Editing Slavery (section)

=== In antiquity ===
[[File:Wang Mang.jpg|thumb|upright|Chinese Emperor [[Wang Mang]] abolished slavery in 17 CE but the ban was overturned after his assassination.]]
Emperor [[Ashoka]], who ruled the [[Maurya Empire]] in the [[Indian subcontinent]] from 269 to 232 BCE, abolished the slave trade but not slavery.<ref>{{cite web |last=Clarence-Smith |first=William |url=http://www2.lse.ac.uk/economicHistory/Research/GEHN/GEHNPDF/Conf10_ClarenceSmith.pdf |title=Religions and the abolition of slavery – a comparative approach |access-date=August 28, 2013 |archive-date=March 29, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170329055714/http://www.lse.ac.uk/economicHistory/Research/GEHN/GEHNPDF/Conf10_ClarenceSmith.pdf}}</ref> The [[Qin dynasty]], which ruled China from 221 to 206 BC, abolished slavery and discouraged serfdom. However, many of its laws were overturned when the dynasty was overthrown.<ref>{{cite book |publisher=[[Cengage Learning]] |isbn=978-0-618-99238-6 |title=The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History |year=2009 |page=165}}</ref> Slavery was again abolished by [[Wang Mang]] in China in 17 CE but was reinstituted after his assassination.<ref name="Greenwood Publishing Group">{{cite book |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |isbn=978-0-313-33143-5 |title=Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition |year=2011 |page=155}}</ref>