រាជវង្សហាន: Military expansion

Military expansion 

To the north of China proper, the nomadic Xiongnu chieftain Modu Chanyu (r. 209–174 BC) conquered various tribes inhabiting the eastern portion of the Eurasian Steppe. By the end of his reign, he controlled Manchuria, Mongolia, and the Tarim Basin, subjugating over twenty states east of Samarkand.Di Cosmo (2001), 175–189, 196–198; Torday (1997), 80–81; Yü (1986), 387–388. Emperor Gaozu was troubled about the abundant Han-manufactured iron weapons traded to the Xiongnu along the northern borders, and he established a trade embargo against the group.Torday (1997), 75–77. Although the embargo was in place, the Xiongnu found traders willing to supply their needs. Chinese forces also mounted surprise attacks against Xiongnu who traded at the border markets.Jerry Bentley, "Old World Encounters: Cross Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 37. In retaliation, the Xiongnu invaded what is now Shanxi province, where they defeated the Han forces at Baideng in 200 BC.Torday (1997), 75 77; Di Cosmo (2001), 190–192. After negotiations, the heqin agreement in 198 BC nominally held the leaders of the Xiongnu and the Han as equal partners in a royal marriage alliance, but the Han were forced to send large amounts of tribute items such as silk clothes, food, and wine to the Xiongnu.Yü (1967), 9–10; Morton and Lewis (2005), 52; Di Cosmo (2001), 192–195.

Despite the tribute and a negotiation between Laoshang Chanyu (r. 174–160 BC) and Emperor Wen (r. 180–157 BC) to reopen border markets, many of the Chanyu's Xiongnu subordinates chose not to obey the treaty and periodically raided Han territories south of the Great Wall for additional goods.Yü (1986), 388–389; Torday (1997), 77, 82–83; Di Cosmo (2002), 195–196. In a court conference assembled by Emperor Wu (r. 141–87 BC) in 135 BC, the majority consensus of the ministers was to retain the heqin agreement. Emperor Wu accepted this, despite continuing Xiongnu raids.Torday (1997), 83–84; Yü (1986), 389–390. However, a court conference the following year convinced the majority that a limited engagement at Mayi involving the assassination of the Chanyu would throw the Xiongnu realm into chaos and benefit the Han.Yü (1986), 389–391; Di Cosmo (2001), 211–214. When this plot failed in 133 BC,Torday (1997), 91–92 Emperor Wu launched a series of massive military invasions into Xiongnu territory. Chinese armies captured one stronghold after another and established agricultural colonies to strengthen their hold.Jerry Bentley, "Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 37. The assault culminated in 119 BC at the Battle of Mobei, where the Han commanders Huo Qubing (d. 117 BC) and Wei Qing (d. 106 BC) forced the Xiongnu court to flee north of the Gobi Desert.Yü (1986), 390; Di Cosmo (2001), 237–240.

After Wu's reign, Han forces continued to prevail against the Xiongnu. The Xiongnu leader Huhanye Chanyu (呼韓邪) (r. 58–31 BC) finally submitted to Han as a tributary vassal in 51 BC. His rival claimant to the throne, Zhizhi Chanyu (r. 56–36 BC), was killed by Chen Tang and Gan Yanshou (甘延壽/甘延寿) at the Battle of Zhizhi, in modern Taraz, Kazakhstan.Loewe (1986), 196–197, 211–213; Yü (1986), 395–398.

thumb|left|A gilded bronze oil lamp in the shape of a kneeling female servant, dated 2nd century BC, found in the tomb of Dou Wan, wife of the Han prince Liu Sheng; its sliding shutter allows for adjustments in the direction and brightness in light while it also traps smoke within the body.Ebrey (1999), 66; Wang (1982), 100.

In 121 BC, Han forces expelled the Xiongnu from a vast territory spanning the Hexi Corridor to Lop Nur. They repelled a joint Xiongnu-Qiang invasion of this northwestern territory in 111 BC. In that year, the Han court established four new frontier commanderies in this region: Jiuquan, Zhangyi, Dunhuang, and Wuwei.Chang (2007), 5–8; Di Cosmo (2002), 241–242; Yü (1986), 391. The majority of people on the frontier were soldiers.Chang (2007), 34–35. On occasion, the court forcibly moved peasant farmers to new frontier settlements, along with government-owned slaves and convicts who performed hard labor.Chang (2007), 6, 15–16, 44–45. The court also encouraged commoners, such as farmers, merchants, landowners, and hired laborers, to voluntarily migrate to the frontier.Chang (2007), 15–16, 33–35, 42–43.

Even before Han's expansion into Central Asia, diplomat Zhang Qian's travels from 139 to 125 BC had established Chinese contacts with many surrounding civilizations. Zhang encountered Dayuan (Fergana), Kangju (Sogdiana), and Daxia (Bactria, formerly the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom); he also gathered information on Shendu (Indus River valley of North India) and Anxi (the Parthian Empire). All of these countries eventually received Han embassies.Di Cosmo (2002), 247–249; Morton and Lewis (2005), 54–55; Yü (1986), 407; Ebrey (1999), 69; Torday (1997), 104–117. These connections marked the beginning of the Silk Road trade network that extended to the Roman Empire, bringing Han items like silk to Rome and Roman goods such as glasswares to China.An (2002), 83; Ebrey (1999), 70. From roughly 115 to 60 BC, Han forces fought the Xiongnu over control of the oasis city-states in the Tarim Basin. Han was eventually victorious and established the Protectorate of the Western Regions in 60 BC, which dealt with the region's defense and foreign affairs.Di Cosmo (2002), 250–251; Yü (1986), 390–391, 409–411; Chang (2007), 174; Loewe (1986), 198. The Han also expanded southward. The naval conquest of Nanyue in 111 BC expanded the Han realm into what are now modern Guangdong, Guangxi, and northern Vietnam. Yunnan was brought into the Han realm with the conquest of the Dian Kingdom in 109 BC, followed by parts of the Korean Peninsula with the colonial establishments of Xuantu Commandery and Lelang Commandery in 108 BC.Ebrey (1999), 83; Yü (1986), 448–453. In China's first known nationwide census taken in 2 AD, the population was registered as having 57,671,400 individuals in 12,366,470 households.

To pay for his military campaigns and colonial expansion, Emperor Wu nationalized several private industries. He created central government monopolies administered largely by former merchants. These monopolies included salt, iron, and liquor production, as well as bronze-coin currency. The liquor monopoly lasted only from 98 to 81 BC, and the salt and iron monopolies were eventually abolished in early Eastern Han. The issuing of coinage remained a central government monopoly throughout the rest of the Han dynasty.Wagner (2001), 1–17; Loewe (1986), 160–161; Nishijima (1986), 581–588; Ebrey (1999), 75; Morton and Lewis (2005), 57; see also Hinsch (2002), 21–22. The government monopolies were eventually repealed when a political faction known as the Reformists gained greater influence in the court. The Reformists opposed the Modernist faction that had dominated court politics in Emperor Wu's reign and during the subsequent regency of Huo Guang (d. 68 BC). The Modernists argued for an aggressive and expansionary foreign policy supported by revenues from heavy government intervention in the private economy. The Reformists, however, overturned these policies, favoring a cautious, non-expansionary approach to foreign policy, frugal budget reform, and lower tax-rates imposed on private entrepreneurs.Loewe (1986), 162, 185–206; Paludan (1998), 41; Wagner (2001), 16–19.