Chinese Dynasties
Chinese Dynasties
From beginning to end…
Shang Dynasty 1766 BCE - 1027 BCE
Zhou Dynasty 1122 BCE -256 BCE
Qin Dynasty 221 BCE - 206 BCE
Han Dynasty 206 BCE - 220AD
Later Han Dynasty 25 AD - 220 AD
Three Regional Kingdoms - Period of Disunion 220 AD - 589
Sui Dynasty 589 AD - 618 AD
Tang Dynasty 618 AD - 907 AD
Sung Dynasty 969 AD - 1279 AD
Yuan Dyansty 1279 AD - 1368 AD
Ming Dynasty 1368 AD - 1644 AD
Manchu or Qing Dynasty 1644 AD - 1912 AD
1912 – 1949 Nationalism and Communism
1949 – present Communism
Shang Dynasty 1766 BCE - 1027
BCE
First organised river society, introduced
writing on oracles bones, local trade,
ancestor worship, bronze age, Huang He
river
Chou Dynasty 1122 BCE -256 BCE
Feudal regional China, “Warring period”,
100 Schools of Philosophy = 3 new
philsophies (legalism, Taoism,
Confucianism) iron age
Ch’in Dynasty 221 BCE - 206 BCE
Shi Huang di, unified China using legalism,
cruel to Confucians, Great Wall, Terra
Cotta army, standardized money, weights,
roads and centralized power
Han Dynasty 206 BCE - 220AD
Classical Age of China, inventions (paper)
Confucian civil servie begins, wealthy
traders, extend Great Wall, Silk Road,
excellent art, public school conquered by
Huns
Sui Dynasty 589 AD - 618 AD
after 300 years of regional rule in China,
Re-unite a smaller China, Grand Canal,
graineries to feed the poor, legalist and
very much like the Ch’in
Tang Dynasty 618 AD - 907 AD
Confucian, conquer more territory in China
and Korea, influence in Japan, inventions
(printing press, gunpower), landscape
painting, Buddhist increase in numbers
Song Dynasty 969 AD - 1279 AD
Merchant society, urban life increases,
rich, Confucian and Buddhist, lots of trade
along Silk Road, crushed by Mongols
Yuan Dyansty 1279 AD - 1368 AD
Mongols led by Kublai Khan, use Chinese
system of govt with foreign rulers, 40
million Chinese killed, Confucians were
persecuted but they are able to write
drama and opera, trade increases along
Silk Road, Taoism grows because the
Mongols like it
Ming Dynasty 1368 AD - 1644 AD
Re-take China from Mongols, tons of trade
with Asia, some with Europe in porcelain,
for silver and tea, Neo Confucians, re-
instate the Civil service exam, great Navy
Zheng He, extend the Great Wall, the
Manchu northern tribes conquer them
Manchu or Qing Dynasty 1644 AD -
1912 AD