Han Chinese

(noun)

An ethnic group native to East Asia; the Chinese peoples especially as distinguished from non-Chinese (such as Mongolian) people in the population.

Related Terms

Examples of Han Chinese in the following topics:

  • The Mythical Period

    • The Neolithic Chinese cultivated a number of crops; the most important was a grain called millet.
    • Chinese mythology tells a different story of the beginning of civilization.
    • He was considered the founding ancestor of the Han Chinese ethnic group, and is credited with the invention of Chinese characters, silk, and traditional Chinese medicine.
    • Portrait of Pangu, the creator of the universe according to Chinese mythology.
    • Portrait of the first of the Five Emperors, who was considered the original ancestor for Han Chinese.

  • The Mongol Invasions

    • Kublai was unable to read Chinese but had had several Han Chinese teachers attached to him since his early years by his mother Sorghaghtani.
    • He sought the counsel of Chinese Buddhist and Confucian advisers.
    • He bolstered his popularity among his subjects by modeling his government on the bureaucracy of traditional Chinese dynasties and adopting the Chinese era name of Zhongtong.
    • After successfully suppressing the revolt, Kublai curbed the influence of the Han Chinese advisers in his court.
    • However, Kublai rejected plans to revive the Confucian imperial examinations and divided Yuan society into three, later four, classes, with the Han Chinese occupying the lowest rank.

  • Kublai Khan

    • However, Chinese forces ultimately overthrew the Mongols to form the Ming Dynasty.
    • Kublai Khan emerged victorious and established the Yuan Dynasty in China in 1271, perhaps the Mongols' greatest triumph, though it would eventually be overthrown in 1368 by the native Han Chinese, who would launch their own Ming Dynasty.
    • Rivaling dynasties loomed throughout the Chinese territories making for a contentious political background to Kublai's rule.
    • With this success, the Mongols became the first non-Chinese people to conquer all of the Chinese territories.
    • In 1304, the three western khanates briefly accepted the rule of the Yuan Dynasty in name, but when the Dynasty was overthrown by the Han Chinese Ming Dynasty in 1368, and with increasing local unrest in the Golden Horde, the Mongol Empire finally dissolved.

  • The Rise of the Han Dynasty

    • The Han and Chu states emerged as the most powerful, but the Han state was the victor of the Chu-Han Contention, a four-year civil war.
    • The Han Dynasty would become one of the most important and long-lasting dynasties in all of Chinese history.
    • Today, both the majority ethnic group in China and Chinese script are called Han.
    • Emperor Wu also reformed the Chinese economy and nationalized the salt and iron industries, and he initiated reforms that made farming more efficient.
    • Compare the Han Dynasty with the earlier Qin Dynasty, and explain the Western Han period

  • The Eastern Han Period

    • A new Han emperor, Emperor Guangwu, took control and ruled from Luoyang, in eastern China; thus began the Eastern Han period, which lasted from 25-220 CE.
    • Areas that had fallen away from Chinese control, such as Korea and Vietnam, were reconquered.
    • With paper, Chinese texts could circulate on a durable and relatively inexpensive medium, instead of on clay, silk, or bamboo.
    • This allowed Chinese texts to become more readily available and encouraged learning.
    • This ended the Han Dynasty, and started a period of conflict between these three states, called Cao Wei, Eastern Wu and Shu Han.

  • Invention of Paper

    • Paper was invented by Cai Lun during the Han Dynasty of ancient China.
    • Cai Lun (202 BCE-220 CE), a Chinese official working in the Imperial court during the Han Dynasty, is attributed with the invention of paper.
    • After the Battle of Talas in 751 CE, during which the Chinese were defeated, two Chinese prisoners are believed to have leaked the secrets to making paper.
    • These examples of Chinese hemp wrapping paper date from 100 BCE.

  • The Fall of the Han and the Three Kingdoms Period

    • Xian would be the last emperor of the Han Dynasty.
    • With this defeat, most of the hope that the Han Empire would be reunited disappeared.
    • China splintered into three kingdoms ruled by warlords; this marks the beginning of the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history.
    • When the Han Dynasty collapsed in 220 CE, no one was powerful enough to reunify China under a single emperor.
    • The Three Kingdoms in 262 CE after the fall of the Han dynasty.

  • The Silk Road

    • The Silk Road was established by China's Han Dynasty, and led to cultural integration across a vast area of Asia.
    • Through southern and western conquests, the Han Dynasty of China (206 BCE-220 CE) made contact with the Indian cultural sphere.
    • By this century, the Chinese had become very active in the silk trade, though until the Hans provided sufficient protection, the Silk Road had not functioned well because of nomad pirates.
    • Expansion by the Han took place around 114 BCE, led mainly by imperial envoy Zhang Qian.
    • This woven silk textile from the Western Han era was found at Tomb No. 1 at Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan Province.

  • Origins of the Song Dynasty

    • The Song dynasty was an era of Chinese history that began in 960 and continued until 1279.
    • It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or true paper money nationally and the first Chinese government to establish a permanent standing navy.
    • This included the conquests of Nanping, Wu-Yue, Southern Han, Later Shu, and Southern Tang in the south as well as the Northern Han and the Sixteen Prefectures in the north.
    • Using a mass of arrow fire from crossbowmen, Song forces were able to defeat the renowned war elephant corps of the Southern Han on January 23, 971, thus forcing the submission of Southern Han and terminating the first and last elephant corps to make up a regular division within a Chinese army.
    • Song military forces then turned north against the Northern Han, which fell to Song forces in 979.

  • Trade Under the Tang Dynasty

    • There was also a Turkic–Chinese dictionary available for serious scholars and students, and Turkic folksongs gave inspiration to some Chinese poetry.
    • Although the Silk Road from China to the West was initially formulated during the reign of Emperor Wu (141–87 BCE) during the Han dynasty, it was reopened by the Tang in 639 CE when Hou Junji (d. 643) conquered the West, and remained open for almost four decades.
    • The Chinese engaged in large-scale production for overseas export by at least the time of the Tang.
    • Beginning in 785, the Chinese began to call regularly at Sufala on the East African coast in order to cut out Arab middlemen, with various contemporary Chinese sources giving detailed descriptions of trade in Africa.
    • In Fustat (old Cairo), Egypt, the fame of Chinese ceramics there led to an enormous demand for Chinese goods; hence Chinese often traveled there.