Unit 7 Han Dynasty

Unit 7 is a rather long section covering both Rome and China 's powerful and expansive empires during the time period 300 BCE - 300 CE. The Han Dynasty and Imperial Rome were very similar in their unprecedented scale and duration. Although they did operate in differing ways, for example, Rome relied on slaves to expand its workforce, while the Chinese 's economy lived off of free peasant farmers. The Chinese benefited from having an overwhelming population that would benefit the bureaucracy and supply political stability for the Hans. When it came to the Roman Empire, religion did not have the same impact that Confucianism had on the dynasties in China. The first couple of primary sources of Unit 7 detail the success and downfall of the Qin dynasty as well as the Han dynasty which followed. The later

The main theme that entangles itself in all of the source material is the idea of how governments should be run in such a powerful empire, such as Imperial Rome and the Han Dynasty. Starting with the first source, it is evident that the first Qin emperor believed that only the orthodox teachings should be tolerated, which meant that the works of the Five Classics and its teachings were to be extinguished. The next primary source serves as a supplement to explaining the fall of the Qin dynasty due to its warring ideas and Jia Yi argues that if Confucius teachings were implemented then the dynasty would have still been intact. The third source explains how the Qin dynasty was unjust in its equal appropriation of punishment against criminals regardless of motives or social class. Essentially, Dong Zhongshu believed that a dynasty could not be successful if it failed to establish a fair and righteous justice system for its citizens. This leads into the ideas of the fourth primary source. As the Han dynasty became prudent, the officials had constructed a goal of enhancing the government by supporting the "Legalist" idea of an autocratic state. Ideologies of