Religion: Taoism and Confucianism

“Taoism and Confucianism”

            Taoism is thought to be the main belief of the ancient Chinese Han dynasty. The people of Han would partake in rituals or ceremonies for worship and a lot of people had expensive burials and the emperor even partook in these rituals. Most people didn’t just do burials for people who recently died but also the past ancestors from a long time before them. The emperor was so involved he climbed the mountain of Tai to give offerings to earth and heaven. Another thing that the Han’s believed in was Confucianism but they viewed Confucianism more as a philosophy than a belief. The Han people were some of the first to believe in Confucianism and even though it wasn’t much of a religion it was still very important for that era. Lastly, Buddhism probably wouldn’t have worked for some people in this country because it is to keep the soul clear and quiet. This wouldn’t work because there were armies in China and if they believed in Buddhism they would not have a very good or strong army and they would probably be attacked a lot. That is how Taoism and Confucianism helped the Han dynasty. 

Opinion: Why Legalism Bad

“Why Legalism's Bad”

            Legalism is not a good idea for multiple reasons. One example, legalism punishes people harshly if they do something that other people thing is wrong. This is bad because you can be framed and if proven guilty for the thing they didn’t do they could possibly be killed or shamed in front of hundreds of people. Another example, many people had died by getting hung or beaten under this law and the population possibly went down tremendously. This is bad because with bad population the strength of the country could go down and be easier to attack and maybe even over taken by a rival country or civilization. That’s why it’s a bad belief to live under.

            There are multiple people who think that legalism is good. One example of people thinking its good is they can say that legalism is good because that’s what our ruler told us to believe in and why go against our ruler. This is not good because your going by other peoples beliefs to live your life. Another example, legalism helps to get rid of criminals in the civilization which is good because it makes the area more safe because it rids the area of pick pocketing people and also thefts or murderers. This is bad because certain people could get in trouble for something they didn’t do. And lastly why the opposing arguments are wrong, if your arresting a lot of men and killing them or taking them away families could lose a way of getting money and the economy of the country could go down. And with a bad economy your country could just go into turmoil. That’s why legalism is a bad idea and should not be followed by the people of Han. 

Front Page News Article: "Stop Gun Making!"

“Stop Gun Making!”

            In around 200 B.C.E. in the ancient Chinese dynasty of Han multiple people went on strike. A lot of people have been on strike because of the manufacturing and if this doesn’t stop this civilization may be in the gutters. People have been on strike lately because they have came to the conclusion that nothing good comes out of making guns so they think the civilization should just stop and satisfy the civilians. The only downside is if we stop making guns the army of our dynasty will be very weak and possibly attacked by their enemy neighbors, the Mongolians. And if the Mongolians decide to attack we will be taken over and there won’t even be a dynasty anymore. If we stopped making guns then we would not be able to make trades with other countries and we would also be poor along with weak and unsuccessful. So we came to the conclusion to just tell our people that in order for the dynasty to be strong and successful we have to continue gun manufacturing. Later on, the civilians learned that the emperor’s messengers were right so they ignored the gun manufacturing. The Han dynasty was sure our people were still upset but they realized they wanted the country to be the best it could be.  

Major Event: From Flood to Famine

“From Flood to Famine”

            This event is major in ancient Chinese dynasty of Han for multiple reasons and lead to multiple bad things. In the Han emperor Wang Mang was ruling dynasty while it was going through a lot of unlucky and terrible occurrences. For example, in A.D. 11 the was a big flood of the yellow river which led to a big famine (when food becomes very scarce and people starve) in China and after the famine emperor Wang Mang was rebelled against by a lot of the people who lived in his civilization. And another thing that happened is a lot of people from that civilization migrated. This is bad because if a lot of the people migrate then the civilization becomes very weak and is a big harm of being attacked by others or Mongolians. Another reason this was a bad chain of events is because it ended up to the downfall of that dynasty in A.D. 25. If this never happened the dynasty probably would of lasted a lot longer but after this all the people in that civilization thought it was a sign from god to rebel the ruler who was in that case emperor Wang Mang. This event changed China’s history for multiple reasons. 

           

Ancient Chinese Han Dynasty: Map

 

 This map is a map of the ancient Chinese dynasty of Han (206 BCE-220 CE). The red shows there territory that they ruled at the time. The bumpy border shows the Great Wall of China. All the white surrounding the red is an actual picture of China's current political boundaries of china today. That's a brief summary of what this map represents.As you can tell the Han dynasty was about half the size of what china is today, which is amazing for a ancient dynasty. Also it was easier for the Han dynasty to expand because it was next to the water and its trading could expand a lot.

Interview With: Liu Bang Han Ruler

“Interview With: Liu Bang Han Ruler”

            How did land expansion benefit you and your country?

            Land expansion benefited our country a lot for multiple reasons. One example of how it benefited, because our army was very powerful. Since it was it could conquer a lot more of our enemies land and we only had room to get bigger and bigger. Also another thing is the Silk Road and its 7,000 miles is a key example of how much land we have and how much we could use to expand and still have enough to use as land for our civilians and civilization. And lastly, since our country was in tact for a good amount of time (202 B.C.E.-220 C.E.) we had a lot of time to plan out attacks if we had the mindset or any. That’s in my opinion why I think we, the Hans benefited from land expansion.

            How did the idea of the Silk Road help your country?

            The Silk Road helped a lot for multiple reasons. One reason was that it helped us send silk and other trade items we had in our civilization and also trade for other items we wanted or needed in order to make our dynasty strong and our people happy with the products we provided to them. Secondly, the silk road helped our civilization learn more about religion because of all the people we traded with there was a vast majority of different religions we learned more of during the trade and its good because it gave us some ideas if we ever decided to change our religion and in other words it would be sort of like a backup. Lastly the Silk Road helped us learn about different culture as well. It did because it helped us learn about the different ways people dress. That’s what I think about the invention of the Silk Road.

            Over the time of your ruling what did you learn?

            I learned that if I wanted a strong, wealthy, and smart civilization I had to make smart decisions. One of the key things that helped us grow and be successful is the Silk Road because it was were most of our major trades were made and it helped us learn a lot because of some of the people we traded with. And also the fact that our civilization was by the water we could make more important trades with countries that were across the ocean. The Silk Road also stretched to India so it helped us trade with countries all around Asia. Some of the most important things we got was food for our people and supplies for their house. That’s what I think I learned during the time of my ruling.

Ancient China Dynasty: Invention.

"Paper Invented!"

            Paper was invented in China during the Han Dynasty. Paper was an important invention around this time period for multiple reasons. One reason is that it was very portable. Since it was portable it was easy to just carry around and pull out when needed instead of carrying around a big piece of stone. Also it didn’t take to long to make and it only used a few supplies and it was a product that could be traded a lot because you could make it whenever you needed it. Lastly, it was a very good money and expensive product saver because without paper they would have to waste bamboo slips, golden stone, turtle shell, animal bone, and/or silk and both are very pricey. That’s what papers uses were in ancient China.

            Paper was invented by the Han Dynasty and mostly used for recording important events and data. Prior to the invention people, had to get heavy stone to write on or use good, expensive cloth that was needed for other important things. Paper was thought to be invented in between 202 B.C.-220 A.D. For this reason, that was the time period that the Han Dynasty lasted. Lastly, without it the Chinese would be stuck in wasting money they needed to help support there growing dynasty. That’s what the first uses of paper were and when it was developed.

            Paper has really changed people’s lives in many ways. For example, without paper today I would possibly be writing this paper on some piece of cloth or a stone. Also all famous documents could possibly break and we would be using a computer 24/7 for all. Also without paper a lot of kids would not be able to do homework and would not learn a lot after class at your house. Lastly, there would be no dollar bills there would only be coins and a lot of currency would be harder to manage because there so small and you’d carry a lot at a time in order to buy something. That’s why paper has changed the world ever since its invention in the ancient Chinese dynasty of Han.