoist "cultural revolution" is a fundamental break with the country's national traditions. Confucian and Taoist accumulations of culture were subject to categorical eradication. From the historical past of China, only the ideology of legalism and the policy of the reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, implemented on its basis, turned out to be value-acceptable for the Maoists [ Rumyantsev A. Maoism, Origins and evolution of the "ideas of Mao Zedong" (On the anti-Marxist essence of Maoism). M., 1972; Burlatsky F.M. Mao Zedong: "our signature number is war, dictatorship." Moscow: International relations, 1976.].

Today in the PRC, the main slogan is not the building of a communist society, but "the great revival of the nation of China." In the ideologeme of socialism with Chinese national characteristics that remains relevant, there has been a reorientation to the second component of the ideological construction. Socialism is no longer perceived as a goal, but as a means of ensuring the greatness of the nation.

Chapter from the book: V.E. Baghdasaryan, S.S. Sulakshin. "The Highest Values of the Russian State". Series "Political Axiology". Scientific monograph. M.: Scientific expert, 2012. - 624 p. - S. 297-302.

Question 2. The era of the Elder (Western) Han

The forces led by Wang Chu and Wang Han, who defeated the Qin Empire, soon entered into confrontation with each other.

At first, Xiang Yu had more opportunities than his main rival. However, then Liu Bang, in an effort to win over the broad masses of the population to his side, invariably showed signs of respect to representatives of the local communal administration, at the same time introducing strict discipline in his army and punishing anyone who was seen in looting or violence.

In contrast, his opponent brutally cracked down not only on the captured enemy soldiers, but also on the civilian population of those cities that resisted him.

The gradual advantage of Liu Bang begins to emerge more and more clearly, and many of the commanders of the rebel detachments go over to his side. In January 202, Liu Bang won a decisive victory.

Liu Bang proclaimed the beginning of a new Han Dynasty and assumed the title of Emperor Gaozu. In historiography, the accession of this dynasty is dated in two ways - in some cases, the year 202, when Liu Bang defeated the “wang Chu”, in others, the year 206, when he received the title “wang Han”.

One way or another, in 202, the short period of fragmentation of the country that followed the fall of the Qin empire was completed. The Han Empire arose in ancient China.

The era of the Han Dynasty in the history of Chinese civilization is divided into two stages: Western Han (Older or Early Han: 206 BC - 8 AD) and Eastern Han (Younger or Late Han: 25-220 AD) . e.).

The Han Dynasty founded by Liu Bang got its name from the area where he defeated his opponents in the struggle for the imperial throne. In the Western Han period, the city of Chang'an (today's Xi'an, Shaanxi province) became the capital of the newly created Han Empire, where up to half a million people lived.

In the era of the Younger Han, its rulers moved the capital to the city of Luoyang. In the 1st century n. e. in China, a census was conducted, which showed that the Han Empire was approaching the Roman Empire in terms of population and had about 60 million people. China of the Han era, Rome and Parthia are the largest powers of antiquity.

For the era of the Han Dynasty, its specifics can be defined in three key words: reforms, Confucianism as the dominant religion, and foreign policy expansion.

Rice. 48

Reforms. When, at the end of 207, the last emperor of the Qin dynasty surrendered to one of the leaders of the rebels, Liu Bang, the future founder of the Han dynasty, China was in deep crisis; political chaos reigned in the country; Nevertheless, China survived, organically developing the traditions of its civilization.

Already in 202 BC. e. on the occasion of the inauguration, Liu Bang proclaimed a broad amnesty, calling on all the fugitives and exiles to return home and receive their lands and dwellings. He abolished the harsh punishments of the Qin era and placed emphasis on the lower level of administration, on the village elders - sanlao, among whom there were ancient traditions.

Having retained the Legist system of administrative ranks, the lowest, eight of them, he ordered to continue to assign common people, including Sanlao.

Liu Bang relied on the landowners, proclaiming agriculture the basis of the empire's economy and the most respected occupation. The heads of families received full citizenship with the assignment of the lowest of the 18 estate ranks to them.

However, the main weakness of Han power continued to be the lack of a reliable centralized administrative system. To create it instead of the collapsed Qin was not an easy task and required a lot of time. The emperor's actions were contradictory.

Gaozu rewarded his followers. The method of remuneration known from ancient Chinese history was the same - to distribute titles, ranks and corresponding land awards to deserved people, for the most part with noticeable immunity rights, which turned all of them into powerful specific rulers. This practice of granting allotments created the threat of separatism.

In the Celestial Empire, 143 inheritances were created. On average, these were destinies of 1-2 thousand households, sometimes smaller, but sometimes much larger, up to 10-12 thousand households. Each of the owners of the appanage and only he had the title of hou, which was inherited along with the appanage.

Over time, many representatives of the specific nobility became so entrenched in their possessions that the closest of them, in terms of kinship with the emperor, began to be called the title of van. The Vans and Hou felt secure in their domains and sometimes started rebellions against the legitimate ruler of the Celestial Empire.

After the death of Gaozu (195 BC), the separatist tendencies of the rulers of hereditary possessions began to manifest themselves more and more noticeably. “The Celestial Empire,” wrote an eyewitness, “now resembles a sick person, whose legs are swollen so that they have become thicker than the waist, and the fingers are like thighs. It is impossible to move them, because every movement causes terrible pain ... If you miss the moment and do not treat it, the disease will be launched and then even the famous doctor will not be able to do anything with it.

Among all the wangs, Liu Bi, the ruler of the kingdom of Wu, stood out. He had more than fifty cities in his possessions, he minted his own coin, and he had rich salt mines on the seashore. In an effort to enlist the support of the population, Liu Bi abolished taxes in his kingdom. In 154 BC. e., teaming up with six other hereditary rulers, Liu Bi gathered a 200,000-strong army and moved it to the capital of the empire.

The "mutiny of the seven vans" ended in the complete defeat of the separatists. Taking advantage of the opportunity, the Han emperor deprived the rulers of the kingdoms of the right to appoint officials and forbade them to have their own army. But the most decisive step towards the elimination of duality in the system of government of the country and the strengthening of centralized power was made by Wu-di, whose reign (140-87 BC) was the period of the highest flowering of the Han Empire.

A few words should be said about the rulers before U-di.

Since the lion's share of the territory and subjects of the ruler of the Middle Kingdom remained under the rule of the center, perhaps the most important task was to create a reliable system of centralized administration on which the empire could rely. This was the main goal of the activities of several of Liu Bang's closest successors, up to his great great-grandson Wu Di, who finally solved the problem of managing the empire.

From 195 to 188 BC e. the country was ruled by one of the sons of Liu Bang - Hui-di. After him, power passed into the hands of Liu Bang's widow, Empress Lu, who surrounded herself with relatives from her Lu clan. The ruler died in 180 BC. e. from a mysterious illness, which the historian Sima Qian was inclined to consider heavenly punishment for her crimes. In the historical tradition of China, the attitude towards Empress Luihou is purely negative. She is condemned for cruelty towards rivals, for the murders of statesmen, the deposition of legitimate heirs, the elevation of relatives from the Lu clan, and much more.

But court intrigues and bloody showdowns around the throne did not really affect the state of affairs in the country. The reforms initiated by Liu Bang and continued by his successors gradually yielded positive results. In the state, there was a reduction in taxes from landowners, the imposition of heavy taxes on wealthy merchants, irrigation work was carried out, care was taken to maintain the status of ordinary officials. The administration included active Confucians. Experts in Confucianism were able to restore from memory the texts of the books destroyed by Qin Shi Huang.

For the revival of Confucian traditions and the prosperity of Han China, one of the sons of Liu Bang, Wen-di, who ruled in 179-157, did a lot. BC e. Wen-di abandoned the cruel practice of punishing the relatives of the criminal for the crimes. At the same time, he referred to the Confucian thesis that officials are obliged to educate the people, and not harm them with unjust laws.

On the day of the solar eclipse in 178 BC. e. Wen-di made a repentant appeal to the people, grieving for his imperfection and offering, according to the ancient custom, to nominate the wise and worthy, ready to serve for the benefit of the people. In the same year, he personally made a furrow in the temple field and announced the right of everyone to speak critically of the highest authorities. In 177 BC. e. Wen-di concluded an agreement on brotherhood with the northern neighbors of the Xiongnu. He allowed part of the Xiongnu to settle in the Ordos region, that is, on the lands of the Celestial Empire south of the wall, where nomads lived from ancient times and farming was a risky business.

In the lean year 159 BC. e. Wen-di greatly reduced the prestigious expenses of the court, opened state-owned barns for distribution to the starving and allowed the sale of ranks, as well as poor peasants with ranks to cede their more prosperous neighbors. Things got to the point that at the end of his life, Wen-di demanded that his family dress in simple clothes, not wear expensive jewelry, and bequeathed after his death not to spend too much money on expensive mourning rites.

Wen-di died in 157 BC. e. Subsequently, he was very much appreciated by his descendants, who praised his virtues. It is worth noting that the virtues of Wendi fit well into the traditional ideas of a wise and virtuous ruler, and it was he who was the first of the Han emperors, who can be considered exemplary from the point of view of Confucianism.

The years of reign of Wen-di's son and Liu Bang's grandson Emperor Jing-di (156-141 BC) were marked by amnesties that showed mercy to the fallen.

It is important to note that during the years of his reign, a systematic attack began on the rights of specific princes, whose lands were cut, which sometimes served as a pretext for rebellions.

Jing-di's successor was his son and great-grandson Liu Bang Wu-di (140-87 BC). It was during the years of his reign, which was one of the longest and most fruitful in the history of China, that Confucianism not only finally came to the fore and became the basis of the Chinese way of life, but also turned out to be the foundation of the entire mature Chinese civilization.

Wu Di's measures dealt a blow to the specific system and contributed to the creation of a system of centralized government.

In order to strengthen the centralization of power in 121 BC. e. a decree was issued that actually eliminated the system of appanages - each owner of an appanage was legally ordered to divide his property among all his numerous heirs, which was designed to finally eliminate the influential layer of hereditary nobility, which at times gave rise to rebellions and general instability in the empire.

The country was divided into regions headed by governors responsible to the center. An important role, as in Qin, was played by the system of daily control in the person of censors-prosecutors vested with the highest powers.

At the same time, U-di carried out a number of reforms aimed at further centralization of the state apparatus. He restored the department of inspection introduced under Qin Shi Huang and abolished at the beginning of the Han. The task of the inspectors was to directly control the activities of district officials.

The system of appointing officials to positions has also undergone significant changes. It was now the duty of district chiefs to systematically recommend candidates for bureaucratic positions from among the most capable young people.

An academy was created in the capital, the graduates of which, as a rule, became officials.

The number of officials exceeded 130 thousand. Officials, or scientists, were divided into 9 ranks depending on the degree awarded to them after passing the exams. A system of examinations for selecting the worthy and conferring on them the title of polymath of the corresponding degree was introduced in 136 BC. e.

Chinese civilization is obliged both in terms of the consolidation of the ancient Chinese people (Han Chinese is the ethnic self-name of the Chinese), and in terms of the formation of a special model of state administration, a special Chinese class hierarchy.

The changes also affected the competence of senior officials in the state apparatus. The rights of the first adviser were limited.

The newly created imperial office allowed Wu-di to personally control the situation on the ground and the activities of various parts of the administrative system in the country.

Since the reign of Wu Di, the Han Empire has become a strong centralized state. The central government, which consisted of various departments, was subordinate to 83 regions, which, in turn, included districts, then counties and volosts.

Wu-di restored the state monopoly on salt, iron, coin casting and wine production, established back in the time of Qin Shi Huang, and the mechanism for implementing this monopoly, which was very beneficial for the treasury, was the system of farming out.

In the cities, there were also state-owned enterprises, where the best artisans of the country worked (most often in the order of working off, that is, labor service). They made the most exquisite products for the prestigious consumption of the upper classes, as well as weapons and equipment for the army, and much more. All this contributed to the development of the economy and an increase in the number of private owners.

The process of development of private property in agriculture was ambiguous.

On the one hand, there was the ruin of farmers, who actually lost half of their crops in the course of paying taxes, the dispossession of peasants.

In the Han Empire, there were two main taxes - land and poll. The lowering of the land tax at the beginning of the Han played a positive role in the recovery of the country's economy. However, in the 1st c. BC e. the situation has changed. As land ownership became concentrated in the hands of large landowners, the relatively low land tax proved beneficial primarily to wealthy landowners.

On the contrary, the poll tax, the main burden of which fell on the average farmer, was continuously raised. Unlike the land tax, the poll tax was paid not in grain, but in money. The poll tax was usually imposed on the entire population of the empire between the ages of 7 and 56 years. However, under U-di, they began to collect it from children from the age of three. For the poorest part of the population, this was an unbearable burden.

Commoners not only paid taxes, but also had to serve military and labor service between the ages of 20 and 56. Officials and the nobility were exempted from duties, it was possible to pay off them. For those who did not have sufficient funds to pay off, serving labor service often led to ruin.

Ruined, people fell into debt slavery. The number of slaves in the Han era increased many times, and this became one of the problems of the country.

Attempts by pressure from above to curb usury and prevent the ruin of farmers - the main taxable contingent of the empire - were made by the government more than once, but did not give results.

Contemporaries wrote: “How can ordinary people stand up for themselves when the rich are increasing the number of their slaves, expanding fields, accumulating wealth?”; “The farmers work tirelessly for a whole year, and when the time comes for monetary requisitions, the poor sell grain at half price, and the poor take on debt, obliged to return twice as much, therefore, for debts, many sell their fields and homes, sell their children and grandchildren.”

Self-selling into slavery for debt becomes an important source of private slavery. The very act of selling into slavery, carried out with the help of merchants, made it legal to enslave a free man even if he was sold against his will. Cases of forcible capture and sale into slavery of free people were very frequent.

There was a permanent slave market in the country. Slaves could be bought in almost every city. Shipments of shackled slaves were transported by slave traders hundreds of kilometers to Chang'an and other major cities of the country.

Forced labor formed the basis of production in the mines and trades, both private and public. Criminals were used as labor force, who, together with members of their families, were turned into convict slaves used in hard work, mainly construction and mining. Slaves, although to a lesser extent, but everywhere, were used in agriculture.

On the other hand, there was a process of concentration of landed property in the hands of the big rich, and prosperous farms were spun off to supply products to the market.

Monetary wealth was an important indicator of social status in the Han Empire. According to this property, all land owners were divided into three main categories: large, medium and small families. Outside of these categories, there were super-rich people in the empire (there were few of them) who could even lend money to the emperor. Their fortune was estimated at one hundred and two hundred million coins.

The property of large families exceeded 1 million coins. The majority were families of the second and third categories.

The main contingent, the most stable in socio-economic terms, was the category of medium-sized families. Their property ranged from 100 thousand to 1 million coins. Middle families usually exploited the labor of slaves in their farms, among them the less wealthy had several slaves, the more prosperous - several dozen. These were slave-owning estates, the production of which was largely intended for the market.

The property of small families was estimated in the amount of 1,000 to 100,000 coins; these were small privately owned farms, which, as a rule, did not use forced labor.

Sources refer a significant stratum of the poor to the fourth category—small landowners.

Wu's internal political transformations contributed to the progress of society. The population of the country increased sharply, reaching in the 1st century BC. BC e. 60 million people. The development of new lands gave impetus to the development of agricultural technology, for example, the bed system of cultivating the land by hand (it was with this method of cultivation that the vast majority of peasants received good harvests from their fields). The old irrigation systems were carefully maintained and new ones were created as needed. The roads were in order, and new cities were rising along the roads, the number of which had been continuously increasing since the beginning of the imperial period of Chinese history.

Foreign policy. Woo. Wu Di paid great attention to foreign policy issues. During his reign, the territories of the empire expanded many times over.

The desire for imperial power was supported by state doctrine. Reformed Confucianism, recognized as the state religion, proclaimed the doctrine of the absolute superiority of the "Middle State" (i.e., the Han Empire) - the center of the Universe - over the surrounding world of "outer barbarians", whose disobedience to the Son of Heaven was considered a crime. The campaigns of the Son of Heaven, as the world organizer of the Universe, were declared "punitive", foreign policy contacts were treated as criminal law.

The main direction of campaigns for U-di was originally northwestern, where the Xiongnu became more active.

The Great Wall of China weakened the danger of nomadic invasions, but the Xiongnu significantly increased their combat power when, along with the traditional lightly armed cavalry, heavily armed infantry was introduced into the army. Shanyu Mode (209-174 BC) conquered a huge territory that reached the river. Orkhon in the north, p. Liaohe - in the east and to the basin of the river. Tarim is in the west. The Xiongnu constantly disturbed the empire with their raids, threatening even the capital.

The question of an active struggle against the Xiongnu and the necessary reforms of the Han army in connection with this arose even under Wen-di. Under Jing-di, the imperial herds were significantly increased and state pastures were expanded, which were necessary for the creation of heavily armed cavalry, and the reorganization of the Han army was begun largely along the lines of the Xiongnu.

Under Wu, the reform of the army was completed, which was facilitated by the iron monopoly introduced by Wu. In 133 BC. e. the peace treaty with the Xiongnu was broken and Wu Di headed for a decisive struggle against them.

Han troops in 127 BC e. ousted the Xiongnu from the Ordos. Fortifications and fortresses were built along the banks of the Huang He bend. Then the famous Han military leaders Wei Qing and Huo Qubing in 124 and 123 BC. e. pushed the Xiongnu back from the northern borders of the empire and forced the Shanyu to move his headquarters to the north of the Gobi Desert.

From that moment on, Wu's foreign policy in the northwest was aimed at conquering foreign territories, conquering neighboring peoples, capturing prisoners of war, expanding foreign markets and dominating international trade routes.

Back in 138 BC. BC, guided by the tried and tested method of ancient Chinese diplomacy - “to conquer the barbarians with the hands of the barbarians”, - Wu Di sent the diplomat and strategist Zhang Qian to conclude a military alliance with the Yuezhi tribes, hostile to the Xiongnu, who, under the onslaught of the Xiongnu, migrated from Gansu somewhere to the west.

On the way, Zhang Qian was captured by the Xiongnu, after a ten-year stay with them, he fled and continued his mission. The Yuezhi were then already in Central Asia, conquered Bactria. Zhang Qian did not persuade them to go to war with the Xiongnu. However, during his journey, he visited Davan (Fergana), Kangjue (or Kangjue - obviously, the middle and lower reaches of the Syr Darya and the adjacent regions of the Central Asian Mesopotamia), lived for about a year in Dasya (Bactria).

From local merchants, Zhang Qian learned about Shendu (India) and distant Western countries, including An-si (Parthia), as well as what these countries know about

China as a "country of silk", which foreign merchants willingly traded. Upon returning to Chang'an, Zhang Qian described all this in his report to Wu.

Zhang Qian's information greatly expanded the geographic horizons of the ancient Chinese: they became aware of many countries to the west of the Han Empire, their wealth and interest in trade with China.

Since that time, paramount importance in the foreign policy of the imperial court began to be given to seizing trade routes between the empire and these countries, establishing regular contacts with them.

In order to implement these plans, the direction of campaigns against the Xiongnu was changed, Gansu became the main center of attack on them, since the trade road to the west, the famous Great Silk Road, ran here.

Huo Qubing in 121 BC e. ousted the Xiongnu from the pasture lands of Gansu, opening up the opportunity for the Han Empire to expand into East Turkestan. On the territory of Gansu up to Dunhuang, a powerful line of fortifications was built and military and civilian settlements were founded. Gansu became a springboard for further struggle for the mastery of the Great Silk Road, along which caravans were drawn from Chang'an immediately after the empire's positions were consolidated in Gansu.

The Han Empire used diplomatic and military means to extend its influence to the oasis city-states of East Turkistan along the Great Silk Road in order to secure the path of caravans.

In 115 BC. e. An embassy headed by Zhang Qian was sent to the Usuns. It played an important role in the development of trade and diplomatic relations between Han China and Central Asia. During his stay with the Usuns, Zhang Qian sent envoys to Davan, Kangju, to the Yuezhi and to Daxia, Anxi, Shendu and other countries, who were the first representatives of ancient China in these countries. During 115-111 years. BC e. trade links were established between the Han Empire and Bactria.

The Great Silk Road from the Han capital of Chang'an went northwest through the territory of Gansu to Dunhuang, where it branched into two main roads (north and south of Lop Nor Lake) leading to Kashgar. From Kashgar, trade caravans followed to Ferghana and Bactria, and from there to India and Parthia and further to the Mediterranean. From China, caravans brought iron, considered “the best in the world” (as the Roman author Pliny the Elder claimed), nickel, gold, silver, lacquerware, mirrors and other handicrafts, but above all silk fabrics and raw silk. (sy - with this name, apparently, was associated with the name of China in the ancient world, where it was known as the country of "Sins" or "Sers").

Rare animals and birds, plants, valuable types of wood, furs, medicines, spices, incense and cosmetics, colored glass and jewelry, semi-precious and precious stones and other luxury items, as well as slaves (musicians, dancers), etc., were delivered to China. Particularly noteworthy were grapes, beans, alfalfa, saffron, some gourds, pomegranate and walnut trees borrowed by China from Central Asia at that time. Later, through East Turkestan, the "Western Land", Buddhism entered China from India.

Under U-di, the empire established ties with many states of India and Iran, as well as with states located on the territory up to the Mediterranean.

The Great Silk Road played a huge role in the development of diplomatic, economic and cultural ties between the Far East and the countries of the Middle and Near East, as well as the Mediterranean.

However, everything that was delivered to Chang'an along the Great Silk Road was considered by the Han emperor and his entourage as a tribute to the "barbarians", the arrival of foreign embassies with offerings common for that era was perceived only as an expression of humility to the Han Empire.

The militant emperor (translation of the temple name Wudi) was overwhelmed by the global plan to “expand the empire by ten thousand li and extend the power of the Son of Heaven (i.e., the Han emperor) throughout the world (literally, “up to four seas”).”

Ferghana (Davan) was of particular interest to the empire. She held key positions on an important section of the Silk Road and owned "heavenly horses" - stately horses of the western breed, which were of exceptional importance for the heavily armed Wudi cavalry.

However, the Davanians stubbornly resisted the harassment of the Han court and were not going to supply the Han army with fine horses.

In 104 BC. e. In the distant "punitive campaign" on the city of Ershi (the capital of Ferghana), a huge army of the commander Li Guangli, who had been granted the title of "Ershi Winner", set out in advance. The campaign lasted two years, but ended in complete failure. In 102 U-di undertook a new grandiose campaign to Fergana. This time they managed to get "heavenly horses", but the empire was unable to conquer Davan.

The campaigns in Fergana, which cost the empire extreme tension, ended, according to Wu himself, in the complete failure of the plans of the Han aggression in the West.

The political dominance of Han China in East Turkestan turned out to be unstable, short-lived and very limited. The most impartial representatives of official historiography generally questioned the need for the Han Empire to expand into Central and Central Asia, noting its negative consequences both for these countries, and especially for China. “The Han Dynasty rushed to the distant Western Territory and thereby brought the empire to exhaustion,” wrote the author of one of the early medieval histories of China.

Simultaneously with an active foreign policy in the northwest, U-di undertook a wide expansion in the south and northeast directions.

The Yue states in South China and North Vietnam have long attracted ancient Chinese merchants and artisans as markets for goods and places for the extraction of copper and tin ores, precious metals, pearls, the acquisition of exotic animals and plants, and slaves. The Yue lands conquered under Qin Shi Huang fell away from the empire after the fall of the Qin dynasty, but trade ties with them remained.

Ancient Chinese sources record the existence in the II century. BC e. three independent Yue states: Nanyue (in the basin of the middle and lower reaches of the Xijiang River and North Vietnam), Dongyue (in the territory of Zhejiang province) and Minyue (in Fujian province).

In the largest of them - Nanyue (Namviet) - the former Qin governor Zhao Tuo seized power. It was he who founded the local Viet dynasty Chieu, proclaiming himself an emperor, equal in power to Han.

In 196 BC. e. An agreement was concluded between Han and Nanyue, according to which Liu Bang recognized Zhao Tuo as the legitimate ruler of Nanyue. But soon Zhao Tuo, in response to Empress Luihou's ban on exporting iron, cattle and other goods to Nan Yue, severed diplomatic relations with the empire. Both countries were at war, but the empire did not have the strength to wage it.

From the very first years of his accession, U-di relied on the capture of the southern states. In 138 BC. BC, having intervened in the internecine struggle of the Vietnamese states, the Hans conquered Dunyue, after which Wu Di began preparing a big war against Nanyue.

After the death of Zhao Tuo, taking advantage of internal unrest, Wu di brought large military forces into Nanyue. The war with Nanyue, which lasted intermittently for two years (112-111 BC), ended with the victory of the empire. During this period, the empire conquered the rest of the Yue lands, only Minyue continued to maintain independence.

Dividing Nanyue into regions and counties, the conquerors forced local residents to work in mines, mine gold and precious stones, and hunt elephants and rhinos. Because of the constant anti-Han uprisings, Wu-di was forced to keep large military forces in the Yue lands.

The expansion of Han territory in the southwest was associated with attempts to find a route to India. While traveling in the "Western Territory", Zhang Qian learned about the existence of this large and rich country. From the stories of merchants, he concluded that the state of Hindu is located next to the lands of the "southwestern barbarians." So the ancient Chinese called the tribes that inhabited most of modern Yunnan and southern Sichuan.

In the IV-III centuries. BC e. several large unions of tribes arise here, the most significant among which was the early state union of Dian. In 130 and 111 BC. e. Wu-di twice undertakes campaigns against the "south-western barbarians". And although the land route to India was not found, large territories were annexed to the Han Empire.

After the subjugation of Nanyue, the Han Empire established sea ties with India and Lanka (Sichengbu). The route from the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean was probably through the Strait of Malacca. The ancient Chinese at that time were not strong in navigation, but the Yue peoples were skillful sailors since ancient times. Evidently, it was the Yue ships that brought the Han merchants to India, Lanka, and other parts of South Asia.

After the conquest of Nanyue, most likely through the Yue peoples, ties were established between the Han Empire and the distant countries of Southeast and South Asia.

Having completed the wars in the south, Wu-di took decisive action against the state of Chaoxian (kor. Cho-son) in North Korea. This country, long before the emergence of the empire, maintained ties with the northeastern ancient Chinese kingdoms.

After the formation of the Han Empire under Liu Bang, an agreement was concluded establishing the border between the two states along the river. Phesu. The Chaoxian rulers sought to pursue an independent policy and, in opposition to the empire, maintained ties with the Xiongnu. The latter circumstance, as well as the fact that Chaoxian prevented the empire from communicating with the peoples of South Korea, made Chaoxian another object of Han aggression.

In 109 BC. e. Wu Di provoked the assassination of the Han ambassador in Chaoxian, after which he sent a "punitive" expedition there. After a long siege by land and sea, the capital of Chaoxian Wangomseong fell. Four administrative districts were established on the territory of Chaoxian, but three of them had to be abolished in connection with the ongoing struggle of the ancient Koreans for independence.

The huge empire created by Wudi was on the verge of a severe crisis.

The wars of conquest, which Wudi waged continuously for many years in a row, devastated the treasury and depleted the resources of the state, led to innumerable human casualties, to a sharp deterioration in the situation of the bulk of the working population of the country. An explosion of popular discontent was expressed in open speeches by "embittered and exhausted people" in the central regions of the empire.

At the same time, the anti-Khan uprisings of the tribes on the outskirts of the empire rose. “The country is tired of endless wars, people are seized with sadness, reserves are depleted” – this is how his contemporary historian Sima Qian characterizes the state of the empire at the end of Wu’s reign.

Han Confucianism. Both in foreign and even more so in domestic policy, the emperor pursued the goal of strengthening the foundation of imperial power and reviving the glory of the great and prosperous Celestial Empire, which was perhaps the most important element of the highly revered Chinese tradition.

It is not surprising, therefore, that Wu Di himself spent a lot of effort not only to revive the influence of Confucianism in the empire, but to recreate a new, imperial, or, as it is sometimes called, Han, Confucianism.

The fundamental difference between imperial Confucianism was not so much in the doctrine, which remained practically unchanged, but in a new attitude towards the world that had changed since the time of Confucius. For improved ideas, the principle of practical benefit, a pragmatic perception of the world, which developed in China largely under the influence of the same Confucianism, was much more important. And this included a greater tolerance for other doctrines, especially those that were defeated and failed to stand the test of history.

Wudi wanted the new official imperial ideology to absorb everything useful that helped the country and him personally, the entire Han dynasty to establish the management of the empire and rely on the people brought up on ideals and traditions, but at the same time respecting strength and subject to authority.

This meant the convergence of pre-Han Confucianism with those elements of legalism that could well coexist with Confucianism and even reinforce its postulates. After all, both the Confucians and the Legalists believed that the sovereign with his ministers and officials should govern the Celestial Empire, that the people should respect the authorities and obey its representatives, and that all this, ultimately, contributes to the good and prosperity, peace and happiness of the subjects.

Confucians emphasized the self-consciousness and self-improvement of people, the education in them of humanity, virtue, a sense of duty and respect for elders. Legists - intimidation, submission and severe punishments for disobedience. In this situation, the skillful combination of the Confucian gingerbread with the Legalist whip could and did produce very positive results.

Wudi gathered around him about a hundred outstanding scholars-boshi (boshi is an honorary academic title, a kind of professor), to whom from time to time he asked questions important to him. Among them are questions about how to govern the empire, what criteria to select assistants and officials, how to interpret ancient wisdom in relation to the tasks of today, etc. As the dynastic history of Hanshu notes, the most intelligent and accurate answers to the questions posed were given senior contemporary of Wu-di, an outstanding Confucian of the Han time Dong Chung-shu.

The necessary element of coercion within the imperial administration was harmoniously combined with traditional paternalism, and the social discipline of centuries-old respect-oriented subjects was reinforced by the Confucian spirit of rivalry and self-improvement, which in the conditions of imperial China was always the engine that allowed the huge administrative machine not to stagnate, not to rust.

In the face of Confucianism, the Han Empire acquired an official ideology with a distinct religious connotation. Violation of the Confucian precepts was punishable by death as the gravest crime. On the basis of Confucianism, an all-encompassing system of lifestyle and management organization was developed. The emperor in his reign had to be based on the principles of philanthropy and justice, and learned officials were supposed to help him pursue the right policy.

Relations in society were to be regulated on the basis of rituals that determined the duties and rights of each group of the population. All people were to build relationships in the family on the basis of the principles of filial piety and brotherly love. It meant. That every person had to unquestioningly fulfill the will of his father. Obey older brothers, take care of your parents in old age.

Since the era of the Elder Han, Chinese society has become class-based not only in the state, but also in the Confucian-moral sense of this concept. The obedience of juniors to seniors, inferiors to superiors, and all together to the emperor, is the basis for the development of Chinese civilization with its universal strict regulation of life down to the smallest detail.

And although after Wu-di Han China entered a period of protracted crisis, the traditions laid down mainly by Confucianism helped the Chinese civilization and statehood to maintain its viability.

Attempts to overcome the crisis and the end of the empire. The processes of stratification of Chinese society, the dispossession and ruin of small proprietors, the spread of wage labor, slavery, and the concentration of large landed property created difficulties for the stable development of the empire and required constant attention from the central government. However, its capabilities have steadily declined.

So, in 6 BC. e., under Emperor Ai-di (6-1 BC), it was proposed to impose restrictions on the private ownership of land and slaves. The limiting norm for the area of private land was set at 30 qing per person (1 qing = 4.7 ha); the number of slaves should not exceed 30 for commoners, 100 for representatives of the nobility, and 200 for the highest aristocracy (excluding slaves over 60 and under 10 years old). State slaves older than 50 years were proposed to be set free. This project was not put into practice, as it ran into resistance from large landowners.

By the beginning of the 1st century n. e. the growth of large landed property continues to be one of the most burning social problems. In this regard, it is necessary to raise the issue of the so-called "strong houses".

The stratification in the village community led to the emergence of a wealthy elite, with which the bureaucracy merged, investing their funds in communal land ownership. This is how the “strong houses” were formed.

"Strong houses" (in the texts they were referred to by various terms) divided among themselves (sometimes in the course of fierce rivalry) power and influence. Dispossessed peasants often had to leave their homes and go to new ones, where they found themselves in the position of dependent clients (k e, letters - “guest”) from all the same village rich.

Forced in the conditions of the inefficient power of the center to take care of their own well-being, strong houses were overgrown with house guards recruited from the poor and alien people ( butqu), which in a critical situation could act as a fully combat-ready military formation.

Turning over many millions and even tens of millions of coins, which is often mentioned in the sources, powerful houses not only became the generally recognized elite of the empire with real power, but also gained opportunities to influence the administration apparatus. Moreover, the administrative apparatus at the county and district levels was mainly staffed precisely from representatives of these powerful houses and was very dependent on their “common opinion”.

The interweaving of the interests of the rural property elite and the local administration apparatus, in turn, sharply aggravated the economic crisis, which entailed a further weakening and political decentralization of the state.

It was this process that was observed at the end of the first Han Dynasty. It manifested itself primarily in a tangible decrease in the role of the state administrative principle in the country, and also in the fact that the functions of power actually ended up in the hands of powerful houses with their vast lands, financial resources, abundant clientele, and, moreover, with claims to high moral potential, aristocracy. spirit and high Confucian standards.

Wang Mang's reforms were a new attempt to solve the problems in the country associated with large land ownership and slavery. Their goal is to restore the order lost by society on the basis of traditional Confucian recommendations and appropriate mechanisms and thereby actively resist destruction and chaos.

Wang Mang (8-23 AD), father-in-law of Emperor Ping-di (1-5 AD) and regent for his young son, seized power in the country. In 8 AD, he deposed the infant Emperor Indy and proclaimed himself the founder of the new Xin Dynasty.

The first and main task of the new emperor was to strengthen state power and fight against the local power elite.

It was for this purpose that Wang Mang declared all the lands in the empire to be state lands and strictly prohibited their sale and purchase. The possessions of powerful houses confiscated in this way were intended for distribution among all those privately dependent who did not have their own land and were in the position of tenants, clients, or even just slaves in the households of powerful village clans.

In addition to reforms in the field of land relations, Wang Mang issued a special decree on the elimination of private slavery and the prohibition of buying and selling people.

All slaves automatically acquired the status of dependents and, accordingly, were under certain protection from the state, which was also a severe blow, primarily to strong houses and their households.

Slaves - in accordance with ancient tradition - were only criminals, and the number of slaves of this category under Wang Mang increased sharply due to severe punishments for all those who violated the new laws or actively opposed them.

By special decrees, Wang Mang introduced state monopolies on wine, salt, iron, and even credit, which had already lost their strength. A new type of coin was put into circulation in the country, the casting of which also became the monopoly of the state.

The reforms met with desperate resistance from those who, by decree of the emperor, were deprived of almost all their property, all the wealth accumulated by generations. In an effort to suppress discontent, the reformer did not hesitate to resort to repression, while relying, which is important to emphasize, on the administration apparatus. Using the new order, the administrative apparatus derived considerable benefits for itself from the expropriation of other people's wealth.

And since considerable expenses were required to carry out reforms and to strengthen the apparatus of power in such a difficult situation for the empire, Wang Mang had to take some unpopular measures - he increased taxes and introduced a number of new taxes and duties from various categories of the population. This played an important role in the growth of dissatisfaction with the reforms.

Assessing the reforms as a whole, it should be noted that, in principle, they were sufficiently thought out and, if they were skillfully carried out, could well lead the country out of a state of crisis. However, the urgency of the reforms, their too rapid and vigorous implementation, led to an aggravation of social contradictions.

A natural disaster became disastrous for Van Mann and the empire. In 11 AD, the wayward Yellow River changed its course, which led to the death of hundreds of thousands of people, the flooding of fields, and the destruction of cities and towns.

The Huang He has repeatedly changed its course over the course of several thousand years of written Chinese history, which was due to the abundance of silt (loess) that this not accidentally named Yellow River carried in its waters. Usually, its waters were closely monitored by officials who were responsible for cleaning the channel and building dams. But during the years of stagnation and crisis, in moments of destruction and weakening of power, this important function of the Chinese administration also weakened.

For the population brought up within the framework of a certain tradition, the breakthrough of the Yellow River and the great disasters associated with it clearly indicated that Heaven was dissatisfied with the state of affairs in the Celestial Empire. It warns with such a cataclysm of its disapproval of the existing order, that is, Van Mann's reforms are evil.

Realizing this, the emperor was forced not only to openly repent, but also to cancel a significant part of his decrees. This played a fatal role. Opponents of the reforms rejoiced, the situation in the country changed decisively again, which once again gave rise to chaos and confusion.

The crisis began to deepen, the dissatisfied and the disadvantaged again took up arms, uprisings began in the country. One of the most important among them was the uprising of the so-called "red-browed". The fighters who belonged to this movement painted their eyebrows red to distinguish themselves from the rest. The armies of the empire were losing ground and retreating towards the capital.

5. Rise of civilization in the era of the Middle Kingdom

6. On the way to everything new

7. Late period of Egyptian civilization

8. Egyptian civilization in world history

Section II. Chapter 2. Mesopotamian civilization

1. Ancient Mesopotamia

2. Origins of the Mesopotamian civilization

3. Sumerian civilization

4. Old Babylonian period

5. Kassite period

6. Neo-Babylonian period

7. Mesopotamian civilization in world history

Section II. Chapter 3 Indian Civilization

1. Nature and population

2. Early agricultural culture of Hindustan

2. Harappan civilization

4. Vedic civilization

5. Civilization between the Ganges and the Himalayas

6. Civilization of the Kushan and Gupta Empires

7. Features and achievements of ancient Indian civilization

Section II. Chapter 4. Chinese Civilization

1. Nature and population

2. Early agricultural cultures are the cradle of Chinese civilization

3. Shang (Yin) civilization

4. Civilization of the Zhou era

5. Eastern Zhou Civilization

6. Civilization of the Qin Dynasty

7. Civilization of the Han Dynasty

8. Features and achievements of the ancient Chinese civilization

Section III. Chapter 1

1. Nature and population

2. The heyday of trade and navigation

3. Phoenician city-states

4. Phoenicians as part of world civilizations

Section III. Chapter 2

1. Conditions for the formation of the local Syrian civilization

2. Double experience of association

3. Syria zone of instability

Section III. Chapter 3. Civilization of Ancient Palestine 1. Nature and population

2. Between the power of the pharaohs and the migration of the peoples of the sea

3. On the way to Israel

4. Features and achievements of the civilization of Ancient Palestine

Section IV. Chapter 1. Hittite Civilization

1. Anatolia center of civilizational development

2. From the early agricultural culture to the city-state

3. Stages of the history of the Hittite state

4. War and Peace Hatti

5. Achievements of the Hittite Civilization

Section IV. Chapter 2. Assyrian Civilization

1. Natural conditions and population

2. The most ancient period of history

3. Civilization of the Middle Assyrian period

4. Civilization of the Neo-Assyrian era

5. Assyrian civilization between enmity and peace

6. Legacy of the Assyrian civilization

Section IV. Chapter 3. Civilization of the Persians

1. Ancient Persia country of countries

2. The Greatest Oriental Despotism

3. Avestan civilization

Section V. Chapter 1. Ancient Greek Civilization

1. Nature and population of marine civilization

2. At the origins of Ancient Greek civilization

3. Birth of Ancient Greek Civilization

4. Centers of Ancient Greek Civilization: Triumph and Crisis

5. Civilization of the Hellenistic era

6. The main achievements of the Ancient Greek civilization

Section V. Chapter 2. Ancient Roman Civilization

1. Ancient Roman civilization maritime civilization

2. Civilization of Imperial Rome

3. Ancient Roman civilization of the era of the Republic

4. Military expansion and its results

5. Ancient Roman civilization of the era of the Empire

6. The main achievements of the Ancient Roman civilization

Section VI. Chapter 1. Byzantine Civilization

1. Byzantium as a civilizational space

2. Rise and fall of the Byzantine civilization

3. Byzantine model of civilizational development

4. Byzantium Roman Empire

5. The role of religion in Byzantine civilization

Section VI. Chapter 2. Arab Islamic Civilization

1. Pre-Muslim Arabia

2. Islam is the basis of Arab civilization

3. Arab Caliphate

4. Arab culture in the development of world civilization

Section VI. Chapter 3. Western European Medieval Civilization

1. New life of the imperial idea

2. Trade and political poles of the Middle Ages

3. From a patchwork civilization to a single historical space

5. Hierarchy and corporatism of Western European society

6. Religion is a structural component of the Western European medieval civilization

7. Man of the Western European Middle Ages

8. The main achievements of Western European medieval civilization

Section VII. Chapter 1. European pre-industrial civilization

1. European West: the birth of a pre-industrial civilization

2. Demographic and ethnic processes in the early modern period

5. Consolidation of a single historical space

6. The golden age of European absolutism

Section VII. Chapter 2

1. Revival of a new view of the world and man

2. Reformation time of change in religious life

3. Enlightenment third spiritual upheaval

4. The first revolutions the beginning of pan-European modernization

5. Man of the era of pre-industrial civilization

Section VIII. Chapter 1. The Birth of Industrial Civilization

1. Features of the formation of industrial civilization

2. The main trends in the development of European countries in the XIX century.

3. Spiritual culture of Europe of the industrial age

Section VIII. Chapter 2. The Formation of the Industrial Society of North America

1. Creation of an independent state United States of America

2. State structure and the formation of democracy in the United States

3. Centers of civilizational development of the USA

4. Technological progress and culture of the industrial society of North America

Section VIII. Chapter 3. Industrial civilization of the 20th century

1. Civilizational crises of the 20th century

2. Search for ways out of the crisis

3. Features of the crisis of civilization in the second half of the XX century

4. The spiritual world of a person of the Industrial civilization of the XX century

5. The third scientific and technological revolution

6. New industrial society

Section IX. Chapter 1. Post-industrial civilization

1. The beginning of a post-industrial society

2. Main trends of civilizational development

3. Centers of the world economy

4. Global problems of our time

5. Distinctive features of post-industrial civilization

7. Civilization of the Han Dynasty

When at the end of 207 the last emperor of the Qin dynasty surrendered to one of the leaders of the rebels Liu Bang, the future founder of the Han dynasty, China was experiencing a deep crisis in the country chaos, the administrative system was falling apart, the fields were deserted, famine reduced the population. Nevertheless, China persevered, while organically developing traditions of their civilization. For the era of the Han Dynasty, its specificity can be defined in three key words reforms,Confucianism as the dominant religion and foreign policy expansion .

Many rebel leaders who helped Liu Bang come to power were granted hereditary possessions. Part of the land, as a manifestation of the highest favor of the emperor, was given to some representatives of the nobility. This practice of granting allotments created a threat separatism, with whom Liu Bang's successors fought, including Wu-di (140-87 BC).

The years of Wu-di's reign were the heyday of the Chinese civilization of the Han era. The central government managed to finally subjugate the new local aristocracy, improve the country's economy and raise public welfare. The number of cities with a population of up to 50,000 increased, and the slave trade reached unprecedented proportions. Monopoly on salt, iron and wine brought income to the empire. Foreign trade has received exceptionally great development. The northern trade route connecting China with Western countries was called the Great Silk Road.

Once every three years, the winners of the provincial tours gathered in the capital and took exams for the emperor himself. During the exams, they had to write an essay on a given topic. Applicants for the rank in the exams had to show knowledge of the books that formed the basis Confucian canon of the Pentateuch, which included Shujing (Book of Historical Documents), Shijing (Book of Songs), I Ching (Book of Changes), Li Ji (Records of Rites). The state copy of the Pentateuch was carved on stone. Those who passed the test were awarded academic degrees, which opened up the possibility of obtaining appointment to a position in central and local authorities.

The official's destination changed every 5 years. For their service, they received a salary or land allotment. An official could not inherit either his rank and rank or land. However, they had more opportunities than commoners to give their children an education that would allow them to pass the exam and get a position. The Chinese civilization is also obliged to these learned officials, the mandarins, in terms of the consolidation of the ancient Chinese nationalities(Han Chinese is the ethnic self-designation of the Chinese), and in terms of the formation of a special model of state administration, a special Chinese class hierarchy.

In the II century. BC. The Han Empire recognized Confucianism and in his person it acquired an official ideology with a distinct religious tinge. Violation Confucian commandments was punishable by death as the most serious crime. Based Confucianism an all-encompassing system of lifestyle and management organization was developed. The emperor in his reign had to be based on the principles of philanthropy and justice, and learned officials were supposed to help him pursue the right policy. Relations in society were to be regulated on the basis of rituals which defined the duties and rights of each group of the population. All people were to build relationships in the family on the basis of the principles of filial piety and brotherly love. It meant. That every person had to unquestioningly fulfill the will of his father. Obey older brothers, take care of your parents in old age. From the era of the Elder Han, Chinese society became class-based not only in the state, but also in Confucian the moral sense of this concept. The obedience of juniors to seniors, inferiors to superiors, and all together to the emperor, is the basis for the development of Chinese civilization with its universal strict regulation of life down to the smallest detail.

The increased strength of Chinese civilization was also manifested in its foreign policy. expansion, in the fight against an external enemy, primarily with the unification of nomadic tribesXiongnu, who lived on a vast territory near the northern borders of China. The rulers of the Han Empire sought to expand its territory by seizing foreign lands, take control of international trade routes and expand foreign markets for their goods.

Almost simultaneously, the Han Empire deployed expansion to the southwest and east. Ancient Korean was conquered state Joseon. Active conquests were carried out south of China and in Southeast Asia with the capture of the ancient Vietnamese states of Au Pak and Nam Vien.

expansionist the aspirations of the Han Empire led to the depletion of state resources, the growth of taxes, extortions and forced labor, the deterioration of the situation of people embraced by sadness. At court, the influence of the eunuchs and relatives of the emperor's wives increased. Waves of uprisings of the poor strata of the population rolled one after another across the weary country. Interests clashed rural houses and educated servant estates. Concluding the era of the Elder Han Dynasty, the brief interim reign of Wang Mang (AD 9-23), a relative of the wife of one of the emperors, led to the restoration of the Younger Han Dynasty. Having come to power, Wang Mang set about reforms in order to restore the happy order of antiquity. The reforms, reasonable in their direction, represented an attempt to use state power to control the economic life of the country: the transfer of land into ownership states, the prohibition of the trade in land and slaves, the abolition of private slavery, monopoly for wine, salt, iron. However, the failure of the reforms, too rapid and vigorous implementation, led to an aggravation of social contradictions. Red Eyebrow Rebellion in 18 AD (the rebels painted their eyebrows red), a civil war in the country and an ecological disaster (in 11 AD, a large-scale spill of a river that changed its course Huanghe led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people) sealed the end of Wang Mang's reign.

Portal for the student. Self-training

7. Civilization of the Han Dynasty

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