Han Success

     The Han Dynasty is one of the more successful dynasties of China. The early Han government was centered around Chang'an. However, it was found to be more convinient to give power to city rulers instead of just giving power to the emperor. A centralized government had brought the Han Dynasty many gift. Some of these gifts are growing population, increased wealth, and political institutions. The centralized government helpe the Han Dynasty in many ways. These changes took the Han rulers by surprise though. Though they were seen as good things, since the rulers could not able to adjust to these things, these gifts became bad things. The Han government was different from the government of the previous Qin government that had used the Legalist school of thought for government. The Han government used the Confucian school of thought instead. Confucianism was the preferred school of thought by most Han emperors in matters of ethics, politics, and religion. The Han Dynasty used a very sophisticated way of choosing their government officials. They used civil service examinations. The civil service examination was instituted by Emperor Wu Di. The civil service examinations were exams thatr tested the potential officials in the Confucian classics. The way these candidates for the examination were chosen was that they were elected by senior officials. However, the best candidates were not always chosen. Many times the senior officials would choose someone from their own family or someone form the family of a friend. This made it alot easier for the illegitimate candidates. The people that had been legitamately chosen were more successful. The canidiates were supposed to be people that were well educated and had integrity.  (http://www-chaos.umd.edu/history/imperial.html)


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