Early China: A Social and Cultural History

by Li Feng

  The Han Empire’s Relations with the Roman Empire

  The Han expansion into Central Asia during the two centuries before and after the beginning of the Christian era certainly raises questions about Han’s relations with states and societies located farther to the west, most importantly the Roman Empire, master of the other half of the world that the Han shared. The Romans might have had a vague idea as to where silk came from, but when the Roman historian Florus used the word Seres he could have meant anyone who carried the merchandise into Rome along the “Silk Road.” Beyond that there is simply not a single piece of reference in Roman sources that can be linked to China.

  For the Han, although the Roman Empire lay beyond the world of their reach (once nearly reachable), it was located within the world they knew. As the Han had broad contacts with the independent states and kingdoms in Central Asia and the west who might have in turn had contacts with the Romans, the Han had come to be on a good footing to inquire about this great power in the Western world. In fact, the official history of the Eastern Han Empire includes a long essay about the Roman Empire which is called the “Great Qin Empire” (Da Qin) (Box 12.1). When that term is used, there can be no doubt that the Han historian was referring to a specific civilized nation that can be differentiated from all others he also mentions. The Roman Empire is said there to have been located to the west of the sea, embracing some four hundred cities in its territory, all built in stone. The capital of the Roman Empire is described as having a perimeter of more than one hundred li (41.6 km), including five main palaces, the king dwelling in one each day. The high court had thirty-six generals who together discussed matters of the state in a conference. The king was not hereditary; instead, the Romans chose a worthy man to serve in that position, being different from the Chinese practice. The second half of the essay then describes at length the products of Rome including, most importantly, glassware and golden and silver coins, symbols of Roman civilization.15

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  Box 12.1 The Roman Empire in the History of the Eastern Han Dynasty

  Chapter 78, “Chronicle of the Western Regions”

  Section 11, “The Kingdom of Da Qin (Roman Empire)

  History of the Eastern Han Dynasty,

  by Fan Ye (AD 398–445)

  The kingdom of Da Qin (lit. ‘Great China’ = the Roman Empire) is also called Lijian.* As it is found to the west of the sea, it is also called the kingdom of Haixi (lit. ‘West of the Sea’ = Egypt). Its territory extends for several thousands of li. It has more than four hundred walled towns. There are several tens of smaller dependent kingdoms. The walls of the towns are made of stone.

  They have established postal relays at intervals, which are all plastered and whitewashed. There are pines and cypresses, as well as trees and plants of all kinds. The common people are farmers. They cultivate many types of trees, breed silkworms and grow mulberries. They shave their heads, and their clothes are embroidered. They have screened coaches [for the women] and small white-roofed one-horse carts. When carriages come and go, drums are beaten and flags and standards are raised.

  The seat of government (Rome) is more than a hundred li (41.6 km) around. In this city are five palaces each ten li (4.2 km) from the other. Moreover, in the rooms of the palace the pillars and the tableware are really made of crystal. The king goes each day to one of the palaces to deal with business. After five days, he has visited them all. A porter with a sack has the job of always following the royal carriage. When somebody wants to discuss something with the king, he throws a note in the sack. When the king arrives at the palace, he opens the bag, examines the contents, and judges if the plaintiff is right or wrong. Each [palace] has officials [in charge of the] written documents.

  [A group of] thirty-six leaders (or generals) has been established to meet together to deliberate on affairs of state. Their kings are not permanent. They select and appoint the most worthy man. If there are unexpected calamities in the kingdom, such as frequent extraordinary winds or rains, he is unceremoniously rejected and replaced. The one who has been dismissed quietly accepts his demotion, and is not angry.

  The people of this country are all tall and honest. They resemble the people of the Middle Kingdom and that is why this kingdom is called Da Qin (or ‘Great China’).

  (Translation by John E. Hill)

  * Lijian is believed to have been the name of the earlier Seleucid Empire, much of it being incorporated into the Roman Empire.

  The next section of the text offers an account of the products of the Roman Empire. It also mentions that in AD 166, envoys sent by Roman king An-dun (doubtless Marcus Aurelius Antonius, r. 161–180) arrived in the Eastern Han court. Curiously they came from the Vietnamese coast.

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  The essay shows a typical mixture of illusions with bits of information that might have had a genuine origin. Given the historical information available, we are even allowed a good guess as to how such information might have flown into the Han Empire. In AD 97, Gan Ying, a subordinate of Ban Chao, the “Protector-General of the Western Region,” was sent on a mission that had as its sole purpose the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Roman Empire. According to modern studies, Gan Ying and his entourage departed from the kingdom of Qiuci (present-day Kuche in the Tarim Basin), traversing the territory of Anxi (Parthia, present-day Iran), and arrived at Tiaozhi (Characene and Susiana in present-day Iraq) on the shore of the Persian Gulf. However, the Parthians were unwilling to give the Han Empire direct access to the Roman Empire, in the fear that to do so might deprive them of the profit they made in the silk trade as middlemen. They greatly exaggerated the difficulties of crossing the sea and reaching Rome, and politely persuaded Gan Ying to return to the Han Empire. Although Gan Ying failed to reach Rome, the mission must have greatly enriched Han knowledge of the Western world.16 There can be little doubt that stories about the Roman Empire must have been heard on Gan Ying’s mission.

  In the other direction, it is recorded too in the official history of the Eastern Han Empire, in AD 166, the king of the Roman Empire by the name “An-dun,” doubtless Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (r. 161–180), dispatched envoys from beyond the frontier through the Han commandery in Vietnam to offer elephant tusks and rhinoceros horns to the Han Emperor.17 The mission, whether of an authentic or faked origin, was apparently received at the Han court in Luoyang. But, unfortunately, this mission cannot be verified in Roman sources, which regrettably remain completely silent about East Asia.

  Selected Reading

  Lewis, Mark Edward, The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007).

  Bielenstein, Hans, The Bureaucracy of Han Times (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980).

  Di Cosmo, Nicolas, Ancient China and Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Empire in East Asian History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).

  Twitchett, Denis, and Michael Loewe (eds.), The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 1, The Chi’in and Han Empires (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986).

  Loewe, Michael, Crisis and Conflict in Han China, 104 BC to AD 9 (London: Allen & Unwin, 1974).

  Bielenstein, Hans, The Restoration of the Han Dynasty (Stockholm: Elanders Boktryckeri Aktiebolag, 1953).

  Wang, Zhongshu, Han Civilization (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982).

  1 See Wu Hung, “The Monumental City Chang’an,” in Monumentality in Early Chinese Art and Architecture (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995), pp. 143–187.

  2 On the archaeology of the imperial city Chang’an, see Wang Zhongshu, Han Civilization (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982), pp. 1–10.

  3 See Mark Edward Lewis, The Early Chinese Empire: Qin and Han (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University press, 2007), pp. 19–20.

  4 For a substantial discussion of the Zhukaigou site and the broad context of cultural exchange between the northern steppe region and the middle to lower Yellow River regions down t
o late Shang, see Katheryn M. Linduff, “Zhukaigou, Steppe Culture and the Rise of Chinese Civilization,” Antiquity 69 (1995), 133–145.

  5 This is the largest number of war captives ever recorded in Western Zhou bronze inscriptions; see Li Feng, Landscape and Power in Early China: The Crisis and Fall of the Western Zhou, 1045–771 BC (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 54.

  6 See Nicolas di Cosmo, Ancient China and Its Enemies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 178–179, 186–187.

  7 On this point, see Lewis, The Early Chinese Empires, p. 136.

  8 Ibid., p. 136.

  9 Alexander the Great was said to have conquered Asia with a force of 32,000 soldiers. The single largest concentration of Roman troops was at Actium in 31 BC, recorded to have involved a quarter of a million people or more, in comparison to the 300,000 soldiers the Han Empire sent north to attack the Xiongnu in 119 BC (exclusive of the 100,000 people in the supply units), if figures on both sides are reliable.

  10 On the historical role of the Huo family, see Michael Loewe, Crisis and Conflict in Han China,104 BC to AD 9 (London: Allen & Unwin, 1974), pp. 37–90, 114–153.

  11 On the power of the imperial in-laws, see Ch’u T’ung-tsu, Han Social Structure (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1972), pp. 77–83.

  12 For a discussion of the reign of Wang Mang and the transition to Eastern Han, see Hans Bielenstein, The Restoration of the Han Dynasty (Stockholm: Elanders Boktryckeri Aktiebolag, 1953), pp. 82–165.

  13 Some even came to see him as the reincarnation of the ancient Duke of Zhou, a role Wang Mang had purposely worked to fit himself for. For the ground of Wang Mang’s support, see Loewe, Crisis and Conflict in Han China, pp. 286–306, particularly p. 287.

  14 See Bielenstein, The Restoration of the Han Dynasty, pp. 154–156. Towards to end of Wang Mang’s reign, the Yellow River flooded and took a new course, resulting in a great number of deaths among the poor farmers. Added to this were years of drought and ravages of locusts in North China. This happened first in eastern Henan and western Shandong, but soon spread to other parts of the Central Plain and into the Wei River valley in the west.

  15 See John E. Hill, Through the Jade Gate to Rome (Charleston: BookSurge, 2009), pp. 22–27.

  16 See Donald Leslie, The Roman Empire in Chinese Sources (Rome: Bardi, 1996).

  17 See Hill, Through the Jade Gate to Rome, p. 27.

  13 State and society: bureaucracy and social orders under the Han Empire

  Although the Han elites portrayed themselves as the ideological opponents of the Qin Empire, there can be no doubt that much of Han’s glory was owed to the foundation already built in Qin. By modifying Qin elements, the Han Empire created institutions and cultural patterns that were to exercise long-lasting impact on China. The Han Empire had a population of 59,594,978 men and women in the year of 8 BC as reported in the official history of the Western Han Dynasty, and quite a few of its most populated commanderies exceeded 1 million. In order to mobilize human and material resources to support operations by its armies and the various colonist groups in the vast space from southern Manchuria in the east to the Pamir Mountains in the west, stretching south to the southeastern China coasts, the Han constructed a huge bureaucratic machine, often regarded by historians as one of the most fully developed pre-modern bureaucracies in the world. Han society can be described as a typical rank society with its elite population divided into twenty ranks that enjoyed different degrees of privilege. The long process of expansion afforded tremendous opportunities for the young people of the empire to win military or civil merit and hence join the ranks of social elites. The rank system provided the basic social order of Han society which was enforced through the Han legal system. However, as time went on families of the upper ranks, which were usually hereditarily held, tended to consume an ever-increasing portion of social resources in competition with the imperial state. This in the long run inevitably served to undermine the economic foundation of the imperial state as the Han Empire was at the same time being weakened politically by a struggle between the imperial in-laws and the eunuchs surrounding the emperor.

  The Yinwan Documents and the Han Bureaucracy

  The Han imperial government had a relatively stable structure, referred to by historians as the “Three Excellencies and Nine Ministers,” which lasted over 400 years with only some minor fixes. The system is considered by political scientists as the earliest government that came closest to Max Weber’s model of ideal bureaucracy, and it was actually formed on strictly bureaucratic principles. At the top of the central government were three high offices, those of the Chancellor, Censor-in- Chief, and Grand Commandant. The role of the Chancellor had evolved gradually over the Warring States period mainly in the northern states into one that had general responsibility for the whole government. In other words, the Chancellor was one who was responsible only to the emperor and could in the emperor’s absence command the entire bureaucracy to act, as did happen on a number of occasions in the history of the Han Empire. Because of his high authority and general influence, he was most helpful to the emperor but at the same time also posed a potential threat to the throne. Therefore, in Han practice the role was sometimes divided between two offices, Chancellor of the Right and Chancellor of the Left; the right was the senior, but the left was not subject to the right, both being responsible directly to the emperor. Censorial control of officials was an important feature of a fully developed bureaucracy and in the Han case this important function was embodied in the office of the Censor-in-Chief who as the emperor’s watchdog made proposals for the promotion and punishment of officials (the actual terms of punishment were decided by the Commandant of Justice after further investigation). The last of these was called the Grand Commandant before 119 BC, representing the highest level of military authority under the emperor. Over time the role of the Chancellor was gradually weakened and much of its responsibility was taken over by the office of Commander-in-Chief which was created by Emperor Wu during the Xiongnu campaign and continued until its eventual termination in 8 BC.

  The “Nine Ministers” covered a wide range of affairs involving the central government, but they were not directly subordinates of the Three Excellencies. They can be best considered the functionaries of the empire and the executive agents of the emperor. The construction of these nine offices reflected a general division between the sphere of administration directly related to the emperor and his home, the palace, and the administration of the wide empire; it also exhibits the principle of shared responsibilities. For instance, the financial administration was charged by the Grand Minister of Agriculture who was responsible for taxation and thus for the economic well-being of the empire, and by the Privy Treasurer who was responsible for the provision of the palaces. The Superintendent as the head of the imperial household also had responsibilities for the security of the palaces, but the Commandant of the Guards controlled guard posts at the gates of the palace compounds and along the wall of the capital Chang’an. Separate ministerial roles were also established for the tracking of imperial genealogy and for the reception of the visitors from the wide empire and the foreign lands beyond it (the Grand Herald). In the Western Han, particularly during the heightened military confrontation with the Xiongnu Empire, management of the horses was a critical matter; the Grand Coachman had a ministerial rank and was in charge of both the horses in the imperial stables and horses for the imperial carriages.1

  The local administration of the Han Empire was divided into two tiers, commandery and county, following the model of Qin, added to which was the network of regional kingdoms whose number decreased over the first 100 years as the numbers of commanderies and counties grew. There were 57 commanderies and nearly 1,000 counties in the first decade of the empire, and the number increased to 103 by the end of the first century under which were 1,314 counties. These numbers reflect well the expansion of the empire and the growth of its bureaucracy. In a sense they also marked the g
reatest extent of Han local bureaucracy because there was a slow decline thereafter in both numbers, and this trend continued during the Eastern Han. Each commandery was governed by a Grand Administrator who enjoyed a salary level measured by 2,000 shi of grains, roughly equal to that of a minister in the central government (Box 13.1), and each county was governed by a Magistrate. However, since the time of Emperor Wu, special Inspectors were sent from the imperial court to oversee affairs in several commanderies in a large region of the empire, and this office became thoroughly localized during the Eastern Han, hence giving rise to some twelve Regions (zhou) which then formed the first tier of local administration, now divided into three levels.

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  Box 13.1 Salary Scales of Han Officials

  The salary scales of Han officials have been systematically discussed by Hans Bielenstein. Although the Han officials were subject to a system of abstract scales arranged in eighteen ranks as of the ending decades of the Western Han, the system did allow for comparison of statuses both vertically and horizontally. The top 10,000 shi was the salary level of the Three Excellencies, and 2,000 shi was the level of Ministers in the central government or Commandery Administrators (or Protectors) outside the capital. The Yinwan documents show that the Magistrates, depending on the size and population of the counties they governed are ranked between 1,000 shi and 400 shi. 100 shi was the level of leading clerks in the counties.