What is happening in China in 1500BCE The Yellow river region of China is now ruled by the Shang dynasty (1766-1122 BCE). The Shang Dynasty Under the Shang, Chinese Bronze Age civilization fully emerges into the light of history. The first real cities of ancient East Asia, with tens of thousands of inhabitants, have appeared here. Although the kings of the Shang state probably exercise direct rule over only a part of the region, their authority is acknowledged over a much wider area of northern and central China, through subordinate lords and tribal chiefs. These rule their own territories independently, but acknowledge the overlordship of the Shang king. Fine bronzes A system of writing, which in all essentials is the modern Chinese script, is already in use at this ancient period. Bronze technology is well developed. Indeed, the Chinese are already making some of the finest bronzes ever produced in world history. Cultural influences eminating from the Yellow river region are bringing a more advanced material culture to the Yangtze region, and this is leading to population expansion. A distinctive, non-literate but materially advanced culture is developing here. Next map, China in 1000 BCE Dig Deeper: Shang Dynasty China Ancient East Asia Ancient Chinese civilization Early Civilizations (Premium resource)

What is happening in China in 2500BCE Over the past millennia, farming cultures in China have been becoming more and more complex. Civilization is emerging in Ancient China In the Yellow River region of China, farming, based on millet cultivation, is the backbone of the economy, and small towns and villages dot the landscape. The larger settlements are surrounded by thick beaten-earth walls, an indicator of endemic warfare. Elaborate burials for the elite suggest that the region is home to competing chiefdoms, ruled by warlike aristocracies. Even at this ancient period of China’s history, pottery shards carry inscriptions which include composite ideographs, conveying simple meanings. These show that the Chinese system of writing is gradually developing. The long history of China’s civilization is dawning. The expansion of rice farming in southern China In the Yangtze region, wet-rice cultivation predominates. As in the north, farming villages have become established here, often on lake sides where paddy fields can most easily be laid out. In the hills and forests to the south of the Yangtze region, tribal peoples such as the Tai live lives largely based on hunting, gathering and fishing. Wet-rice cultivation is gradually penetrating this region as well, and farming settlements have reached the south China coast. Next map, China in 1500 BCE Dig Deeper: Ancient East Asia Ancient Chinese civilization Early Civilizations (Premium resource)

What is happening in China in 750CE After centuries of division, China was reunified by the Sui dynasty in 589. This dynasty did not last long, but in their brief time in power they constructed the Grand Canal, which would unify China’s economy; and they restored the examination system for recruiting government officials. This had been first instituted under the Han, but then abandoned. After a brief civil war the Tang dynasty came to power in 618. This was able to build on the foundations laid by the Sui to become one of the most brilliant dynasty’s in China’s long history. The Tang emperors brought stability and good government to China, as well as pushing out the frontiers of the Chinese empire further than ever before. The great Taizong (624-49), who set the dynasty on strong foundations, was succeeded by less capable emperors, but this allowed one of the most remarkable personalities in all Chinese history to exercise power, the empress Wu (649-705, first as concubine of the emperor, then as wife, and finally, after 690, in her own right). She expanded the examination system so that more non-aristocratic officials came to hold the most senior positions in government. Under her son, the emperor Xuanzong (712-56), the Tang empire has reached a peak of power. Culturally, Xuanzong’s reign is later seen as a golden age in Chinese civilization, particularly in the field of poetry. However, there are causes for concern. Over-powerful generals now control the frontiers, and the elderly emperor is increasingly withdrawing from affairs of state, under the spell of a beautiful concubine. This situation will very soon lead to one of the most terrible rebellions in China’s history, bringing disaster for the Tang dynasty and for the whole of China. Next map, China in 979



What is happening in China in 979CE In 755, one of the most disastrous events in China’s history occurred when a powerful frontier army commander, An Lushan, revolted and seized the capital, Loyang. His rebellion was not crushed until 763, after causing great destruction and loss of life throughout China. The later Tang emperors were unable to assert the same degree of control over their empire as their predecessors had done, and the centralized rule of the early Tang was never fully restored. One of the feature of the late Tang period was that the regime turned against the Buddhist establishment. It confiscated its vast wealth and ordered thousands of monks back to secular life. Buddhism would remain a popular religion in China right up to the present day, but mostly without official patronage. Eventually, the familiar tale of child-emperors, factionalism at court and widespread peasant revolt led to the fall of the Tang dynasty in 907, and China again fragmented into several states. This period of division did not last nearly as long as the earlier one in China’s history, following the fall of the Han dynasty. By 969 China was largely reunified under the Song dynasty. In northern China, however, two barbarian dynasties reign, the Liao and the Western Xia (the latter founded as a recognized dynasty in 1038, but existing as a state from the mid-10th century). In the Liao, a small ruling nomad group governs the state along Chinese lines, and under them Chinese gentry families participate fully in the Chinese culture of the period. The Western Xia is a more purely nomadic tribal confederation. Next map, China in 1215



What is happening in China in 1215CE The centuries of Song dynasty rule have seen unprecedented economic growth and population expansion for China. A revolution in farming, based largely on wet-rice cultivation, has greatly increased crop yields, and has been accompanied by dramatic commercial and industrial expansion, both within China itself and throughout South East Asia. This has been the great age of Chinese technological innovation, with printing, gunpowder, shipbuilding techniques, the compass, paper money and porcelain all either appearing for the first time or seeing great advances. In their internal policies, the Song emperors have expanded the examination system as a means of recruiting officials, and China is now administered largely by a class of professional scholar-officials. This class now professes a reformed Confucianism which modern scholars label “Neo-Confucianism”. This has borrowed elements from Buddhism and Taoism to provide a more emotionally satisfying form of the ancient ideology. It will be the dominant belief-system of China’s ruling class up to the 20th century. The Song dynasty now only rules the south of the country, however. In 1135 a major invasion by the Jurchen, a people from central Asia, conquered the entire north of China from the Song and formed the Jin empire. Though ruled by a small minority of nomadic descent, this functions as a Chinese state. The Song dynasty of this period is therefore give the label “Southern Song”. It has been left with by far the richest and most populous part of China, and under them the advances which began under the early Song have continued. Next map, China in 1453



What is happening in China in 1453CE The past few centuries have been ones of great upheaval in Chinese history. The Mongols from central Asia conquered northern China in the 1230s, annexing it to their empire which stretched as far west as the Middle East and (within a few years) Russia. Southern China fell to them in the 1270s. The Mongol emperor, Kublai Khan (reigned 1260-94), presented himself as a legitimate Chinese ruler, of the Yuan dynasty, and maintained the traditional Chinese bureaucracy, though with Mongols in the topmost positions. After Kublai Khan, the Mongols weakened and their vast empire fragmented into separate states. Yuan dynasty China was one of these. From the 1330s, an increasing number of rebellions culminated in the expulsion of the Mongols from China. Native Chinese rulers of the Ming dynasty were installed on the throne. The Ming emperors have restored the Confucian bureaucracy, along with the examination system, to its predominant position in the state. In the early 15th century they briefly sent out a number of major naval expeditions to South East Asia and beyond, reaching as far as Africa. In Inner Asia, however, the Mongols remain a dangerous threat to China, and the Ming have completely rebuilt the Great Wall – one of the greatest feats of engineering in world history. Internally, the country is largely tranquil, and the economy and population is expanding strongly. Next map, China in 1648

What is happening in China in 1648CE The Ming dynasty presided over a reasonably tranquil period in Chinese history. However, the Ming emperors, for the most part nonentities, fell increasingly under the control of eunuch factions at court. These factions were frequently in bitter conflict with the scholar-officials of the imperial bureaucracy. The turbulence of life at the centre meant that some deep-seated problems in the administration of the Ming empire were not addressed properly. In the 16th century the Ming dynasty showed the classic symptoms of dynastic decline, repeated at regular intervals throughout China’s history: corrupt and ineffective administration in the provinces, famine and floods inadequately dealt with, peasant revolt and invasion from across the frontiers. One group of invaders are a people from the northern steppes who, having developed a Chinese-style state in Manchuria (hence the name by which they are known to history, the Manchus), have taken advantage of rising chaos in China to march on the capital and seize the throne (1644). They have thus established a new dynasty, the Qing (“brilliant”), and, under their regent, Dorgon, are now in the process of pacifying the entire country. After initial struggles a final, glorious phase in China’s imperial history will begin. Next map, China in 1789

What is happening in China in 1789CE The Qing (Manchu) dynasty has ruled China for the past 150 years, though it was not until 1680 that the country was fully in their hands. Although of foreign origin, the Qing have established an orthodox Confucian state, complete with bureaucracy, examination system, and law code. However, Manchu officials serve alongside Chinese in all the topmost posts, and the Chinese male population are required to wear their hair in a queue as a sign of their subjection. In one of the most remarkable succession of rulers in all world history, China has been governed for more than a century by just three very able rulers, the Kangxi emperor (1667-1722), the Yongzheng emperor (1722-35) and the Qianlong emperor (1736-95). These emperors have pushed out the frontiers of the Qing empire to include vast areas of central Asia, never previously under Chinese rule. They have centralized power, ensured high standards of administration, and presided over a prolonged period of peace. Due largely to this peace, but also to new crops introduced from America (maize, sweet potatoes, peanuts), migration to hitherto under-developed areas and the bringing of much new land into cultivation, and productivity gains in Chinese farming methods, the 18th century has seen a doubling of the population. From 150 millions in the late 17th century it has grown to 300 millions. Commerce has expanded considerably, especially long-distance trade within the empire, and industries such as porcelain, steel and textiles have flourished. Next map, China in 1837

What is happening in China in 1837CE China in the period of the later Qing dynasty was by now showing signs of strain. Despite the expansion of food production in China, by the end of the 18th century there were clear indications that it was not able to keep pace with the continuing rise in population. Each acre was having to feed more people, and standards of living – especially amongst already-poor peasants – were slipping. These adverse trends manifested themselves in a fashion repeated throughout the history of China: rural disorder and banditry leading to full-scale peasant uprisings. Such uprisings began to break out in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The White Lotus rebellion took the Qing government several years to bring under control (1796-1804). However, at this date these episodes were comparatively local affairs. At the same time, the Qing government was getting increasingly concerned with the rise in opium smuggling into the country, and the spreading addiction to the drug at all levels of society. Opium was being brought to China by British merchants in ever-larger quantities, both because the Chinese government placed severe restrictions of legitimate trade and because China’s economy was so self-sufficient that it had little need for the kind of goods British merchants had to offer. Such was the scale of the problem that by 1837 the senior Qing dynasty ministers were concluding that the Opium trade had to be stamped out once and for all. Next map, China in 1871

What is happening in China in 1871CE The history of imperial China has now entered its final phase. Tensions over trade between China and Britain, particularly over the role of British merchants in bringing illegal opium into the country, led to the outbreak of the first Opium War (1839-42). In this, the superiority of Western forces over Chinese told, and the treaty which ended it was the first of several “unequal treaties” China would be forced to sign, favorable to foreign interests. The most enduring result of this one was the establishment of Hong Kong as an outpost of the British empire. Continuing population growth and spreading poverty within the Chinese empire led to the outbreak of the most destructive uprising in China’s history (and in world history as well). This was the Taiping rebellion, which began in 1850, and was aimed at driving the Qing dynasty from China. Within a couple of years, the Qing government had lost control over a large part of southern and central China. Then, with the rebels undefeated and another major revolt breaking out further north, China found herself at war with Britain (and now France) again (1858-60). This led to the emperor’s Summer Palace in Beijing being burnt down – and of course, to another “unequal treaty”. More rebellions broke out in various provinces of the empire, and rebel forces roamed, apparently at will, through the length and breadth of China. The Qing dynasty found itself facing challenges on all sides, not least because the Chinese people were increasingly thinking of the Qing, who had originally come from outside China, as part of the problem. By the time the Taiping rebellion had been crushed (1864), 20-30 million lives had been lost. There followed a period of rebuilding, which was remarkably successful given the circumstances, and included the resettlement of large areas of depopulated lands. Some attempts at modernizing China’s armed forces were also made. Next map, China in 1914

What is happening in China in 1914CE The long imperial era of China’s history has ended and the last of its dynasties has left the stage. In 1894-5, a war with Japan ended in humiliating defeat for the China. Japan gained Taiwan and other territories, and other foreign powers joined in a free-for-all at China’s expense: they demanded (and got) more ports along the coast of China and claimed wide “spheres of influence” around them. The complete dismemberment of the Chinese empire was only averted by rivarlies between the great powers of the day. These developments undermined support for the Qing dynasty, now widely seen as puppets of the foreign powers, and they deepened the already bitter hatred of foreigners within China. The last years of the 19th century saw the rise of a particularly violent anti-foreign movement known as the Boxers, and many Western missionaries were killed. The Qing court seemed to endorse the movement, and the foreign community in Beijing came under threat from Boxer groups. The Western powers sent an international force to protect their compatriots, which sacked Beijing (1901). The foreign governments then demanded a huge indemnity from China. At this point the Qing court enacted a wide range of modernizing measures, but these were too little, too late to save the last of China’s imperial dynasties. In 1911 some Qing policies aimed at bolstering their rule sparked opposition throughout the country, and local garrisons and provincial assemblies one by one seceded from the empire. The commander of the army in Beijing declared a Republic on January 1st, 1912. Despite the best efforts of such figures as the widely-respected Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the Chinese republic almost immediately starts collapsing into civil war. Next map, China in 1960

What is happening in China in 1960CE The years after the fall of the Qing dynasty and the founding of the Chinese republic were some of the most turbulent in China’s history. Within a few years of its proclamation in 1912, the government of the republic had lost control of the country, and China fell into chaos. Some measure of order was restored by the Nationalist Party (the Guomindang) in 1926, but then a bitter struggle broke out between it and the rising Communist Party (many Chinese students and workers had become attracted to Communism as a way of dealing with the many problems faced by China in the early 20th century). The Nationalists gained the upper hand, and, hard pressed by Goumindang forces, the Communists carried out a gruelling treck – the “Long March” – from their bases in southern China, to link up with more of their forces to the north (1934-6). This event consolidated Mao Zedong’s leadership of the Party. For the next ten years, until the end of World War 2, all Chinese forces were committed to fighting the Japanese. Immediately this fighting was concluded, however, the struggle between the Communists and the Goumindang resumed. By 1949 the Communists had control of all China except for Taiwan, to which the Goumindang had fled. The Communists proclaimed the formation of the People’s Republic of China. Under Communism, China has been transformed. The gentry class, throughout China’s history the mainstay of imperial China, has been eliminated, farmland had been collectivized, women have been given equal rights with men, and under Mao’s “Great Leap Forward”, China is straining to create an industrial socialist utopia. Next map, China in 2005

