The Decline and Fall of the Han Dynasty

Wang Mang, a relative of the dowager Empress Wang who had served as regent for a child emperor, usurped the Han throne outright in 9 CE and proclaimed a new Xin dynasty, launching a program of radical reforms, including the nationalization of land and a temporary ban on private debt slavery, inspired by an idealized image of the early Zhou. These reforms collapsed in the face of landowner resistance, administrative disorder, and famines worsened by a shift in the course of the Yellow River; the Red Eyebrows rebellion broke out around 18 CE, and Wang Mang was killed by rebels in 23 CE. The Han dynasty was restored two years later, in 25 CE, when Liu Xiu, a distant descendant of the imperial house, was proclaimed Emperor Guangwu and moved the capital from Chang'an to Luoyang, opening the Eastern Han period.