Chapter 4 | Qin-Han Dynasties

Xiongnu riders crossing a river

Qin : They were the poorest, smallest, and most remote but the frontier location protected them from the other states' invasion. They built up their army and strictly disciplined their people for war. They made use of the state's poverty and pleasant base and stressed the importance of frugality, hard work, and discipline, which kept them are of degenerative luxury that was growing in other's state with rise of merchant and urban culture. This kept them free of literature, music, and theater. In the meantime they also despise merchant and intellectuals and considered them boat rockers.
Han : Liu Bang became the first emperor for this dynasty. He rebel because he let the conscript laborers escape and that was punishable by death. He use the Confucian precept that government exist to serve the people and that unjust ruler should forfeit both the mandate of Heaven and the support of the ruled. When he took over, he lowered taxes, abolished controls of travel, education, and thoughts. He encouraged learning because it build educated men with talent. He also kept surplus grains in control so when a time come when growth wasn't as good, there's food for the people. This wasn't popular but it was effective.
Xiongnu : Chef nomad group, that was possibility Turkish people, whose mounted mobility and cavalry tactics. They were against Wu Di who was the Emperor of China at the time.
Great Wall : Build during the Qin Dynasty to prevent nomad invasions. Ironically, it wasn't very effective in doing it but it serve as a symbolic affirmation of empire and as a statement of territorial and sovereign limits.
Eurasia : Linked by the silk road, Zhang Qian was captured by the Xiongnu and it took him 10 years to report back but he report the first news of Rome. The partisans were the middleman between the trade and they fear that when Rome and China meet directly, they would crush them.
Civil Service Examinations : Use to select candidates for the state bureaucracy. Liu Bang held examinations to select the fittest who master the confucian classics. It is hard for the poor to pass but it was possible. It's also where the saying "Rags to Riches in three generations" came around.