Imperial China: The Qin and the Han 247–87 BC

Imperial China: The Qin and the Han 247–87 BC is one of the Historical Periods options in Section IV (25 marks). You write one extended response (one of two alternatives), about 1,000 words. Study the period through the archaeological and written evidence, organised around:

• Historical context: the geography of China; the Warring States period and the rise of Qin.
• The nature of power and authority: the emperor and the Mandate of Heaven; Legalism, Confucianism and Daoist (Huang–Lao) ideas; officials, commanderies and kingdoms; the army.
• Significant developments: the Qin conquest (230–221 BC) and unification; the fall of Qin; the Chu–Han war and the founding of the Han; the early Han emperors; the Rebellion of the Seven States; the reign of Emperor Wu (141–87 BC).
• Relations with neighbours: the Xiongnu, the western regions and the southern and north-eastern conquests.
• Evidence and interpretations: Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji), Ban Gu's History of the Han (Hanshu), Jia Yi, excavated texts (Shuihudi, Liye, Zhangjiashan), the First Emperor's tomb complex and Han tombs (e.g. Mawangdui).

All dates are BC.

• The Warring States (475–221) were seven large states competing for power.
• Qin, in the west, grew strong after the Legalist reforms of Shang Yang (4th century): laws, rewards and punishments, groups of households responsible for each other, promotion of farming and war.
• Ying Zheng became king of Qin as a boy on his father's death (247/246), with the minister Lü Buwei as regent; he took personal power in 238 and later relied on Li Si.

Conquest and unification

• The six rival states fell between 230 and 221: Han, Zhao, Wei, Chu, Yan and Qi.
• Zheng took the title Huangdi (‘August Emperor’) — the First Emperor (Qin Shihuangdi).

Government

• Commanderies and counties (36 commanderies at first) under appointed officials, replacing the old states.
• Standardisation: script, weights and measures, coinage (the banliang), axle widths, laws.
• Control: weapons melted into twelve bronze statues; 120,000 wealthy families moved to the capital, Xianyang (Sima Qian).
• Public works: roads (including the Straight Road), canals (the Lingqu), northern walls linked by Meng Tian; the emperor's tomb near Mount Li with the terracotta army (found 1974); palaces (Epang).
• Ideology and censorship: inscribed stelae on inspection tours; the burning of books (213, on Li Si's proposal) and the killing of scholars (212 — scale and details debated).

The fall of Qin

• The emperor died on tour in 210. Zhao Gao and Li Si concealed his death, forced the heir Fusu to commit suicide and enthroned Huhai (the Second Emperor). Li Si was executed in 208.
• 209: revolt of Chen Sheng and Wu Guang at Dazexiang; nobles of the old states rose.
• 206: Liu Bang entered the Qin homeland and accepted the surrender of Ziying; his ‘three laws’ (Shiji 8). Xiang Yu killed Ziying and burned Xianyang.
• Why Qin fell: harsh laws and labour demands; the succession crisis; failure to win the conquered elites; Jia Yi's argument that Qin did not change from conquest to benevolent rule.

Features: much of Qin's administration and law kept (the Zhangjiashan legal texts) but applied more leniently; Huang–Lao ideas of limited government; recovery of population and wealth (Shiji 30: overflowing granaries and treasuries by the early years of Emperor Wu).

Government and ideology

• Confucian learning: academicians for the Five Classics; the Imperial Academy (Taixue, 124); recommendation of officials for filial piety and integrity; Dong Zhongshu. In practice Wu also used Legalist methods and harsh officials.
• Kingdoms weakened: kings required to divide their lands among their sons (from 127).
• Calendar reform (104); patronage of literature; Sima Qian completed the Shiji (castrated in 99 after defending Li Ling).

Expansion

• Xiongnu: the Mayi ambush fails (133); campaigns of Wei Qing (from 129) and Huo Qubing (121, 119); the Hexi Corridor and new commanderies (Wuwei, Jiuquan, Zhangye, Dunhuang); walls, watchtowers and military colonies.
• The western regions: Zhang Qian's mission (about 139/138–126) to seek the Yuezhi; later embassies; Li Guangli's campaigns against Ferghana for horses (104–101).
• South and north-east: Nanyue conquered (111); Gojoseon in Korea (108, four commanderies); the south-west.

Paying for it

• Monopolies on salt and iron (about 119–117); new wuzhu coin (118); Sang Hongyang's equable transport and price stabilisation; taxes on merchants and rewards for informers; sale of ranks.
• Costs: exhaustion of the people; defeats (Li Ling 99; Li Guangli 90); the witchcraft affair (91) and death of the heir Liu Ju; the edict of Luntai (89) rejecting further western expansion (significance debated).
• After Wu's death the debate on salt and iron (81) showed the criticism of his policies.

• Sima Qian (Shiji, about 100–90): the main narrative source; a court historian under Wu, critical of him in places (e.g. the Treatise on the Balanced Standard); used Qin and Han records but also stories.
• Ban Gu (Hanshu, 1st century AD): a later, more official Han history.
• Jia Yi (The Faults of Qin, early Han): the classic explanation of Qin's fall.
• Excavated texts: Qin legal and administrative documents from Shuihudi (found 1975) and Liye (2002); early Han laws from Zhangjiashan (found 1983, text dated about 186 BC) — they show that Qin was highly bureaucratic and that the Han kept much of its law.
• Archaeology: the First Emperor's tomb complex (the burial chamber still unexcavated as of 2026); Mawangdui tombs (2nd century) — texts, silk and lacquer of the early Han elite.
• Modern views (credited if used): historians question how far Han accounts exaggerate Qin cruelty to justify the new dynasty, and how far Confucianism was really ‘established’ under Wu.

1. Unpack the question: the command verb and the focus (Qin government, the fall of Qin, the early Han, Emperor Wu, the Xiongnu).
2. Thesis: a clear judgement at the start.
3. Paragraphs by argument, with dated evidence.
4. Compare Qin and Han when the question allows.
5. Sources: treat Sima Qian and Jia Yi as Han writers with a view of Qin; use excavated evidence to test them.
6. Conclusion: answer the question.

• Treating Qin as purely cruel and Han as purely benevolent — the Han kept much of Qin's system.
• Confusing Liu Bang with Xiang Yu, or Emperor Wen with Emperor Wu.
• Saying the First Emperor built ‘the Great Wall’ as it stands today (most of today's wall is from the Ming dynasty).
• Treating the book burning and the killing of scholars as fully reliable in every detail.
• Going past 87 BC (the salt and iron debate of 81 is useful only as evidence about Wu's policies).

• Anchor dates: 247/246, 221, 213, 210, 209, 206, 202, 200, 154, 141, 133, 124, 119, 108, 91, 87.
• Use terms accurately: Legalism, Confucianism, Mandate of Heaven, commandery, kingdom, heqin, chanyu, monopoly, Imperial Academy.
• Every essay should use at least one excavated source as well as Sima Qian.

• Qin Shihuangdi (Personalities): the First Emperor in depth.
• Society in China during the Han Dynasty (Ancient Societies): Han society and economy.