Great Wall of ChinaGreat Wall of China, northeast of Beijing.Goddard Photography—iStock/Thinkstock
Chinese government was by no means universally accepted in those outlying regions. But despite large losses and expenditures incurred in fighting the Xiongnu, the Chinese were able to mount expeditions into Central Asia from about 112 bce. The defensive walls were repaired and remanned, and by about 100 they were extended to the northwest as far as Dunhuang. Chinese travelers, whether diplomats or merchants, were thus protected as far as the Takla Makan Desert. It was at about that time that trade routes skirting the desert were established and came to be known collectively as the Silk Road.
The success of Chinese arms in those remote areas was short-lived. Long lines of communication made it impossible to set up garrisons or colonies in the forbidding country to the west of Dunhuang. Diplomatic moves were made to implant Chinese prestige more firmly among the communities that were situated around the Takla Makan Desert and that controlled the oases; it was necessary for the Chinese to win those peoples’ support, thus denying it to the Xiongnu. In a few cases the Chinese resorted to violence or plots to remove a leader and to replace him with a candidate known to favour the Han cause. More commonly, one of the alien leaders was married to a Chinese princess, with the intention that he should in time be succeeded by an heir who was half-Chinese. These endeavours and the military ventures met with partial success. While the Chinese position in Central Asia was subject to question, relations with the Xiongnu leaders varied. The visit of a Xiongnu leader to Chang’an in 51 bce was hailed as a mark of Chinese success, but the ensuing decades were not free from fighting. Chinese prestige declined toward the end of the Xi Han and recovered only during the reigns of Mingdi and Zhangdi, when the Han government was once more strong enough to take the field. Ban Chao’s campaigns in Central Asia (from 94 ce) reestablished the Chinese position, but again the full strength of Chinese prestige lasted for only a few decades. During the Dong Han, China suffered invasion from the northeast as well as from the north. The settlement of Xiongnu peoples south of the wall was a disruptive factor in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, to the detriment of imperial unity.
The Han expansion into Central Asia has been represented by the Chinese as a defensive measure designed to weaken the Xiongnu and to free China from invasion. Allowance must also be made for commercial motives. Some of Wudi’s statesmen were well aware of the advantages of exporting China’s surplus products in return for animals and animal products from Central Asia, and there is evidence that Chinese silk was exported at this time. No attempt can be made to estimate the volume of trade, and, as the transactions were conducted through Parthian middlemen, no direct contact was made by this means between Han China and the world of Rome and the Mediterranean. China’s export trade was sponsored by the government and not entrusted to private merchants.
The Great Wall formed a boundary separating the Chinese provinces from the outside world. Traffic was controlled at points of access, not only to check incoming travelers to China but also to prevent the escape of criminals or deserters. At the same time, a ban was imposed on the export of certain goods such as iron manufactures and weapons of war. The wall also formed a protected causeway for travelers to the west. Watch stations were erected in sight of each other to signal the approach of the enemy, and the garrison troops were highly trained and disciplined. Meticulous records were kept to show how government stores were expended and rations issued; routine signals were relayed along the line and daily patrols were sent out to reconnoitre.
As a result of the campaigns and diplomatic activity, China’s immediate contacts with other peoples grew more brisk. Many of the Xiongnu and other neighbouring leaders who had surrendered to Han arms were given nobilities and settled in the interior of the empire. Zhang Qian was a pioneer who had set out about 130 bce to explore the routes into Central Asia and northern China, and, as a result of his report and observations, Han advances were concentrated in the northwest. In 97 ce Chinese envoys were frustrated in an attempt to visit the western part of the world, but a mission from Rome reached China by ship in 166. The first record of official visitors arriving at the Han court from Japan is for the year 57 ce.
Cultural developments
The Han emperors and governments posed as having a temporal dispensation that had received the blessing of heaven together with its instructions to spread the benefits of a cultured life as widely as possible. By a cultured life the Chinese had in mind a clear distinction between their own settled agriculture and the delights of the cities, as opposed to the rough and hardy life spent in the saddle by the nomads of Central Asia. The growth of Han government both depended on and encouraged the development of literary accomplishment, scholastic competence, religious activity, scientific discovery, and technological achievement.
Scenes from the tomb of the Wu family in Shandong province, China, stone rubbing, Han dynasty, ad 147. 7.5 × 6.3 metres.Courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, gift of Horace H.F. Jayne
Han administration required detailed record keeping, which generated a proliferation of documents. Official returns were sometimes kept in duplicate, and each agency kept running files to record its business. Following a reform of the script that had evolved before the Han period, a new style of writing was developed that was suited to compiling official documents. These were written mostly on bulky and fragile wooden strips; silk was also used as a writing medium. A major development in world history occurred in China in 105 ce when officials reported to the throne the manufacture of a new substance. Although archaeological evidence indicates the existence of paper for more than a century before this incident, the earlier materials were not completely superseded until some three or four centuries later. In the meantime, the written vocabulary of the Chinese had increased in response to the demands of a growing civilization. The first Chinese dictionary, completed in 121 ce, included more than 9,000 separate ideograms (characters), with explanations of their meanings and the variant forms used in writing.
In an attempt to break with earlier tradition, the Qin government had taken certain steps to proscribe literature and learning. Han governments stressed their desire to promote these causes as part of their mission. In particular, they displayed a veneration for works with which Confucius had been associated, either as a collector of texts or as an editor. Beginning during the reign of Wendi, orders were given to search for books lost during the previous dynasty. Knowledge of texts such as the Shijing (“Classic of Poetry”), the Shujing (“Classic of History”), the Yijing (“Classic of Changes”), and the Chunqiu (“Spring and Autumn”) annals became a necessary accomplishment for officials and candidates for the civil service. To support an argument laid before the throne, statesmen would find a relevant quotation from these works; already in the 1st century bce the tradition was being formed whereby the civil service of imperial China was nurtured on a Classical education. On two occasions (51 bce and 79 ce) the government ordered official discussions about interpreting texts and the validity of differing versions; in 175 ce work was completed on a project that inscribed an approved version on stone tablets, so as to allay scholastic doubts in the future. In the meantime—and still before the invention of paper—a collection of literary texts had been made for the imperial library. The catalog of this collection, which dates from the early 1st century ce, was prepared after comparing different copies and eliminating duplicates. The list of titles has been preserved and constitutes China’s first bibliographical list. The works are classified according to subject, but many have been lost. The importance of these measures lies both in their intrinsic achievement and in the example they set for subsequent dynasties.