The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han covers the history and cultures of China between 221 BC and 220 AD, the period during which the first two dynasties of imperial China ruled and which the author has described as the “classical period” of Chinese history.
The author has divided the book into ten thematic, self-contained and easy to read chapters; “The Geography of the Empire”, “A State Organized for War”, “The Paradoxes of the Empire”, “Imperial Cities”, “Rural Society”, “The Outer World”, “Kinship”, “Religion”, and “Literature” in that respective order.
It is a mind –opening, readable historical overview with each chapter containing information that helps enhance the reader’s understanding of the rise, development, and decline of the Qin and Han dynasties. Lewis sheds light on many shaping events in the long history of China’s imperialism and whose residual influence can still be detected at present.
The author expertly interweaves chronology, though in a supporting capacity, to authoritatively address the topic of his discussion in an. With a vivid description of the geographical location of the Qin dynasty, he elucidates the edge it gave to the dynasty over its rivals during the period following the Warring State’s age that lasted between 481 BC and 221 BC. Lewis informatively emphasizes the huge political, social, and cultural influence as well as the historical importance of the Qin Empire given its short reign in power.
The major social re-engineering done by the empire included proclaiming the emperor as semi-divine and reinforcing bureaucracy in Chinese institutions. The author in addition explores the military campaigns of the Qin and Han dynasties, all the way aptly explaining-by use of extracts from Chinese literature of the time-the underlying Confucian culture that the dynasties were founded on.
According to Lewis, five compelling transformations of the Chinese society took place during the reigns of the Qin and the Han dynasties;
- The unification of diverse Chinese empires: Lewis strongly argues that early Chinese empires were not only diverse but highly disintegrated. Yet the Qin dynasty managed to truly unite all the empires to form one China as we know it today. He however notes and stresses that this first unification covered only some aspects of the Chinese society such as intellectual and political aspects, while other equally important aspects such as cultural and economic regionalism remaining largely unaltered. This contradiction would later contribute to the collapse of the Qin and Han Dynasties.
- The establishment of a universal language and writing system: During the “classical” period, all those who sought employment with the empire had to adopt a new, single system of writing as well as a universal language contrary to the norm in the previous regimes whereby several languages were accepted as official languages and as many writing systems used. The new policy, Lewis observes, led to the development of a significantly large catalog of homogeneous philosophy and literature.
- The emergence of a stable, elite upper class: Lewis elucidates that kinship networks, trade, as well as large-scale landholding led to the creation of an extremely wealthy social class that virtually controlled the majority of wealth in the empire. He further notes that the largest and most powerful of the elite clans wielded even greater power than the courts; one of the most forceful factors that led to the collapse of the Han dynasty.
- The elevation of the emperor’s stature to “semi-divine”: Before the emergence of the Qin dynasty, the ruler of the previous dynasties was merely a king of kings. But the emergence of the Qin dynasty saw the stature of the emperor elevated to almost semi-divine. He became “not merely the supreme ruler, chief judge, and high priest, but the embodiment of the political realm” (2). Lewis argues that it is this distraction from reality that would influence negatively the course of Chinese history long after the emperor ceased to have real power.
- The demilitarization of the peasant farmers: The previous dynasties conscripted peasant farmers into their armies, but starting with the Qin dynasty professional troops derived from northern and western nomads, mercenaries, and prisoners made up the army. Lewis centers on two particular reasons-among many- for the change; the unification of China to a single-state empire as opposed to a multi-state empire with numerous rival kingdoms in constant war with each other over dominion, as well as tactical and technological advancements, more so the shift in the direction of cavalry-centric armies which preferred long-term enlistments over forcibly recruited civilians.
The strengths of the book as a scholarly source of history
Early Chinese Empires is an outstanding work of scholarly synthesis that achieves a considerably high standard of historical accuracy, as well as covering a notably extensive range of topics broken down into sections such as literature, foreign contacts, legal codes, state religion, and family structure, law, among others.
In addition, due to its relatively small but adequately comprehensive structure, the book would certainly be appealing to students of Chinese history as well as to the general reader. Moreover, Lewis enhances historical credibility of his work through the use of considerable amount of primary data, archeological evidence as well as secondary sources such as other contemporary works touching on the same topic.
Lewis leaves few subjects unattended to in this synthesis and the book’s account of ancient Chinese institutions for historical survey purposes is tremendous. His discussion on the important relationship that exists between language and law is particularly intriguing. In one example, Lewis states that “law, in this tradition of commentary, was the quintessential expression of the social powers of language” (238).
Weaknesses of the book as a scholarly source of history
While written in an engaging style that is easy to follow, the book fails to provide a linear and chronological history of the two dynasties- perhaps assuming too much prior knowledge on the general reader’s part, thus making it quite hard particularly for a general reader to understand and follow some chapters.
In addition, contrary to classical Chinese historiography, the author focuses too much on the institutions as well as the overall situation at the time, paying very minimal attention to historical characters and events. Although Lewis has done a commendable job in highlighting the fetes achieved by historical figures such as Sima Qian and Ban Gu, he should have also considered discussing in more depth other key historical characters, such as Xiang Yu and Qin Shihuangdi, who also impacted greatly on the fate of the two dynasties.
Moreover, Lewis seldom pauses to explain-or at least acknowledge-with any depth alternative theories to the ones he has proposed concerning the two ancient Chinese dynasties.
Conclusion
Lewis’ work, by virtue of elaborately covering a widely range of topics on the history of Qin and Han dynasties, is a remarkable and reliable source of the history of the two dynasties and of ancient China in general-despite its weaknesses. The text’s relatively small but adequately comprehensive structure also certainly appeals to students of Chinese history, as well as the general reader.
Work Cited
Lewis, Mark, Edward. The early Chinese empires: Qin and Han. New York: Harvard University Press, 2007. Print.