Daily Life in Han China: City and City Life

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Daily Life in Han China City and City Life

• Background is Lowe 136 Roof tile end
• Most Han were working in agriculture out of town
  we dont know how many couriers, officials,
  tradesmen and artisans were also outside the
  cities. But as many as 18 million, 1/3 of the
  Han, or as few as 6 million, were in cities and
  towns. There were 1500 prefectures in AD 1-2, so
  that many small towns to large cities.
• Town served as administrative center,
  communications hub, a market-place, perhaps
  military headquarters some towns were set up for
  mining or weaving or exploiting other resources
  such as salt.
• A range of cities would be Chang-an the new
  capital with 80,000 households (1/4 million
  people), Lo-yang the former capital with 53,000
  households (200,000 people, Cheng-tu in the west
  (76,000 and 280,000 respectively) and
  Peng-cheng (40,000 and 150,000).
• Both capitals followed early patterns of a double
  enclosure (palace/administrative center
  town-proper). Major buildings faced south and
  the roughly cardinally oriented walls enclosed 25
  km. Each wall had three gateways, wide enough to
  admit 4 carriages each, simultaneously.
• Chang-an was built in early Han by laborers,
  male and female, from the labor tax and full-time
  workers. The outer wall was 16 m (50 ft) at the
  base. Gates had watch towers. Large parallel and
  perpendicular avenues evidently divided the city
  into wards (some 160). There were several market
  places that drew foreigners and these were
  watched by officials assigned to monitor the
  conduct of transactions. Divination was
  practiced here as were occasional public
  execution.
• The imperial enclave was said to be sumptuous,
  with landscaped gardens, ancestral temples,
  observatories, several palaces with audience
  halls, cooled by fanning ice blocks in
  summertime. Palaces were in marked contrast to
  simple houses of the masses. Palaces had
  rounded, half-cylinder tiles that were decorated
  houses used thatch.

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Life in Han China City and City Life 2

• Among the religious buildings were the Hall of
  Brilliance (for divination and other rites), the
  ancestral temples, the Han founding ancestors
  temple is said to have housed large bells.
• South (where yang was dominant) of the city was
  the circular altar of Heaven and north (where yin
  was dominant) was the square altar of Earth.
• Lowe 134 Ceremonial Building
• Two depositories for documents maintained older
  and current records here official Liu Hsiang
  collated and catalogued the texts in 25 BC.
• There were several granaries and stables
  associated with the city, imperial graves, and
  stone bridges crossed the Wei river.

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Life in Han China City Life 1

• After nearly a century of consolidating its
  power, Han set about improving the use of
  man-power (in the mines, fields, in moving goods,
  etc. for this would mean greater government
  revenues.
• Opulent families lived in multi-storied houses
  with large decorated beams and rafters, painted
  stairways, rugs and mats on the floor, etc.
• Beds were beautiful with carved wood, fine
  embroidery drapes, and decorated privacy screens.
  
• The rich wore fine silks in bright colors, furs,
  feathers, fine leather footwear and undertook
  wedding events of opulence.
• They rode about in chariots, spent shamelessly,
  took game out of season, ate meat and drank wine
  daily.
• They appropriated to daily life events formerly
  enjoyed only at festivals--at least, so say the
  detractors of the time who found the wealth and
  ostentation offensive, in poor taste, wasteful of
  resources, and over-indulgent (tiger fights,
  musical performances, in-house orchestras, etc.).
  
• Their practice of religion also brought
  criticism animal sacrifices, devotion to spirits
  and strange powers, various rites and widespread
  superstition.
• It is said that ostentation and hypocrisy were
  particularly noticed in burialsconspicuous
  displays of (buried) wealth and excuses for
  rip-roaring feastingbetter treatment for the
  dead parents than during their lives, some
  critics alleged.

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Life in Han China City Life 2

• Gambling, which was disapproved because it took
  money from others and was non-productive seems
  to have been popular the wealthy also enjoyed
  frivolities such as jugglers, dancers, acrobats,
  musicians, dog or horse racing, etc.
• There were people in-between who were fairly
  well off or still able to have houses,
  occasionally afford silk, and have floor
  coverings. They were exposed to foreigners from
  western Asia, and heard tales of live in foreign
  lands.
• There were many poor who did not have access to
  market foods.
• For every 1 of the wealthy wastrels against
  whom the critics harangue, there were very like
  20 trying to make good and improve their lot in
  Chang-anwe know little about their daily lives,
  however.
• In the provinces, farmers were said to be
  diverted too often from food production to
  helping care for exotic, non-productive animals
  kept by officials.
• Further, it is said that provincial offices
  grossly under-used indentured and slave laborers
  who drew state rations, and allowed them to
  engage in commerce and other money-making
  activities while on the public dole. Meanwhile,
  the bulk of the population was hardworking and
  honest, but living from hand-to-mouth,
  day-to-day.

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Life in Han China the Countryside 1

• LOWE 164, 165, 166 as backdrop for this and the
  next slide.
• The world is based on agriculture begins one
  imperial edictdistinguishing Chinese with
  protection of the emperors government from the
  alien and the nomad. First and foremost , farmers
  produced grain for food and hemp for rough
  peasant clothing.
• The standard of land measurement was the mou, a
  narrow strip of about .11 acre. A wild stab
  would suggest 14 mou/head of the registered
  population (though no such allotment every
  existed). The output can be estimated as 1.5-3
  shih, some 30-60 liters of grain/mou,
  420-840/household and 80-175/person. Compare
  this to the government ration allotted on the
  frontier of 14-43/person. In theory, barring
  natural disasters, there was food and surplus.
• Crops varied from barley in the far nw, to millet
  and wheat in the Yellow R. area, to rich in the
  Yangtze. Besides food, grain was used for
  distilled liquor.
• Farmers spent their year plowing, sowing,
  hoeing,m watering and waiting to see if the
  harvest would be good.
• An innovation ascribved to Han improved yield by
  dividing the mou into three shallow furrows (for
  seed) and three ridges for resting the soil), to
  be alternated each year. Weeding the ridges sent
  dirt and nutrients trickling into the furrows.
  By summer the mou was nearly flat, plants
  established and firmly in the soil. This help
  regulate annual yields but did not revolutionize
  production.
• A new plough came into use about this time it
  was a double ploughshare pulled by two oxen (and
  needing several hands to direct)or men could
  pull if oxen were not available. Again, this
  helped stabilize production but did not
  immediately revolutionize it.
• If land and climate permitted, other undertakings
  could raise profitsstock breeding, pasturing
  horses, raising pigs, keeping fish farms, or
  maintaining bamboo groves. Fruit growing
  increased income as did mulberry orchards and
  fraising silk worms, or raising the lac tree for
  lacquer. Farmers near towns could parlay
  market-gardens into profit.

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Life in Han China the Countryside 2

• Annual Calendar Tsui Shihs agricultural
  text(c. AD 100-170) guides a farm family near
  Chang-an through the year of work here are but
  a few of the tasks
• Month 1
• Keep the festival of the New Years Day on the
  1st day of the 1st month the family must purify
  itself before offering liquor at the ancestral
  shrine and arranging themselves in proper
  (status) order before the ancestors. All
  solemnly raise their goblets for prosperity and
  happiness. Initiate a youth into manhood as
  appropriate.
• Break ground, transplant trees, prune trees,
  manure fields, sow melons, gourds, onions and
  garlic
• Pay dutiful visits to ones social superiors
• Practice archery, repair gates and doors
• Continue to break new ground over the next 5
  months and plant the appropriate plants
• Month 2
• Offer leeks and eggs to lord of the soil and
  spirits of the seasons
• Practice archery, repair gates and doors
• Brew liquor (most months)
• Month 3
• Re-plaster house walls this month and next
  re-lacquer as needed
• Month 4
• Tend mulberry trees and tend silkworms over next
  several months
• Month 5
• Summer Solstice festival
• Cut hay over next several months
• Lay in a supply of firewood and food for the
  rainy season

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Life in Han China Changes in the Countryside and
Land Tenure

• The ethos was extract the maximum harvestfamily
  solidarity helped achieve this end taxation was
  based on the notion of this maximization and
  there were critics of those who encouraged or
  engaged in non-agricultural (frivolous) work.
• Most of the millions of Chinese on the registers
  were small households that worked the land.
• Han agricultural treatises talk about the timing
  and methods of preparing the land, planting,
  tending, preparation of products for multiple
  uses, etc. There were other innovations to
  maximize yields in tight spaces, etc.
• There were also advances in mechanical tools to
  help with farm work a series of hammers linked
  to a fulcrum and run by foot, animal or water
  power could pound earth ramparts as well as beat
  husks off of grain fans separated kernels and
  chaff. Kernels were fed into hand cranked milling
  stone.
• Lifting water by hand from wells and carrying
  water to irrigation channels was laborious
  First, pulleys drew water buckets and these were
  fitted to a pole across the peasants shoulders.
  Second, man-powered water lifting devicesa kind
  of primitive pumpwas developed (a chain of
  containers lifted and dumped water into the
  irrigation channel). Some iron tools were used
  but mostly it remained bone and wooden implements
  in the fields.
• Both forces of nature and governmental help were
  needed for social stability and agricultural
  prosperitygovernment couldnt divert peasants
  from the land (to war or tax them off the land).
• Off the land, some turned to tenancy on estates
  and thus moved outside the government system
  (some turned to banditry, some to begging, etc.).
  AND, that is just what was happening in late
  Hanpeasants displaced to increasingly powerful
  landed and wealthy men while government power
  declined.
• Some agricultural advances noted above may have
  occurred in the context of the estates mills,
  irrigation devices.

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Life in Han China Silk and Lacquerware Industry

• Silk in Han is well known because of surviving
  fragments and commentaries on it BACKGROUND LOWE
  185 FORMAL ROBE
• Silk for centuries was already associated with
  kingly/imperial patronage and clothed the court
  and officialsit is strong and comfortable to
  wear.
• Women tending silk worms and organized pupae of
  the same vintage for reeling their 100-300 m
  filaments at the same time (the naturally long
  thread can be used directly to form warp).
• The loom was set horizontally, warp threatd along
  the length and weft threats inserted over one and
  under the next warp.
• Silk was expensive and worn as long as possible
  tailors patched worn spots of multicolored and
  multi-textured collars, sleeves, bows, sashes,
  footwear, hoods, etc. of the wealthy.
• Men in the in the NW commandery wore
  single-colored rough silk clothing, doubled with
  padding for winter (tunic, trousers, socks,
  shoes undies?).
• Silk bales used by tailors and exported over the
  silk road were raw (undyed) and dyed, with a
  density of weaves (threads/cm) taffeta, gauzes,
  damask, etc. depending on number of warp-to-weft
  threads, etc. Silk was combined with hemp and
  nettle.
• Multicolored patterns included geometric shapes,
  animals, coins, characters, etc.
• East China held the main centers of silk
  production under government oversight and
  destined for elite use and foreign trade.

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Life in Han China Silk and Lacquerware Industry 2

• BACKGROUND LOWE 187 BOWL DESIGN
• Lacquerware crafts and art were well developed
  and products ranged from simple to rich household
  goods, tomb furnishings, furniture, etc.
• Boxes, bowls, ladies hair pins, sword-sheaths,
  shields, carriage parts, coffins, etc. are
  preserved in Han tombs more than 2000 years
  thanks to the quality of the lacquer used (it is
  juice tapped from lac trees from W, NW and E
  China). Completely coated, wood is waterproof.
• There was private (local, personal) production of
  lacquerware and at least three government-sponsore
  d workshops in Han in AD 1-2. Some of their
  wares were exported (Korea). Lesser grades were
  simple products of home (lacquer on wood) and
  higher grades were consumed by the imperial
  court, officials and other wealthy (multiple
  layers of lacquer on a hempen textile.
  Specialists did the priming, lacquering, gilding,
  painting, engraving and polishing and the
  supervising officials name appears on the finest
  works.
• Scarlet and black were basic but Han also used
  green, yellow or blue, gold or silver and did
  inlay in metal and shall.

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Life in Han China Industry and Technology 1

• Some of the technical and engineering advances of
  Han were new or built upon earlier innovations.
  Han noted that immense fortunes had been made by
  a few who operated iron and salt industries and
  government decided to take these over as
  government monopolies.
• Han set up 48 iron-agencies in AD 1-2, mainly in
  the Yellow and Huai river valleys, but a few in
  the NE and SW. Archaeology lends some credence
  to a contemporary claim that 100,000 were in the
  Han iron and copper mines each year.
• Evidence of pits, foundries, living quarters,
  ore-to-finished products and equipment. One site
  has 20 working locations for hammering, sorting
  into ingots, addition of chemicals, etc.
• Many farming tools were produced shares for
  ox-drawn plows, working heads for digging, hoeing
  and weeding occasional seed boxes some were
  cast with foundry name written.
• Weapons for war are more numerous swords,
  spears, arrow tips, cross-bow triggers and other
  parts.
• One bronze foundry is near shafts 100 m (325)
  deep with ladders, iron tools for mining, etc.
  Miners produced 15 kg (35 lb) ingots, stamped
  with the workshops name.
• Iron replaced bronze for tools but not for
  mirrors or minting coin. Also, large decorated
  bronze bells and bell holders.

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Life in Han China Industry and Technology 2

• LOWE 194 salt mine as backdrop
• Salt was taken over by the government from
  private hands as well. Salt was seen as an
  important dietary supplement and regular rations
  of it were given to soldiers in 117 BC Han
  determined to make salt production a state
  monopoly.
• By AD 1-2 there were 34 agencies involved, a
  dozen along the Shandong coast producing sea salt
  that required only evaporation and purification.
• Manchurian and Ordos desert rock and brine salt
  were another matter and required mining
  operations. Workers drilled 600 m (2000 ft) for
  salt and brought salt upward in long buckets
  lowered and lifted by winding gear and pulley.
  Then the material went to a pipeline to drying
  pans (that might have been fueled by natural gas
  fires).
• Critics claimed private production produced
  quality salt and lower prices than the government
  monopoly using unwilling labor.
• 36 years later the benefits of these takeovers
  were being debated on the grounds that
  involvement in mining kept iron tools from the
  agricultural sector and the cost of iron and salt
  mining was too high. Government countered that
  quality control for iron (and salt) required
  monopolies. However, it was pointed out that
  quality and cost of both was comparable or better
  (mostly better) under private ownership because
  of competition and a willing work force.

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Life in Han China Industry and Technology 3

• LOWE 195, CALIPER, 197 WHEELWRIGHT, 198 COG WHEEL
• At the same time during Han, other agencies were
  established to superintend provincial timber
  forests in the W, fruit orchards in the S, fancy
  metal working in the W, etc. to meet the demand
  of the palace.
• Some fairly complex tools and devices had
  developed
• A caliper measured a Chinese foot (10) into
  10ths, important to carpentry. A pace (6) was
  the width of an agricultural mou. The zhang was
  10 and volumes were also measured in 10ths.
  Weight measurements were less regular 24 shu1
  liang 16 liang1 chin 30 chin1 chun 4 chun1
  shih (e.g., 29.5 kg or 64.25 lb)
• Jade cutters (human-powered grinders) were
  invented or in wider use.
• Wheels were cmplicated requiring the correct
  woods for spokes and rims accurate measurement
  strength and easy lubrication.
• Pulleys were used in well houses to raise water,
  in mine shafts to raise ore by signalers to
  raise flags.
• Water was piped through bamboo lengths.
• Water power activated the bellows in iron works
  and water wheels to bring water to the people and
  for washing down the city streets.

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HAN AGRICULTURE AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE DULL BOOKS
I-II