A General Chronology of Chinese History

The periodization of Chinese history has always been one of the most delicate problems of historians. The Chinese persisted for a long time in the models of their dynastical history and treated each dynasty accordingly as a complete unity.

Authors like Jacques Gernet, however, started in the 1960s already to divide China's history roughly into Antiquity, Middle Ages, and Modern Times. However, any kind of periodization remains open for academic debates. Below, a general chronology determined by the main dynastical developments in China is listed and briefly introduced in order to provide a rough first overview over a very complex topic.

A General Chronology

English Name Chinese Name Period
Xia Dynasty 夏朝 c. 2207 BC - c. 1766 BC
Shang Dynasty 商朝 c. 1765 BC - c. 1122 BC
Zhou Dynasty 周朝 c. 1122 BC - c. 221 BC
Qin Dynasty 秦朝 c. 221 BC - c. 206 BC
Han Dynasty 汉朝 c. 206 BC - c. 220 AD
Three Kingdoms 三国 c. 220 AD - c. 265 AD
Western Jin Dynasty 西晋朝 c. 265 AD - c. 316 AD
Northern & Southern Dynasties 南北朝 c. 317 AD - c. 589 AD
Sui Dynasty 隋朝 c. 589 AD - c. 618 AD
Tang Dynasty 唐朝 c. 618 AD - c. 907 AD
Five Dynasties & Ten Kingdoms 五代十国 c. 907 AD - c. 960 AD
Song Dynasty 宋朝 c. 960 AD - c. 1279 AD
Liao Dynasty 辽朝 c. 907 AD - c. 1125 AD
Jin-Dynasty 金朝 c. 1115 AD - c. 1234 AD
Western Xia Dynasty 西夏朝 c. 1038 AD - c. 1227 AD
Yuan Dynasty 元朝 c. 1279 AD - c. 1368 AD
Ming Dynasty 明朝 c. 1368 AD - c. 1644 AD
Qing Dynasty 清朝 c. 1644 AD - 1911 AD

According to the traditional historical records of China, the Xia Dynasty is the first dynasty that ruled China between c. 2207 BC and c. 1766 BC. The Xia Dynasty was supposedly founded by the legendary Yu the Great who succeeded Emperor Shun, the last one of the Five Mythical Emperors, who handed the throne over to him. The Xia Dynasty was later then succeeded by the Shang Dynasty 商朝.

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The Shang Dynasty, or Yin Dynasty 殷代, according to traditional historiography, ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, succeeding the Xia Dynasty and followed by the Zhou Dynasty. The classic account of the Shang comes from texts such as the Book of Documents, the Bamboo Annals and the Records of the Grand Historian. According to the traditional chronology based on...

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The Zhou Dynasty followed the Shang Dynasty 商朝 and preceded the Qin Dynasty 秦朝. The Zhou Dynasty lasted longer than any other dynasty in Chinese history. The military control of China by the Royal House of Ji 姬 lasted initially from 1046 until 771 BC for a period known as the Western Zhou, and the political sphere of influence that it created continued for another 500 years well into the second...

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The Qin Dynasty was the first dynasty of Imperial China. Lasting from 221 to 206 BC, the Qin was with its 15 years the shortest major dynasty in Chinese history. The Name Qin 秦 comes from its heartland, the Qin State in modern Gansu and Shaanxi Provinces. The first Chinese Empire of the Qin was founded by Qin Shi Huang Di 秦始皇帝. After its strength was greatly increased by the Legalist reforms...

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The Han Dynasty lasted from 206 BC to 220 AD and was founded by the peasant rebel leader Liu Bang 刘邦 (posthumously named Emperor Han Gaozu 汉高祖). It was the second imperial dynasty of China and followed the Qin Dynasty 秦朝 which had just unified the Warring States by conquest. Interrupted briefly by the Xin Dynasty 新朝 (9–23 AD) of Wang Mang 王莽, the Han Dynasty is divided into two periods: the...

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The Three Kingdoms, roughly from 184/220 to 280 AD, was a tripartite division of China between the states of Wei (魏), Shu (蜀), and Wu (吳), following the Han Dynasty 汉朝 and preceding the Jin Dynasty. The term "Three Kingdoms" itself is something of a mistranslation, since each state was eventually headed not by a king, but by an emperor who claimed legitimate succession from the Han Dynasty....

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The Jin Dynasty 晉朝, sometimes distinguished as Sima Jin 司马晋 or Liang Jin 两晋, was a Chinese dynasty traditionally dated from c. 265 to c. 420 AD. It was founded by the infamous Sima Yan 司马炎 and followed the Three Kingdoms Era 三国 which ended with the conquest of the Eastern Wu 东呉 by the Jin. There are two main traits in the history of this dynasty: The Western Jin (265–316) and the Eastern Jin 东晋朝...

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The Northern and Southern Dynasties Era was a period in the history of China that lasted roughly from 420 to 589, following the tumultuous time of the Sixteen Kingdoms 十六国 and the Wu Hu 五胡 states. It is sometimes considered as the latter part of a longer period names the Six Dynasties 六朝 (c. 220 to c. 589 AD). Though an age of civil war and political chaos, it was also a time of flourishing arts...

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The Sui Dynasty was a short-lived imperial dynasty of China of pivotal significance. The Sui unified the Northern and Southern Dynasties 南北朝 and reinstalled the rule of ethnic Han Chinese 汉族 in the entirety of China proper, along with sinicization of former nomadic ethnic minorities like those of the so-called Five Barbarians 五胡 within its territory. It was succeeded by the Tang Dynasty 唐朝, which...

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The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty that was preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It is generally regarded as a high point in Chinese civilization and a golden age of cosmopolitan medieval Chinese culture. Its territory, acquired through military campaigns, rivaled that of the Han Dynasty 汉朝, and the Tang capital at Chang'an 长安 (about...

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