han and qin dynasty(kristian's report)

8/8/2019 Han and Qin Dynasty(Kristian's report)

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Han And Qin DynastyKristian P. Granada

NS103R


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The Qin Dynasty was the first ruling dynasty ofImperialChina, lasting from 221 to 206 BC. The Qin state derived

its name from its heartland of Qin, in modern-dayShaanxi. The Qin's strength had been consolidated byLord Shang Yang in the 4th century BC, during theWarring States Period. In the early third century BC, theQin accomplished a series of swift conquests; the statesubjugated the Chu, remnants of the Zhou Dynasty, andvarious other states to gain undisputed control ofChina.

During its reign over China, the Qin Dynasty achievedincreased trade, improved agriculture, and military

security. This was due to the abolition of landowninglords, to whom peasants had formerly held allegiance.The central government now had direct control of themasses, giving it access to a much larger workforce. Thisallowed for the construction of ambitious projects, suchas a wall on the northern border, now known as the GreatWall of China.


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QIN ART

Qin Shi Huang Dis Tomb.Seven hundred thousand workers, it issaid, were occupied on Shi Huang Distomb alone. The tomb was describedas a vast series of underground

palaces and pavillions. The tombmound was enclosed by two walls laidout in a rectangular plan with the longaxis running north and south.


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TERRA-COTA ARMY

The Terracotta Army literally "soldierand horse funerary statues") or the

"Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses", is acollection ofterracotta sculpturesdepicting the armies ofQin Shi Huang,the First Emperor of China.

The figures, dating from 210 BC, werediscovered in 1974 by some local

farmers nearXi'an, Shaanxi province,China near the Mausoleum of the FirstQin Emperor

The figures vary in height 1.831.95metres (6.06.4 ft), according to their

roles, with the tallest being the generals.The figures include warriors, chariots,horses, officials, acrobats, strongmen,and musicians. Current estimates arethat in the three pits containing theTerracotta Army there were over 8,000soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses

and 150 cavalry horses, the majority ofwhich are still buried in the pits.


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The Terracotta Army was discovered in thespring of 1974 in the eastern suburbs ofXi'an, Shaanxi Province by a group offarmers who were digging a water well 1.5

miles east ofMount Li. The region aroundthe mountain was riddled withunderground springs and watercourses,and every little extra bit of water helpedwhen it came to irrigating fields. In 195B.C., Liu Bang himself the first emperorof the dynasty that followed the Qin hadordered that 'twenty households' should

move to the site of the mausoleum of theFirst Emperor ofQin (Qin Shi Huang, "shihuang" means the first emperor) to watchover the tomb. To this day, twenty villagessit in the immediate vicinity of themausoleum, one of them the hamlet wherethe Yang family lived; the terracotta armymay have been rediscovered by the direct

descendants of the people left to guard it.For centuries, there were reports of piecesof terracotta figures and fragments of theQin necropolis roofing tiles, bricks, andchunks of masonry having beenoccasionally dug up in the area.


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The Han Dynasty 206 BCE 220 CE) was the second imperial dynasty of

China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty (221206 BCE) and succeeded by theThree Kingdoms (220265 CE). It was founded by the peasant rebel leaderLiu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was brieflyinterrupted by the Xin Dynasty (923 CE) of the former regent Wang Mang.This interregnum separates the Han into two periods: the Western Han (207BCE 9 CE) and Eastern Han (25220 CE). Spanning over four centuries,the period of the Han Dynasty is considered a golden age in Chinesehistory. To this day, China's majority ethnic group refers to itself as the "Hanpeople".

The Han Empire was divided into areas directly controlled by the central

government, known as commanderies, and a number ofsemi-autonomouskingdoms. These kingdoms gradually lost all vestiges of their independence,particularly following the Rebellion of the Seven States. The Xiongnu, anomadic confederation which dominated the eastern Eurasian Steppe,[3]defeated the Han army in battle in 200 BCE. Following the defeat, a politicalmarriage alliance was negotiated in which the Han became the de factoinferior partner. When, despite the treaty, the Xiongnu continued to raid Hanborders, Emperor Wu of Han (r. 14187 BCE) launched several military


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From the 2nd millennium BCEnephrite jade was being tradedfrom mines in the region of

Yarkand and Khotan to China.Significantly, these mines were notvery far from the lapis lazuli andspinel ("Balas Ruby") mines inBadakhshan and, althoughseparated by the formidable PamirMountains, routes across them

were, apparently, in use from veryearly times.

Following contacts of metropolitanChina with nomadic westernborder territories in the 8th centuryBCE, gold was introduced from

Central Asia, and Hotan KashteshiHotan jade carvers began to makeimitation designs of the steppes,adopting the Scythian-style animalart of the steppes (descriptions ofanimals locked in combat). Thisstyle is particularly reflected in therectangular belt plaques made of


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LIU SHENGLiu Sheng was born to Emperor Jing of Han andConsort Jia, who also had another son, LiuPengzu the Prince of Zhao. He was given the fiefofZhongshan by his father in 154 BC, andtherefore reigned in the period right after theRebellion of the Seven States, when the politicalatmosphere was one of suspicion regarding thefeudal states. Given this atmosphere Liu Sheng

was one of the more successful feudal rulers. In the third year of the reign of Emperor Wu,

his younger brother, Liu Sheng and severalother princes were invited to Chang'an tofeast; at the feast Liu Sheng wept andcomplained of the treatment of the feudalprinces by centrally appointed officials,who made use of their role as monitors to

constantly trump up charges against theprinces. Impressed by this petition theEmperor explicitly ordered that the unfairscrutiny of the princes should stop, and LiuSheng became one of the most renowned ofthe feudal rulers of his time.

He was known to indulge in alcohol andwomen, and is reputed to have had some

120 sons.


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Families throughout Han Chinamade ritual sacrifices of animals andfoodstuffs to deities, spirits, andancestors at temples and shrines, in

the belief that these items could beutilized by those in the spiritualrealm. It was thought that eachperson had a two-part soul: thespirit-soul (hun) which journeyedto the afterlife paradise of immortals(xian), and the body-soul (po)which remained in its grave or tombon earth and was only reunited withthe spirit-soul through a ritualceremony. In addition to his manyother roles, the emperor acted as thehighest priest in the land who madesacrifices to Heaven, the maindeities known as the Five Powers,

and the spirits (shen) ofmountains and rivers. It wasbelieved that the three realms ofHeaven, Earth, and Mankind werelinked by natural cycles ofyin andyang and the five phases. If theemperor did not behave according to

proper ritual, ethics, and morals, hecould disrupt the fine balance of


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Han dynastys artworksBRONZE AND POTTERY OBJECTS


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han and qin dynasty(kristian's report)

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