A graph superimposes the growth–decline curves of major Early Rider Empires, from 600 BCE to 600 CE. Compared to running messengers, the Achaemenid empire sharply boosted message speed by using horse relay stations. A major rise in empire area resulted, also helped by split delegation of provincial power. The Xiongnu steppe empire broke the Achaemenid size record hugely but briefly, while Han did so longer but minimally. Rome fell short in size but lasted longer. By population size Han mostly was top, but Maurya and Rome at times surpassed it. Most of these empires profited from religious tolerance, compared to previous theocracies; Sassanids were an exception. The Qin-Han rule established a harsh centralized bureaucracy, while Rome limited it, allowing for local autonomy. Han official contact with Hellenic Bactria in 127 BCE marks the first indirect linkage of states from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

In this last chapter, I focus exclusively on the monumental work of history the Shiji, by Sima Qian, the Grand Archivist at the court of Emperor Wu of the Han empire. Out of the 130 chapters of the Shiji, I focus on the two, namely the “Huozhi Liezhuan” and the “Pingzhun shu,” that primarily deal with the economic history of the entire civilized world, up to the time of the Han empire. I argue that Sima Qian mobilized historical narratives to offer a sharp critique of what he perceived to be the problems with Han imperialism as it developed under Emperor Wu. The Shiji, in this sense, was a critical deployment of the field of the past; Sima Qian engaged with the past less to advance a new political order than to deconstruct an existing one. The Shiji was a critique all the way down.

This chapter focuses on the first decades of the Han empire, and how members of the political elite dealt with the problematic legacy of the Qin empire. In particular, I discuss two distinct attempts at rehabilitating the idea of antiquity as a meaningful thing, and reasserting the historical field as relevant to the the construction of a viable political order. First, I discuss the oeuvre of the politician Jia Yi, and how he repurposed the model for engaging with the past in the Analects and argued for the urgent need to recognize once again the great utility of the past in devising political orders. Then, in the last part of the chapter, I discuss the writings of Lu Jia, another early Han politician, specifically his essay “Foundation of the Way.” In this text, Lu Jia presents a peculiar teleological narrative of the civilizing progress from antiquity to the recent past that culminates in the composition of the Five Classics. With its commitment and subjugation of the historical field, Lu Jia evinces a complex attitude towards the legacy of the Qin that was at once sharply critical and deeply sympathetic.