Why is wu ti important

Wu-ti was so fond of Confucian thought that he created and established schools that taught only Confucian thought. Confucianism experienced success throughout China mainly because of Wu-ti's advisor who was Tung Chung-shu.

Tung Chung-shu was the founder of the "Mandate of Heaven" idea. The "Mandate of Heaven" was the idea that a ruler was under Heaven's rule. The success of a ruler was based upon how favorable the Heaven's looked upon him. Therefore, any ruler's success on the battlefield would be perceived as showing the favor of Heaven.

Because of his success in battle that many people recognized Wu-ti as one ruling with the supreme authority of Heaven. Wu-ti's reign had a long lasting affect on Han China. He was able to gain control of the territory between the Yangtze and the Great Wall and roughly set the political boundaries of China.

They travelled with both cattle and sheep. The records indicate that they passed Dunhuang, crossed the Tarim Basin and reached Kucha. Eventually, the got to the Wu-sun kingdom along the River Ili. This opened up the lines of communication and kingdoms interested in having good relations with the Han began sending their own envoys to the Chinese court.

The new ties formed between the Han and the various kingdoms in the west also helped increase international trade, and the traffic on the Silk Road flourished. His health was not in good condition when got back, and he died the following year BC , appoximately 50 years old.

The stories from his adventures came to have a profound impact on writers and artists for centuries, and he is still honored for his positive impact on trade along the Silk Road. These horses were larger and better muscled than they Chinese horses, and also had a remarkable stamina.

Unspurprisingly, the Han Emperor wanted to procure this type of horse for his army, but it proved more difficult than expected. The yin translated as "shaded" regulated all that was dark, cold, female, and submissive. The winter season was thought to be the annual zenith of yin while the summer was the dominant season for yang.

All that was warm, bright, and male was under the control of yang translated as "sunlit". Under the Han dynasty, an elaborate system of categorization was worked out classifying nearly every creature, territory, and substance as either a force of yin or yang. The practice of alchemy also emerged when Li Shao-Chun first claimed to have turned cinnabar into gold around B.

In classic Chinese mythology, the earth was divided into "Nine Mansions," each represented in a diagram handed down from Heaven. The diagram showed a square divided into nine equal regions, each containing a single number, one through nine. When the numbers from any three squares in a row were added, the sum was This unity of form was thought to encapsulate one of nature's most divine secrets and the mystical plan was used by later emperors, including the Han, in constructing the capitol city at Chang'an.

The Nine Mansions, as the ultimate map of the world, pointed in the eight cardinal directions on the compass, with the ninth reserved for the location of the "Son of Heaven," or emperor.

In Wu-ti's case, this Mansion was Chang'an. He built a magnificent palace in the city decorated with jewels and paintings of the Chinese pantheon. The city itself featured wide avenues lined by fruit trees and was guarded by earthen walls feet thick. Chang'an also boasted opulent gardens that served as royal hunting preserves as well as numerous temples and monasteries inhabited by Taoists, Buddhists, and Persian worshippers of Zoroaster.

Its residents also enjoyed bath houses, libraries, and two thriving market places. Wu-ti's expansive conquest, together with his civil building projects, weakened the royal treasuries. Consequently, he was forced to raise taxes, a historically unpopular practice.

His reign of more than fifty years was one of the most famous in Chinese history. Wu-ti devoted himself to military conquests and territorial expansion besides introducing many domestic reforms. While Marius and Sulla were invading the Mediterranean world in the West, Wu-ti built his powerful empire and stretched it from North Korea in the east far west tino Central Asia.

Throughout the Chin and Han period BC AD China's most formidable foreign opponent was the Xiongnu , a Turkish-speaking nomadic tribe which, at its apex of power early in the second century BC, held sway over a territory that extended all the way from Eastern Mongolia to the Aral Sea.

From time to time its cavalrymen rode southward and raided China, much to the distress of the people in the border. The Chinese built the Great Wall to protect themselves but even that was not enough.

So when Wu-ti took over the empire, he only had two things in mind - defense and trade. Wu-ti planned to form an alliance with the Xiongnu's old enemies, the Yueh-chih people to attack the Xiongnu from the east and west together. Wu-ti now needed a man with great physical strength and noble character to take the journey to Yueh-chih, where is thousands miles away. He left with hundred men. On his way, he and his men were captured by the Xiongnu in Hexi Gansu Province for more than 10 years.

He was well treated by the Xiongnu and married to a Xiongnu wife. With her, they had a son. However he never forgot his mission to Yueh-chih in the west and managed to escape. With great determination, Chang Ch'ien continued to travel westward the "northern route", along the southern Tien Shan, passed over Kashger and then the Pamirs. He resumed his journey to the west after the king informed him that the Yueh-chih had imgrated from the Ili river to the Amu Dar'ya river.

By the time Chang Ch'ien reached the Yueh-chih people, they had already abandoned their nomadic life and become sedentary and civilized people. They lived in peace and contentment in the fertile Bactria and no longer wanted to return to the east or revenge on the Xiongnu. Chang Ch'ien lived among the Yueh-chih for more than a year, then made his way back to the east.