Page 49 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

CHAPTER II

^THE* HAN DYNASTY, 206 B.C. TO 220 A.D.

TWO centuries of internecine strife between the great feudal
princes culminated in the destruction of the Chou dynasty

and the consolidation of the Chinese states under the

powerful Ch'in emperor Cheng, If this ambitious tyrant is famous

in history for beating back the Hiung-nu Turks, the wild nomads of

the north Avho had threatened to overrun the Chou states, and for

building the Great Wall of China as a rampart against these dreaded

invaders, he is far more infamous for the disastrous attempt to burn

all existing books and records, by which, in his overweening pride,

he hoped to wipe out past history and make good to posterity his

arrogant title of Shih Huang Ti or First Emperor. His reign,

however, was short, and his dvnastv ended in 206 B.C. when his

grandson gave himself up to Liu Pang, of the house of Han, and

was assassinated within a few days of his surrender.

The Han dynasty, which began in 206 B.C. and continued till

220 A.D., united the states of China in a great and prosperous empire

with widely extended boundaries. During this period the Chinese,

who had already come into commercial contact with the kingdoms

of Western Asia, sent expeditions, some peaceful and others warlike,

to Turkestan, Fergana, Bactria, Sogdiana, and Parthia. They even

contemplated an embassy to Rome, but the envoys who reached

the Persian Gulf turned back in fear of the long sea journey round

Arabia, the length and danger of which seem to have been vividly

impressed upon them by persons interested, it is thought, in pre-

Aventing their farther progress. ^ considerable trade, chiefly in

silks, had been opened up between China and the Roman pro-

vinces, and the Parthians who acted as middlemen had no desire

to bring the two principals into direct communication.

Needless to sav, China was not uninfluenced bv this contact

^ See Hirth, China and the Roman Orient.

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