greetings students and welcome to this edition of Mr Z's social studies podcast now on today's edition we're going to be studying some Chinese history specifically we're going to look at the Chin Dynasty and the Han Dynasty but our Story begins with the Chin Dynasty which was ruled by the great chin Emperor chinu hungi now the chin had a relatively short dynastic cycle and you should know that a dynastic cycle is the cycle that every Dynasty goes through where it comes to power rules for a while and then eventually falls apart now we said that the chin had a relatively short dynastic cycle and what I mean by that is they ruled China for a relatively short period of time but even in that short period of time they are going to have a lasting and profound impact on Chinese history for example the chin Emperor instituted a policy known as legalism legalism was the official ideology of the Chin Dynasty and it was based on the belief that all the citizens in the empire were evil now if you're a government and you believe that all your citizens are evil in order to run effectively you need a system of strict laws and harsh punishments punishments that are so harsh in fact that no one would dare to commit a crime now a system like this certainly would reduce the crime rate but it's also not going to be particularly popular among the citizens and that's not the only example of such a policy from the Chin Dynasty the chin were becoming concerned about the growing influence of Confucian Scholars so they would go on to conduct one of History's first book burnings and they also executed many of these Scholars by throwing them into a pit and even some of the great building works of the chin were conducted in a similar manner thousands of people were forced to work against their will on the Great Wall of China construction of the Great Wall of China began during the time of the Chin Dynasty as well as work on the Tomb of the chin Emperor himself now the chin Emperor decided that he wanted to have one of the most opulent tombs in history he wanted to bring his army with him to the afterlife and so he ordered life-size copies made of all the soldiers in his army now this project was never finished by the time that the Chin Dynasty came to the end of its dynastic cycle however literally thousands of these soldiers are buried near the Chinese city of Shian now the chin obviously are going to leave their mark on Chinese history but because they were unpopular they were soon overthrown and replaced by the Han Dynasty now the Han were smart enough to realize the situation in which they had found themselves certainly many policies of the chin were very unpopular and so the Han would come in and make sweeping changes but the Han also realized that the chin had been very successful and so they realized that they would be very wise to retain some of the policies from the Chin Dynasty as well let's look at some of the policies that the Han are going to change as well as some of the things that they are going to keep in place our first example is that the Han are going to get rid of legalism remember legalism was the policy that was based on harsh punishments in order to prevent crime the Han are going to get rid of legalism and they're going to go back to the teachings of confucious confucious was a scholar who lived during the time of the Z Dynasty and was focused on politics and relationships when the Han go back to the teachings of confucious that lasting influence will be carried forward into future dynasties as well the other thing that the Han are going to do is that they are going to consider the family to be the center of Chinese Society they go back to a concept known as fial piety fial piety means that you subjugate your own desires your own interests to whatever is most important for the family now that's going to be a change during the time of the Chin Dynasty it was the chin Emperor who is considered to be the center of Chinese Society now with the Han Dynasty it's once again the family that is at the center of Chinese Society there are though some things that the Han are going to wisely keep from the Chin Dynasty for example the Han retained the chin bureaucracy the chin had a robust Bureau Y in place that was capable of executing uh all of the day-to-day operations of even a very large empire like the chin the Han are going to keep many of those things in place when they take over and begin their own dynastic cycle the other thing that the Han are going to do is keep the chin meritocracy now a meritocracy is a system of choosing officials based on who is the most qualified to do that job that's a pretty novel idea especially for the ancient world but you may ask well how do you determine who's most qualified to do that job well what happened was they would administer what's known as a civil service examination a civil service examination is literally a a written test that was given and based on the results of that test that would determine who was qualified to do a given job so the chin were very successful implementing Civil Service examinations and a meritocracy and that is something else that the Han are going to keep in place when they are ruling China so certainly the Han are going to leave their own impact on China for example Chinese inventions like Printing and paper as well as the compass and even a seismograph which was a rudiment earthquake detector are going to propel China forward the other thing that we see taking place during the Han Dynasty is the beginning of Silk Road trade the Silk Road is going to connect China with Asia and even places as far away as Europe silk along with other goods were traded along this Trade Network so the network would begin in the city of Shian in China and then this Trade Network would stretch all the way to the Middle East India and Rome well as we can see the chin certainly had a profound impact on China but the Han in their own right are going to leave behind a legacy as well and that's it for this edition of Mr Zer social studies podcast I hope that you have enjoyed it and keep studying the social studies