In the history of our country, the Han Dynasty is another unified dynasty after the Qin Dynasty, and it has always been called "Strong Han Sheng Tang" with the Tang Dynasty. The Han Dynasty was divided into the Western Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty, which began in 202 BC and ended in 220 AD, removing the 15 years of the middle Wang Mang usurping the Han Dynasty, and the Han Dynasty shared the state for 407 years. Today we will take a look at the magnificent history of the Han Dynasty.
After the overthrow of the Qin Dynasty, Xiang Yu established himself as the overlord of Western Chu and divided the princes, liu Bang was made the king of Han, and his fiefs were in Hanzhong and Bashu. Liu Bang's fiefdom was a remote place at that time, and it was inconvenient for external transportation, far less wealthy than in the Central Plains. Liu Bang based himself in Hanzhong, painstakingly managed Bashu, and eventually competed with Xiang Yu for world domination, that is, Chu and Han.
The warring Chu and Han sides were at a stalemate on the Xingyang front, and Liu Bang sent Han Xin to cross the Yellow River, from the northwest of the mountain, to the flank, and after capturing Zhao and Qi, they encircled Xiang Yu.
In 202 BC, Xiang Yu was defeated and retreated, and then he went to wujiang to kill himself. The Chu-Han struggle for hegemony ended with Liu Bang's victory, and the Western Han Dynasty was established, with the capital Chang'an (present-day Xi'an, Shaanxi).
During the Chu-Han struggle for hegemony, Liu Bang, in order to win over the princes, gave the meritorious men the title of king, including Han Wangxin. In 201 BC, Han Wangxin colluded with the Xiongnu and launched a rebellion in Datong, attacking Taiyuan in the south. Han Gaozu's ancestor Liu Bang personally led a large army to meet the Xiongnu, and won successive battles. However, due to the light enemy's adventurous advance, Liu Bang was besieged by the Xiongnu for seven days and seven nights on Datong Baishan Mountain, that is, the siege of Baideng, and Liu Bang was able to escape from danger through the operation of the strategist Chen Ping.
After the establishment of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Bang learned the lessons of the previous dynasty and combined the sub-feudal system with the county system, and the parallel system of counties and states, that is, the combination of sub-feudal princes and counties. At the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty, many of the founding heroes were named princes by Liu Bang, such as Han Xin and Yingbu, but these princely states posed a threat to the rule of the Han Dynasty, and Liu Bang successively expelled the princes with different surnames and replaced them with the sons of the Liu family.
From the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty to the Han Jing Emperor, it was easy to give a small amount of money, recuperate and recuperate, and the society was able to develop steadily, which is known in history as the rule of Wenjing. The power of the princes also gradually became stronger, threatening the rule of the dynasty. Emperor Jing of Han wanted to weaken the princes, and Liu Hao, the King of Wu, and other Seven Kingdoms launched a rebellion, known in history as the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, but was quickly quelled by the imperial court.
The Xiongnu were the greatest threat to the Han Dynasty, but in the early Han Dynasty, due to the war, they were unable to deal with the Xiongnu and could only adopt peaceful means. After the reign of Wenjing and the pacification of the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, the Han Dynasty became stronger and stronger, and by the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty was ready to counterattack the Xiongnu. Emperor Wu of han sent Zhang Qian on an envoy to the Western Regions to contact the Great Moon Clan and other western region states to attack the Xiongnu together.
In 127 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Wei Qing to attack the Xiongnu in the north and recover the Hetao region. In 121 BC, Emperor Wu of Han sent Huo to attack the Xiongnu again. Huo went on a long-distance attack, broke the Xiongnu, recaptured the Hexi Corridor, and set up the four counties of Wuwei, Zhangye, Jiuquan, and Dunhuang Hexi. In 119 BC, Wei Qing and Huo Wentong's sick soldiers attacked the north of the desert in two ways, penetrating thousands of kilometers into the enemy territory, severely damaging the Xiongnu, so that the Xiongnu did not dare to go south.
Under the strong attack of the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu had to go far away. By the time of Emperor Xuan of Han, the Xiongnu had withdrawn from the Western Regions, and the Western Han Dynasty incorporated the Western Regions into its territory. In 60 BC, the imperial court set up the Western Regions Capital Protectorate at WuleiCheng (present-day Luntai County, Xinjiang).
During the Western Han Dynasty, land was both state-owned and privately owned, but with the development of society, land was constantly concentrated in the hands of bureaucrats, nobles, rich merchants and other landlord classes. In the middle and late Western Han Dynasty, the trend of land annexation became more and more intense, and social contradictions were sharp. During the reign of Emperor Cheng of Han, the power of the royal family represented by the empress dowager Wang Zhengjun fell to the opposition, and Sima Wang Mang was ranked as the third duke. By the time the 9-year-old HanPing Emperor ascended the throne, Wang Mang was even more in charge of the imperial program. In 8 AD, Wang Mang deposed the emperor and established a new dynasty, and the Western Han Dynasty fell, enjoying 210 years of the country.
The new emperor Wang Mang was keen to change, and history called "Wang Mang reform". However, Wang Mang's position was not correct, and many of the measures promulgated were inappropriate, even beyond the understanding of the world at that time, and the means of implementation were too tough, and the orders were changed at the moment, causing violent social unrest. During Wang Mang's reign, natural disasters were continuous, and there were many disasters such as drought, locusts, plagues, and the mouth of the Yellow River, and the people were not happy and displaced. The anti-reckless activities that rose up one after another, with the Green Forest Army in the south and the Red Brow Army in the north being the two largest rebel armies. In 23 AD, the Green Forest Army invaded Chang'an, wang Mang fled to Weiyang Palace and was killed, the new dynasty fell, and guozuo was 15 years old.
In the process of overthrowing Wang Mang's new dynasty, the Green Forest Army was the main force, and in 23 AD, the Green Forest Army supported Liu Xuan as emperor and restored the Han Dynasty's national name. Wang Mang sent Wang Xun and Wang Yi to lead an army of more than 400,000 to attack Kunyang (present-day Ye County, Henan) where the Green Forest Army was stationed, and the Battle of Kunyang broke out. Liu Xiu led thirteen horsemen to mobilize reinforcements from a heavy siege, and the Green Forest Army attacked inside and outside, defeating the new army with fewer victories and more defeats. The Battle of Kunyang was the battle for Liu Xiu's fame, laying a solid foundation for his future title as emperor.
After the fall of the new dynasty, Liu Xiu's brother Liu Xiu was killed by Emperor Gengshi for no reason, and in 25 AD Liu Xiu broke with Emperor Gengshi and declared himself emperor at Qianqiu Pavilion in Yan County, Hebei (present-day Baixiang County, Xingtai City, Hebei Province), establishing the Eastern Han Dynasty, with Luoyang as its capital. Emperor Gengshi was repeatedly defeated by the Chimei army, and after surrendering, he was made the king of Changsha, and then he was killed by chimei.
According to the situation at that time, Liu Xiu formulated a strategic policy of first Kwantung and then Longshu, from near and far, and from each side to break through, and first concentrated on eliminating the Kwantung separatist forces that posed the greatest threat. From 26 AD onwards, Liu Xiu defeated Liu Yong, Liu Xuanyubu, Dong Bi, Deng Feng, Qin Feng, Tian Rong, Peng Pet, Dong Xian, Zhang Bu and other separatist forces within four years, unifying the Kwantung region.
After sweeping the Kwantung region, Liu Xiu sent the general Geng Yi and others to attack Shu from Longxi, and Kui Huan sent troops to stop it, and a major war broke out between the two sides that lasted for several years. In 33 AD, after Kui Huan's death, his son Kui Chun succeeded to the throne and soon surrendered, so Longxi was pacified by the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Gongsun Shu was entrenched in Shu and sent troops to support Kui Huan several times during the Eastern Han Dynasty's Pinglongxi period. In 35 AD, Liu Xiu sent the generals Wu Han, Cen Peng, Lai She, Gai Yan and other soldiers to divide into two routes and attack Shu by land and water. The two sides fought fiercely for more than a year, the Shu army was defeated, and Gongsun Shu was wounded and died. At this point, the Eastern Han Dynasty completed its unification and became another unified Central Plains Dynasty after the Western Han Dynasty.
After the unification of the world, the Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu took a series of measures such as light taxes and thin taxes, rectification of the administration of officials, etc., in order to restore social production, so that the social production and life destroyed by the war were rapidly restored and developed steadily.
At the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Northern Xiongnu, who had been severely attacked by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, rose again, and the Eastern Han Dynasty could only passively defend. In 48 AD, the Xiongnu split between the north and the south, and the southern Xiongnu were annexed to the Eastern Han Dynasty, while the northern Xiongnu dominated the northern desert. During the reign of Emperor Ming of Han, the national strength was restored, and in the more than ten years from 73 to 91 AD, Dou Gu, Geng Bing, Geng Xian and other troops were sent several times to counterattack the Northern Xiongnu, defeating the Xiongnu Huyan King, making him dare not return to his homeland.
In 73 AD, Paiban went beyond the Western Regions to counterattack the Xiongnu. Ban Chao ran the Western Regions for more than 20 years, freeing the Western Regions from the control of the Xiongnu, the kings of the Western Regions returned to the Han Dynasty, and the Eastern Han Dynasty re-established the Western Regions Capital Protectorate, bringing the Western Regions under the control of the Han Dynasty. Ban Chao also sent Gan Ying on an envoy to Great Qin (the Roman Empire), which, although it did not arrive, also deepened its understanding of Central Asia.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, foreign relatives and eunuchs took turns to control the government, and the program was chaotic, social turmoil, and a major drought, and the people did not have a good life. In the end, the Yellow Turban Rebellion led by Zhang Jiao broke out, and although it was finally extinguished, the Eastern Han Dynasty had already died in name only.
In the process of suppressing the Yellow Turban Army, local heroes and strong people took the opportunity to strengthen themselves, and a situation of warlords at the end of the Han Dynasty was formed in various places, such as Yuan Shao occupying Hezhou, Jizhou, and Qingzhou, Cao Cao occupying Yanzhou, Liu Biao occupying Jingzhou, Sun Ce occupying Jiangdong, and so on. In the chaotic era of the herds chasing deer, the Eastern Han Dynasty existed in name only, and the emperor was reduced to a tool used by all kinds of powerful people.
Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan stood out from all the princes and became a three-legged power at the end of the Han Dynasty. Cao Cao took Emperor Xian of Han hostage to Xuchang and blackmailed Tianzi to order the princes. In 220 AD, Cao Pi usurped the Han Dynasty and changed the name of the country to Wei, the Eastern Han Dynasty fell, and history entered the Three Kingdoms period.