The Han dynasty (202 BCE–220 CE) consolidated the unified Chinese empire begun by the Qin, governing through a centralised, salaried bureaucracy staffed increasingly by officials trained in Confucian texts. It began recruiting administrators by recommendation and examination of merit, the seed of the civil-service system that later dynasties would formalise. A hierarchy of commanderies and counties extended imperial administration across a vast territory and population. The state registered households, levied taxes and conscripted labour on an unprecedented scale.
It created the world's first large merit-oriented bureaucracy and the ideal of government by examined learning. That model shaped Chinese statecraft for two millennia and influenced the design of later civil-service systems worldwide.