Overview and History 11Within the government, the Han chose its officials based
on merit. Dealing with the conniving eunuchs, imperial
courtesans and their scheming family members at the
time surely tested any official’s mettle. Exploration beyond
China’s existing borders, designed to expand the fledgling
nation, often led to heated battles for territory and control
with the tribes inhabiting those lands as well, testing the Han
from the outside at the same time. A battle on two fronts
was brewing.
Within her borders, the sheer size of China’s territory and
growing population was a growing challenge. When the Han
dynasty was founded in 206 BC, China reportedly stretched
from modern Shenyang (some 500 km north of Beijing) in
the north to around Guilin in the south; from the Pacific in
the east to the region around Chongqing in the west. It was
the largest country in the world. And with a population of
approximately 60 million, it was also the most populous.
Efficiency and control of a land this size, for at least a few
centuries, was attempted through the further development
of the bureaucracy started by the Qin: centralised control of
distinct administrative regions, a form of government every
successive dynasty would copy, and one quite similar to the
provincial system we still see today. The proper behaviour
and loyalty to the emperor codified in Confucian thought
helped the court maintain its rule.
We know about this and many other aspects of Han life
thanks to Mr Sima Qian, the Han’s Grand Historian, who
created the standard format for recording Chinese history
used by all other dynasties. Historical Records took Sima ten
years to complete, and even then it wasn’t finished—the
Grand Historians who came after
him were tasked with picking up
where Sima left off.
What the records also show
is that the Han were no more
immune to the effects of the
dynastic cycle than those that
came before them. Han society
was well developed in terms of
The most famous of the Han’s
border battles is their defeat of the
Xiongnu, a nomadic tribe, which
opened the way for a special
envoy of the court, Zhang Qian,
to head west, pioneering what we
call today the ‘Silk Road’ between
the Han’s capital city of Chang’an
(now Xi’an), through Xinjiang and
on to the Mediterranean Sea.