Princes were given the power to create nobles within these
territories and were allowed to pass their titles and lands to
their own sons. Th ey owed allegiance to the emperor, but the
emperor did not interfere with their local operations. In or-
der to keep track of local government activities, the emperor
created regional inspectors who, along with governors, moni-
tored magistrates and princes.
Th e Han returned control of property to private land-
owners and then taxed them based on the size of their hold-
ings rather than on the crops they produced from year to year.
Initially, many families owned their own small farms. In bad
years small farmers had diffi culty paying their taxes, and most
of them ended up selling their land to larger landowners and
working for them as virtual slaves; gradually this resulted in
the growth of a separate class of wealthy landowners. Th is
problem was exacerbated by ever-increasing taxes, as the em-
peror and landlords both tried to raise money from the land.
Landlords were supposed to provide their peasants protection
from various hazards in return for the peasants’ labor in their
fi elds. Th e Han government had to put down periodic rebel-
lions by peasants frustrated with their meager existence.
Th e Han government is credited with creating China’s
civil service system. Th e government required many offi -
cials to run its various levels. Initially, civil service offi cials
received their jobs through recommendations and family
connections. Th e most famous Han emperor, Wu Ti, remem-
bered for his eff orts to make China into a true Confucian
state built on education, personal talent, and loyalty, is also
known for his reforms to the civil service system. To reduce
the threat from nobles who wanted to keep power in their
own hands, he created an administration where positions
were awarded based on merit, not on family. He founded a
national school system designed to identify and train intel-
ligent boys in the Confucian classics. Th e graduates of this
school system could then take examinations that would al-
low them to enter the large and complex civil service bureau-
cracy. Once in the government, offi cials could hold a variety
of offi ces administering the government’s many projects,
including the several levels of government; inspections of lo-
cal governments; taxation; unifying and minting of coins;
producing iron, salt, and liquor; trade missions west along
the Silk Road; building projects; building a state library;
chronicling court events;, and maintaining relations with
neighboring peoples.
Th e Han Dynasty began collapsing aft er a large peasant
rebellion. Th e last years of the Han were marked by rivalries
within the civil bureaucracy, a massacre of the court eunuchs
(castrated men used as civil servants whose loyalty was sup-
posedly assured because they would have no sons to advance),
and barbarian invasions. By 220 c.e. the Han were out of
power and three major states—Shu, Wu, and Wei—vied for
control of China. Government during the Th ree Kingdoms
Period (220–263 c.e.) was based on military might. Th e three
states spent years fi ghting with one another, and most gov-
ernment institutions fell into chaos.
Th e emperor Wu unifi ed China and again brought the
country under control of the Jin Dynasty, which lasted from
265 c.e. until 420 c.e. Wu set up his capital in Luoyang. Al-
though the Jin government ostensibly claimed to have re-
newed the Han system of government, in fact, it created a
new feudal system. It kept many of the government titles of
the Han and continued to run civil service examinations, but
instead of exclusively awarding positions on merit, the em-
peror also rewarded families who helped him. Local noble
families became very infl uential in court matters. Th e em-
perors made their relatives into kings or princes of various
territories. As under the Han, the empire was divided into
regions, governed by governors and overseen by inspectors,
smaller commanderies, run by governors, and small districts
run by magistrates. Th ese existed alongside the territories
governed by princes and other nobles. Th e highest offi cials
were the Eight Dukes, who included ministers of education,
works, and a general in chief.CENTRAL ASIA
Modern Mongolia, Siberia, and western Asia were home to
various nomadic peoples. For the most part they lacked a cen-
tral government. Most of them were organized into tribes led
by chiefs and shamans. Th ese leaders decided when the groups
would move, where they would hunt, and which tribes they
would fi ght. Th e leaders also enforced rules about marriages
and funerals and organized religious ceremonies. Chiefs were
hereditary; several families related to one another by mar-
riage held power.
In 209 b.c.e. a group of nomads called the Xiongnu
formed a confederation under the leadership of a man called
Modu Shanyu. Historians do not know what prompted this
move; some believe it was the infl uence of the neighboring
Han Dynasty that inspired the Xiongnu to organize. Modu
divided the Xiongnu territory into several portions. He kept
the central portion to rule himself, setting up a capital in
Longcheng, Mongolia. He called himself chanyu, or supreme
leader. A few noble clans related by marriage to the chanyu
shared authority with him. During the fi rst century b.c.e. the
Xiongnu had diffi culty maintaining their administration and
unity. Th e succession of the chanyu became a problem be-
cause it was not always feasible for the throne to go straight
from a father to his eldest son, especially when the son was
still young. Th e Xiongnu solved this problem by deciding that
the throne should pass from elder brother to younger brother
as well as from father to son.
Th e state government was not sophisticated, and it was at
the head of a confederation, not a true kingdom. Th e Xiongnu
people remained in their tribes and continued to operate as
they always had at the tribal level. Th e chanyu kept control
of them through force, using military domination and the
distribution of gift s to make other tribes fi ght alongside him.
Instead of organized taxation, groups that needed funds or
goods raided their neighbors and took what they could. Th e
leaders of the confederation regularly conquered neighbor-government organization: Asia and the Pacific 521