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World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras ­ China
From ABC-CLIO's World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras website
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CHINA
One of the largest countries in the world, China spans much of eastern Asia. It
was uni⤀褅ed under the Qin Dynasty in 221 BCE.
China's recorded history began almost 4,000 years ago with the founding of the
Shang dynasty in 1766 BCE, but its entire history is much older. The oldest
human remains found in China date to 500,000 BCE and came to be known as
"Peking man" (later Homo erectus). Many anthropologists believe that modern man, Homo sapiens,
originated about 25,000 years ago in China's Ordos Desert. As the world's oldest civilization, China was also
the most advanced for 3,000 years and conceived of such developments as irrigation, bronze, domestication
of animals, grain cultivation, iron, porcelain, the printing press, gunpowder, and standardization of written
language. Until its level of technology was surpassed by the West in the 19th century, Chinese culture
epitomized the apex of human achievement. During the Zhou dynasty in the 11th century BCE, China's
feudal society, which had kept the huge territory stable and controlled, began to break down. Despite the
country's sophistication, unrest was rampant. The dynasty fell apart during the Era of Warring States from
403 to 221 BCE, and the empire disintegrated into small kingdoms.
The Qin dynasty rose to prominence in about 221 BCE and heralded a new period of
order and lawfulness. That short-lived dynasty reined in the feudal lords and
established a new form of government—bureaucracy. During the 15-year period that
the Qin dynasty was in power, the nation's ⤀褅rst real roads and canals were built, and
construction of the legendary Great Wall of China deterred invaders from the north.
The Han dynasty furthered China's prosperity from 206 BCE to 220 CE; it incorporated
more territory, set up a complex civil service, and started the systematic recording of
the nation's history. Meanwhile, Chinese art and literature burgeoned, and people
began to take up Buddhism, which had been introduced from India. The ⤀褅rst census in
2 CE set the population at 57 million. For the next 300 years, China was divided into the Three Kingdoms: the
Wei, the Shu, and the Wu. However, by 581, the Sui dynasty had succeeded in reunifying the country and
reinstating a government.
The Tang period, from 618 to 907, marked a renaissance both in terms of government, which became more
centralized and developed, and culture, as painting, poetry, and sculpture made major strides. Buddhism
became even more popular, and the Tangs established lucrative trade relations with the Byzantine Empire
and Islamic countries. By then, China covered most of Asia's southeastern and central regions. The 10th
century witnessed a dramatic decline in China's fortunes. Called the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms
period, China su⤀ㄆered war, loss of its northern, central, and Korean territories, and economic hardship.
Despite the upheaval, printing was invented, paper money emerged, and Chinese porcelain became a muchsought-after commodity in Islamic lands.
The Song dynasty, which dawned in 960, brought a time of peace. Leaders reinstalled central government,
and the invention of movable type put China at the forefront of world technology. However, the neglected
northern and western edges of the enormous empire fell prey to invasions by the ⤀褅erce Mongol peoples.
Those small incursions led in the late 13th century to the warriors taking control of the government in 1279,
which ended the Song period. The Mongol Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, made Beijing his
capital when he took the throne in 1293. The founder of the Yuan dynasty, Khan promoted economic
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World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras ­ China
prosperity by rebuilding the Da Yunhe canal, lengthening highways, and repairing public grain silos.
By 1368, the Mongols had been driven out by a groundswell of nationalism, and
native Chinese established the Ming dynasty that year. The Ming period ushered
in a period of artistic creativity and a restoration of many traditional Chinese
practices and institutions. It also witnessed the arrival of the ⤀褅rst European
traders from Portugal and other countries in the early 16th century. As a result,
the famous Ming dynasty porcelain entered European markets in 1580. The
Manchus, non-Chinese nomads from Manchuria, took control of China in 1644 and established the last
Chinese dynasty—the Qing dynasty.
ABC-CLIO
Further Reading
Capon, Edmund. Tang China: Vision and Splendor of a Golden Age. London: Macdonald Orbis, 1989;
Debaine-Francfort, Corinne. Discoveries: The Search for Ancient China. New York: Abrams, 1999; Fairbank,
John K. China: A New History. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1992; Gernet,
Jacques. A History of Chinese Civilization. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
COPYRIGHT 2016 ABC-CLIO, LLC
This content may be used for non-commercial, classroom purposes only.
Image Credits
Tang dynasty statue of horse: Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Han dynasty emperor bestows honors: Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris/Bridgeman Images
Great Wall of China: Corel
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MLA Citation
"China." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras, ABC-CLIO, 2016, ancienthistory.abcclio.com/Search/Display/586973. Accessed 12 Sept. 2016.
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