Xin Dynasty

The shortest dynasty in this collection, and the only one with a single ruler. Wang Mang was the nephew of a Han empress — Wang Zhengjun — and he spent thirty years building a reputation for incorruptible frugality before using it to take the throne outright in 9 CE.

What he did with it was the most radical programme of government any Chinese ruler attempted before the twentieth century: land nationalised, private slavery abolished, the currency restructured five separate times, offices and cities renamed wholesale on the authority of texts a thousand years old. Within a decade there was famine, the Yellow River had changed course, and peasants were painting their eyebrows red so they could recognise each other in a fight.

He was killed in his own palace in 23 CE and the Han was restored. His wife did not live to see it.