Han

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: han

Fief controlled by a daimyo, or territorial lord, during the Tokugawa period (1603 – 1867) in Japan. Collectively, the han resembled a confederation of principalities united under the Tokugawa shogunate. In 1869 the daimyo were requested to surrender their domains to the Meiji emperor; in 1871 they were abolished and replaced by the present-day prefectures.

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Archaeology Dictionary: Han

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[CP]

Chinese dynasty spanning the period 206 bc to ad 220 with an interregnum between ad 9 and ad 25 which separated the early (western) period from the later (eastern) period. The Han Dynasty was the first centralized state in China after the unification of the separate kingdoms by Qin in 221 bc. During the Han Dynasty trade routes to the west were opened and the court instituted monopolies on iron and salt. Some aristocratic burials of the period are extremely rich.

Columbia Encyclopedia: Han

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Han (hän), dynasty of China that ruled from 202 B.C. to A.D. 220. Liu Pang, the first Han emperor, had been a farmer, minor village official, and guerrilla fighter under the Ch'in dynasty. During the period of civil strife that followed the fall of the Ch'in, he advanced from the Huai River valley, defeated his rivals for the throne, and then established himself in Chang'an (see Xi'an) near the old Ch'in capital. Under Liu Pang and the succeeding Han emperors the task of unification begun by the Ch'in was carried further. However, the harsh laws of the Ch'in were repealed, taxes were lightened, the absolute autocracy of the emperor was lessened, and, most importantly, Confucianism was made the basis of the state. The pyramidal bureaucracy of Ch'in administration was retained, and the Han period saw the beginnings of one of the distinguishing features of the Chinese educational and state system, the recruiting of members of the bureaucracy through civil service examinations. The dynasty attained its greatest territorial expanse under the emperor Wu Ti (reigned 140 B.C.-87 B.C.), who extended Han power W to Xinjiang and Central Asia, N to Manchuria and Korea, and S to Yunnan, Hainan island, and Vietnam. One of China's greatest historians, Ssu-ma Ch'ien, flourished during the reign of Wu Ti. The Han emperors ruled for 400 years with one interruption; in A.D. 8 an agrarian reformer usurped the throne and established the Hsin dynasty. This short-lived dynasty has come to mark the division between the Early, or Western, Han period and the Later, or Eastern, Han period, which began A.D. 25, when the Han capital was moved east to Luoyang. The entire Han era was one of political and cultural centralization and expansion. The writing brush and paper and ink came into wide use and the manufacture of porcelain had its beginnings in this period. Many classic texts were edited, and the first dictionary was compiled. The coming of Buddhism increased cultural ties with India and parts of the Middle East. Trade with border states was increased to pacify these regions and to gain their allegiance. The dynasty collapsed c.A.D. 220 and was followed by some 350 years of smaller political units, including the Three Kingdoms and the Tsin dynasty. China was eventually reunited under the Sui dynasty.

Bibliography

See P. Ku, The History of the Former Han Dynasty (tr., 3 vol., 1938-55); Ssu-ma Ch'ien, Records of the Grand Historian of China (tr., 2 vol., 1961); M. Loewe, Everyday Life in Early Imperial China (1968); J. Gernet, Ancient China from the Beginnings to the Empire (tr. 1968); Tung-hsi Ch'u, Han Social Structure (1972).

Dictionary: Han² (hän)

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A Chinese dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220) noted for unifying and expanding its national territory and for promoting literature and the arts.

[Chinese (Mandarin) Hàn.]

Wikipedia: Han

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1 China
2 Korea
3 Japan
4 Vietnam
5 Elsewhere
6 People
7 Miscellaneous
8 See also

Han may refer to:

China

China (漢), an abbreviation or adjectival modifier for things Chinese
Han Chinese (漢族 Hanzu, 漢人 Hanren), the dominant majority ethnic group of China and overseas Chinese
Chinese language (漢語 Hanyu) or Chinese characters (漢字 Hanzi) or Chinese written language (漢文 Hanwen)
Han Dynasty (漢朝 Hanchao, 202 BC – 220 AD), also known as Han China, a Chinese dynasty
Han (state) (韓國 Hanguo), one of seven powerful kingdoms during the Chinese Warring States Period
Han Zhao (漢趙, 304–329), one of the Chinese Sixteen Kingdoms, founded by the Liu family
Cheng Han (成漢, 304–347), another of the Sixteen Kingdoms, founded by the Li family
Southern Han (南漢 Nanhan, 917–971), a kingdom during the Chinese Period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms
Northern Han (北漢 Beihan, 951–979), a kingdom during the Chinese Period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms
Later Han Dynasty (Five Dynasties) (947–950 CE), in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period
Han class submarine, or Type 091 submarine, the first nuclear powered submarine class (SSN) deployed by the People's Liberation Army Navy
Khan (title), or Han in Chinese transliteration, originally Central Asian title for a sovereign or military ruler
Han (surname), also Haan, Hahn or Hann, the Romanized spelling of many Chinese family names: 韓, 韩, 邗, 罕, 寒, 憨, 漢, etc.

Korea

Korea, an abbreviation for Hanguk (한국, 韓國), the Korean name for Korea
an archaic Korean root meaning "great" or "leader"; transliterated into hanja as 韓, 幹, or 刊; see Names of Korea
Samhan, three confederacies of chiefdoms on the southern Korean peninsula in the Proto-Three Han Kingdoms Period
Han (Korean name), a Korean surname (한, 韓 or 漢), also romanized "Hahn"
Han (cultural), a Korean cultural concept of lament
Korean language (한국어 Hangukeo) or Hangul (한글 Hangul)

Japan

Han (administrative division) (藩), a term for feudal clan or fief in Japan
Han, a wooden board hanging throughout a temple complex in a Zen monastery to alert monks of mealtime when out of range of the umpan
Han characters

Vietnam

HAN, the International Air Transport Association code for Noi Bai International Airport serving Hanoi

Elsewhere

Han (North American people), a Canadian First Nation
Hän language, an endangered Native American language spoken by the Hän people
Han-sur-Lesse, Rochefort, Belgium
Han, Turkey
Huns, most notably Attila the Hun

People

Main article: Han (name)

Miscellaneous

Han (trilobite)
Han unification (Chinese character glyph unification) in Unicode
Alternative spelling of title Khan (title), notably in Turkic languages
Han, a type of Central Asian inn, similar to caravanserai
Han (The West Wing), an episode of The West Wing, named for the Korean cultural concept (see above)
Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen, or HAN
Home Area Network or HAN, see Home network
Hydroxylammonium nitrate, a rocket fuel oxidizer and monopropellant

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		Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more
		Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Han". Read more

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