During the Han Dynasty, China officially became a Confucian state and prospered domestically through agriculture, handicrafts and commerce. The population reached 50 million and the empire extended its political and cultural influence over Vietnam, Central Asia, Mongolia, and Korea before it finally collapsed under a mixture of domestic and external pressures. The first of the two periods of the dynasty, namely the Former Han Dynasty or the Western Han Dynasty 206 BC - AD 9 seated at Chang'an and the Later Han Dynasty or the Eastern Han Dynasty 25 - 220 seated at Luoyang. …
