Xin dynasty

The Xin dynasty (Chinese: 新朝; pinyin: Xīn Cháo) was a short-lived Chinese imperial dynasty. It lasted from 9 to 23 AD. In Chinese history books, it is also known as Xin Mang (新莽). It should not be confused with the Xi dynasty or the Xia dynasty.

The dynasty was founded by Wang Mang, a member of the consort kin of the Han dynasty. He took the throne from Emperor Ping of Han and the infant "crown prince" Liu Ying.

The Xin dynasty ruled for more than a decade. Then rebels overthrew it. After Wang Mang died, the Han dynasty was restored by Liu Xiu, a distant descendant of Emperor Jing of Han.

Because of this, the Xin dynasty is often seen as an interregnum of the Han. It divides the Han into the Western Han and the Eastern Han.

Etymology

Chinese dynasties were usually named after the fief (land given to a noble) of their founders. This fits Wang Mang, who had been Marquess of Xin before he became emperor. In 1950, C. B. Sargent suggested that the dynasty's name meant "new," but J. J. L. Duyvendak quickly rejected this idea.

Chauncey S. Goodrich argued that the word xin could have a meaning of its own, but he said it should be read as "renewed" or "renewal" rather than simply "new."

History

After the death of Emperor Wu of Han, the ruling Liu family was weakened by factional struggles, and the power of the imperial clan declined. The Wang family grew powerful under Emperor Cheng of Han, and its leading member, Wang Mang, acted as regent for several young puppet emperors. Wang Mang had greater ambitions than his relatives. He presented himself as a champion of Confucian virtues and took the Duke of Zhou as his model for a good ruler. After Emperor Ping of Han died in 6 AD, he took firm control of the empire. Two years later, he seized the throne and proclaimed the Xin dynasty. His reforms aimed to strengthen the central government, restore the economy, weaken powerful noble families, and help peasants. They gave the new dynasty some much-needed legitimacy, though many officials resented them and did not carry them out. Wang also supported education based on Confucianism. Tensions with the nomadic Xiongnu confederation grew, and Wang gathered 300,000 soldiers on the northern border to stop an invasion.

Soon after the new dynasty began, floods came when the Yellow River changed course. Natural disasters and plagues of locusts caused famines, and Wang Mang lost much of the support he had among the peasants. Desperate peasants turned to banditry, and the most powerful groups along the Yellow River formed rebel armies known as the Red Eyebrows. By 19 AD, large-scale civil war had broken out. The Protectorate of the Western Regions was overrun by the Xiongnu while Wang moved troops to fight the rebels. Smaller rebellions also appeared, including along the Yangtze and in Hubei, where two bands recruited by Han loyalists, led by Liu Bosheng, became known as the Lulin. Wang's armies were defeated at the Battle of Kunyang in 23 AD. Rebels then captured Chang'an and killed Wang Mang. In 25 AD, Liu Xiu was crowned as Emperor Guangwu of Han in Luoyang. By 37 AD, after defeating rivals such as Wang Lang's Zhao state and Gongsun Shu's Chengjia empire, the Han dynasty was fully restored.

Government

Wang Mang reformed the government of the Han dynasty based on his understanding of the Confucian classics and his mistaken ideas about the government of the ancient Western Zhou. Sinologist Li Feng described these reforms as "socialist and imperialist combined." To weaken the nobles, strengthen the central government, and help the peasants, Wang Mang redistributed land from the rich to those who owned nothing. He introduced new taxes on slave owning, prohibited the sale of slaves, and limited how much farmland one family could own. He also nationalized farmland and restored the government's old control of the salt and iron industries. He set up the world's first income tax, but it was abolished in 22 AD because it caused unhappiness among the people.

Wang Mang also replaced the gold currency with bronze coins and forced nobles of marquis rank and lower to exchange their gold for copper coins. These changes helped the struggling government earn needed money, but they made the nobles very angry. He also lowered the status of foreign vassal rulers. In the capital Chang'an, he built the "Nine Temples," where the emperor worshipped the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors instead of his own ancestors, as the Han dynasty had done. He also opened posts at the imperial academies for scholars who supported the Old Texts, which had been dominated by New Text Confucianism. Historians of the Han period mocked his effort to return to the order of the Zhou dynasty, but his reforms inspired later emperors. Li Feng said Wang Mang would have been "the greatest reformer in Chinese history" if his regime had survived.

Emperor