The Rise & Fall of China's Han Dynasty Empire…and it’s Rise & Fall Again

The Han Dynasty Empire, it's Rise & Fall…and it’s Rise & Fall Again (Chinese History Documentary)
This video is sponsored by my patrons over on Patreon
/ epimetheus1776
Sources:
Ancient China by Edward Schafer
Larousse encyclopedia of ancient and medieval history
Chronicle of the Chinese Emperors By Ann Paludan

[@thedirty530]

I'm glad people are starting to make china's awesome history into more presentable videos...Rarely can you get all this information with out an hour long documentary...Well done!

[@EpimetheusHistory]

Thank you glad you liked it :)

[@nagi-springfield93]

go watch nathan rich china documentary

[@taistingtheair1368]

AND it is in English

[@NIDELLANEUM]

@Stella Hoenheim congratulations

[@noctis129]

I actually want a hour long documentary…

[@someguy4405]

When you buy immortality potions and they shorten your life. *stonks*

[@ShahjahanMasood]

Bajur taught you well

[@gerloke914]

That's the old American west

[@ZhangtheGreat]

Well, at least he built himself an army of terracotta warriors to serve him in the afterlife

[@19Ledor]

The beautiful irony of drinking a potion to live for ever and instead it kills you.

[@steve5123456789]

To be clear to anyone who didn't know. The potion contained mercury.

[@ReviveHF]

This video made me time to play Three Kingdoms Total War again.

[@xavierapples1405]

Grand Moff Tarkin, I still the ROTK series by Koei. Fan for life.

[@XuerLi]

@@xavierapples1405 the 14th is coming

[@xavierapples1405]

Xue Li , nice! I love this series and have been a fan of it since its inception. I don’t own a PS4 but still play up until ROTK 11 on PS2. The game itself inspired me to read the novel as well. So good.

[@countbinfaceglobalpresiden7926]

But sir Tarkin aren't you supposed to be dead.

[@ReviveHF]

@@countbinfaceglobalpresiden7926 Revived through CGI

[@perseuswong6864]

The meritocracy of the imperial exam is an interesting alternative to the Roman Republican system of elected representative rule. In practice, the sons of peasants could not afford to devote to years of study when they were needed to manage the farm. The imperial exam eventually recruited its candidates mostly from the nobility and merchant class. It's interesting to see how the early successes of the Han Dynasty and it's Roman counterpart were undermined by the same class of corrupt, power-hungry nobles.

[@gcrecords1731]

Perseus Wong the romans empires was most corupted empires the han empires was most beatiful empires comercial with orient damasc and orient india and iran . Roman empires crash economy of others.

[@shorewall]

@@gcrecords1731 Found the 50 cent army! :D CCP is gonna self destruct by 2047. Hong Kong will outlast the CCP.

[@ibnyahud]

@@gcrecords1731 turn your nationalistic dial down 10 notches please...

[@cyrilchui2811]

Imperial exam (科舉) was introduced during Sui / Tang era. During Han era, candidates were endorsed by local & regional officials, who were then recruited and assigned for entry level jobs. Public civil exam would have to wait for few more centuries.

[@marlarki5280]

The Imperial exam doesn't exist during the Han dynasty.

[@adantigus]

The answer is quite simple: "The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been."

[@princekrazie]

逢酒必喝喝酒必疯

[@brethartaquino3976]

As we speak China is still divided

[@annihilateyutube2365]

Bretthart Aquino, peenoise how? While u peenoise was never found... Just like ur own fvcking self-label named after ur BREITBASTARD WHITE SUPREMACIST MASTER.. Philippines... Filipinos an Anglo name when u have ur own TAGALOG language ffs! Now That is truly divided. Split personality.

[@bibolalipbai]

@@princekrazie Epic :)

[@brethartaquino3976]

@@annihilateyutube2365 I don't know where is the hate came frone but I am stating the fact that China (Mainland China and Taiwan) is still divided and I don't really care about West. I Agree about USA doing many mischief in Many countries.

[@6principlesforcartography61]

One mistake: Red Eyebrows were not the only rebel army against Wang Mang. They did not crown Liu Xuan as the emperor. Instead, Liu Xuan was supported by another uprising army called Green Forest, who overthrew Wang Mang and planned to restore Han Dynasty. However, they broke due to internal conflicts and were defeated by Red Eyebrows. Emperor Guangwu (Liu Xiu) used to be a member of Green Forest but became independent when the regime lost control of the empire.

[@tanz4286]

one very notable features of hanfu (traditional Chinese clothing) is that people wore the left side OVER the right side, as left signifies yang and covers the right yin because live people are yang, only dead people wore their clothings with the right side up (so yes, inverting a Chinese clothing means that the dude is wearing burial clothings).

[@ronjayrose9706]

Well I learned something new everyday

[@denglinzhiniao]

yes！！

[@sinoroman]

is that even true?

[@denglinzhiniao]

Romanke it’s true you can see the traditional costume of Japan and Korea,they still keep the habit

[@sinoroman]

idk, i think chinese people, perhaps only han chinese, are kinda confused on what to wear traditionally.. most will prob say qing clothing, but a handful want to bring back hanfu.. europeans see manchu clothing as traditional chinese, and the ccp fully supports manchu-qing outfits, so I don't see hanfu making a major comeback..

[@rustyshackelford3590]

I wonder how there fall impacted the Roman empires economy since a lot of money came from trade with the east.

[@tommy-er6hh]

I think troubles with Parthia and Kushans had more effect, along with the Roman inflation/lowering gold in money.

[@jayasuryangoral-maanyan3901]

Weren't the rise and fall of the han and the rise and fall of pax romana around surprisingly similar times?

[@tommy-er6hh]

There was the Roman Crisis of the Third Cent which may have been influenced by Han collapse, but Western Rome lasted another Cent and a half, and the East till 1450s.

[@ibnyahud]

trade with india, depleting gold and silver, affected their economy adversely a lot more...the chinese and romans were too far removed, and the chinese had little use for roman gold and silver; rather they were more interested in glassware and textiles

[@bangscutter]

I heard somewhere that the rich and elite of Rome loved Chinese silk so much that they eventually had to ban it, because of too much outflow of money from Rome.

[@richhartnell6233]

Hell of a thing covering one of the greatest nations in human history this quickly, well done!

[@mututyo8418]

Er Shi is not a name, it means Emperor II

[@benthekeeshond545]

Second generation.

[@stephenleong7373]

就是啊

[@JerryExploresHistory]

His name is Huhai, but very few people call him dad. He's commonly known as Er Shi (Second Generation), much like Yingzheng was known as Shihuangdi (Starting Emperor).

[@ibnyahud]

​@@JerryExploresHistoryanecdotally, in Hasidic Jewish rabbinic dynasties, it is also extremely common to refer to past "leading Rebbe"s by chronology rather than name

[@seansteryu7398]

ERSHI is ear wax

[@CCPJAYLPHAN1994]

And if you include Three Kingdoms period, Shu Han was ACTUALLY known as Ji-Han, a third period of the Han Dyansty, as Liu Bei never proclaim another dynasty, but rather a continuation of the former.

[@madderhat5852]

For the fall of both empires I refer to 09:50 I blame the gigantic panda. At this scale it must be 200 km +. It would have scared the sh!t out of me.

[@emmasbooknook4576]

Wow...learning history is interning... And your art keeps getting more amazing! Good job!

[@Figgy5119]

I'm sure they were a powerful force, but I can't help cracking up picturing the scene... "What's that racket??" "They're here!" "Who!?" "It's... It's...the red eyebrows." **Dun dun duuuuun**

[@kristinamickwitz3542]

it has been found with greatest frequency among indigenous peoples of Russia, including Finnic peoples, Mari, Udmurt, Komi, Khanty, Mansi, Nenets, Nganasans, Turkic peoples (Yakuts, Dolgans, Khakasses, Tuvans, Tatars, Chuvashes, ), Buryats, Tungusic peoples (Evenks, Evens, Negidals, Nanais, ), Yukaghirs, Luoravetlans (Chukchis, Koryaks), and Siberian Eskimos, but certain subclades are very common in Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and other subclades are found at low frequency in China (Yi, Naxi, Lhoba, Han Chinese,en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_N-M231

[@CoffeeSuccubus]

China's top five enemies: 1. China 2. China 3. China 4. China 5. China

[@mantapdjiwa9768]

Latest one hongkong chinese

[@delideli8577]

@Mantap Djiwa nohope.about200-300years later

[@sonics500603]

@@benthekeeshond545 On contrary, big portion of Hong Kong ppl don't consider themselves as Chinese. They are proud once to be rulled by the British. It doesn't mean British had have done any better job. Just look back in the 60s and 70s. It's all politics. In business world, british supported consortium transported most of the fortune back to British. Before the transition of administrations, financial war occured and almost broke down HK economy. The reason why some businesses failed the investiment is that they still think the Chinese are ignorant and underdevelopment as before. Many businesses successed big time as well. Time to wake up and give up the hatred.

[@我们的目标是星辰-h6c]

贫富分化大的时候就会推翻政权。谁当皇帝都不重要

[@rayray6490]

James Wang ....you say this as someone who lived in HK long-term? Because your last name is Wang, which in Cantonese will be Wong if you were a local HK’er.

[@GeorgeTSiy]

Congratulations for bringing together many scholarly commenters, this is a feat in itself apart from a concise video with notes in pictures. Thank you also commenters for sharing researches and insights. The contention of ideas with references to actual history and frameworks of analysis, rather than just pure opinions, this part of the scholarly culture that advances civilizations in the world everywhere ,that maybe China was the first to institutionalize on a large scale. Beyond whether it equalized or favored some sectors, perfect or not , it is a way of recognizing , utilizing , and rewarding merit. There is much to learn today from achievements of all peoples in the past, which we should try apply to the present in the future.

[@honantong]

This is more informative then the history classes I had in China. I want to watch what follows.

[@iraqimapper8625]

Great work Request: can you do a video about ancient Europe Gaul Germania Britainia Illiryia pre Roman Iberia etc ?

[@noided5599]

are you hamza ?

[@iraqimapper8625]

@@noided5599 no

[@SuperSayajim]

Thank you for indulging my childhood by keeping each kingdoms color the same as the Dynasty Warrior games. Maybe that's historically accurate, maybe not, it made me happy

[@Shadi810]

Same man!

[@agniroyai1230]

The early Han, one of my favourites

[@micahistory]

Lol Qin Shi Huangdi died trying to become immortal

[@peterblood50]

If I remember correctly, he died while making some sort of tour of the provinces and his rotting corpse had to be transported all the way back to the capital. I think he was drinking a "mixture of immortality" that included Mercury in the reagents.

[@micahistory]

@@peterblood50 yeah

[@kikin310]

his right hand probably was poisoning slowly, in those times never trust eunuch, they cut their own weenies for a chance in power what else will they do for it i wonder

[@coleball6001]

kikin310 Eunuch were forced to cut off their weenies, then they went into Imperial service. It was meant to avoid the possibility that one of the concubines would be impregnated by someone other than the Emperor.

[@micahistory]

@@coleball6001 true

[@leipen7125]

Liu Bang was a hooligan when he was young.

[@peasant12345]

He was so even if he became the emperor.

[@ZhangLee.]

that what kick up the trent " long united must divide " because a hooligan success so cheers

[@jamesgabriel7132]

he was destine to be emperor. but not a good emperor. most administration and policy was determined by xiao he and zhang liang

[@simonpeter5032]

Your maps are always so impressive dude, literally. Good shit, most people wouldn’t even try to do the level of cartography you do for videos.

[@yuenhai]

See, the thing is, China's dynastic system more or less doomed every single dynasty to the same ignoble end To understand this, you have to look further back into China's history Back in the Zhou dynasty, China was a feudal state Everyone acknowledged that the Zhou king was the Zhou king simply by birth right and no one can replace him but his heir, the next Zhou king The same goes for the nobles that he enfeoffed, and so on While it sounds like a very unfair system, it removed the incentive to gain power via conquest If we were both Dukes, it doesn't matter if you were stronger than me, because we were only Dukes because the Zhou king made us Dukes - in other words, you cannot easily conquer my land on a whim, not unless you were strong enough to not only take me on, but also everyone else who were benefiting from the system In other words, this feudal system heavily incentived people who have power to maintain the status quo and not rock the boat And it worked too - the status quo was maintained for about 300 years, before conquest started becoming a thing - even then, people still paid nominal respect to the Zhou king It took another 300 years or so, and China went through what is called the Spring and Autumn period, before people finally decided to pay no heed to the Zhou king Even then, the Zhou king was still at least a figurehead, and this last for another 250 years or so, and this period is called the Warring States period It was only when Qin conquered the whole of China and the Qin Emperor declared himself the Emperor of all of China that the Zhou dynasty was finally disposed of So what the Qin did was not just merely unifying China - it was overthrowing an entire social system that had lasted for more than 800 years until then You can see how this didn't sit well with many people Still, ruling as a business was still largely the prerogative of the nobility It was why the rebels led by Xiang Yu found a figure head to act as the Chu king, and it was also why Liu Bang went through the trouble to encourage myths about himself and styled himself a Duke - people were still conditioned to think that only the nobles had the right to rule by this point Now of course this all changed when Liu Bang won the civil war and decided to style himself an Emperor For the time in China's history, they had a King/Emperor of common birth This effectively opened the floodgates to ANYONE to claim the throne as long as they were able to - Chinese Kings or Emperors were no longer protected by their lineage So yes, when Liu Bang claimed the throne and established the Han dynasty, he also sowed the seeds for his dynasty's downfall, for it was inevitable that the day will come when anyone who was stronger would claim the throne from his line And that essentially set in motion the dynastic cycle of China for the next 2000 years or so - the ruling dynasty invariably weakens and someone stronger invariably stepped in to claim the throne for themselves

[@floris.927]

Perfectly put, which is also why it was so revolutionary when Chen Sheng exclaimed, “Is there a linear age to the kings and generals?!” ... Well, in his time, there was.

[@taelongx]

Wow that was a great explanation. New Dynasty brought something new to the nation, like Buddhism, Imperial exams, etc. Without Dynasties, do you think China would have stayed the same like same laws, rituals, etc?

[@ziying-cd6nk]

😃👍👍👍

[@Suite_annamite]

*@**3:04**: A great comfort to know that Toshiro Mifune reincarnated from upstart Chinese nobility! ;)*

[@anasevi9456]

ancient chinese history is a great topic. thanks again!

[@EpimetheusHistory]

:)

[@behrangkhosravi3157]

As always great and informative. Keep at it. I always enjoy your work.

[@dallasdelay3468]

I watched the T.v. show from china. 100+ episodes. It was awesomeness

[@kristencotty4439]

What show?

[@dallasdelay3468]

@@kristencotty4439 the one on Netflix The chin Something aliance? War? Anyhoo it was about this And 80 episode?

[@kristencotty4439]

@@dallasdelay3468 qin empire alliance?

[@dallasdelay3468]

@@kristencotty4439 i think so

[@VivusVv]

I like it too:).

[@CCCC-th8vm]

I've seen some people presenting some viewpoints using DNA or bloodline. So I'm here to tell you some interesting things about my family. My family is precisely from the imperial family of the Han Dynasty. The second ancestor of our branch is Liu Fei, the eldest son of Liu Bang. Liu Fei's mother wasn't Liu Bang's official wife. After Liu Bang became the emperor, he posthumously honored her as Lady Cao (who had passed away). Before that, Liu Fei had his mother's surname and was called Cao Fei. Liu Bang didn't fulfill his fatherly duties, and because his eldest son Liu Fei didn't become the crown prince, he felt very guilty. Later, Liu Fei was enfeoffed as the King of Qi. Generally speaking, the fiefdom of the State of Qi was already a preferential treatment. But Liu Bang also issued an order that all the people in the empire who could speak the Qi language should be relocated to the State of Qi. This is also rarely seen in history. In Chinese history, the title of king given by the imperial emperor to a king has special significance. Generally speaking, the State of Qin was the strongest, the territory of the State of Chu was the largest, and the State of Qi was the richest. However, in China, people with the surname Liu are not necessarily members of my family. The ancestors of our family originally had the surname Ji, which was one of the earliest eight surnames in China. And to distinguish the descendants of people with the same surname, the name of the clan was taken according to the place name where the family's fief was located. During the time of the ancestor "Emperor Yao", for some reasons, he took his mother's surname "Qi". Because the fief of the clan was "Yi", it was "Yi Qi", and later it was abbreviated to "Qi". During the Qin Dynasty, to solve the numerous surnames and clan names, the surname and the clan name were merged. Because the ancestor's fief was in the State of Liu at that time, the surname was changed to "Liu." The most interesting part is that the fiefdom of the State of Qi of the ancestor Liu Fei happens to be the ancestral land of the family. So the title of the King of Qi is very special.

[@ingold1470]

Liu Bang sounds like the player character in Mount and Blade.

[@vertigq5126]

Great video man! Thanks for uploading. God bless you!

[@Volnas97]

So, let me get this straight. Liu Bang failed in his job so miserably, that he had to overthrow government to escape punishment? I mean, he sounds like good and competent ruler, but still.

[@raymondhernandez]

Kind of like Dr. Dre who came from humble beginnings and became a music mogul.🤣🤣🤣

[@arles1124]

The qin’s laws were really strict, even for a minor mistake, the punishments were inhumanly severe because the laws were established during war time. For example, if workers are to carry goods to another district and didn’t arrive on time, all of the carriers will be sentenced to death, no excuses. In fact that’s exactly how the first peasant uprising of the Qin dynasty started, the carriers can’t arrive on time due to rain and the river flooding, so they decided to risk their lives to rebel cause it was certain death for them either way.

[@gingerkrieg9062]

Thank you Epimetheus!

[@grandadmiralzaarin4962]

No rest for the Traitors! No retreat for the Han!

[@swoozyduzzytgottaloveit2966]

My first rap name was Epimetheus. It was as nerdy as this channel, lol. I love it.

[@danmaertens7872]

This has been very informative and entertaining.

[@nyabl7324]

Thank you very much for sharing such an informative video! I learned a lot.

[@gabrielplaza7505]

Thanks for making this video. It had given me a lot of help. THANKS

[@WSOJ3]

Major stable Chinese dynasties: Xia Shang Zhou Han Tang Song Yuan Ming Qing PRC In between those big dynasties are mini unstable dynasties and non-unified warring periods.

[@WSOJ3]

Now let’s try to fit the “in-between” periods too: -pre-Xia 5 Kings tribal era Xia Shang Zhou - Spring-autumn & warring period - Qin - Chu-Han war Han -Three Kingdoms -Jin -5 Hus & 16 Kingdoms -South-North dual dynasties -Sui dynasty Tang -5 generations & 10 kingdoms -Liao-Jin-Song warring period. Song Yuan Ming -peasant rebellion Qing -Taiping Heavenly Kindom -ROC PRC

[@MuraliM-oo9ri]

​@@WSOJ3Post Jin dynasty period has to be the only period where china was divided for a long time (300 years)

[@Alex.af.Nordheim]

"Stable" is a bit of a stretch for the whole duration of a dynasty, for example, the Anlushan rebellion happened halfway through the Tang dynasty

[@lukezuzga6460]

Great video EP, thanks

[@andrewbatist6355]

i was waiting for this one. love this channel

[@martytu20]

Lü Zhi, the most powerful woman in China until Wu Zetian.

[@camrendavis6650]

I love Empress Wu

[@rickr9435]

not really. Dou Yifang was very powerful as well. but they were all "the wife of the emperor" , while Wu zetian claimed herself to be the "emperor" (yeah, the male title)

[@camrendavis6650]

@@rickr9435 she was a damn good leader though, loved her people. But not her family

[@hwasiaqhan8923]

Powerful female dictators never brought good things in Chinese history.

[@camrendavis6650]

@@hwasiaqhan8923 really? Have you never heard of Empress Wu?

[@honantong]

Farewell My Concubine, the famous Peking Opera was about the lover of Xiangyu who didn't escape when Xiangyu was about to be captured by Han army and let her and his horse leave . But both the lover and the horse decided to stay with him. The lover ended her own life with the sword of Xiangyu. It's a very poignant story about loyalty There's a great Chinese movie with the same name. You should watch that!

[@tckchannel4435]

So well done n easily understandable video...👍👍👍👍👍

[@noahlogue]

I love your channel dude!

[@Orthas1]

So you're saying the big governemnt corruption caused the second collapse.

[@davidblair9877]

Orthas1 and efficient, meritocratic government supported the golden ages...

[@barbiquearea]

That and having a pretty incompetent and corrupt emperor and problems in court exacerbated by powerful eunuchs who dominated the court.

[@firedog235]

As time goes on there is an accumulation of something like capital in these empires: the number of bureaucrats grows and their is an accumulation of methods for extracting surplus until eventually the rulers grow overweening in their power (both because they haven't failed in a long time and because they have many vassals and sons to placate) and then the regular people revolt and that's the end of the empire for a minute.

[@sizex1966]

I did enjoy ur video, have u seen 'Red Cliff' ? A Student of life I'm just passing through! ✌🏾☝🏾🖤

[@kimcarrier9834]

”Qin Shi Huang“ means ”the emperorⅠ of Qin“ ”Er Shi“ means ”emperor Ⅱ“

[@Thefunkyrikitiki]

2:07 eight pointed star.... HERESY

[@nobunagaoda6605]

I really loved how Toshiro Mifune's face was used for the face of Xiang Yu. He would really play the part well if he were still around today hahaha

[@nobunagaoda6605]

@Daisy Wong I know. Thats why some people would compare Lu Bu to Xiang Yu as equals. Legendary warriors on the battlefield but arrogance that lead both warriors to their demise.

[@nobunagaoda6605]

@Daisy Wong That's right. Liu Bang was only deemed as a Han because of inheriting the King of Han kingdom after his untimely death through the advice of Zhang Liang. I would be annoyed to if I had a friend like lol but I would also enjoy company from a person such as your friend. So do all descendants of Chu come from Southern china?

[@nobunagaoda6605]

@Daisy Wong Huh. I can see why the heavily emphasize those sword smith scenes from "The Legend of Chu and Han" series. Better swords do come from Chu.

[@nobunagaoda6605]

@Daisy Wong I am aware. That's why it is known as one of China's national treasures as well as the world's oldest sword that's still intact by all world's standards. Even exceeding all mythical swords from both Western and Eastern worlds.

[@nobunagaoda6605]

@Daisy Wong If it has been desecrated, then it would be a major loss on any important documents or artifacts left behind by Qin Shihuang which would've lead a closer glimpse of his personal life than based upon accounts from advisors and later scholars.

[@humanlim]

很棒的影片！！

[@geraldinegaynor1360]

Very clear and concise. Thank you.

[@vincently1995]

Chinese Warring States Period and Qin Dynasty = Pre-Han Dynasty Three Kingdoms and Jin Dynasty = Post-Han Dynasty

[@deactivateduser9816]

Surprised u did not talk about empress dowager Lü Zhi, who was the wife of Liu Bang and had a strong political power in the early Han dynasty. She was brutal but was very skilled in political affair and has set the founding stone for the future prime of the Han dynasty. Also the grand empress dowager Wang did not put his nephew onto the throne, as a matter of fact she was strongly against it, as dethroning the emperor was considered external immoral, she even broke the heirloom seal of the realm in an argument with her nephew.

[@cristiangerardinobilityhou5410]

Yes, I have DNA (1.5%) from this area and time according to MytrueancestryDNA backed up by data from HeritageDNA, ancestryDNA and familytreeDNA. "Han Chinese Empire".

[@yarhacijin9463]

Feel free to travel here bro

[@cristiangerardinobilityhou5410]

@@yarhacijin9463 It says I have a close connection to Nurhaci of the Qing dynasty (C-M401). Not sure if it is recent connection or an old one with King Joseph of Khazaria and old Bulgaria? Turkic connections with my YDNA line of Galatian Celt of central Turkey (RM-269 PF6517)?

[@armchairgeneral3199]

I would like to see you made video about the war of mongol and china.

[@zacflemo1994]

its wild to remember that at romes peak, the three kingdoms where at their peak/beginning in 220 BC

[@aimanmarzuqi4804]

Can't wait when you make a video about the hot mess that is the 16 Kingdoms period.

[@Joycccce185]

That's gonna be hard. Even I cannot fully understand or remember the 16 kingdoms. too many chaos.

[@wanderknight69]

Nah that part history is pg-13 man

[@jamesgabriel7132]

damn, the era of bloodshed, rape and cannibalisms.

[@fettarmehaarmilch4028]

It is a shame we didn't learn anything about Chinas history in scool. It's history makes Rome, greece etc look so little!

[@InfiniteBoredom149]

Civil exams are overstated here. The majority of official posts were doled out to offsprings of noble families with roots going all the way back to the Zhou dynasty. Imperial power and military/executive power are often entrusted to the family of the Empress, as a means of counteracting the influence of the nobles, since they have actual control of resources and manpower at local level, and this compromise lead eventually to Wang Mang and the Xin Dynasty, since he was able to consolidate both the imperial power by marrying into the royal family, and being a noble himself. Most of China's history coincide with the warming and cooling cycle of the Earth. Every 200-300 years, as the Earth entered a small Ice Age and agriculture production fell, the people starved and rebellion broke out, replacing the old nobility and dynasty with a new one. After a civil war period which saw a stark decline in population, farming lands were freed to be redistributed and they entered a new cycle, which didnt really change until the industrial age. Most notably, their population since the late Western Han also hovered around 50-80 million until new agricultural produce like potato and sweet potato entered China courtesy of Westerners.

[@xiaoliu3397]

@Daisy Wong Man race dared not to ask Han race army to guard Beijing, they feard for losing rule on China.

[@zaidkhan857]

Please upload frequently

[@KingDayDayDay00]

Brb going to play Dynasty Warriors

[@charsensei878]

great work but with two minor mistakes:1.the state of HAN is actually in the orange part of your map,center of which is morden Hanzhong.2.the state ruled by Xiangyu is actually called Xichu(西楚，west Chu).the king of Chu was huaiwang（楚怀王）who served as a puppet liege of all the feudal kings and later killed by Xiangyu. So it's not proper for Xiangyu to use the same name with his liege.

[@romanceofthethreekingdoms5090]

thats a nice video, and after the han dynasty came the famous three kingdoms dynasty ,anyone heard of the three kingdoms ?

[@lcmiracle]

I've imagine Toshior Mifune as many things: ronin with a heart of gold, samurai with a traitorous heart, and an honorless bandit, and many things in between; Xiang-Yu, however, is one I did not imagine him to be.

[@youtubeaccount779]

Same, it annoyed me when I saw his face

[@billh6010]

The real xiang yu probably looked like the type of Toshiro. He was described as being tough rugged looking.

[@commiesquid4620]

Clearly in ancient China we see the peasants rebel against their landlord oppressor and their state. These rebellions were not successful but did prompt social reforms due to fear of another uprising. Therefore class struggle is the key to understanding the history of China but also the world.

[@ilikedota5]

@0:40 umm Luoyang in Chinese is this: 洛阳 in Simplified Chinese and 洛陽 in Traditional Chinese

[@xakatas9510]

西洋人对斗笠的执念有多深？？

[@emilydanielle2743]

我不知道

[@shichaoxu372]

也许汉朝人喜欢斗笠呢。。。 手动狗头~~~

[@hsinchowsoo3873]

谷歌搜索“中国帽子”的图片，基本结果全是斗笠。

[@CatroiOz]

One big mishake this video makes is to confuse the eunuchs with the scholar bureacrats those were two different classes with very different jobs

[@lilazndrgnboi]

Dank stuff

[@bgkhan4475]

At that time, Beijing was the land of Gojoseon. It was destroyed by the Han Dynasty, and Goguryeo regained it again. Do your history study again. There are no relics of the Han Dynasty in Beijing. \And the last map of the Three Kingdoms is completely fictitious. Don't substitute fiction for history.

[@MuraliM-oo9ri]

Isn't Korea a tributary of Han Dynasty itself?

[@Alex.af.Nordheim]

​​@@MuraliM-oo9riKorea only bacame a tributary state to the Chinese during and after the tang dynasty

[@張超月]

Beijing was the capital of the Yan state of the warring states period.

[@joshdanao2089]

In the thumbnail, one of the characters (on the left) strangely resembles Toshiro Mifune, hmmm......he was a *japanese* actor

[@paulvmarks]

Actually the later introduction of Civil Service exams undermined social mobility - one could only pass the exams with a lot of instruction.

[@CN_SFY_General]

The real civil exam started at Sui Dynasty, at about 550 A.C.

[@jfreak71]

國恆以弱滅，而漢獨以強亡 The state was destroyed by weakness, while the Han Dynasty was destroyed by strength 天下大勢合久必分，分久必合 The world will be divided and united in a long time The Han nationality is the largest nation in the world, with a population of 1.2 billion Because the Han Dynasty was a great era

[@akaj188]

Soon people would ask why Jin ping Empiire collapsed .

[@factorerivative]

Jin is not empire...it has some big problems after United china,civil problems and minority problems,there are some super detailed Chinese sub history videos,but very less of them has eng translation

[@vicrattlehead8665]

Stuff like this seems surreal to me, the fact that these guys were around both in the BC and AD time is fucking nuts, and all the other dynasties, this whole era is sum else

[@vincently6707]

Han Dynasty = Pre-Three Kingdoms

[@RYBATUGA]

Qin: In an attempt to avoid a recurrence of the political chaos of the Warring States period, Qin Shi Huang and his prime minister Li Si completely abolished feudalism. The empire was then divided into 36 commanderies (郡, Jùn), later more than 40 commanderies. The whole of China was thus divided into administrative units: first commanderies, then counties (縣, Xiàn), townships (鄉, Xiāng) and hundred-family units (里, Li, which roughly corresponds to the modern-day subdistricts and communities). This system was different from the previous dynasties, which had loose alliances and federations. People could no longer be identified by their native region or former feudal state, as when a person from Chu was called "Chu person" (楚人, Chu rén). Appointments were subsequently based on merit instead of hereditary rights. However, after his death, hidden subversives under the leadership of the chief eunuch Zhao Gao were able to seize power and use it to restore the old feudal order. Han: In his early days, Emperor Gaozu disliked reading and scorned Confucianism. After becoming the emperor, he still held the same attitudes towards Confucianism as he did before until he encountered the scholar Lu Jia (or Lu Gu). Lu Gu wrote a 12-volume book, Xinyu (新語), which espoused the benefits of governing by moral virtue as opposed to using harsh and punitive laws (as it was under the Qin dynasty). Lu Gu read each volume to the emperor after he finished writing it. The emperor was deeply impressed. Under Emperor Gaozu's reign, Confucianism flourished and gradually replaced Legalism (of Qin times) as the state ideology.

[@RYBATUGA]

Emperor Wu (141 BC - 87 BC) is considered one of the greatest emperors in Chinese history, due to his effective governance which made the Han dynasty one of the most powerful nations in the world. Michael Loewe called the reign of Emperor Wu the "high point" of "Modernist" (classically justified Legalist) policies, looking back to "adapt ideas from the pre-Han period." His policies and most trusted advisers were Legalist, favouring adherents of Shang Yang. However, despite establishing an autocratic and centralised state, Emperor Wu adopted the principles of Confucianism as the state philosophy and code of ethics for his empire and started a school to teach future administrators the Confucian classics. These reforms had an enduring effect throughout the existence of imperial China and an enormous influence on neighbouring civilizations

[@takutoazia3185]

CAO CAO ：GREAT CHINA MAKE AGAIN 😄丷丷。 🇨🇳。 LIU BEI： ： ： I want to be a winner🌟。

[@floris.927]

I feel like we are talking about two different imperial exams ... who was the pig farmer?

[@BloodnSteel]

Another awesome and thorough episode!

[@redshirt1917]

Interesting fact that the Roman Empire rose and fell at around the same time as the Han Empire.

[@svenlai3546]

Taiwan Island was in DongWu's sphere of influence

[@HieuLe-gs6mc]

great video as usual. But what is the role of the pandat at 9:51 ? :))

[@k.c1126]

Is where you have the Chu state depicted at 3:22 correct? I thought it was further south than that ....

[@c.kainoabugado7935]

Mahalo for the information.

[@mh3535]

I wonder what factor the nascent silk road played in the rise and falls of the various empires - even before the east and west terminus of the road really knew about each other.

[@Spacefrisian]

One does not pursue Lu Bu

[@hulakan]

Staring Mifune Toshiro as Xiang Yu!

[@lawrence4318]

Great account, but narrator needs coaching in his pronunciation of names and places. One Rule of thumb: place an “h” behind every “a”.

[@zeo5009]

I thought he said that the emperor’s teacher was named “Zao Gao” lmao I was like that’s fitting

[@winglaileung]

The map about the Han River is incorrect.

[@skipthepump7714]

Could you do a video on how and why the Qin was the one to united China? What reforms did they do? It was said that through six generations dedicated hard work to achieved this?

[@CC-sj8ez]

kzbin.info/aero/PLOrf2h5ONlwW65dLPiKN65NBuf7ivKPk- More information you want to know is on this playlist. Start at EP 17 to EP18. This is a documentary provided by experts. It is not an animation. It may require enough patience.

[@BangkokPoet]

Excellent, thanks, but there are no long A sounds in Chinese. Think of when your dentist says say Ah. Then pronounce names like Wang Mang the same way.

[@gutshotaz2805]

The title GaoDi (the supreme emperor) was not self declared. While 'Di' means emperor, 'Gao' is a posthumous title given to him by his court and successor.

[@solinvictus4367]

Tough Times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, weak men create tough times Rinse and Repeat. That is what caused the Han to fall

[@honantong]

Liu Bang only lived 52 years? 🥺

[@rosinante5041]

Watching this so it can help me with my university exam

[@ilovehistory2845]

Nice work. My only question is what role, if any, did religion play in these rises and falls? ~~~I decided to post this from my personal account and my channel account. Feel free to check it out.

[@Harryjay6]

^^^ My channel. I'm not a professional but I managed to make a couple decent videos so far.

[@Harryjay6]

@Daisy Wong I was thinking the same thing.

[@ilovehistory2845]

@Daisy Wong I was thinking the same thing.