History of China

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The origin of Chinese civilization is shrouded in myth and conflicting tales. Documented history begins with the Shang dynasty, founded about 1600 BC. China has long been the most populous country in the world. It's warring states were united into a single nation by Qin Shi Huang, the king of Qin, in 221 BC. For the next two thousand years, the country was ruled by a series of dynasties that followed the principles of Confucianism. Officials were selected by an examination system which tested their knowledge of classic works of literature. The Qing (1644-1911), the last of these dynasties, was founded by the Manchu, a nomadic people from the northeast.

Publications established by Christian missionaries introduced reformist ideas in the late 19th century, culminating in the Chinese Revolution of 1911. The May Fourth Movement of the 1920s was characterized by language reform, campaigns against footbinding and other abusive practices toward women, and a reverent attitude toward "science." At this time, the country was divided among various warlord factions. It was reunited in 1927 by the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek. In 1937, most of China was occupied by Japan. Fighting between Nationalist China and Japan continued until 1945, when Japan was defeated by the United States.

After the war, China was ensnared in Cold War rivalries. In the Chinese Civil War (1946-1949), Soviet-backed communists led by Mao Zedong defeated the U.S.-backed Nationalists. Although impoverished by many years of war and upheaval, China entered the Korean War (1950-1953) with Soviet backing. Loses were heavy, but U.S. forces did retreat before the Chinese offensive. During the Great Leap Forward (1958-1961), the communists starved the nation's peasants to maximize rice exports. The money raised was used to build a nuclear bomb, which was tested in 1964.

Market-oriented reforms have allowed the country to experience rapid economic growth since 1978. China's economy is now has the world's second largest, surpassing that of Japan in 2010. However, the Communist Party maintains a monopoly on political power. In 1989, the army killed thousands of anti-Communist demonstrators in the Tiananmen Square Massacre.




A map of China

Traditional history begins with Pangu, the first living being. When Pangu died, his left eye became the Sun. Various parts of his body became different parts of the Earth. There followed a succession of Three Sovereigns, or demigod rulers. The first and best known of these was Fuxi (2852–2737 BC). Fuxi and his sister Nüwa survived a worldwide flood by retreating to the Kunlun Mountains. After the Three Sovereigns, China was ruled by the Five Emperors. The Yellow Emperor (r. 2698–2598 BC) is given credit for numerous inventions and is considered the founder of Chinese civilization.

During the reign of Emperor Yao (2356 - 2255 BC), a great and terrible flood began.[1] The waters overtopped hills and mountains, threatening heaven itself. Yao appointed Gun to control the food. To build dikes, Gun stole soil that expanded magically from the Supreme Deity. This angered the Supreme Deity, and the flood raged on. Yao consulted the Four Mountains, who advised him to appoint Shun as his successor. Shun (r. 2255 – 2195 BC) was only a distant relative of Yao, but he was known throughout the kingdom as a dutiful son. Shun's father had repeatedly tried to murder him, so being a dutiful son was not as easy as it might sound. Shun was later singled out by Confucius as an example of outstanding filial piety. Yet he too proved helpless before the flood. Shun's successor, Yu the Great (c. 2200 - 2100 BC), was finally able to control the raging waters by building embankments made of non-magical soil. Yu's son succeeded him, making Yu the founder of the legendary Xia dynasty (2070 – c. 1600 BC).


The neolithic site of Yangshao in Henan Province was excavated by Swedish archaeologist Johan Gunnar Andersson in 1921. The Yangshao culture thrived along Yellow River and cultivated millet from about 4900 to 3000 BC. Silk was produced and pottery was fired in kilns dug into the ground. The bones of domesticated dogs, cattle, sheep and goats have been found.[2] As of 1999, a total of 31 Yangshao sites have been located.[3] The remains of a second neolithic culture were uncovered by C.T. Wu at Longshan in Shandong in 1928. Black pottery is a characteristic find at Longshan archaeological sites. Longshan is now considered an example of the second phase of a Yangshao-Longshan culture, one that lasted from 3000 to 2000 BC. Copper was introduced around 2000 BC, and China entered the Bronze Age around 1700 BC. China's first significant state was the Erlitou culture (1900–1350 BC). This was a Bronze Age state whose capital in Henan Province was excavated in 1959.


History of China
Xia c. 2070–c. 1600 BC
Shang c. 1600 – 1046 BC
Zhou 1045–256 BC
Qin 221–206 BC
Han 206 BC – 220 AD
Three Kingdoms 220–280
Jin 265–420
  16 Kingdoms
Northern and Southern
Sui 581–618
Tang 618–907
Five Dynasties and
Ten Kingdoms

Yuan 1271–1368
Ming 1368–1644
Qing 1644–1911
Republic 1912–1949
People's Republic 1949–present

The traditional view of ancient Chinese history, still promoted by the Chinese government, is of a succession of dynasties from Xia to Shang to Zhou going back 5,000 years. Historians working in China identify Erlitou with the Xia dynasty.[4] Other states and cultures existed at the same time, and the focus on the traditional dynastic sequence may reflect the basis of dynasty-oriented historians. Among the first historians to carefully separate myth from history was Sima Qian. His history begins with the exile of King Li of the Zhou dynasty in 841 BC, still the earliest securely dated event in Chinese history.

Xia dynasty: 2070–c. 1600 BC

The Xia dynasty is the first dynasty in traditional history. The legend of this dynasty was used by the Zhou to justify their conquest of the Shang. It can be compared to the King Arthur legend in England, which Medieval writers developed to justify the Norman conquest. The fourteen Xia rulers on the traditional dynasty list were descended from Yu the Great. Jie, the last king of the dynasty, is said to have fallen in love with a beautiful but cruel woman. In response, Zi Lü led a revolt, overthrew the Xia, and founded the Shang dynasty.

Shang dynasty: 1600-c. 1046 BC

The Shang, found in 1600 BC, was China's first fully historical dynasty. It was a Bronze Age culture.

Zhou dynasty: c. 1045–256 BC

Iron replaced bronze around 600 BC, during the Zhou dynasty.

Imperial China


When the Chinese discovered gunpowder they had no intention of using it as a weapon. Instead, it was developed in the Tang dynasty as a formula for immortality by religious Daoist alchemists. It was discovered to be a powerful explosive, and when lit, gunpowder in a bamboo stick made a colorful explosion. This loud explosion was used to chase away evil spirits and to celebrate weddings, victories in battles, and religious ceremonies. However, contrary to popular belief, the first depiction of gunpowder in pictorial form shows it in military use. Similarly, it is also known that before the arrival of Westerners in China, Chinese troops were equipped with firearms.

Great Wall

The Great Wall of China was designed to keep enemies out and protect their country. Construction took centuries, and was begun during the Qin dynasty, 221-206 BC. In 246 BC the emperor Qin Shi Huang Di, whose original name was Ying Zheng, came to power in the state of Qin. By 221 BC, he had unified China using the Legalistic philosophy of his state to encourage colonization and to build up the military in what was previously a minor desert state.

The Great Wall winds some 2,400 km (1,500 mi) along the edge of the Mongolian plateau from Gansu Province in the west to the Yellow Sea in the east. Its width ranges from 4 to 12 m (12 to 40 ft) and its height from 6 to 15 m (20 to 50 ft). It makes possible much more effective military defense of China from invaders.


Ming dynasty: 1368-1644


A map of Asia during the Ming dynasty


Qing dynasty: 1644-1911


In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by large-scale civil wars, major famines, military defeats by Britain and Japan, regional control by powerful warlords and foreign intervention such as the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. In the 1860s, electrotype technology was applied to allow newspapers in the Chinese language to be mass produced and widely circulated. Christian missionaries were at the forefront in taking advantage of this technology. The reformers of the 1890s were educated concerning modern approaches and ideologies by their publications, particularly Wanguo Gongbao (A Review of the Times).

Reforms: 1901-1908

The humiliation of the Boxer Rebellion stimulated a second reform movement--this time sanctioned by Empress Dowager Cixi. From 1901 to 1908, the dynasty announced a series of educational, military, and administrative reforms, many reminiscent of the "one hundreds days" of 1898. The imperial examinations of 1902 and 1904 included questions on the politics, science and technology of all countries, requiring some 50,000 students to study such subjects, most of whom would not otherwise be interested.[6] Unfortunately, the examination system was abolished in 1905.


Japan's victory over Russia in 1905 electrified nationalists across Asia. The adoption of a constitutional monarchy in Russia following the war created a model for action. In 1908, the court issued a timetable: Consultative provincial assemblies by 1909, a consultative national assembly by 1910, and both a constitution and a parliament by 1917. Cixi's death in 1908 left the dynasty practically leaderless. The new emperor was a child and the regent incompetent. The army leaders felt little loyalty to either. They yearned for the return of Yuan Shikai, a Cixi favorite dismissed in 1909.

Revolution planned

While the reformers of the 1890s sought to modernize China by working within the dynasty, the following generation was fed up with the Qing. It was the age of racism, and many Chinese were influenced by anti-Manchu racial theories.[7] The old crimes of the Manchu, such as the Yangzhou Massacre of 1645, were dug up and used against them. Anti-Manchu revolutionary groups were formed in the Yangtze cities by 1903, and those in Tokyo banded together to form the "Revolutionary Alliance" in 1905, led by Sun Yat-sen. By 1910, even Liang Qichao, the most prominent Chinese intellectual at the time and once a prominent advocate of constitutional monarchy, had joined Sun as a revolutionary.

Republic: 1912-1949

Yuan Shikai: 1911-1916

By 1911 China had 400 million people and the beginnings of a railroad system. The old dynasty collapsed in 1911 as soldiers mutinied, and the emperor abdicated in early 1912. A republic was proclaimed on January 1, 1912, but power was held by army leader Yuan Shikai (1859-1916). The army officers felt loyalty to Yuan as a former commander who reorganized the army. Most owed their positions to him. The Nationalist Party won parliamentary elections in 1913, but Yuan had the parliamentary leader assassinated, crushed republican uprisings, shut down parliament, and ruled as a dictator. Yuan proclaimed himself emperor in 1915. This triggered an uprising based in the South. Few army officers appreciated the prospect of serving Yuan's playboy son, who was now heir to the throne. Faced with unanimous opposition, Yuan renounced the throne. He died suddenly of natural causes in June 1916.[8]

Age of warlords: 1916-1930

After Yuan's death, the Beiyang clique at first backed Prime Minister Duan Qirui. By 1919, army leadership had devolved into three rival factions: Anhui, Zhili, and Fengtian.[9] Zhang Zuolin, warlord of Manchuria and head of the Fengtian clique, was backed by Japan. He gained control of Beijing in 1926. The reactionary character of the Zhang regime provoked a backlash in the more reform-minded South. Sun Yat-sen and the Nationalist Party, backed by the Soviets, established a rival government in Guangzhou in 1925. Whampoa Academy trained a new generation of army officers who would be loyal to the party, not affiliated with any of the Beiyang cliques.

The Nanjing decade: 1927-1937

Chiang Kai-shek, who become Nationalist leader following Sun's death, defeated the Beiyang warlords and moved to central government to Nanjing in 1927. A warlord revolt was defeated in a brief but bloody war in 1930. Japan seized Manchuria in 1931, and in 1937 invaded all of China, defeating the government armies, seizing the coast, the major cities, and setting up a puppet government that controlled most of the population. China's resistance was ineffective.[10]

Communist Party

The Chinese Communist Party was founded in Shanghai, China's largest city, in 1921. It was allied with the KMT but in classical Marxist style its goal was initially to foment revolution among urban workers. It was controlled by Stalin in Moscow through the Comintern. In 1927, however, a bloody anti-communist coup by the Nationalist, destroyed the CCP in the cities. Forced into the countryside, the CCP broke with Russian guidance and developed a new strategy based on agrarian revolution, mobilizing poor peasants by promising to confiscate and redistribute the lands held by landlords. Mao Zedong took the lead.[11]

The Long March: 1934-36

In 1934-35, the CCP fled the KMT with over 100,000 men and women.They divided into several armies, marched 6,000 miles inland through a brutal terrain of frigid mountain passes, freezing rivers and marshes in search of a sanctuary to continue their revolution. Only 7000 survived the march.[12]


World War II: 1937-1945



The city of Chongqing became the most frequently bombed city in history.[14]


Civil War: 1946-1949


People's Republic: 1949 - present

Mao Zedong proclaims the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949.


Great Leap Forward


The Cultural Revolution

Painting by Yun Xin, born in 1944

Mao was discredit by the failure of the Great Leap Forward, and power shifted the party boss Liu Shaoqi and his protégé, Deng Xiaoping. Dissatisfied with China's new direction and his own reduced authority, Mao launched a massive political attack on Liu, Deng, and other pragmatists in the spring of 1966.

In the early stages of the Cultural Revolution, Mao and Lin Biao charged Liu, Deng, and other top party leaders with dragging China back toward capitalism. In 1971, Lin Biao was accused of plotting against Mao. He fled Beijing and died in a plane crash in Mongolia.

The ideological struggle between more pragmatic, veteran party officials and the radicals re-emerged with a vengeance in late 1975. Mao's wife, Jiang Qing, and three close Cultural Revolution associates (later dubbed the "Gang of Four") launched a campaign against Deng, who was stripped of all official positions.



The post-Mao era

After Mao's death in September 1976 Hua Guofeng was quickly confirmed as party chairman and premier. A month later, Hua, backed by the army, arrested Jiang Qing and other members of the "Gang of Four" that organized the Cultural Revolution.

In December 1978, the Third Plenum (of the 11th Party Congress Central Committee) adopted economic reform policies aimed at expanding rural income and incentives, encouraging experiments in enterprise autonomy, reducing central planning, and attracting foreign direct investment into China. Hua was force to resign at this time, leaving Deng as top leader.

Deng focused on market-oriented economic development. By 2000, output had quadrupled, population growth ended (by imposing a one-child policy), and good relations were secured with the West.

Massacre at Tiananmen Square

The death of Hu Yaobang on April 15, 1989, coupled with growing economic hardship caused by high inflation, triggered protests by students, intellectuals, and others. The protesters camped out in Beijing's Tiananmen Square to mourn Hu's death and to protest against those who would slow reform.


Post-Deng China

Deng's health deteriorated in the years prior to his death in 1997. Jiang Zemin gradually assumed control of the day-to-day functions of government. In November 2002, Hu Jintao was selected leader. In 1992, he had been designated by Deng Xiaoping as the "core" of the fourth generation leaders. On March 14, 2013 Xi Jinping was "elected" as new president.[17]


  1. The Biblical flood may be dated as 2304 BC.("The Date of Noah’s Flood" by Dr John Osgood)
  2. Vasey, Daniel E., An Ecological History of Agriculture 10,000 BD to AD 10,000, p. 157 (2002)
  3. Xiaolin Ma, "Emergent Social Complexity in the Yangshao Culture: Analyses of Settlement Patterns and Faunal Remains from Lingbao, Western Henan, China C. 4900-3000 BC
  4. The official view of ancient chronology is given by the Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project (2001), which refines the traditional timeline.
  5. Dardess, A Ming Society (1996)
  6. Iwo Amelung, "The Examination System and the Dissemination of Western Knowledge during the Late Qing"
  7. Ishikawa Yoshihiro, "Anti-Manchu racism and the rise of anthropology in early 20th century China"
  8. Hsü, (1999) ch 20
  9. Hsü, (1999) ch 20
  10. Spence, Search for Modern China (1990) ch 14-16
  11. Spence, Search for Modern China (1990) ch 14
  14. Chóngqìng.
  17. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/9929619/Xi-Jinping-elected-Chinas-president-Telegraph-dispatch.html

See also

External links

Further reading

For a more detailed guide go to the Bibliography below

Detailed Bibliography



  • full text of older histories (pre 1923)

Prehistory and early history


Intellectual, social and cultural history





  • Studies of Modern Chinese History: Reviews and Historiographical Essays
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