War and Culture In China
Must Divide: The Fall of The Han Dynasty
"The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been", the novel Three Kingdoms best does the best job of summarizing the dynastical rise and fall in China (Luo 3). Even though the end years of the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period that followed, it's usually glorified in numerous Chinese literary works. The imperial court of Han was tormented by corruption. A significant part of the fault for the defeat of the dynasty in Guanzhong's The Three Kingdoms was because of the eunuchs, yet there were more factors that influenced this. One such factor was the immoderate powers held by specific families in court. Their impact was similarly as extraordinary as that of the eunuchs and played a crucial part in lessening the authority of the Emperor. Additionally, a displeased peasantry experience from natural disasters that overtook the empire prompted an extensive-scale uprising. Because of a weak central government, the military leaders turned more powerful as a ramification of the rebellion. As a result, in spite of the fact that the corruption of the eunuchs contributed to the decline of the Han Dynasty, the real reasons behind the dynasty's collapse were the staggering impact powerful clans had within the empire and the natural disasters that befell a disgruntled peasantry.
The Han Dynasty was the most lengthy imperial dynasty, which lasted for more than four hundred years. The story of the dynasty's basis began with a brawl between Liu Bang() and his competitor Xiang Yu() after the collapse of the Qin Dynasty.
While the Han Dynasty experienced a lot of technological and cultural progression (Rhoads 68), it could not avert its wither from within the court in the later half of its reign. During this period, particularly amid the rule of Emperor Huan (), there was a continuous power struggle between the palace eunuchs and the court officials. While the court officials acquired their office by caliber, the palace eunuchs acquired their influence through their close association with the emperor. One of the most remarkable occasions during the rule of Emperor Huan was his mistreatment of civil and military officials while investing his trust in the palace eunuchs. This significantly debilitated the central government and expanded the corruption within the court. At the point where Emperor Huan passed away, and the new Emperor Ling () got the throne, the court officials anticipated that they could save the Imperial court from certain havoc by taking away the influence of the eunuchs. Nonetheless, they were ineffective, and the officials were arrested or executed from office (Guang 34). From that point, the eunuchs turned out to be dominant, and the emperor recognized that he looked up to them, and this contributed significantly to the events that came after. (Guang 52).
In the last years of the Han Dynasty, the individuals that were...
