The Han Dynasty

Among China’s successive unified dynasties, the Han lasted a long time. From Liu Bang’s ascension to the throne in 202 BCE to the deposition of Emperor Xian in 220 CE, the Han Dynasty ruled China for more than four hundred years, excluding Wang Mang’s brief usurpation. It was one of the longest-lasting unified dynasties in Chinese history. This book examines the successes and failures of the Liu clan, the strategies that brought good governance, and the roots of disorder, bringing to life a sweeping portrait of the Han imperial family and the age in which it lived! The Han Dynasty was a feudal empire of dazzling splendor, filled with both glory and loneliness, like a lavish fairy tale. For Chinese people today, the legacy and dreams cast by this great empire are still worth remembering and appreciating. “Nations usually fall when they are weak, but the Han alone fell in its strength!” What caused the Han Empire, built by a Liu clan whose blood ran with courage and martial spirit, to collapse so utterly? Over the course of the Han Dynasty’s more than four hundred years, over twenty emperors took the stage of history, while the struggle for power by the imperial relatives persisted throughout: the Rebellion of the Lü Clan, Huo Guang’s grasp on power, Wang Mang’s usurpation of the Han, the Dou clan’s domination of the emperor… As the Liu clan battled the families of imperial consorts, eunuchs gradually entered the political arena, and then the Han fell. Among China’s successive unified dynasties, the Han lasted a long time. From Liu Bang’s ascension to the throne in 202 BCE to the deposition of Emperor Xian in 220 CE, the Han Dynasty ruled China for more than four hundred years, excluding Wang Mang’s brief usurpation. It was one of the longest-lasting unified dynasties in Chinese history. This book examines the successes and failures of the Liu clan, the strategies that brought good governance, and the roots of disorder, bringing to life a sweeping portrait of the Han imperial family and the age in which it lived. The Han Dynasty was a feudal empire of dazzling splendor, filled with both glory and loneliness, like a lavish fairy tale. For Chinese people today, the legacy and dreams cast by this great empire are still worth remembering and appreciating. “Nations usually fall when they are weak, but the Han alone fell in its strength!” What caused the Han Empire, built by a Liu clan whose blood ran with courage and martial spirit, to collapse so utterly? Over the course of the Han Dynasty’s more than four hundred years, over twenty emperors took the stage of history, while the struggle for power by the imperial relatives persisted throughout: the Rebellion of the Lü Clan, Huo Guang’s grasp on power, Wang Mang’s usurpation of the Han, the Dou clan’s domination of the emperor… As the Liu clan battled the families of imperial consorts, eunuchs gradually entered the political arena, and then the Han fell.