claiming the title Emperor Gaozu of Han. His dynasty ruled for four centuries, expanding its territory across much of what we now call China. It united the warring kingdoms and spread Confucianism.

Following a period of civil war after the succession of Qin Shi Huang’s son in the Qin Dynasty, rebel leader Liu Bang defeated his rivals and became Han Gaozu, the First Emperor of the Western Han ...

During his reign (140-87 B.C.), the most prosperous period of the Han Dynasty, Liu Che, Emperor Wudi, expanded the territory of the empire from the Central Plain to the Western Regions (present ...