At its peak, the territory of the Western Han Dynasty reached the sea in the east and south, the Balkhash Lake, Fergana Valley and Conglin Mountain in the west, Yunnan, Guangxi and central Vietnam in the southwest, the desert in the north and the northern part of the Korean Peninsula in the northeast.
Xiang Yu named Liu Bang as the "Forty-one County of Bashu Hanzhong" and Hanzhong as the "Hanwang" under his rule. When he became emperor, he named the country the name of the dynasty. Chang 'an, the capital of Liu Bang, is located in the west of Luoyang, the capital of Han Dynasty established by Liu Xiu. For the sake of distinction, it was called "Western Han Dynasty" in history, and sometimes it was called "Xijing" according to the relative position between the capital and the Han Dynasty built by Liu Xiu. The Han Dynasty established by Liu Bang preceded the Han Dynasty established by Liu Xiu, so it was also called "pre-Han Dynasty" in history.
The Western Han Dynasty was a peak of China's cultural development, with all-round social, economic and cultural development and increasingly frequent foreign exchanges, becoming one of the most powerful countries in the world at that time. The capital of the Western Han Dynasty was Chang 'an (now northwest of Xi City, Shaanxi Province). Mausoleums are all over Guanzhong, and cultural relics are very rich, showing a colorful era style of "Han and the world".
During the Western Han Dynasty, the use of Niu Geng and ironware gradually became popular. Handicraft industry has also made great progress. In particular, the textile industry and porcelain production are developed. The Western Han Dynasty was a very developed dynasty in ancient China. Social stability and developed transportation provide a good environment for business development. Not only domestic trade, but also foreign trade is very developed. Through the Silk Road, the Western Han Dynasty even had indirect trade relations with Da Yue, India, Parthian Empire, Roman Empire and other countries. The culture of the Western Han Dynasty also had a certain influence on East and Southeast Asian countries at that time. Toe Secretariat in north-central Vietnam, four counties in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula and Japan in the yayoi period were all influenced by the culture of the Western Han Dynasty to some extent.
The civil strife in the late Qin Dynasty and the Chu-Han War led to the decrease of the national population during this period. After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, the political measures of "governing by doing nothing and recuperating" have been recuperated for more than 60 years. By the third year of yuanshou (120), the national population will reach 40 million. Since the third year of Yuanshou (120), natural disasters have been frequent and taxes have been heavy. By the end of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (9 1), the national population was only 32 million. After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the latter learned a lesson and adopted a policy of recuperation. According to the two-year household registration survey of Emperor Han Ping, the household registration reached 12366470 and the population reached 59,594,978. According to Ge Xiongjian, a professor of history at Fudan University, the actual population at that time exceeded 65 million.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there was a so-called "Confucianism, Mohism and Taoism". After the Qin Dynasty's subjugation, the Han Dynasty learned from the lessons of the Qin Dynasty's subjugation and first ruled the country with Taoism, which was Huang Lao's method. By the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, great changes had taken place in his thoughts, that is, "to oust a hundred schools of thought and respect Confucianism alone", which was the beginning of the profound influence of Confucianism on China culture.
Confucianism recovered the fastest after Qin's death, and developed into the Confucian Classics with Han characteristics (see the List of the Inheritance of Confucian Classics in the Western Han Dynasty for details). Because of its exclusive admiration for Confucianism, Confucianism absorbed a large number of legalists' theories and incorporated legalists' thoughts into its own system, which made Confucianism in the Han Dynasty fundamentally different from that in the pre-Qin period. This process is sometimes called the legalization of Confucianism. As a result, the so-called "Confucianism outside and law inside" came into being.
Legalist thought did not die with the demise of the Qin Dynasty. It is still one of the most influential theories in the early Han Dynasty. Representative figures include Chao Cuo and Zhang Tang. However, in the Han Dynasty, there was a new development and change in Legalism, that is, Legalism Confucianism. In the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, since Zhang Tang, Confucianism and Buddhism gradually prevailed. By the Eastern Han Dynasty, Legalists had completed Confucianism, disappeared and became a part of the core of Confucianism.
Among the border countries, Xiongnu was the most contacted in the Western Han Dynasty. As early as the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, sent troops to crusade against the Huns, but he was still trapped in the "encirclement of Deng Bai" after his failure. By the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu had been conquered for twelve times, once driving the Xiongnu out of Mobei. However, with the continuation of the conquest, the Xiongnu problem has never been completely solved.
During the reign of Xuan Di, the civil strife in Xiongnu became more and more serious. First five khans fight each other, and then three khans fight each other. The Han Dynasty made full use of the contradictions within the Huns, fostered Uhaanyehe, and killed Zhi Zhi Khan, a northern Hun, in Kangju in the third year (36 years) of Emperor Zhao Jian of the Han Dynasty, unifying the southern Huns into a vassal state of the Han Dynasty, thus solving the Huns problem since the early Han Dynasty.
In order to deal with the Huns, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Zhang Qian to the Western Regions twice, trying to contact the countries in the Western Regions to attack. Although it failed to achieve its goal, this trip deepened the exchanges between the Western Regions and the Han Dynasty. In the fourth year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (10 1 years ago), the Han army began to open up wasteland in Wubao and Yuli in the western regions, which was the beginning of the extension of the influence of the Han Dynasty to the western regions. After that, most western countries surrendered to the Han dynasty and accepted the knighthood of the Han dynasty. In the second year of Emperor Xuandi's reign (60 years ago), the administrative agency of the Western Regions, the Western Regions Metropolitan Government, was formally established, and the Western Regions were formally incorporated into the territory of the Han Dynasty. After the reunification of the Central Plains Dynasty, the western regions were often included, and even in the Ming Dynasty, Turpan and Hami were also included.