Having created China’sfirst empire, the Qin government had to shift
its efforts toward internal consolidation and demilitarization of the pop-
ulation. A massive collection and melting down of weapons was squarely
aimed at preventing insurrection. Demilitarization was a new problem for
a Chinese government; all previous governments had either restricted most
military training to the ruling class or sought to train their subjects for war.
The Qin government had to diminish any internal threats to its power
while maintaining enough force to put down rebellions and continue out-
ward expansion. It failed in these efforts, and the new empire broke down
soon after the death of thefirst emperor in210 bce. In thefighting that
followed, two main contenders for power emerged: Xiang Yu, an aristo-
crat from Chu in the south, and Liu Bang, a farmer from Pei county in
Jiangsu.
Although Liu Bang would eventually win out and establish the Han
dynasty (206 bce–220 ce), it is in the person of Xiang Yu that we see the
conflicting emotions and skills of an aristocratic Chinese man in third
centurybceChina. Xiang Yu abandoned book learning because he thought
it beneath him, and then abandoned fencing because it was a skill restricted
to defeating only a small number of men. He then turned to military thought
as a skill useful for great accomplishments, but he dropped that as well. Yet
despite his stunted education, he personally slaughtered an office full of
officials and clerks at the start of his career and went on to win battle after
battle.
The Han dynasty that Liu Bang founded would last for some four cen-
turies. And just as the Qin dynasty had been challenged to adapt to new
political circumstances and military requirements, a challenge it was unable
to meet, the Han dynasty also faced important political and military changes.
Politically, the Han imperial government sought to complete the interrupted
defeudalization of the Qin, breaking down thefiefs of imperial relatives and
the descendants of the founding generals. This process took decades but was
eventually successful. Militarily, particularly with the centralization of power
in the hands of the central court, the most important problems facing the
imperial army shifted to the borders. Border threats required longer serving,
more specialized troops rather than militia. The standing army was increas-
ingly composed of professionals, convicts with commuted sentences, and
steppe cavalrymen.
Thefinal blow to the Warring States/Qin military system that the Han
inherited was the rebellion and establishment of the New Dynasty of Wang
Mang from 9 to 23. Wang Mang temporarily overthrew the Han dynasty
by deposing the child emperor he was regent for. An army composed of
54 The Qin and Han Dynasties