Approximate territories occupied by different dynasties as well as modern political states throughout the history of China
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.
Prehistory
Paleolithic
What is now China was inhabited by
Homo erectus more than a million years ago.
[4] Recent study shows that the stone tools found at
Xiaochangliang site are
magnetostratigraphically dated to 1.36 million years ago.
[5] 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.
[4] The excavations at
Yuanmou and later
Lantianshow early habitation. Perhaps the most famous specimen of
Homo erectus found in China is the so-called
Peking Man discovered in 1923–27.
Neolithic
The Neolithic age in China can be traced back to about 10,000 BC.
[6]
Early evidence for proto-Chinese
millet agriculture is
radiocarbon-dated to about 7000 BC.
[7] 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.
[8][9] 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.
[10] With agriculture came increased population, the ability to store and redistribute crops, and the potential to support specialist craftsmen and administrators.
[11] 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.
[12] Later,
Yangshao culture was superseded by the
Longshan culture, which was also centered on the Yellow River from about 3000 BC to 2000 BC.
The early history of China is obscured by the lack of written documents from this period, coupled with the existence of later accounts that attempted to describe events that had occurred several centuries previously. In a sense, the problem stems from centuries of introspection on the part of the Chinese people, which has blurred the distinction between fact and fiction in regards to this early history.
Ancient China
Xia Dynasty (c. 2100 – c. 1600 BC)
Main article:
Xia Dynasty
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,
[13] 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.
[14] 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. 1700–1046 BC)
Remnants of advanced,
stratifiedsocieties dating back to the Shang found primarily in the Yellow River Valley
Main article:
Shang Dynasty
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 1200 BC.
[15]
The Shang Dynasty featured 31 kings, from
Tang of Shang to
King Zhou of Shang. In this period, the Chinese worshipped many different gods – weather gods and sky gods – and also a supreme god, named
Shangdi, who ruled over the other gods. Those who lived during the Shang Dynasty also believed that their ancestors – their parents and grandparents – became like gods when they died, and that their ancestors wanted to be worshipped, too, like gods. Each family worshipped its own ancestors.
The
Records of the Grand Historian states that the Shang Dynasty moved its capital six times. The final (and most important) move to
Yin in 1350 BC led to the dynasty's golden age. 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.
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.
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.
Zhou Dynasty (1046–256 BC)
Bronze ritual vessel (
You), Western Zhou Dynasty
The Zhou Dynasty was the longest-lasting dynasty in Chinese history, from 1066 BC to approximately 256 BC. By the end of the 2nd millennium BC, the
Zhou Dynasty began to emerge in the
Yellow River valley, overrunning the territory of the Shang. The Zhou appeared to have begun their rule under a
semi-feudal system. The Zhou lived west of the
Shang, and the Zhou leader had been appointed "Western Protector" by the Shang. The ruler of the Zhou,
King Wu, with the assistance of his brother, the
Duke of Zhou, as regent, managed to defeat the Shang at the
Battle of Muye.
The king of Zhou at this time invoked the concept of the
Mandate of Heaven to legitimize his rule, a concept that would be influential for almost every succeeding dynasty. Like Shangdi, Heaven (
tian) ruled over all the other gods, and it decided who would rule China. It was believed that a ruler had lost the Mandate of Heaven when natural disasters occurred in great number, and when, more realistically, the sovereign had apparently lost his concern for the people. In response, the royal house would be overthrown, and a new house would rule, having been granted the Mandate of Heaven.
The Zhou initially moved their capital west to an area near modern
Xi'an, on the
Wei River, a tributary of the Yellow River, but they would preside over a series of expansions into the
Yangtze River valley. This would be the first of many population migrations from north to south in Chinese history.
Spring and Autumn Period (722–476 BC)
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.
Warring States Period (476–221 BC)
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,
Guangdongand
Guangxi in 214 BC, enabled him to proclaim himself the
First Emperor (Qin Shi Huang).
Imperial China
Qin Dynasty (221–206 BC)
Main article:
Qin Dynasty
Capital: Xianyang Historians often refer to the period from Qin Dynasty to the end of
Qing Dynasty as Imperial China. Though the unified reign of the
First Qin Emperorlasted only 12 years, he managed to subdue great parts of what constitutes the core of the
Han Chinese homeland and to unite them under a tightly centralized
Legalistgovernment seated at
Xianyang (close to modern
Xi'an). The doctrine of Legalism that guided the Qin emphasized strict adherence to a legal code and the absolute power of the emperor. This philosophy, while effective for expanding the empire in a military fashion, proved unworkable for governing it in peacetime. The Qin Emperor
[when defined as?] presided over the brutal silencing of political opposition, including the event known as the
burning of books and burying of scholars. This would be the impetus behind the later Han synthesis incorporating the more moderate schools of political governance.
The Qin Dynasty is well known for beginning the
Great Wall of China, which was later augmented and enhanced during the
Ming Dynasty. The other major contributions of the Qin include the concept of a centralized government, the unification of the legal code, development of the written language, measurement, and currency of China after the tribulations of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods. Even something as basic as the length of axles for carts had to be made uniform to ensure a viable trading system throughout the empire.
Han Dynasty (202 BC–AD 220)
Main article:
Han Dynasty
Western Han
A
Han Dynasty oil lamp with a sliding shutter, in the shape of a kneeling female servant, 2nd century BC
The
Han Dynasty was founded by
Liu Bang, who emerged victorious in the
civil war that followed the collapse of the unified but short-lived
Qin Dynasty. A
golden agein Chinese history, the Han Dynasty's long period of stability and prosperity consolidated the foundation of China as a unified state under a central imperial bureaucracy, which was to last intermittently for most of the next two millennium. During the Han Dynasty, territory of China was extended to most of the
China proper and to areas far west.
Confucianism was officially elevated to orthodox status and was to shape the subsequent Chinese Civilization. Art, Culture and Science all advanced to unprecedented heights. With the profound and lasting impacts of this period of Chinese history, the dynasty name "Han" had been taken as the name of the Chinese people, now the
dominant ethnic group in modern China, and had been commonly used to refer to Chinese language and
written characters.
After the initial
Laissez-faire policies of Emperors
Wen and
Jing, the ambitious
Emperor Wu brought the empire to its zenith. To consolidate his power,
Confucianism, which emphasizes stability and order in a well-structured society, was given exclusive patronage to be the guiding philosophical thoughts and moral principles of the empire.
Imperial Universities were established to support its study and further development, while other
schools of thoughts were discouraged.
After
Emperor Wu, the empire slipped into gradual stagnation and decline. Economically, the state treasury was strained by excessive campaigns and projects, while land acquisitions by elite families gradually drained the tax base. Various
consort clans exerted increasing control over strings of incompetent emperors and eventually the dynasty was briefly interrupted by the usurpation of
Wang Mang.
Xin Dynasty
In AD 9, the usurper
Wang Mang claimed that the
Mandate of Heaven called for the end of the Han dynasty and the rise of his own, and he founded the short-lived
Xin ("New") Dynasty. Wang Mang started an extensive program of land and other economic reforms, including the outlawing of slavery and land nationalization and redistribution. These programs, however, were never supported by the landholding families, because they favored the
peasants. The instability of power brought about chaos, uprisings, and loss of territories. This was compounded by mass flooding of the
Yellow River; silt buildup caused it to split into two channels and displaced large numbers of farmers. Wang Mang was eventually killed in
Weiyang Palace by an enraged peasant mob in AD 23.
Eastern Han
Emperor Guangwu reinstated the Han Dynasty with the support of landholding and merchant families at
Luoyang,
east of the former capital
Xi'an. Thus, this new era is termed the
Eastern Han Dynasty. With the capable administrations of Emperors
Ming and
Zhang, former glories of the dynasty was reclaimed, with brilliant military and cultural achievements. The
Xiongnu Empire was
decisively defeated. The diplomat and general
Ban Chao further expanded the conquests across the
Pamirs to the shores of the
Caspian Sea.,
[19] thus reopening the
Silk Road, and bringing trade, foreign cultures, along with the
arrival of Buddhism. With extensive connections with the west, the first of several
Roman embassies to China were recorded in Chinese sources, coming from the sea route in AD 166, and a second one in AD 284.
Wei and Jin Period (AD 265–420)
After
Cao Cao reunified the north in 208, his son proclaimed the
Wei dynasty in 220. Soon, Wei's rivals
Shu and
Wu proclaimed their independence, leading China into the
Three Kingdoms Period. This period was characterized by a gradual decentralization of the state that had existed during the Qin and Han dynasties, and an increase in the power of great families. Although the Three Kingdoms were reunified by the
Jin Dynasty in 280, this structure was essentially the same until the Wu Hu uprising.
Wu Hu Period (AD 304–439)
Several capitals, due to there being several states and warring
Taking advantage of civil war in the Jin Dynasty, the contemporary non-Han Chinese (
Wu Hu) ethnic groups controlled much of the country in the early 4th century and provoked large-scale Han Chinese migrations to south of the
Yangtze River. In 303 the
Di people rebelled and later captured
Chengdu, establishing the state of
Cheng Han. Under
Liu Yuan, the
Xiongnu rebelled near today's
Linfen County and established the state of
Han Zhao. Liu Yuan's successor
Liu Cong captured and executed the last two Western Jin emperors.
Sixteen kingdoms were a plethora of short-lived non-Chinese dynasties that came to rule the whole or parts of northern China in the 4th and 5th centuries. Many ethnic groups were involved, including ancestors of the
Turks,
Mongols, and
Tibetans. Most of these
nomadic peoples had, to some extent, been "
sinicized" long before their ascent to power. In fact, some of them, notably the
Qiang and the Xiongnu, had already been allowed to live in the frontier regions within the Great Wall since late Han times.
Southern and Northern Dynasties (AD 420–589)
Signaled by the collapse of
East Jin Dynasty in 420, China entered the era of the
Southern and Northern Dynasties. The Han people managed to survive the military attacks from the nomadic tribes of the north, such as the
Xianbei, and their civilization continued to thrive.
In southern China, fierce debates about whether
Buddhism should be allowed to exist were held frequently by the royal court and nobles. Finally, near the end of the Southern and Northern Dynasties era, both Buddhist and
Taoist followers compromised and became more tolerant of each other.
In 589,
Sui annexed the last Southern Dynasty,
Chen, through military force, and put an end to the era of Southern and Northern Dynasties.
Medieval China
Sui Dynasty (AD 589–618)
Main article:
Sui Dynasty
The
Sui Dynasty, which managed to reunite the country in 589 after nearly four centuries of political fragmentation, played a role more important than its length of existence would suggest. The Sui brought China together again and set up many institutions that were to be adopted by their successors, the
Tang. These included the government system of
Three Departments and Six Ministries, standard
coinage, improved defense and expansion of the
Great Wall, and official support for
Buddhism. Like the Qin, however, the Sui overused their resources and collapsed.
Tang Dynasty (AD 618–907)
Main article:
Tang Dynasty
Started by the second emperor,
Taizong, military campaigns were launched to dissolve threats from nomadic tribes, extend the border, and submit neighboring states into a
tributary system. Military victories in the
Tarim Basin kept the
Silk Road open, connecting Chang'an to Central Asia and areas far to the west. In the south, lucrative maritime trade routes began from port cities such as
Guangzhou. There was extensive trade with distant foreign countries, and many foreign merchants settled in China, boosting a vibrant cosmopolitan culture. The Tang culture and social systems were admired and adapted by neighboring countries like
Japan. Internally, the
Grand Canal linked the political heartland in Chang'an to the economic and agricultural centers in the eastern and southern parts of the empire.
Underlying the prosperity of the early Tang Dynasty was a strong centralized bureaucracy with efficient policies. The government was organized as "
Three Departments and Six Ministries" to separately draft, review, and implement policies. These departments were run by royal family members as well as
scholar officials who were selected from
imperial examinations. These practices, which matured in the Tang Dynasty, were to be inherited by the later dynasties with some modifications.
The Tang land policy – the "
Equal-field system" – claimed all lands as imperially owned, and were granted evenly to people according to the size of the households. The associated military policy – the "
Fubing system" – conscripted all men in the nation for a fixed duty period each year in exchange for their land rights. These policies stimulated rapid growth of productivity, while boosting the army without much burden on the state treasury. However, lands gradually fell into the hands of private land owners, and
standing armies were to replace conscription towards the middle period of the dynasty.
The dynasty continued to flourish under Empress
Wu Zetian, the only
empress regnant in Chinese history, and reached its zenith during the reign of
Emperor Xuanzong, who oversaw an empire that stretched from the Pacific to the
Aral Sea with at least 50 million people.
At the zenith of prosperity of the empire, the
An Lushan Rebellion from 755 to 763 was a watershed event that
devastated the population and drastically weakened the central imperial government. Regional military governors, known as
Jiedushi, gained increasingly autonomous status while formerly submissive states raided the empire. Nevertheless, after the An Lushan Rebellion, the Tang civil society recovered and thrived amidst the weakened imperial bureaucracy.
From about 860, the Tang Dynasty declined due to a series of rebellions within China itself and in the former subject
Kingdom of Nanzhao to the south. One warlord,
Huang Chao, captured Guangzhou in 879, killing most of the 200,000 inhabitants, including most of the large colony of foreign merchant families there.
[20][21] In late 880,
Luoyang surrendered to Huang Chao, and on 5 January 881 he conquered
Chang'an. The emperor
Xizong fled to
Chengdu, and Huang established a new temporary regime which was eventually destroyed by Tang forces. Another time of political chaos followed.
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (AD 907–960)
Various capitals
The period of political disunity between the Tang and the Song, known as the
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, lasted little more than half a century, from 907 to 960. During this brief era, when China was in all respects a multi-state system, five regimes rapidly succeeded one another in control of the old Imperial heartland in northern China. During this same time, sections of southern and western China were occupied by ten, more stable, regimes so the period is also referred to as the Ten Kingdoms.
Song, Liao, Jin, and Western Xia Dynasties (AD 960–1234)
Homeward Oxherds in Wind and Rain, by Li Di, 12th century
In 960, the
Song Dynasty gained power over most of China and established its capital in
Kaifeng (later known as
Bianjing), starting a period of economic prosperity, while the
Khitan Liao Dynasty ruled over
Manchuria, present-day
Mongolia, and parts of
Northern China. In 1115, the
Jurchen Jin Dynasty emerged to prominence, annihilating the Liao Dynasty in 10 years. Meanwhile, in what are now the northwestern Chinese provinces of
Gansu, Shaanxi, and
Ningxia, there emerged a
Western Xia Dynasty from 1032 to 1227, established by
Tangut tribes.
The Jin Dynasty took power over northern China and Kaifeng from the Song Dynasty, which moved its capital to
Hangzhou (杭州). The Southern Song Dynasty also suffered the humiliation of having to acknowledge the Jin Dynasty as formal overlords. In the ensuing years, China was divided between the Song Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty and the
Tangut Western Xia. Southern Song experienced a period of great technological development which can be explained in part by the military pressure that it felt from the north. This included the use of
gunpowder weapons, which played a large role in the Song Dynasty naval victories against the Jin in the
Battle of Tangdao and
Battle of Caishi on the Yangtze River in 1161. Furthermore, China's first permanent standing navy was assembled and provided an
admiral's office at
Dinghai in 1132, under the reign of
Emperor Renzong of Song.
Yuan Dynasty (AD 1271–1368)
Main article:
Yuan Dynasty
The
Jurchen-founded
Jin Dynasty was defeated by the
Mongols, who then proceeded to defeat the Southern Song in a long and bloody war, the first war in which
firearms played an important role. During the era after the war, later called the
Pax Mongolica, adventurous Westerners such as
Marco Polo travelled all the way to China and brought the first reports of its wonders to Europe. In the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongols were divided between those who wanted to remain based in the steppes and those who wished to adopt the customs of the Chinese.
Kublai Khan, grandson of
Genghis Khan, wanting to adopt the customs of China, established the
Yuan Dynasty. This was the first dynasty to rule the whole of China from Beijing as the capital. Beijing had been ceded to Liao in AD 938 with the
Sixteen Prefectures of Yan Yun. Before that, it had been the capital of the
Jin, who did not rule all of China.
Before the
Mongol invasion, Chinese dynasties reportedly had approximately 120 million inhabitants; after the conquest was completed in 1279, the 1300 census reported roughly 60 million people.
[22] While it is tempting to attribute this major decline solely to Mongol ferocity, scholars today have mixed sentiments regarding this subject. Scholars such as Frederick W. Mote argue that the wide drop in numbers reflects an administrative failure to record rather than an actual decrease; others such as
Timothy Brook argue that the Mongols created a system of
enserfment among a huge portion of the Chinese populace, causing many to disappear from the census altogether; other historians like William McNeill and David Morgan argue that the Bubonic Plague was the main factor behind the demographic decline during this period.
In the 14th century, China suffered additional depredations from epidemics of
plague. The
Black Death is estimated to have killed 25 million people or 30% of the population of China.
[23]
Early modern
Ming Dynasty (AD 1368–1644)
Main article:
Ming Dynasty
Court Ladies of the Former Shu, by Ming painter
Tang Yin(1470–1523).
Throughout the Yuan Dynasty, which lasted less than a century, there was relatively strong sentiment among the populace against the Mongol rule. The frequent natural disasters since the 1340s finally led to peasant revolts. The Yuan Dynasty was eventually overthrown by the
Ming Dynasty in 1368.
Urbanization increased as the population grew and as the division of labor grew more complex. Large urban centers, such as
Nanjing and Beijing, also contributed to the growth of private industry. In particular, small-scale industries grew up, often specializing in paper, silk, cotton, and porcelain goods. For the most part, however, relatively small urban centers with markets proliferated around the country. Town markets mainly traded food, with some necessary manufactures such as pins or oil.
Despite the
xenophobia and intellectual introspection characteristic of the increasingly popular new school of
neo-Confucianism, China under the early Ming Dynasty was not isolated. Foreign trade and other contacts with the outside world, particularly Japan, increased considerably. Chinese merchants explored all of the Indian Ocean, reaching East Africa with the
voyages of Zheng He.
Zhu Yuanzhang or
Hong-wu, the founder of the dynasty, laid the foundations for a state interested less in commerce and more in extracting revenues from the agricultural sector. Perhaps because of the Emperor's background as a peasant, the Ming economic system emphasized agriculture, unlike that of the Song and the Mongolian Dynasties, which relied on traders and merchants for revenue. Neo-feudal landholdings of the Song and Mongol periods were expropriated by the Ming rulers. Land estates were confiscated by the government, fragmented, and rented out. Private slavery was forbidden. Consequently, after the death of
Emperor Yong-le, independent peasant landholders predominated in Chinese agriculture. These laws might have paved the way to removing the worst of the poverty during the previous regimes.
The dynasty had a strong and complex central government that unified and controlled the empire. The emperor's role became more autocratic, although Zhu Yuanzhang necessarily continued to use what he called the "
Grand Secretaries" (内阁) to assist with the immense paperwork of the bureaucracy, including
memorials (petitions and recommendations to the throne), imperial edicts in reply, reports of various kinds, and tax records. It was this same bureaucracy that later prevented the Ming government from being able to adapt to changes in society, and eventually led to its decline.
The Yong-le Emperor strenuously tried to extend China's influence beyond its borders by demanding other rulers send ambassadors to China to present tribute. A large navy was built, including four-masted ships displacing 1,500 tons. A standing army of 1 million troops (some estimate as many as 1.9 million
[who?]) was created. The Chinese armies
conquered Vietnam for around 20 years, while the Chinese fleet sailed the China seas and the Indian Ocean, cruising as far as the east coast of Africa. The Chinese gained influence in eastern
Moghulistan. Several maritime Asian nations sent envoys with tribute for the Chinese emperor. Domestically, the
Grand Canal was expanded and proved to be a stimulus to domestic trade. Over 100,000 tons of iron per year were produced. Many books were printed using movable type. The imperial palace in Beijing's
Forbidden City reached its current splendor. It was also during these centuries that the potential of south China came to be fully exploited. New crops were widely cultivated and industries such as those producing porcelain and textiles flourished.
In 1449
Esen Tayisi led an
Oirat Mongol invasion of northern China which culminated in the capture of the
Zhengtong Emperor at
Tumu. In 1542 the Mongol leader
Altan Khan began to harass China along the northern border. In 1550 he even reached the suburbs of Beijing. The empire also had to deal with
Japanese piratesattacking the southeastern coastline;
[24] General
Qi Jiguang was instrumental in defeating these pirates. The deadliest earthquake of all times, the
Shaanxi earthquake of 1556 that killed approximately 830,000 people, occurred during the
Jiajing Emperor's reign.
During the Ming dynasty the last construction on the
Great Wall was undertaken to protect China from foreign invasions. While the Great Wall had been built in earlier times, most of what is seen today was either built or repaired by the Ming. The brick and granite work was enlarged, the watch towers were redesigned, and cannons were placed along its length.
Qing Dynasty (AD 1644–1911)
"The reception of the Diplomatique (
Macartney) and his suite, at the Court of Pekin". Drawn and engraved by
James Gillray, published in September 1792.
Main article:
Qing Dynasty
The
Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) was the last imperial dynasty in China. Founded by the
Manchus, it was the second non-
Han Chinese dynasty. The Manchus were formerly known as
Jurchen, residing in the northeastern part of the Ming territory outside the
Great Wall. They emerged as the major threat to the late Ming Dynasty after
Nurhaci united all Jurchen tribes and established an independent state. However, the
Ming Dynasty would be overthrown by
Li Zicheng's peasants rebellion, with Beijing captured in 1644 and the last Ming Emperor
Chongzhen committing suicide. The Manchu allied with the Ming Dynasty general
Wu Sangui to seize Beijing, which was made the capital of the Qing dynasty, and then proceeded to subdue the
remaining Ming's resistance in the south. The decades of Manchu conquest caused
enormous loss of lives and the
economic scale of China shrank drastically. Nevertheless, the Manchus adopted the Confucian norms of traditional Chinese government in their rule and were considered a Chinese dynasty.
The Manchus enforced a 'queue order,' forcing the Han Chinese to adopt the Manchu
queue hairstyle and Manchu-style clothing. The traditional Han clothing, or
Hanfu, was also replaced by Manchu-style clothing
Qipao (
bannermen dress and
Tangzhuang). The
Kangxi Emperor ordered the creation of
Kangxi Dictionary, the most complete dictionary of
Chinese characters ever put together at the time. The Qing dynasty set up the "
Eight Banners" system that provided the basic framework for the Qing military organization. The bannermen were prohibited from participating in trade and manual labour unless they petitioned to be removed from banner status. They were considered a form of nobility and were given preferential treatment in terms of annual pensions, land and allotments of cloth.
French political cartoon from the late 1890s shows helpless China being divided among Britain, Germany, Russia, France and Japan.
Over the next half-century, all areas previously under the
Ming Dynasty were consolidated under the Qing.
Xinjiang, Tibet, and
Mongolia were also formally incorporated into Chinese territory. Between 1673 and 1681, the Emperor Kangxi suppressed an uprising of three generals in Southern China who had been denied hereditary rule to large fiefdoms granted by the previous emperor; he also put down a Ming restorationist invasion from Taiwan, called the
Revolt of the Three Feudatories. In 1683, the Qing staged an amphibious assault on southern Taiwan, bringing down the rebel
Grand Duchy of Tungning, which was founded by the Ming loyalist
Koxinga in 1662 after the fall of the Southern Ming, and had served as a base for continued Ming resistance in Southern China.
Internally, the
Taiping Rebellion (1851–1864), a quasi-Christian religious movement led by the "Heavenly King"
Hong Xiuquan, raided roughly a third of Chinese territory for over a decade until they were finally crushed in the
Third Battle of Nanking in 1864. Arguably one of the largest wars in the 19th century in terms of troop involvement, there was massive loss of life, with
a death toll of about 20 million.
[25] A string of rebellions followed, which included the
Punti–Hakka Clan Wars,
Nien Rebellion,
Muslim Rebellion, and
Panthay Rebellion.
[26] Although all rebellions were eventually put down at enormous cost and with many casualties, the central imperial authority was seriously weakened. The Banner system the Manchus had relied upon so long proved a total failure, as the Banner forces were unable to suppress the rebels. The government called upon local officials in the provinces who raised “New Armies,” which did prove a success in crushing the rebellion. China never rebuilt a strong central army, but the local officials often became warlords, who used military power to effectively rule independently in their provinces.
[27]
In response to calamities within the empire and threats from imperialism, the
Self-Strengthening Movement was an institutional reform in the second half of the 1800s. The aim was to modernize the empire, with prime emphasis on strengthening the military. However, the reform was undermined by corrupt officials, cynicism, and quarrels within the imperial family. As a result, the "
Beiyang Fleet" were soundly defeated in the
First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895).
Guangxu Emperor and the reformists then launched a more comprehensive reform effort, the
Hundred Days' Reform (1898), but it was shortly overturned by the conservatives under
Empress Dowager Cixi in a military coup.
At the turn of the 20th century, a conservative anti-imperialist movement, the
Boxer Rebellion, violently revolted against foreign suppression over vast areas in Northern China. The Empress Dowager, probably seeking to ensure her continual grip on power, sided with the Boxers as they advanced on Beijing. In response, a
relief expedition of the
Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China to rescue the besieged foreign missions. Consisting of British, Japanese, Russian, Italian, German, French, US, and Austrian troops, the alliance defeated the Boxers and demanded further concessions from the Qing government.
The early 1900s saw increasing civil disorder, despite reform talk by Cixi and the Qing government.
Slavery in China was abolished in 1910.
[28] The
Xinhai Revolution in 1911 overthrew the Qing's imperial rule.
Modern China
Historians agree that the fall of the Qing dynasty demarcated the modern era in Chinese history. Scholars, however, are studying the reasons for that fall in the previous 130 years. Keith Schoppa, the editor of
The Columbia Guide to Modern Chinese History argues, "A date around 1780 as the beginning of modern China is thus closer to what we know today as historical 'reality."' It also allows us to have a better baseline to understand the precipitous decline of the Chinese polity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries."
[29]
Republic of China (1912–1949)
Sun Yat-sen, founder and first president of the Republic of China.
Frustrated by the Qing court's resistance to reform and by China's weakness, young officials, military officers, and students began to advocate the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty and the creation of a republic. They were inspired by the revolutionary ideas of
Sun Yat-sen. A revolutionary military uprising, the
Wuchang Uprising, began on 10 October 1911, in
Wuhan. The
provisional government of the
Republic of China was formed in
Nanjing on 12 March 1912.
Sun Yat-sen was declared
President, but Sun was forced to turn power over to
Yuan Shikai, who commanded the
New Army and was Prime Minister under the Qing government, as part of the agreement to let the
last Qing monarch abdicate (a decision Sun would later regret). Over the next few years, Yuan proceeded to abolish the national and provincial assemblies, and declared himself emperor in late 1915. Yuan's imperial ambitions were fiercely opposed by his subordinates; faced with the prospect of rebellion, he abdicated in March 1916, and died in June of that year.
Yuan's death in 1916 left a power vacuum in China; the republican government was all but shattered. This ushered in the
Warlord Era, during which much of the country was ruled by shifting coalitions of competing provincial military leaders.
1919-1929
In 1919, the
May Fourth Movement began as a response to the terms imposed on China by the
Treaty of Versailles ending World War I, but quickly became a nationwide protest movement about the domestic situation in China. The protests were a moral success as the cabinet fell and China refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles, which had awarded German holdings to Japan. The New Culture Movement stimulated by the May Fourth Movement waxed strong throughout the 1920s and 1930s. According to Ebrey:
- "Nationalism, patriotism, progress, science, democracy, and freedom were the goals; imperialism, feudalism, warlordism, autocracy, patriarchy, and blind adherence to tradition where the enemies. Intellectuals struggled with how to be strong and modern and yet Chinese, how to preserve China as a political entity in the world of competing nations."[30]
The discrediting of liberal Western philosophy amongst leftist Chinese intellectuals led to more radical lines of thought inspired by the Russian Revolution, and supported by agents of the Comintern sent to China by Moscow. This created the seeds for the irreconcilable conflict between the left and right in China that would dominate Chinese history for the rest of the century.
In the 1920s, Sun Yat-sen established a revolutionary base in south China, and set out to unite the fragmented nation. With assistance from the
Soviet Union (themselves fresh from a socialist uprising), he entered into an alliance with the fledgling
Communist Party of China. After Sun's death from cancer in 1925, one of his protégés,
Chiang Kai-shek, seized control of the
Kuomintang (Nationalist Party or KMT) and succeeded in bringing most of south and central China under its rule in a military campaign known as the
Northern Expedition (1926–1927). Having defeated the warlords in south and central China by military force, Chiang was able to secure the nominal allegiance of the warlords in the North. In 1927, Chiang turned on the CPC and relentlessly chased the CPC armies and its leaders from their bases in southern and eastern China. In 1934, driven from their mountain bases such as the
Chinese Soviet Republic, the CPC forces embarked on the
Long March across China's most desolate terrain to the northwest, where they established a guerrilla base at
Yan'an in Shaanxi Province. During the Long March, the communists reorganized under a new leader,
Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung).
The bitter struggle between the KMT and the CPC continued, openly or clandestinely, through the 14-year long Japanese occupation of various parts of the country (1931–1945). The two Chinese parties nominally formed a united front to oppose the Japanese in 1937, during the
Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), which became a part of World War II.
Following the defeat of Japan in 1945, the war between the KMT and the CPC resumed, after failed attempts at reconciliation and a negotiated settlement. By 1949, the CPC had established control over most of the country
(see Chinese Civil War). Westad says the Communists won the Civil War because they made fewer military mistakes than Chiang, and because in his search for a powerful centralized government, Chiang antagonized too many interest groups in China. Furthermore, his party was weakened in the war against Japanese. Meanwhile the Communists told different groups, such as peasants, exactly what they wanted to hear, and cloaked themselves in the cover of Chinese Nationalism.
[31] When Chiang was defeated by CPC forces in mainland China in 1949, he retreated to
Taiwan with his government and his most disciplined troops, along with most of the KMT leadership and a large number of their supporters; Chiang Kai-shek had taken effective control of Taiwan at the end of WWII as part of the overall Japanese surrender, when Japanese troops in Taiwan surrendered to Republic of China troops.
[32]
People's Republic of China (1949–present)
Chairman
Mao Zedong proclaiming the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949.
The PRC was shaped by a series of
campaigns and
five-year plans, with mixed success. The economic and social plan known as the
Great Leap Forward resulted in an estimated 45 million deaths.
[35] In 1966, Mao and his allies launched the
Cultural Revolution, which would last until Mao's death a decade later. The Cultural Revolution, motivated by power struggles within the Party and a fear of the
Soviet Union, led to a major upheaval in Chinese society.
A power struggle followed Mao's death in 1976. The
Gang of Four were arrested and blamed for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution, marking the end of a turbulent political era in China.
Deng Xiaoping outmaneuvered Mao's anointed successor chairman
Hua Guofeng, and gradually emerged as the
de facto leader over the next few years.
Deng Xiaoping was the
Paramount Leader of China from 1978 to 1992, although he never became the head of the party or state, and his influence within the Party led the country to
significant economic reforms. The Communist Party subsequently loosened governmental control over citizens' personal lives and the
communes were disbanded with many peasants receiving multiple land leases, which greatly increased incentives and agricultural production. This turn of events marked China's transition from a planned economy to a mixed economy with an increasingly open market environment, a system termed by some
[36] as "
market socialism", and officially by the Communist Party of China as "
Socialism with Chinese characteristics". The PRC adopted its current
constitution on 4 December 1982.
In 1989, the death of former general secretary
Hu Yaobang helped to spark the
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, during which students and others campaigned for several months, speaking out against corruption and in favour of greater political reform, including democratic rights and freedom of speech. However, they were eventually put down on 4 June when
PLA troops and vehicles entered and forcibly cleared the square, resulting in numerous casualties. This event was widely reported and brought worldwide condemnation and sanctions against the government.
[37][38] The "
Tank Man" incident in particular became famous.
CPC general secretary and PRC President
Jiang Zemin and PRC Premier
Zhu Rongji, both former mayors of Shanghai, led post-Tiananmen PRC in the 1990s. Under Jiang and Zhu's ten years of administration, the PRC's economic performance pulled an estimated 150 million peasants out of poverty and sustained an average annual gross domestic product growth rate of 11.2%.
[39][40] The country formally joined the
World Trade Organization in 2001.
Although the PRC needs economic growth to spur its development, the government has begun to worry that rapid economic growth has negatively impacted the country's resources and environment. Another concern is that certain sectors of society are not sufficiently benefiting from the PRC's economic development; one example of this is the wide gap between urban and rural areas. As a result, under former CPC general secretary and President
Hu Jintao and Premier
Wen Jiabao, the PRC has initiated policies to address these issues of equitable distribution of resources, but the outcome remains to be seen.
[41]More than 40 million farmers have been displaced from their land,
[42] usually for economic development, contributing to 87,000 demonstrations and riots across China in 2005.
[43] For much of the PRC's population, living standards have seen extremely large improvements and freedom continues to expand, but political controls remain tight and rural areas poor.
[44]
Up to seven million grass-cutting ants can live and farm fungus in one giant nest
All of the ventilation turrets have highly porous walls that allow air to flow
A medical CT scanner allowed scientists to capture 3-D snapshots of the nest being built over time
.jpg)