10. China's Han Dynasty - The First Empire in Flames
Fall of Civilizations Podcast
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Sumachien's Punishment
Emperor woo had transformed the empire from a frightened and unstable entity into a confident imperial state. But in his old age, he became plagued with the same kind of paranoia as the emperor chin nearly a hundred years before. He began doling out excessive punishments to members of the court who he believed were spreading rumors about him. The most tragic case is the punishment of suma chien, the old historian who spent his life writing his text - the records of the grand historian. It was expected that any member of the court would take their own life before the sentence was carried out but sumachien refused. In the end, the emperor commuted his sentence to only the second most severe punishment
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