Legalism remained influential until the emperors of the Han Dynasty adopted Daoism and later Confucianism as official doctrine.

Confucianism was particularly strong during the Han Dynasty, whose greatest thinker was Dong Zhongshu, who integrated Confucianism with the thoughts of the Zhongshu School and the theory of the Five Elements.

The system of Chinese astrology was elaborated during the Zhou dynasty ( 1046 – 256 BC ) and flourished during the Han Dynasty ( 2nd century BC to 2nd century AD ), during which all the familiar elements of traditional Chinese culture – the Yin-Yang philosophy, theory of the 5 elements, Heaven and Earth, Confucian morality – were brought together to formalise the philosophical principles of Chinese medicine and divination, astrology and alchemy.

When the site was excavated by Soviet archaeologists during 1941-45, they realized that they had discovered a building absolutely unique for the area: a large ( 1500 square meters ) Chinese-style, likely Han Dynasty era ( 206 BCE – 220 CE ) palace.

A Han Dynasty ( 202 BC – 220 AD ) Chinese miniature model of two residential towers joined by a bridge

A Han Dynasty oil lamp with a sliding shutter, in the shape of a kneeling female servant, 2nd century BC

The Han Dynasty ( 202 BC – AD 220 ) emerged in 206 BC, with its founder Liu Bang proclaimed emperor in 202 BC.

Under the Han Dynasty, China made great advances in many areas of the arts and sciences.

Han Dynasty general Ban Chao expanded his conquests across the Pamirs to the shores of the Caspian Sea.

In AD 9, the usurper Wang Mang claimed that the Mandate of Heaven called for the end of the Han dynasty and the rise of his own, and he founded the short-lived Xin (" New ") Dynasty.

Emperor Guangwu reinstated the Han Dynasty with the support of landholding and merchant families at Luoyang, east of Xi ' an.

This new era would be termed the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Taking advantage of civil war in the Jin Dynasty, the contemporary non-Han Chinese ( Wu Hu ) ethnic groups controlled much of the country in the early 4th century and provoked large-scale Han Chinese migrations to south of the Yangtze River.

The History of the Former Han Dynasty by Pan Ku.

* Hill, John E. Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE.

China in Central Asia: The Early Stage 125 BCE – CE 23: an annotated translation of chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty.

Confucianism originated as an " ethical-sociopolitical teaching " during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han Dynasty.

Confucian ethics is characterized by the promotion of virtues, encompassed by the Five Constants, or the Wuchang ( 五常 ), extrapolated by Confucian scholars during the Han Dynasty.

During the Warring States Period and the early Han Dynasty, China grew greatly and the need arose for a solid and centralized cadre of government officers able to read and write administrative papers.

During the Han Dynasty, Confucianism developed from an ethical system into a political ideology used to legitimize the rule of the political elites.

Mohism though popular at first due to its emphasis on brotherly love versus harsh Qin Legalism, fell out of favour during the Han Dynasty due to the efforts of Confucians in establishing their views as political orthodoxy.

Legalism remained influential until the emperors of the Han Dynasty adopted Daoism and later Confucianism as official doctrine.

Confucianism was particularly strong during the Han Dynasty, whose greatest thinker was Dong Zhongshu, who integrated Confucianism with the thoughts of the Zhongshu School and the theory of the Five Elements.

During the Qing Dynasty many philosophers objected against Neo-Confucianism and there was a return to the Han Dynasty Confucianism, and also the reprise of the controversy between Old Text and New Text.

yet some must have survived, because the old interest in number symbolism, divination, and magic persisted on into the Han dynasty, which succeeded in reuniting China and keeping it together for a longer period ( from 202 B.C. to A.D. 220 ).

During the Han dynasty, another Yin-Yang conception was applied to the Lo Shu, considering the latter as a plan of Ancient China.

taking the former from the Five Sacred Mountains of the Han period and the latter from the principal river systems of Old China.

This is due to the rich historical record of astronomical phenomena which, in China, stretches back into the Han dynasty, in the second century BC.

** Han Chinese, the dominant ethnic group in mainland China, Taiwan and Singapore

* Chinese language, a language or family of languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China

The conventional view of Chinese history is that of alternating periods of political unity and disunity, with China occasionally being dominated by steppe peoples, most of whom were in turn assimilated into the Han Chinese population.

* Early Medieval China is a journal devoted to academic scholarship relating to the period roughly between the end of the Han and beginning of the Tang eras.

From the late 17th century onwards a whole body of literature known as the Han Kitab developed amongst the Hui Muslims of China who infused Islamic thought with Confucianism.

Confucianism " largely defined the mainstream discourse on gender in China from the Han dynasty onward ," and its strict, obligatory gender roles as a cornerstone of family, and thus, societal stability, continue to shape social life throughout East Asia.

The Six Dynasties era saw the rise of the Xuanxue philosophical school and the maturation of Chinese Buddhism, which had entered China from India during the Late Han Dynasties.

Mongolian hotpot is very famous in China and popular with the Han ethnic group too.

Further east, the military history of China, specifically northern China, held a long tradition of intense military exchange between Han Chinese infantry forces of the settled dynastic empires and the mounted nomads or " barbarians " of the north.

Chiang Kai-shek considered both the Han Chinese and all the minority peoples of China, the Five Races Under One Union, as descendants of Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor and semi mythical founder of the Chinese nation, and belonging to the Chinese Nation Zhonghua Minzu and he introduced this into Kuomintang ideology, which was propagated into the educational system of the Republic of China.

In 2 CE during the Han Dynasty, China held a census still considered by scholars to be quite accurate It found 57. 67 million people registered in 12. 36 million households.

A miniature guard wielding a handheld crossbow from the top balcony of a model watchtower, made of glazed earthenware during the Han Dynasty | Eastern Han era ( 25 – 220 AD ) of China, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

For example, it denies Yue Fei, a " Han Chinese " who fought for China against the Jurchens, a place as a " hero of China ".

* The Twenty-Four Histories, a collection of authoritative histories of China, including the Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian and the Book of Han by Ban Gu.