ing tribes to the south and west. When they took a tribe or a
city-state, they typically enslaved it. Local and regional gov-
ernment of these areas consisted mainly of exacting tributes
of grain, fruits, and vegetables from agricultural peoples and
taking horses, cattle, and sheep from nomads. Th e Xiongnu
called the military leader in charge of such operations the
“general in charge of slaves.”
JAPAN
Little is known about the government of Japan in ancient
times. Most information on the subject comes from contem-
porary Chinese accounts. Th e fi rst highly organized societies
appeared during the Yayoi Period, approximately 300 b.c.e.
to 300 c.e. During this time Japanese people built villages
and grew rice. Th ey gradually adopted the use of bronze tools
and weapons. From the available evidence it appears that
governments were organized entirely at the local level and
that there were not strong central governments anywhere.
Chinese visitors to Japan (at that time they would have sailed
from Korea and visited only the island of Kyushu) reported
that the nation contained about 100 diff erent states or king-
doms, though it is likely that the visitors did not know the
exact number. Local governments collected taxes. Each dis-
trict had a center of trade. Th ere was social stratifi cation, and
some people clearly had higher status than others because
some were buried in better graves than others. A few people
owned large areas of land, and the peasants who lived in that
area farmed on their behalf and gave their landlords annual
tributes of rice. Villages were organized enough to store sur-
plus food in granaries.
Th e main community or tribal leaders of the time were
shamans (people thought to have spiritual powers) who per-
formed sacrifi ces and relayed messages between humans
and gods. Little is known about how these shamans worked,
though it appears that many of these leaders were women.
Th e best account comes from a Chinese description of an im-
portant Japanese ruler of the time was the woman Himiko,
a female shaman who is said to have ruled in the early third
century c.e.
Th e kingdoms near Nara developed into the Yamato
kingdom, which thrived from about 250 to 710 c.e. in cen-
tral Honshu. It was ruled by “great kings” who were buried
in giant mounds aft er they died. Rulers continued to support
their power by claiming that the gods wanted them to rule;
as the years went by, however, they placed more emphasis on
military power. Th ese kings controlled sizable armies that al-
lowed them to extend their power over most of Japan and into
southern Korea. Th is brought them into contact with Chinese
culture. In peacetime, Yamato kings worked to improve lo-
cal conditions, building massive irrigation systems to ensure
large crops of rice. Clans who belonged to the military aristoc-
racy handled most matters of local government, including or-
ganizing the details of building irrigation systems, gathering
laborers to construct massive tomb mounds for themselves,
collecting tributes of grain from their local peasants, collect-
ing any required taxes and passing them on to the kings, and
organizing local military bands.
Within each clan, the oldest man was responsible for
performing religious rituals to placate the family’s gods and
ensure prosperity for the whole locality. Th ese clans had he-
reditary chiefs who cooperated with the Yamato kings in
military matters. Groups of people who shared the same oc-
cupation also played an important role in government, hold-
ing duties such as guarding the palace or supplying water
to the court. Th e Yamato kings’ greatest eff ort of expansion
came during the fi ft h century, but they soon began suff ering
from challenges to their authority and military setbacks that
disrupted the monarchy.INDIA
Th e ancient empires of India were all located in the north,
around the Indus and Ganges valleys. Th e Indus Valley
was the home of the Harappan civilization, which fl our-
ished between about 2600 and 1500 b.c.e. Harappan people
lived in several large urban centers. Th e cities were heavily
fortifi ed and the land around them was intensively farmed
and irrigated, evidence of strong rulers within the cities.
Historians believe that communities were led by power-
ful kings. Th e kings initially had limited power and had
to consult tribal councils before making decisions, but as
the Harappan civilization progressed, the kings’ position
became stronger.
Kings were believed to be responsible for maintaining
spiritual order and ensuring the fertility of the soil. To accom-
plish this, kings performed a ritual called the Ashvamedha,
or horse sacrifi ce, as a means of ensuring local prosperity
and acquiring more territory. Th e king would release a horse
to wander free for one year accompanied by 100 young men;
if the horse entered foreign territory, the king was supposed
to conquer it. Aft er a year the horse was brought back and
sacrifi ced.
Th e G a n ge s pl a i n w a s home t o nu me rou s t r i b a l k i n gdom s
that transformed into 16 major kingdoms called mahajana-
padas in the fi ft h century b.c.e. Each kingdom had one or
two capital cities. Th e capital cities were heavily fortifi ed with
moats, ramparts, and brick walls. Rulers made coins for peo-
ple to use as currency and regulated weights and measures.
Th e kings controlled the area immediately surrounding their
capitals. Aff airs through the rest of the kingdoms were gov-
erned by local chiefs. Th ese chiefs were expected to join their
kings if he needed military assistance, but otherwise they had
a good deal of autonomy.
Much of what historians know about government organi-
zation of this time comes from the Arthashastra, an instruc-
tion manual for kings written around 300 b.c.e. According
to this book, an ideal king ruled a kingdom in the center of a
circle of states; the close states were his natural enemies and
the more distant ones his natural allies. A king’s success de-
pended on the quality of his advisers, his provinces, his army,
his fi nances, his fortifi cations, and his allies. To improve these522 government organization: Asia and the Pacific