8 major Chinese dynasties

Chinese history

Today China has one of the world’s most developed civilizations with a rich history of its origin. After a long period of primitive society, around the twenty-first century B. C., the first Chinese dynasty - Xia (2070 B. C. - 1600 B. C.) appeared. The Chinese community entered the slave society. The Xia Dynasty, Shang Dynasty (1600 B. C. - 1046 B. C.) and the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046 B. C. -771 B. C.), further developed the slavery system. The period of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States (770 B. C. - 221 B. C.) is considered to be a transitional stage from slavery to a feudal society. The slavery system was bound to collapse. In 221 B. C., Qin Shi Huang ended the Warring States Period and established China’s first centralized and unified multi-ethnic country, namely - Qin.

Through the evolution of history and the changing of dynasties, Han, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasty, China had been a country of feudalism. Feudalism lasted until the Opium War in 1840.

List of Chinese dynasties:

1. Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors (三皇五帝)
2. Xia dynasty (夏朝) (2070 - 1600 BC)
3. Shang dynasty (商朝) (1600 - 1046 BC)
4. Zhou dynasty (周朝) (1046 - 256 BC)
5. Qin dynasty (秦朝) (221-206 BC)
6. Han dynasty (汉朝) (206 BC - 220 AD)
7. Three Kingdoms Period (三国时代) (220-280)
8. Jin dynasty (晋朝) (265-420)
9. Sixteen Kingdoms (十六国) (304-439)
10. Northern and Southern Dynasties (南北朝) (420-589)
11. Sui dynasty (隋朝) (581-618)
12. Tang dynasty (唐朝) (608-907)
13. Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (五代十国) (907-960)
14. Liao dynasty (辽朝) (907-1125)
15. Song dynasty (宋朝) (960-1275)
16. Western Xia (西夏) (1038-1277)
17. Jin dynasty (金朝) (1115-1234)
18. Yuan dynasty (元朝) (1271-1368)
19. Ming dynasty (明朝) (1368-1644)
20. Qing dynasty (清朝) (1636-1912)
21. Republic of China (中华民国) (1912 - Now) Taiwan
22. People's Republic of China (中华人民共和国) (1949 - Now) Mainland China

Qin Dynasty (221 B.C. -206 B. C.)

First Emperor of Qin established China’s first empire in 221 B. C. and started massive changes in politics and power. Qin Dynasty created the autocratic centralization of the political system, established the absolute imperial power, and consolidated the unification of China. These activities advanced the history of China’s feudal society and brought China to a new stage.

He established a Legalist rule with strict conformity to the law and moral code thereby creating a bureaucratic administration and centralized control. To reduce the threat of the Huns from the northern ethnic groups, the First Emperor (Shi Huangdi) sent general Meng Tian with thousands of troops to fight against

Han Dynasty (206 B. C. -220)

Qin Dynasty was overthrown in 207 B. C..A new dynasty, Han was founded by Liu Bang, the head of a small village who seized power via personal struggle and good luck. After he became emperor, Liu Bang awarded a large territory to his former generals, making them kings in his empire. This formed a solid foundation for his dynasty. Subsequently, the dynasty lasted more than 400 years. To this day, the name Han has become one of the official words used to refer to the Chinese people. It is important to remember that even today the majority of Chinese people call themselves “ Han People.” The leaders of the Han Dynasty adopted the Confucius teachings which placed much emphasis on the country and family and less emphasis on the person.

This was a time of great prosperity and progress. New works of literature and art were created. Paintings on scrolls came into being during this time. Iron was used for plows and weapons. It was during this time that the vast trade network known as the Silk Road came into being. It reached as far as the Mediterranean world and became recognized as an important way in connecting China and the European countries. In addition, the Silk Road brought the Chinese people in different regions together into one civilization, gradually forming a common culture. The Silk Road brought much wealth to China as the Chinese businessmen exported much more goods than they imported. Furthermore, the city of Chang’an emerged as Han’s Capital. Chang’an became a great trade center on Silk Road. If one has to remember this dynasty, Han is synonymous with prosperity and progress.

Sui Dynasty (581 -618)

Around the end of the 2nd century, the Han Dynasty ceased to exist. The rebellions of the Yellow Turbans initiated the beginning of the separation of China in the following years. Three Kingdoms period emerged, and the Han dynasty came to an end.

Emperor Wen Di (Yang Jian) ended the 270 years’ separation of China and realized the North-South reunification. After reunification, during the reign of Emperor Wen Di, a series of measures in economic development was implemented to resume production and strengthen the unified results. The Emperor gave land to landless peasants to facilitate the recovery of the agricultural output. Sui Dynasty assembled an abundance of material wealth, creating the right conditions for the development of future generations.

Furthermore, the Sui Dynasty established a “Land Equalization” System and constructed the Grand Canal, which exists even today. The Grand Canal has a total length of 2,000 km, and it was the longest canal in the ancient world. The channel contributed greatly to China’s North-South economic exchanges. The excavation of the Grand Canal connected the Yellow River and Yangtze River, which laid the foundation for the future generations for hundreds of years of economic boom.

This dynasty created and maintained an army of professional soldiers, and formally established the imperial examination system. But conditions would soon change.

A series of military conquests and large construction projects resulted in the outbreak of a peasant uprising. Also, the hidden political forces took the opportunity to join in the peasant uprising. Therefore, the powerful Sui Dynasty crashed.

Tang Dynasty (618 -907)

The founder of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin drew lessons from the destruction of the Sui Dynasty, adjusted the ruling policy to ease the contradictions between different classes, and tried to recover the economy. The Emperor recognized that the relationship between the rulers and the people was significant.

In the Tang Dynasty, the imperial examination system was further developed.

Tang Dynasty was unique in that it held a liberal attitude towards all religions. Furthermore, it enjoyed good foreign relations with other countries. Tang Dynasty secured the safety of the Silk Road, which until this time was considered too dangerous to travel. The most obvious feature of the Tang Dynasty was the expansion of territory. Through a series of battles, its territory grew more than that of the Han Dynasty.

It was in the Tang Dynasty that the first female emperor, Empress Wu Zetian (624 - 705) ruled China. Her most significant contribution of the time was to conform to the historical trend and to rally against the aristocratic monopoly and political situation. This, in return, opened the regime to a more civilized government.

Song Dynasty (960 -1279)

The esteemed founder of the Song Dynasty was General Zhao Kuangyin. He was made emperor by his foot soldiers in Kaifeng in 960. Hence, Kaifeng became the capital of the Song Dynasty. The first emperor acquired the name Taizu, meaning ancestor. However, as far as the foreign affairs were concerned, the Song Dynasty could not compete with the successes that the Tang Dynasty enjoyed.

Song Dynasty was also one of the most prosperous eras in the history of China. The society was filled with an atmosphere of respect for teachers of science and technology. Song Dynasty prospered in economic and cultural development on an unprecedented scale. Agriculture, handicrafts, porcelain manufacture, shipbuilding were highly developed.

Song Dynasty was a government-organized more strictly than the Tang Dynasty. The founders of the Song Dynasty also eliminated the power of the eunuchs and the officials in the army to avoid disastrous overthrows like the ones that had occurred at the end of the Tang Dynasty. These ultimately resulted in the collapse of Tang and the rise of Song.

The emperors of Song liked to give more power to the civil servants who came to serve in the government after passing the imperial examination system; Because they had no power base of their own, they had to rely more on the emperor for their political promotion. Therefore, they would be more loyal to the central government.

This approach resulted in a weakened army. The Song Dynasty was about to split. In 1127, the Two Emperors of the Song Dynasty became the Mongolian’ or Jurchens’ captives. The followers of the Song Dynasty abruptly left the north country and regrouped towards the south, making the town Nanjing the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty. A little time later, Hangzhou became its capital. Meanwhile, the Jurchens founded the Jin Dynasty in the north of the country and established a capital for this dynasty, which is now known as Beijing. In 1276, Kublai Khan finally destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty.

Yuan Dynasty (1271 -1368)

In 1271, Kublai Khan founded the Yuan Dynasty. Genghis Khan was from the steppe, a dry, grass-covered plain of Central Asia. He invented new laws to rule the land. Genghis Khan used cruelty as a weapon, and it was as awful as all understood it. The people were afraid not to obey.

The Mongols could tolerate mainland Chinese culture, but they preferred to live away from it. They believed foreigners were more trustworthy, even encouraging foreign trade and foreign merchants, and inviting them to live and work in China. Yuan Dynasty ended the great schism that lasted three hundred and seventy years. This laid the foundation for long-term reunification for Ming Dynasty and Later for the Qing Dynasty. This period of economic and cultural exchanges between the various ethnic groups developed greatly, and Yuan’s territory was extensive, vast, and basically laid the foundation of the modem Chinese territory.

After the unification of the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongol rulers had to give up their nomadic economic exploitation and started to focus on agriculture. They took some measures to restore agricultural production. The Mongolian feudal lords gradually transformed into a feudal landlord.

In the late Yuan Dynasty, the land was changed from farmland to a cattle producing area with Mongolia squires taking more and more of the land. Competing for the throne, the Mongolian aristocracy’s conflicts often evolved into civil wars. At the same time, the national military and political power were transferred to the hands of the ministers of Mongolia. During Shundi’s reign, corruption reached its peak, and the rule of the Yuan Dynasty headed for its end.

Ming Dynasty (1368 -1644)

Yuan rulers became increasingly brutal, and finally, the peasant uprising broke out. As a result, the Ming Dynasty was built by Zhu Yuanzhang, a poor peasant who united all the rebellions in China to fight against the Yuan rulers.

Ming was the last dynasty in China ruled by the Han Chinese. The Ming capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng, who established the Shun Dynasty. It, in turn, was soon replaced by the Manchu people (another minority ethnic group from the northern part of China) which led to the Qing Dynasty.

During the Ming Dynasty, trade with foreign countries was expanded even more. Ming Dynasty established direct sea routes to Europe, and the European merchants and missionaries came to China. An Italian missionary, Matteo Ricci, and other missionaries brought the culture of Europe to China.

One of the great achievements in the Ming Dynasty was made by Zheng He at his seven voyages to explore the unknown world. He was a pioneer in the world of navigation. His voyages reached as far as the east coast of Africa. His sailing toured more than 30 countries and regions and became a remarkable feat for his time.

Qing Dynasty (1616 -1911)

Qing Dynasty, the last feudal dynasty in Chinese history, was built by the Manchu nobility. Qing Dynasty was established by the Jurchen ( Manchurian Mongols) feudal dynasty which was the second period ruled by a minority following the Yuan Dynasty in the history of China. It was also China’s last feudal monarchy. Since that time, China changed into a period of democratic revolution.

As far as the Qing Dynasty’s politics were concerned, there were several features worth noting. The first was the existence of ethnic conflicts which worried the dynasty from its beginning to the end. As a minority regime, the Manchu people’s social infrastructure was not as advanced as that of the Han Chinese, except for the military power. The rule of the Qing government in the country was known for the brutal killings of Han Chinese. Therefore, during that time, there was a need to eliminate this conflict between these two peoples. Conflicts were the greatest in the early Qing Dynasty and the late Qing Dynasty. The Han people always looked for the opportunity to resist the Qing’s rule and to vent their grievances through other forms. Qing rulers always maintained a high degree of vigilance towards the Han people.

The second feature of the Qing Dynasty was political persecution, namely the literary inquisition, which destroyed books about the death of their people.

The Manchu rulers did not enjoy popularity among Chinese because they were non-Han people. Although they were not favored, they made many improvements in ordinary people’s lives and expanded Chinese territory to its present size. The Portuguese, Dutch and British all had trading rights under the Qing Dynasty, although they were carefully controlled at all times by the Qing government. Catholic missionaries built churches and challenged Confucianism during this period.

However, due to the decline of the mining industry and the stagnation of science and technology in the late Qing Dynasty, China gradually dropped behind the western countries.

The Revolution of 1911

The last emperor was a young boy named Pu Yi. Later, he was proclaimed as emperor by his former generals and the Japanese Army several times in their attempt to control China. However, by all standards, the dynasties were over. A philosopher, Sun Yixian, became popular during this time. He wrote of the “Three Principles of the People which was called “Sanmin Zhuyi.” The three principles became popular and are still followed today. They are nationalism, democracy, and people’s livelihood.

Closing Remarks

Chinese civilization has experienced primitive society, slavery society, feudal society and modem society in the past five thousand years. Ancient China had relied on her advanced culture and developed productive forces to establish great prosperity and strong dynasties. The Qin Dynasty unified writing form and measuring systems, and established political centralization system. The Westernization Movement from the 1860s to the 1890s is the beginning of the modernization of China. The 1911 Revolution led by Sun Yixian overthrew the Qing Dynasty’s 200 years of rule, but also symbolized the end of the 2,000 years of the feudal monarchy. The establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 was one of the most significant events in the modern history of China.

The Chinese culture has expanded to Eurasia and has an enormous influence on the people living in East Asian countries.