High Level Overview of Chinese History: Han Dynasty VIII
By Gary L. Todd, Ph.D., Professor of History, Sias International University, Xinzheng, China - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4574150
The peace and stability of Emperor Guwangwu's reign, once the empire was reunified, helped improve China's financial situation. The changes that Wang Mang had made to the currencies were revoked and private manufacturers were taxed heavily while the government made large purchases from them for weapons and shields for the army. He also permitted peasants to pay to avoid conscription, relying instead on volunteers to join the army, a system which persisted throughout the Eastern Han. He extended the pay-to-avoid tax to the month of corvée labor, though hiring laborers was becoming more popular at this time. He also worked on restoring marquessates to the relatives of the marquesses who'd been over them before Wang Mang demoted them, further helping to reestablish stability between the Western and Eastern Han dynasties.
When Emperor Ming of Han took the throne in 57, he went further and reestablished price control by resetting up the Office for Price Adjustment and Stabilization and had the government buy grain cheaply to sell to the people when private prices rose, which continued until 68 when 'he became convinced that government hoarding of grain only made wealthy merchants even richer'. He had the ability to address the flooding of the Yellow River because Emperor Guangwu's economic prosperity. By 8 April 70, an edict boasted, the southern branch of the Yellow River, which had been emptying south of the Shandong Peninsula, was 'finally cut off by Han engineering'.
Emperor Zhang of Han, who began to reign in 75, had to deal with an agrarian crisis almost as soon as he took the throne. An epidemic broke out among the cattle in the land and he provided disaster relief to those affected. He would also lighten punishments, such as bastinado, where the feet are whipped, in order to 'restore the seasonal balance of yin and yang and cure the epidemic'. He also updated the calendar which had become inaccurate in the time since Emperor Wu had made changes 200 years before, shifting it back to the one developed under the Zhou dynasty because Emperor Wu's calendar had drifted out of agreement with the seasons. During his reign, the dominant power among the consorts shifted from the empress dowager to the empress when his wife, Empress Dou schemed to have her adopted son proclaimed crown prince through false accusations and other tactics which would lend themselves to corruption and tainting of future reigns.
In 88, Emperor He of Han took the throne, he commissioned Lady Ban Zhao to finish the work of her father and brother, the Book of Han, which 'set an important precident of imperial control over the recording of history and thus was unlike Sima Qian's far more independent work, the Records of the Grand Historian'. He handled various outbreaks of locusts, floods, and earthquakes by cutting taxes, providing government loans, forgiving debts, opening the granaries, and helping people resettle away from the areas affected. He thought that a severe drought that happened in 94 was the result of some type of injustice in the legal system, so he inspected the prisons and found that there were some that were there on false charges and released them. Reportedly, the rain came soon after this. Empress Dowager Dou continued to wield power the court, even hiding who his mother was from him. He enlisted the eunuchs to help him overthrow Empress Dowager Dou, overthrow the Dou clan on charges of treason, and placed the empress dowager under house arrest.
During the reigns of Zhang and He, efforts were made to regain the territory that was lost during the civil wars under the Xin dynasty of Wang Mang, specifically the Tarim Basin, beginning in about 73 and continuing through to about 91. This was undertaken largely because the Kingdom of Yarkand used the area to stage raids on trading parties traveling through the Hexi Corridor, which was Han controlled. There was also more contact with Daqin, or the Roman Empire, learning of its postal network, walled cities, government system of the 'king', most likely the consul, being 'not a permanent figure but is chosen as the man most worthy'. Elephants and rhinoceroses made their way along the Silk Road, as did Buddhism, which made its first appearance around 65 when it was compared to Huang-Lao Daoism.
