Early China Research Assistant

Maximizing AI for Early China Studies

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Intelligent Person Profiles

AI analyzes historical records to build multi-dimensional biographical profiles, including political status, family relations, and social networks—visualizing ancient figures as intuitively as LinkedIn profiles

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Event Timeline Reconstruction

AI semantic analysis extracts key political events from historical texts, constructing precise timelines that reveal the power dynamics between inner and outer courts

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Relationship Network Visualization

Graph algorithms analyze personal connections, visualizing the complex political, blood, and marital relationships of the Han Dynasty with multi-dimensional interactive exploration

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AI-Powered Deep Analysis

Integrating scholarly frameworks, AI automatically analyzes the roles of space, gender, and family factors in political events, providing research-grade insights

Why ECRA? The Problem with Current Approaches

Traditional databases require exact keyword matching, missing conceptually related terms. Direct LLM usage faces practical constraints:

  • Token Limitations: ChatGPT can only process 8K-32K tokens, far too small for comprehensive Han Dynasty analysis
  • Attention Deficits: Cannot focus on specific historical contexts, producing generic responses
  • Output Inconsistency: Same questions produce different answers, violating scholarly reproducibility

ECRA's Solution: Advanced RAG + Agentic AI Architecture

ECRA employs a sophisticated multi-layered AI architecture that combines several advanced technologies:

  • Agentic AI Preprocessing (CrewAI)Specialized AI agents collaborate to extract and validate relevant historical data from authenticated classical Chinese texts (Shiji, Hanshu, Hou Hanshu) before LLM processing
  • Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)Vector-based semantic search across curated historical texts ensures responses draw from verified sources with precise citations
  • Multi-Turn Conversational ContextMaintains conversation history for deeper, contextual research exploration across multiple dialogue turns
  • Multi-Agent Collaborative ArchitectureDifferent specialized agents work together—one for document retrieval, another for historical context analysis, and others for cross-referencing sources—producing comprehensive, research-grade answers

We believe this integrated approach, when carefully tuned, will achieve research-grade accuracy that far exceeds what general-purpose LLMs can provide, while maintaining scholarly reproducibility and source traceability.

Learn About ECRA

Key Events in Han Dynasty Court Politics

202 BCE
Establishment of Han Dynasty, Liu Bang becomes emperor, initial formation of inner and outer court power structures
180 BCE
Empress Lü's regency, female political influence in the inner court reaches its peak
154 BCE
Rebellion of the Seven States, Empress Dowager Dou influences military decisions through inner court channels
91 BCE
Witchcraft Scandal,典型 event of escalating conflicts between inner and outer courts
184 CE
Yellow Turban Rebellion, political crisis caused by eunuch dominance in late Eastern Han