Up until the 7th century CE, Chinese politics mainly remained the same after the Han dynasty. The major differences had to do with the way that the people were governed and how much influence religion had over the government.
Before the Han, there was the Zhou and Qin dynasties, the Zhou was the first to implement the basis of any widespread government, and it is also the first example of continuity during the classical period in China, language. The basis for any governed civilization is a uniform written language and spoken language.
Due to China having multiple indigenous dialects, the Zhou dynasty sought to create a language so that every single person who knows how to read would understand what they needed to do. This language became known as Mandarin Chinese and is still used today as the official dialect of China, it has remained unchanged since the Hans.
Another example of continuity in the politics of Classical China is the way that people were punished for crimes. Even if a person was convicted and had to go to jail, they would really be doing some mental or physical work, which would be used to advance the state, or help the Emperor himself. In other words, unlike in America, where the majority of people convicted and sentenced spend their time in jail, just wasting away, without really doing anything, in China it would be the opposite.
In China, you would be convicted and then you would be forced to work for the country to help it, or you would be subject to some other punishment that the Emperor saw fit.
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However, just like there were continuities in the politics, there were also changes. One of the most noticeable changes included the way that the emperor governed the people. With the Zhou dynasty, along with the Han, followed and used Confucianism as their political and philosophical ideology, whereas the Qin dynasty used Legalism as theirs.
With Confucianism in the Zhou dynasty, the social code was basically like this: treat others as you would want to be treated and don’t annoy your parents, you will get punished and the law is on their side. Since the laws back then were also based on Confucianism, that meant that as long as you did as you were told, then you wouldn’t have a problem.
If you did do something wrong, then it would be up to whoever the emperor appointed as the lord of the area where you lived. With Legalism, it was much harsher. Shi Huang, the founder of the Qin dynasty was said to have the heart of a lion. He established a monarchy and took control of everything, including people.
Because of this, he was not really favored among his citizens, and this era was known as the “Warring- States” period in China. The Qin dynasty also took away power from the aristocrats but gave it to people that were peasants so that they would rely on them and not rebel against the emperor.
After the Qin, it was the Han, and with the Han, came the return of Confucianism. Han Confucianism was similar to Zhou in the way that the power was split up between different people and the rules weren’t as strict.
The final example of continuity is that all three of the dynasties kept the feudalistic ideals. Until the end of the Han dynasty, the emperor ruled through lords. That was the way it was until way later in the twentieth century that there was a total revolution that changed everything in China. Under the Zhou, they were either other nobles/ aristocrats, under the Qin, it was really just one official monarch who had other lords made out of peasants, and under the Han, it was a mixture of both the Zhou and Qin.
The top three people in charge were in charge of different things, one would be in charge of money, one of the actual government, and one would be the absolute head of state.
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The final example of change in the politics of China had to do with the relationship between the emperor and the nobles. Zhou gave power to the nobles, mainly his relatives, because the Zhou’s lacked control over their state, they relied on the nobles and their family members. The Qin gave power to non aristocratic peasants.
This allowed the emperor to have more power, though indirectly because of the sway that he held over the people. And the Han was a mixture of the other two, he had lords under him, but at the same time, there were three people at the top, not just one monarch and a bunch of lords.
In conclusion, until the seventh century CE, Chinese politics mainly remained unchanged after the Han dynasty. The most important differences had to do with the way people were governed and how much control religion had over the law.
