The Chinese emperor Han Wu-ti (157-87 BC) enlarged China's frontiers, instituted new means of income for the state, and made Confucianism the state orthodoxy.

Han Wu-ti was originally named Liu Ch'e. He came to the Han throne at the age of 16 but did not take the government into his own hands until 131 B.C. He was firmly determined to wield imperial power to a greater extent than any of his predecessors in the (Former) Han dynasty had done. In his administration of justice, for example, all but one of his seven prime ministers between 121 and 88 were convicted of crimes and met violent deaths. The numerous laws were harshly applied throughout the empire, thus creating a style of government unknown among his Han predecessors but strikingly similar to that of Ch'in Shih huang-ti.

Expansion of the Empire

Wu-ti (meaning "martial emperor") was a well-deserved title. His campaigns toward the...