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History of China

From at least 1766BCE to the twentieth century of the Common Era, China was ruled by dynasties. A dynasty is a family that passes control from one generation to the next. A dynasty does not have to last for a long time. One Chinese dynasty lasted more than 800 years while another lasted only fifteen years. The ancient Chinese believed their ancestors in heaven had chosen their leaders. They called this the Mandate of Heaven. The Chinese people often rebelled against a weak leader if they believed he had lost the Mandate of Heaven.
There are indications of an earlier Hsia Dynasty, but the Shang were the first dynasty to leave written records. The Shang also developed a lunar calendar consisting of twelve months of 30 days each. The Shang Dynasty ruled China from approximately 1766BCE to about 1040BCE. Shang rulers expanded the borders of their kingdom to include all of the land between Mongolia and the Pacific Ocean.
The Shang practiced human sacrifice. If a Shang king died, many of his subjects would join the ruler in his grave. Some people were beheaded first but others were buried alive. When a Shang king died, his next oldest brother replaced him. When there were no brothers, the ruler’s oldest maternal nephew became king. A maternal nephew would be a child of one of the deceased king’s cousins – that is, a son of his mother’s siblings.

The Chou were initially nomads who lived west of the Shang. They overthrew the Shang and ruled China from 1040BCE to the third century before the Common Era. The Chou gained power, in part, from their ability to extract iron from rocks. They used the metal to create powerful weapons.
The Chou developed a feudal system in China. In a feudal system, the rulers appoint nobles to govern smaller parts of an empire. The nobles divided the land into farms for extended families. An extended family might include many generations and would often include cousins and second cousins. Landholding families were loyal to their nobles and the nobles were in turn loyal to the Chou rulers.
The Chou rulers taxed their subjects, but they used the wealth they collected to build huge walls to defend their cities from nomadic warriors. The Chou also built roads, irrigation systems, and dams.
Chinese nobles gradually gained more power than the Chou rulers in a period of Chinese history that historians call the Age of Warring States. It was during this period of instability that a great teacher named Confucius tried to develop good government.
Rulers of the Ch'in dynasty managed to unify China and end the Age of Warring States by 221BCE. The Ch'in rulers clearly explained their laws to the people—and then strictly enforced them. Ch’in rulers standardized weights and measures and carried out irrigation projects. The Ch’in also gave peasant farmers the land they lived on. The West first learned of China during the Ch'in dynasty. It is from Ch'in that we get the word China.
A group known as the Legalists influenced the Ch'in Dynasty. The Legalists believed that a powerful leader and a stable legal system were needed to create social order. The Legalists tried to suppress all thoughts that disagreed with their philosophy. People who discussed ideas not approved by the Legalists faced execution. One Ch’in ruler ordered 460 scholars to be buried alive because the scholars disagreed with the teachings of the Legalists.
China grew into a powerful empire during the Han Dynasty, between 202BCE and 220CE. Scholars trained in the teachings of Confucius ran the Han governments with great skill. During the Han Dynasty, the Chinese invented paper, recorded the history of their land, and first learned of Buddhism.

The last Chinese dynasty to rule came from a region of northeast China called Manchuria. The Manchus (also known as the Quing) were weak rulers who were unable to stop other nations from interfering with China.
The British seized Hong Kong in 1841, but more importantly, by the middle of the nineteenth century, the British forced the Chinese government to allow them to sell a dangerous drug called opium to the Chinese people. The British defeated the Manchus in a series of conflicts that later became known as the Opium Wars.
In 1894, Japan seized the island of Formosa, which later became known as Taiwan. By the dawn of the twentieth century, foreigners had overrun China. Parts of China were ruled by the British, French, American, German, Russian, and Japanese forces. The Chinese people believed that the Manchus had lost the Mandate of Heaven. They began to support a group known as the Nationalists, who pledged to free China from foreign rule. The Nationalists had driven out the last of the Manchu rulers, a six-year-old boy, by 1911.
These are the listings of the different dynasties that have been/and still are ruling and controlling China:
Neolithic c. 8500 – c. 2070 BC
Xia dynasty c. 2070 – c. 1600 BC
Shang dynasty c. 1600 – c. 1046 BC
Zhou dynasty c. 1046 – 256 BC Western Zhou Eastern Zhou Spring and Autumn Warring States
IMPERIAL
Qin dynasty 221–206 BC
Han dynasty 206 BC – 220 AD Western Han Xin dynasty Eastern Han
Three Kingdoms 220–280 Wei, Shu and Wu
Jin dynasty 265–420 Western Jin Eastern Jin Sixteen Kingdoms
Southern and Northern Dynasties 420–589
Sui dynasty 581–618
Tang dynasty 618–907 (Wu Zhou interregnum 690–705)
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms 907–960 Liao dynasty 907–1125
Song dynasty 960–1279 Northern Song W. Xia Southern Song Jin
Yuan dynasty 1271–1368
Ming dynasty 1368–1644
Qing dynasty 1644–1911
MODERN
Republic of China 1912–1949
People's Republic of China 1949–present Republic of China on Taiwan 1949–present

Written records of the history of China can be found from as early as 1500 BC [1][2] under the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC).[3] Ancient historical texts such as the Records of the Grand Historian (ca. 100 BC) and the Bamboo Annals describe a Xia dynasty (c. 2070–1600 BC), which had no system of writing on a durable medium, before the Shang.[3][4] The Yellow River is said to be the cradle of Chinese civilization, although cultures originated at various regional centers along both the Yellow River and the Yangtze River valleys millennia ago in the Neolithic era. With thousands of years of continuous history, China is one of the world's oldest civilizations.[5]

Much of Chinese culture, literature and philosophy further developed during the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC). The Zhou dynasty began to bow to external and internal pressures in the 8th century BC, and the kingdom eventually broke apart into smaller states, beginning in the Spring and Autumn period and reaching full expression in the Warring Between eras of multiple kingdoms and warlordism, Chinese dynasties have ruled parts or all of China; in some eras control stretched as far as Xinjiang and Tibet, as at present. In 221 BC Qin Shi Huang united the various warring kingdoms and created for himself the title of "emperor" (huangdi) of the Qin dynasty, marking the beginning of imperial China. Successive dynasties developed bureaucratic systems that enabled the emperor to control vast territories directly. China's last dynasty was the Qing (1644–1912), which was replaced by the Republic of China in 1912, and in the mainland by the People's Republic of China in 1949.

The conventional view of Chinese history is that of alternating periods of political unity and disunity, with China occasionally being dominated by steppe peoples, most of whom were in turn assimilated into the Han Chinese population. Cultural and political influences from other parts of Asia and the Western world, carried by successive waves of immigration, expansion, foreign contact, and cultural assimilation are part of the modern culture of China.

List of Paleolithic sites in China
States period. This is one of multiple periods of failed statehood in Chinese history, the most recent being the Chinese Civil War that started in 1927.

Approximate territories occupied by the various dynasties and states throughout the history of china
What is now China was inhabited by Homo erectus more than a million years ago.[6] Recent study shows that the stone tools found at Xiaochangliang site are magnetostratigraphically dated to 1.36 million years ago.[7] The archaeological site of Xihoudu in Shanxi Province is the earliest recorded use of fire by Homo erectus, which is dated 1.27 million years ago.[6] The excavations at Yuanmou and later Lantian show early habitation. Perhaps the most famous specimen of Homo erectus found in China is the so-called Peking Man discovered in 1923–27. Fossilised teeth of Homo sapiens dating to 125
The Neolithic age in China can be traced back to about 10,000 BC.[9]
Early evidence for proto-Chinese millet agriculture is radiocarbon-dated to about 7000 BC.[10] Farming gave rise to the Jiahu culture (7000 to 5800 BC). At Damaidi in Ningxia, 3,172 cliff carvings dating to 6000–5000 BC have been discovered, "featuring 8,453 individual characters such as the sun, moon, stars, gods and scenes of hunting or grazing." These pictographs are reputed to be similar to the earliest characters confirmed to be written Chinese.[11] Chinese proto-writing existed in Jiahu around 7000 BC,[12] Dadiwan from 5800 BC to 5400 BC, Damaidi around 6000 BC [13] and Banpo dating from the 5th millennium BC. Some scholars have suggested that Jiahu symbol (7th millennium BC) was the earliest Chinese writing system.[12] Excavation of a Peiligang culture site in Xinzheng county, Henan, found a community that flourished in 5,500–4,900 BC, with evidence of agriculture, constructed buildings, pottery, and burial of the dead.[14] With agriculture came increased population, the ability to store and redistribute crops, and the potential to support specialist craftsmen and administrators.[15] In late Neolithic times, the Yellow River valley began to establish itself as a center of Yangshao culture (5000 BC to 3000 BC), and the first villages were founded; the most archaeologically significant of these was found at Banpo, Xi'an.[16] Later, Yangshao culture was superseded by the Longshan culture, which was also centered on the Yellow River from about 3000 BC to 2000 BC.
000–80,000 BCE have been discovered in Fuyan Cave in Dao County in Hunan.[8]
Chinese Iron age
Capitals: Beijing (State of Yan); Xi'an (State of Qin)
In the 8th century BC, power became decentralized during the Spring and Autumn period, named after the influential Spring and Autumn Annals. In this period, local military leaders used by the Zhou began to assert their power and vie for hegemony. The situation was aggravated by the invasion of other peoples from the northwest, such as the Qin, forcing the Zhou to move their capital east to Luoyang. This marks the second major phase of the Zhou dynasty: the Eastern Zhou. The Spring and Autumn period is marked by a falling apart of the central Zhou power. In each of the hundreds of states that eventually arose, local strongmen held most of the political power and continued their subservience to the Zhou kings in name only. Some local leaders even started using royal titles for themselves. China now consisted of hundreds of states, some of them only as large as a village with a fort.

The Hundred Schools of Thought of Chinese philosophy blossomed during this period, and such influential intellectual movements as Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism and Mohism were founded, partly in response to the changing political world.
After further political consolidation, seven prominent states remained by the end of 5th century BC, and the years in which these few states battled each other are known as the Warring States period. Though there remained a nominal Zhou king until 256 BC, he was largely a figurehead and held little real power.

As neighboring territories of these warring states, including areas of modern Sichuan and Liaoning, were annexed, they were governed under the new local administrative system of commandery and prefecture (郡縣/郡县). This system had been in use since the Spring and Autumn period, and parts can still be seen in the modern system of Sheng & Xian (province and county, 省縣/省县).

The final expansion in this period began during the reign of Ying Zheng, the king of Qin. His unification of the other six powers, and further annexations in the modern regions of Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi in 214 BC, enabled him to proclaim himself the First Emperor (Qin Shi Huang).

Xia dynasty
Chinese Bronze Age
The Xia dynasty of China (from c. 2100 to c. 1600 BC) is the first dynasty to be described in ancient historical records such as Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian and Bamboo Annals.[3][4]

Although there is disagreement as to whether the dynasty actually existed, there is some archaeological evidence pointing to its possible existence. Sima Qian, writing in the late 2nd century BC, dated the founding of the Xia dynasty to around 2200 BC, but this date has not been corroborated. Most archaeologists now connect the Xia to excavations at Erlitou in central Henan province,[20] where a bronze smelter from around 2000 BC was unearthed. Early markings from this period found on pottery and shells are thought to be ancestral to modern Chinese characters.[21] With few clear records matching the Shang oracle bones or the Zhou bronze vessel writings, the Xia era remains poorly understood.
According to mythology, the dynasty ended around 1600 BC as a consequence of the Battle of Mingtiao.

Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC)
Oracle bones found dating from the Shang Dynasty
Shang dynasty
Capital: Yin, near Anyang
Archaeological findings providing evidence for the existence of the Shang dynasty, c. 1600–1046 BC, are divided into two sets. The first set – from the earlier Shang period – comes from sources at Erligang, Zhengzhou, and Shangcheng. The second set – from the later Shang or Yin (殷) period – is at Anyang, in modern-day Henan, which has been confirmed as the last of the Shang's nine capitals (c. 1300–1046 BC).[citation needed] The findings at Anyang include the earliest written record of Chinese past so far discovered: inscriptions of divination records in ancient Chinese writing on the bones or shells of animals – the so-called "oracle bones", dating from around 1500 BC [1] Remnants of advanced, stratified societies dating back to the Shang found primarily in the Yellow River Valley
31 Kings reined over the Shang dynasty. During their rein, according to the Records of the Grand Historian, the capital city was moved six times.[citation needed] The final (and most important) move was to Yin in 1350 BC which led to the dynasty's golden age.[citation needed] The term Yin dynasty has been synonymous with the Shang dynasty in history, although it has lately been used to specifically refer to the latter half of the Shang dynasty.[citation needed]

Chinese historians living in later periods were accustomed to the notion of one dynasty succeeding another, but the actual political situation in early China is known to have been much more complicated. Hence, as some scholars of China suggest, the Xia and the Shang can possibly refer to political entities that existed concurrently, just as the early Zhou is known to have existed at the same time as the Shang.[citation needed]

Although written records found at Anyang confirm the existence of the Shang dynasty,[citation needed] Western scholars are often hesitant to associate settlements that are contemporaneous with the Anyang settlement with the Shang dynasty. For example, archaeological findings at Sanxingdui suggest a technologically advanced civilization culturally unlike Anyang. The evidence is inconclusive in proving how far the Shang realm extended from Anyang. The leading hypothesis is that Anyang, ruled by the same Shang in the official history, coexisted and traded with numerous other culturally diverse settlements in the area that is now referred to as China proper.