History of China.

The oldest known written records of Chinese history date back to 1250 BC. C.E., Shang Dynasty,
during the reign of King Wu Ding, who was mentioned as the twenty-first Shang king by himself.
Ancient historical texts such as the Book of Documents, the Records of the Grand Historian, and
the Bamboo Annals mention and describe a Xia dynasty before the Shang, but no writings are
known from the period, and Shang writings do not indicate the existence of the Xia. The Shang
ruled in the Yellow River Valley, which is commonly regarded as the cradle of Chinese civilization.
However, Neolithic civilizations originated in several cultural centers along the Yellow River and
Yangtze River. These Yellow River and Yangtze civilizations arose millennia before the Shang. With
thousands of years of continuous history, China is one of the oldest civilizations in the world and is
considered one of the cradles of civilization.

The Zhou dynasty supplanted the Shang and introduced the concept of the Mandate of Heaven to
justify its rule. The central government of Zhou began to weaken due to external and internal
pressures in the 8th century BC. C., and the country eventually broke up into smaller states during
the Spring and Autumn Period. These states became independent and went to war with each
other in the subsequent Warring States Period. Much of traditional Chinese culture, literature, and
philosophy were first developed during these troubled times.

In 221 BC. In 206 BCE, Qin Shi Huang conquered the various warring states and created for himself
the title of Huangdi or "emperor" of the Qin, marking the beginning of imperial China. However,
the oppressive government fell soon after his death and was supplanted by the longer-lived Han
dynasty. Successive dynasties developed bureaucratic systems that allowed the emperor to
directly control vast territories. In the 21st centuries, from 206 BCE, C. until 1912 AD. C., routine
administrative tasks were handled by a special elite of scholar-officials. Young men, versed in
calligraphy, history, literature, and philosophy, were carefully selected through difficult
government examinations. China's last dynasty was the Qing, which was replaced by the Republic
of China in 1912, and then on the mainland by the People's Republic of China in 1949. The
Republic of China withdrew to Taiwan in 1949.

China's history has alternated between periods of political unity and peace, and periods of war and
failed state, the most recent being the Chinese Civil War. China was occasionally dominated by
steppe peoples, most of whom were eventually assimilated into the Han Chinese culture and
population. Between eras of multiple kingdoms and warlords, Chinese dynasties have ruled parts
or all of China; at some times, control extended as far as Xinjiang and Tibet, as it does today.
Traditional culture and influences from other parts of Asia and the Western world form the basis
of modern Chinese culture.

Prehistory

Paleolithic

What is now China was inhabited by Homo erectus more than a million years ago. A recent study
shows that stone tools found at the Xiaochangliang site are magnetostratigraphically dated to 1.36
million years ago. The Xihoudu archaeological site in Shanxi province has evidence of the use of
fire by Homo erectus, dating to 1.27 million years ago. Evidence of Middle Paleolithic Levallois
technology has been found in the lithic assemblage from the Guanyindong Cave site in southwest
China, dating to approximately 170,000 to 80,000 years ago.
Neolithic

The Neolithic Age in China dates back to approximately 10,000 BC. C. The earliest evidence of
cultivated rice, found along the Yangtze River, dates back 8,000 years. Farming gave rise to the
Jiahu culture. At Damaidi in Ningxia, 3,172 cliff carvings dating to 6000–5000 BC have been
discovered. C., "with 8,453 individual characters such as the sun, moon, stars, gods, and hunting or
herding scenes." These pictograms are reputed to be similar to the earliest characters confirmed
to be written in Chinese. Proto-Chinese writing existed in Jiahu around 7000 BC. C., Dadiwan 5800
BC. C. to 5400 BC. C., Damaidi around 6000 BC. C. and Banpo dating from the fifth millennium BC.
C. Some scholars have suggested that Jiahu symbols were the earliest Chinese writing system.
With agriculture came population growth, the ability to store and redistribute crops, and the
potential to support specialized craftsmen and administrators. In the late Neolithic, the Yellow
River valley began to be established as a center of Yangshao culture and the first villages were
founded; the most archaeologically significant was found at Banpo, Xi'an. Later, the Yangshao
culture was superseded by the Longshan culture, which was also centered on the Yellow River
from about 3000 BCE. C. to 2000 BC. C.

Bronze Age

Bronze artifacts have been found at the Majiayao culture site. The Bronze Age is also represented
at the Lower Xiajiadian culture site in northeast China. Sanxingdui, located in what is now Sichuan
Province, is believed to be the site of an important ancient city, of a previously unknown Bronze
Age culture. The site was first discovered in 1929 and then rediscovered in 1986. Chinese
archaeologists have identified the Sanxingdui culture as part of the ancient Shu kingdom, linking
artifacts found at the site to its legendary early kings.

Ferrous metallurgy began to appear at the end of the 6th century in the Yangzi Valley.

A bronze tomahawk with a meteoric iron blade excavated near the town of Gaocheng in
Shijiazhuang dates back to the 14th century BC. C.

For this reason, authors such as Liana Chua and Mark Elliott have used the term "Iron Age" by
convention for the transitional period from c. 500 BC. C. to 100 BC C., which corresponds roughly
to the Warring States period of Chinese historiography.

An Iron Age culture of the Tibetan Plateau has been tentatively associated with the Zhang Zhung
culture described in early Tibetan writings.

Ancient China

Xia Dynasty

The Xia Dynasty of China is the earliest dynasty to be described in ancient historical records such
as the Records of the Grand Historian and the Bamboo Annals of Sima Qian. With few clear
records matching the Shang oracle bones, it is unclear whether these sites are the remains of the
Xia Dynasty or another culture from the same period. Excavations overlapping the supposed Xia
time period indicate a type of culturally similar chiefdom groupings. Early markings from this
period found on pottery and shells are thought to be ancestral to modern Chinese characters.

According to ancient records, the dynasty ended around 1600 BC as a result of the Battle of
Mingtiao.
Shang Dynasty

Archaeological finds providing evidence for the existence of the Shang dynasty, c. 1600–1046 BC,
fall into two sets. The first set, from the earlier Shang period, comes from sources at Erligang,
Zhengzhou, and Shangcheng. The second set, from the late Shang or Yin period, is at Anyang in
present-day Henan, which has been confirmed as the last of the nine Shang capitals. The finds at
Anyang include the earliest written record of the Chinese yet discovered: inscriptions of divination
records in ancient Chinese script on animal bones or shells, the “oracle bones,” dating to about
1250 BC. C. The final movement was towards Yin around 1300 BC. C., which led to the golden age
of the dynasty.

Although written records found in Anyang confirm the existence of the Shang Dynasty, Western
scholars are often hesitant to associate settlements contemporary with the Anyang settlement
with the Shang Dynasty. For example, archaeological finds at Sanxingdui suggest a technologically
advanced and culturally distinct civilization than Anyang. The evidence is inconclusive in proving
how far the Shang kingdom extended from Anyang. The leading hypothesis is that Anyang, ruled
by the same Shang in official history, coexisted and traded with many other culturally diverse
settlements in the area now known as China proper.

Square bronze ding with human faces.jpg Square bronze ding with human faces.

Shang dynasty, type of ding biansato, xiii-xii sec. ac.JPG Ding, a bronze from the Shang dynasty.

CMOC Treasures of Ancient China Exhibition - Bronze Battle Axe.jpg Bronze battle axe, Shang
Dynasty. Excavated in Yidu, Shandong Province.

La Tigresse, a bronze vessel for storing drinks. Hunan, 11 BC. C. Cernuschi museum.jpg A bronze
container from the Shang dynasty to preserve the drink

Zhou Dynasty

The Zhou Dynasty is the longest-lasting dynasty in Chinese history. In the late 2nd millennium BC,
the Zhou Dynasty began to rise in the Yellow River Valley, encroaching on Shang territory. The
Zhou seemed to have begun their rule under a semi-feudal system. The Zhou lived west of the
Shang, and the Zhou leader was appointed as the Western Protector by the Shang. The Zhou ruler
King Wu, with the help of his brother the Duke of Zhou as regent, managed to defeat the Shang at
the Battle of Muye.

The Zhou king at this time invoked the concept of the Mandate of Heaven to legitimize his rule, a
concept that was influential for almost all succeeding dynasties. As Shangdi, Heaven ruled over all
other gods and decided who would rule China. A ruler was believed to lose the Mandate of
Heaven when natural disasters occurred in large numbers and when, more realistically, the
sovereign had seemingly 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 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

In the 8th century BC. By 400 BCE, power was 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 compete for hegemony. The situation was exacerbated
by the invasion of other peoples from the northwest, such as the Qin, who forced 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 the crumbling of central Zhou power. In
each of the hundreds of states that eventually emerged, local strongmen held most of the political
power and continued their subordination to the Zhou kings in name only. Some local leaders even
began to use royal titles for themselves. China now consisted of hundreds of states, some of them
as large as a village with a fort.

As the era progressed, larger and more powerful states annexed or claimed sovereignty over
smaller ones. In the 6th century BC, By the 1st century BC, most of the small states had
disappeared through annexation, and only a few large and powerful principalities dominated
China. Some southern states, such as Chu and Wu, claimed independence from the Zhou, who
waged war against some of them. Many new cities were established during this period, and
Chinese culture slowly took shape.

Once all of these powerful rulers were firmly established within their respective domains, the
bloodshed focused more fully on interstate conflict in the Warring States period, which began
when the three remaining elite families in the state of Jin (Zhao, Wei, and Han) divided the state.
Many famous figures such as Laozi, Confucius and Sun Tzu lived during this chaotic period.

The Hundred Schools of Thought in Chinese philosophy flourished during this period, and
influential intellectual movements such as Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism, and Mohism were
founded, partly in response to the changing political world. The first two philosophical thoughts
would have an enormous influence on Chinese culture.

Warring States Period

After further political consolidation, seven prominent states remained by the late 5th century BC.
C., and the years in which these few states fought each other are known as the Warring States
period. Although a nominal Zhou king remained until 256 BC, C., was largely a figurehead and had
little real power.

Numerous developments in culture and mathematics were made during this period. Examples
include a major literary achievement, the Zuo zhuan in the Spring and Autumn Annals, which
summarizes the preceding Spring and Autumn period, and the bundle of 21 bamboo slips in the
Tsinghua collection, which was invented during this period and dates to 305 BC. C. the world's
oldest example of a two-digit decimal multiplication table, indicating that sophisticated
commercial arithmetic was already established during this period.

As the neighboring territories of these warring states were annexed, including the areas of modern
Sichuan and Liaoning, they were governed under the new local administrative system of
commandery and prefecture. This system has been in use since the Spring and Autumn Period,
and parts of it can still be seen in the modern Sheng and Xian system.

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, Guangdong and Guangxi in 214 BC. C., he was allowed to proclaim himself First Emperor.
Imperial China

The Imperial Period of China can be divided into three subperiods: Early, Middle and Late.

Major events in the Early subperiod include the Qin unification of China and its replacement by the
Han, the First Division followed by Jin unification, and the loss of northern China. The Middle
subperiod was marked by Sui unification and its supplementation by the Tang, the Second
Division, and Song unification. The Late subperiod included the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties.

Qin Dynasty

Historians often refer to the period from the Qin Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty as
Imperial China. Although the unified reign of the First Qin Emperor lasted only 12 years, he
succeeded in subduing much of what constitutes the core of the Han Chinese homeland and
uniting them under a strongly centralized Legalist government seated in Xianyang. 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 in expanding the empire militarily, proved
unworkable for governing in peacetime. The Qin Emperor 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 government.

The Qin's major contributions include the concept of a centralized government and the unification
and development of China's legal code, written language, measurement, and currency after the
tribulations of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. Even something as basic as the
length of wagon axles, which must match the ruts of the roads, had to be made uniform to ensure
a viable trading system throughout the empire. Also as part of their centralization, the Qin
connected the northern border walls of the states they defeated, making the first, if crude, version
of the Great Wall of China.

The northern tribes, collectively called Wu Hu by the Qin, were free from Chinese rule for most of
the dynasty. Forbidden from trading with Qin peasants, the Xiongnu tribe living in the Ordos
region of northwest China often attacked them, prompting the Qin to retaliate. After a military
campaign led by the general Meng Tian, the region was conquered in 215 BC. C. and agriculture
was established; the peasants, however, were discontented and later revolted. The succeeding
Han dynasty also expanded into Ordos due to overpopulation, but exhausted its resources in the
process. Indeed, this was true of the dynasty’s borders in multiple directions; modern Inner
Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet, Manchuria, and regions to the southeast were foreign to the Qin, and
even the areas over which they had military control were culturally distinct.

Following the unnatural death of Emperor Qin Shi Huang due to the consumption of mercury pills,
the Qin government deteriorated drastically and finally capitulated in 207 BC. C. after the Qin
capital was captured and sacked by rebels, which would eventually lead to the establishment of a
new dynasty of a unified China. Despite the Qin Dynasty's short 15-year duration, it was
immensely influential on China and the structure of future Chinese dynasties.

Han Dynasty

Western Han
The Han Dynasty was founded by Liu Bang, who emerged victorious in the Chu-Han Contention
that followed the fall of the Qin Dynasty. A golden age in Chinese history, the Han Dynasty's long
period of stability and prosperity cemented China's founding as a unified state under a central
imperial bureaucracy, which would last on and off for most of the next two millennia. During the
Han Dynasty, China's territory extended to most of China proper and to areas of the far west.
Confucianism was officially elevated to orthodox status and shaped later Chinese civilization. Art,
culture, and science advanced to unprecedented heights. With the profound and lasting impacts
of this period of Chinese history, the dynasty's name "Han" had been taken as the name of the
Chinese people, now the dominant ethnic group in modern China, and had become commonly
used to refer to the Chinese language and written characters. The Han Dynasty also saw many
mathematical innovations being invented, such as the method of Gaussian elimination which
appeared in the Chinese mathematical text Chapter Eight Rectangular Arrangements of the Nine
Chapters on the Mathematical Art. Its use is illustrated in eighteen problems, with two to five
equations. The earliest reference to the book by this title dates to 179 AD. C., but some parts were
written as early as about 150 BC. C., more than 1,500 years before a European invented the
method in the 18th century.

Following the initial laissez-faire policies of Emperors Wen and Jing, the ambitious Emperor Wu led
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
thought and moral principles of the empire. Imperial Universities were established to support its
study and further development, while other schools of thought were discouraged.

Major military campaigns were launched to weaken the nomadic Xiongnu Empire, limiting its
influence north of the Great Wall. Coupled with diplomatic efforts led by Zhang Qian, the Han
Empire's sphere of influence extended to the Tarim Basin states, opening up the Silk Road
connecting China to the west, stimulating bilateral trade and cultural exchange. To the south,
several small kingdoms beyond the Yangtze River valley were formally incorporated into the
empire.

Emperor Wu also sent a series of military campaigns against the Baiyue tribes. The Han annexed
Minyue in 135 BC. C. and 111 BC. C., Nanyue in 111 BC. C. and Dian in 109 BC. C. Migration and
military expeditions led to cultural assimilation in the south. It also brought the Han into contact
with the kingdoms of Southeast Asia, introducing diplomacy and trade.

After Emperor Wu, the empire gradually sank into stagnation and decline. Economically, the state
treasury was strained by excessive campaigns and projects, while land acquisitions by elite families
gradually depleted the tax base. Various consort clans exerted increasing control over the chains
of incompetent emperors, and eventually the dynasty was briefly interrupted by Wang Mang's
usurpation.

Xin Dynasty

In the year 9 AD. In 23 AD, 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 founded the short-lived Xin Dynasty.
Wang Mang initiated an extensive program of land reform and other economic reforms, including
the outlawing of slavery and the nationalization and redistribution of land. These programs,
however, were never supported by the landowning families, because they favored the peasants.
The instability of power brought chaos, uprisings, and loss of territory. This was exacerbated by
massive flooding of the Yellow River; the buildup of silt caused it to split into two channels and
displaced large numbers of farmers. Wang Mang was eventually assassinated at Weiyang Palace
by a mob of angry peasants in 23 AD. C.

Eastern Han

Emperor Guangwu reinstated the Han Dynasty with the support of the landowning and merchant
families in Luoyang, east of the old capital Xi'an. This new era is therefore referred to as the
Eastern Han Dynasty. Under the able administrations of Emperors Ming and Zhang, the dynasty's
former glories were regained, with brilliant military and cultural achievements. The Xiongnu
Empire was decisively defeated. The diplomat and general Ban Chao further expanded conquests
across the Pamirs to the shores of the Caspian Sea, thus reopening the Silk Road and bringing in
trade, foreign cultures, along with the arrival of Buddhism. With extensive connections to the
west, the first of several Roman embassies to China are recorded in Chinese sources, coming via
the sea route in 166 AD, and a second in 284 AD.

The Eastern Han Dynasty was one of the most prolific eras of science and technology in ancient
China, notably the historic invention of papermaking by Cai Lun and the numerous scientific and
mathematical contributions of the famous scholar Zhang Heng.

Three Kingdoms

In the 2nd century, the empire declined amid land acquisitions, invasions, and feuds between
consort clans and eunuchs. The Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out in 184 AD. C., ushering in an era
of warlords. In the ensuing turmoil, three states attempted to gain predominance in the Three
Kingdoms period, as they were highly romanticized in works such as Romance of the Three
Kingdoms.

After Cao Cao reunified the north in 208, his son proclaimed the Wei Dynasty in 220. Soon, Wei's
rivals Shu and Wu declared 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 the great families.

In 266, the Jin dynasty overthrew the Wei and then unified the country in 280, but this union was
short-lived.

Jin Dynasty

The Jin dynasty was severely weakened by infighting among imperial princes and lost control of
northern China after non-Han Chinese settlers rebelled and captured Luoyang and Chang'an. In
317, a Jin prince in present-day Nanjing became emperor and continued the dynasty, now known
as the Eastern Jin, which held southern China for another century. Prior to this move, historians
refer to the Jin dynasty as the Western Jin.

Northern China fragmented into a number of independent kingdoms, most of which were founded
by Xiongnu, Xianbei, Jie, Di, and Qiang rulers. These non-Han peoples were ancestors of the Turks,
Mongols, and Tibetans. Many had, to some extent, been "sinicized" long before their rise to
power. Indeed, some of them, notably the Qiang and Xiongnu, had already been allowed to live in
the border regions within the Great Wall since late Han times. During the Sixteen Kingdoms
period, warfare devastated the north and led to large-scale migration of Han Chinese southward
toward the Yangtze River basin and the Delta.

Northern and Southern Dynasties

In the early 5th century, China entered a period known as the Northern and Southern Dynasties, in
which parallel regimes ruled the northern and southern halves of the country. In the south, the
Eastern Jin gave way to Liu Song, Southern Qi, Liang, and finally Chen. Each of these southern
dynasties were led by ruling families of Han China and used Jiankang as their capital. They stopped
attacks from the north and preserved many aspects of Chinese civilization, while the barbarian
regimes in the north began to sinify.

In the north, the last of the sixteen kingdoms was extinguished in 439 by the Northern Wei, a
kingdom founded by the Xianbei, a nomadic people who unified northern China. The Northern Wei
eventually split into the Eastern and Western Wei, which later became the Northern Qi and the
Northern Zhou. These regimes were dominated by Xianbei or Han Chinese who had married into
Xianbei families. During this period, most Xianbei people adopted Han surnames, eventually
leading to complete assimilation into the Han.

Despite the division of the country, Buddhism spread throughout the land. In southern China, the
royal court and nobles frequently held fierce debates over whether Buddhism should be allowed.
By the end of the era, Buddhists and Taoists had become much more tolerant of each other.

Sui Dynasty

The short-lived Sui Dynasty was a pivotal period in Chinese history. Founded by Emperor Wen in
581 in succession to Northern Zhou, the Sui conquered Southern Chen in 589 to reunify China,
ending three centuries of political division. The Sui pioneered many new institutions, including the
Three Departments and Six Ministries system of government, imperial examinations to select
officials from among commoners, while improving the fubing systems of compulsory military
service and the equal field land distribution system. These policies, which were adopted by later
dynasties, brought enormous population growth and accumulated excessive wealth for the state.
Standardized coinage was imposed throughout the unified empire. Buddhism took root as a
prominent religion and was officially supported. Sui China was known for its numerous mega-
construction projects. Intended for grain shipments and troop transport, the Grand Canal was
built, linking the capitals Daxing and Luoyang to the wealthy southeastern region, and on another
route, to the northeastern frontier. The Great Wall was also expanded, while a series of military
conquests and diplomatic manoeuvres further pacified its borders. However, massive invasions of
the Korean peninsula during the Goguryeo–Sui War failed disastrously, triggering widespread
revolts that led to the downfall of the dynasty.

Tang Dynasty

The Tang Dynasty was a golden age of Chinese civilization, a prosperous, stable, and creative
period with significant advances in culture, art, literature, particularly poetry, and technology.
Buddhism became the predominant religion for the common people. Chang'an, the national
capital, was the largest city in the world during its time.

The first emperor, Emperor Gaozu, ascended the throne on 18 June 618, replaced there by his son,
Li Shimin, who became the second emperor, Taizong, one of the greatest emperors in Chinese
history. Military conquests and diplomatic maneuvers combined reduced threats from Central
Asian tribes, extended the frontier, and brought neighboring states into a tributary system.
Military victories in the Tarim Basin kept the Silk Road open, connecting Chang'an with Central
Asia and far-flung areas to the west. In the south, lucrative maritime trade routes from port cities
such as Guangzhou connected with distant countries, and foreign merchants settled in China,
fostering a cosmopolitan culture. Tang culture and social systems were observed and adapted by
neighboring countries, most notably Japan. Internally, the Grand Canal linked the political heart of
Chang'an with agricultural and economic centers in the eastern and southern parts of the empire.
Xuanzang, a Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler, and translator who traveled to India on his
own and returned with "more than six hundred Mahayana and Hinayana texts, seven statues of
the Buddha, and more than one hundred sarira relics."

The prosperity of the early Tang Dynasty was abetted by a centralized bureaucracy. The
government was organized into "three departments and six ministries" to separately draft, revise,
and implement policies. These departments were run by members of the royal family and landed
aristocrats, but as the dynasty progressed, they were joined or replaced by scholar-officials
selected by imperial examinations, setting patterns for later dynasties.

Under the Tang's "equal field system," all land was owned by the Emperor and granted to each
family according to family size. Men who were granted land were conscripted for military service
for a set period each year, a military policy known as the "Fubing system." These policies
encouraged rapid productivity growth and a significant military without much burden on the state
treasury. By the dynasty's midpoint, however, standing armies had replaced conscription, and land
continually fell into the hands of private owners and religious institutions granted exemptions.

The dynasty continued to flourish under the rule of Empress Wu Zetian, the only female empress
regnant in Chinese history, and reached its zenith during the long reign of Emperor Xuanzong, who
oversaw an empire stretching from the Pacific to the Aral Sea with at least 50 million people.
There were vibrant artistic and cultural creations, including the works of China's greatest poets, Li
Bai and Du Fu.

At the height of the empire’s prosperity, the An Lushan Rebellion of 755–763 was a watershed
event. War, disease, and economic disruption devastated the population and drastically weakened
the central imperial government. Following the suppression of the rebellion, regional military
governors, known as Jiedushi, gained increasingly autonomous status. With the loss of revenue
from the land tax, the central imperial government came to rely heavily on the salt monopoly.
Externally, former subservient states raided the empire, and vast border territories were lost for
centuries. However, civil society recovered and prospered amidst the weakened imperial
bureaucracy.

By the late Tang period, the empire was exhausted by recurrent revolts by regional warlords, while
internally, as scholar-officials engaged in fierce factional struggles, corrupt eunuchs amassed
immense power. Catastrophically, Huang Chao's rebellion, from 874 to 884, devastated the entire
empire for a decade. The sacking of the southern port of Guangzhou in 879 was followed by the
massacre of most of its inhabitants, especially the large enclaves of foreign merchants. By 881,
both capitals, Luoyang and Chang'an, fell successively. The reliance on ethnic Han and Turkic
warlords to suppress the rebellion increased their power and influence. Consequently, the fall of
the dynasty following Zhu Wen's usurpation led to an era of division.
Five dynasties and ten kingdoms

The period of political disunity between Tang and Song, known as the Five Dynasties and Ten
Kingdoms period, lasted from 907 to 960. During this half-century, China was in every respect a
multi-state system. Five regimes, namely Liang, Tang, Jin, Han, and Zhou, rapidly succeeded one
another in control of the traditional imperial heartland in northern China. Among the regimes, the
rulers of Tang, Jin, and Han were sinicized Shatuo Turks, who ruled over the ethnic majority Han
Chinese. More stable, smaller regimes of mostly ethnic Han rulers coexisted in southern and
western China during the period, cumulatively constituting the “Ten Kingdoms.”

Amid political chaos in the north, the strategic Sixteen Prefectures were ceded to the emerging
Khitan Liao dynasty, drastically weakening the defense of China proper against the nomadic
empires of the north. To the south, Vietnam gained lasting independence after being a Chinese
prefecture for many centuries. With wars subdued in northern China, there were mass population
migrations to the south, further intensifying the southward shift of China's cultural and economic
centers. The era ended with the coup of the Later Zhou general Zhao Kuangyin and the
establishment of the Song dynasty in 960, which finally annihilated the remnants of the "Ten
Kingdoms" and reunited China.

Song, Liao, Jin and Western Xia dynasties

In 960, the Song Dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu, with its capital established at Kaifeng. In
979, the Song Dynasty reunited most of China proper, while large swathes of the outer territories
were occupied by sinicized nomadic empires. The Khitan Liao Dynasty, which lasted from 907 to
1125, ruled Manchuria, Mongolia, and parts of northern China. Meanwhile, in what are now the
northwestern Chinese provinces of Gansu, Shaanxi, and Ningxia, Tangut tribes founded the
Western Xia Dynasty from 1032 to 1227.

Aiming to regain the strategic sixteen prefectures lost in the previous dynasty, campaigns against
the Liao dynasty were launched in the early Song period, which ended in failure. Then, in 1004,
Liao cavalry swept across the exposed North China Plain and reached the outskirts of Kaifeng,
forcing the Song to submit and then agree to the Treaty of Chanyuan, which imposed heavy
annual tributes from the Song treasury. The treaty was a significant reversal of Chinese dominance
of the traditional tributary system. However, the annual outflow of silver from the Song to the Liao
was repaid by the purchase of Chinese goods and products, which expanded the Song economy
and replenished its treasury. This decreased the incentive for the Song to continue campaigning
against the Liao. Meanwhile, this cross-border trade and contact induced further sinicization
within the Liao Empire, at the expense of its military might which was derived from its primitive
nomadic lifestyle. Similar treaties and socio-economic consequences occurred in Song's relations
with the Jin dynasty.

Within the Liao Empire, Jurchen tribes rebelled against their overlords to establish the Jin Dynasty
in 1115. In 1125, the devastating Jin cataphract annihilated the Liao Dynasty, while the remnants
of the Liao court members fled to Central Asia to found the Qara Khitai Empire. The Jin invasion of
the Song Dynasty quickly followed. In 1127, Kaifeng was sacked, a massive catastrophe known as
the Jingkang Incident, which ended the Northern Song Dynasty. All of northern China was
subsequently conquered. The surviving members of the Song court regrouped in the new capital
city of Hangzhou and started the Southern Song Dynasty, which ruled territories south of the Huai
River. In the following years, China's territory and population were divided between the Song
Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty, and the Western Xia Dynasty. The era ended with the Mongol conquest,
when Western Xia fell in 1227, the Jin Dynasty in 1234, and finally the Southern Song Dynasty in
1279.

Despite its military weakness, the Song Dynasty is regarded as the high point of classical Chinese
civilization. The Song economy, facilitated by advancing technology, had reached a level of
sophistication probably never before seen in world history before its time. The population soared
to over 100 million and the standard of living of the common people was greatly improved due to
improvements in rice cultivation and the wide availability of coal for production. The capitals of
Kaifeng and later Hangzhou were the most populous cities in the world for their time and
encouraged vibrant civil societies unmatched by previous Chinese dynasties. Although land trade
routes to the far west were blocked by nomadic empires, extensive maritime trade existed with
neighboring states, facilitating the use of Song currency as a de facto currency. Giant wooden ships
equipped with compasses traveled the China Seas and the northern Indian Ocean. Merchants
practiced the concept of insurance to cover the risks of these long-distance sea shipments. With
prosperous economic activities, the first historical use of paper money emerged in the western city
of Chengdu, as a complement to the existing copper coins.

The Song Dynasty was considered the golden age of great advances in science and technology in
China, thanks to innovative scholar-officials such as Su Song and Shen Kuo. Inventions such as the
hydromechanical astronomical clock, the first continuous and endless power transmission chain,
woodblock printing, and paper money were all invented during the Song Dynasty.

There was a court intrigue between political reformers and conservatives, led by the chancellors
Wang Anshi and Sima Guang respectively. By the mid- to late 13th century, the Chinese had
adopted the dogma of Neo-Confucian philosophy formulated by Zhu Xi. During the Song Dynasty,
enormous literary works were compiled, such as the historical work Zizhi Tongjian. The invention
of movable type printing further facilitated the dissemination of knowledge. Culture and the arts
flourished, with grandiose artworks such as Along the River during the Qingming Festival and
Eighteen Songs of a Nomadic Flute, along with great Buddhist painters such as the prolific Lin
Tinggui.

The Song Dynasty was also a period of great innovation in the history of warfare. Gunpowder,
although invented in the Tang Dynasty, was first put to use on the battlefields by the Song army,
inspiring a succession of new firearm and siege engine designs. During the Southern Song Dynasty,
as its survival depended decisively on protecting the Yangtze and Huai River against northern
cavalry forces, the first standing navy in China was assembled in 1132, with its admiral's
headquarters established at Dinghai. Paddle-wheel warships fitted with trebuchets could launch
incendiary bombs made from gunpowder and lime, as recorded in the Song victory over invading
Jin forces at the Battle of Tangdao in the East China Sea, and the Battle of Caishi on the Yangtze
River in 1161.

Advances in civilization during the Song Dynasty came to an abrupt end following the devastating
Mongol conquest, during which the population was drastically reduced, with a marked contraction
in the economy. Despite brutally holding back the Mongol advance for over three decades, the
Southern Song capital of Hangzhou fell in 1276, followed by the final annihilation of the Song
standing army at the Battle of Yamen in 1279.

Yuan Dynasty
The Yuan Dynasty was formally proclaimed in 1271, when the Great Khan of Mongol, Kublai Khan,
one of Genghis Khan's grandsons, assumed the additional title of Emperor of China and regarded
his inherited part of the Mongol Empire as a Chinese dynasty. In the preceding decades, the
Mongols had conquered the Jin Dynasty in northern China, and the Southern Song Dynasty fell in
1279 after a prolonged and bloody war. The Mongol Yuan Dynasty became the first dynasty of
conquest in Chinese history to rule all of China proper and its population as an ethnic minority.
The dynasty also directly controlled the Mongolian heartland and other regions, inheriting most of
the territory of the divided Mongol Empire, which roughly coincided with the area of modern
China and nearby regions in East Asia. Further expansion of the empire was halted after defeats in
the invasions of Japan and Vietnam. Following the preceding Jin Dynasty, the capital of the Yuan
Dynasty was established at Khanbaliq. The Grand Canal was rebuilt to connect the remote capital
city with economic centers in the southern part of China, setting the precedence and foundation
where Beijing would largely remain as the capital of successive regimes that unified mainland
China.

After the peace treaty of 1304 ended a series of Mongol civil wars, the emperors of the Yuan
Dynasty were considered the nominal Great Khan of the greater Mongol Empire over other
Mongol Khanates, which however remained de facto autonomous. The era was known as Pax
Mongolica, when much of the Asian continent was ruled by the Mongols. For the first and only
time in history, the Silk Road was completely controlled by a single state, facilitating the flow of
people, trade, and cultural exchange. A road network and postal system were established to
connect the vast empire. The lucrative maritime trade, developed from the earlier Song Dynasty,
continued to flourish, with Quanzhou and Hangzhou emerging as the world's largest ports.
Adventurous travellers from the Far West, most notably the Venetian Marco Polo, would have
settled in China for decades. Upon his return, his detailed travel record inspired generations of
medieval Europeans with the splendors of the Far East. The Yuan Dynasty was the first ancient
economy where paper money, known at the time as Jiaochao, was used as the predominant
medium of exchange. Its unrestricted issuance in the late Yuan Dynasty led to hyperinflation,
which eventually led to the downfall of the dynasty.

Although the Mongol rulers of the Yuan Dynasty substantially adopted Chinese culture, their
sinicization was of lesser extent compared to previous conquering dynasties in Chinese history. In
order to preserve racial superiority as a conqueror and ruling class, traditional nomadic customs
and the heritage of the Mongolian steppe were held in high regard. On the other hand, the
Mongol rulers also flexibly adopted a variety of cultures from many advanced civilizations within
the vast empire. The traditional social structure and culture in China underwent an immense
transformation during Mongol rule. A large group of foreign immigrants settled in China, who
enjoyed an elevated social status over the majority of Han Chinese, while enriching Chinese
culture with foreign elements. The scholar-intellectual class, traditional bearers of elite Chinese
culture, lost substantial social status. This stimulated the development of common people's
culture. There were prolific works in zaju variety shows and literary songs, which were written in a
distinctive style of poetry known as qu. Vernacular-style novels gained unprecedented status and
popularity.

Before the Mongol invasion, the Chinese dynasty had about 120 million inhabitants; after the
conquest was completed in 1279, the census of 1300 reported about 60 million people. This
significant decline is not necessarily due to Mongol massacres alone. Scholars such as Frederick W.
Mote argues that the large drop in numbers reflects an administrative failure in recording rather
than an actual decline; others, such as Timothy Brook, maintain that the Mongols created a system
of slavery among a large portion of the Chinese population, resulting in many disappearing from
the census entirely; other historians, including William McNeill and David Morgan, consider plague
to have been the primary factor behind demographic decline during this period. In the 14th
century, China suffered additional depredations from plague epidemics, which are estimated to
have killed 25 million people, 30% of China's population.

Throughout the Yuan Dynasty, there was widespread sentiment among the population against
Mongol rule. However, rather than the nationalist cause, it was primarily the chains of natural
disasters and incompetent governance that triggered widespread peasant uprisings from the
1340s. After the massive naval clash at Poyang Lake, Zhu Yuanzhang prevailed over other rebel
forces in the south. He proclaimed himself emperor and founded the Ming Dynasty in 1368. The
same year, his northern expedition army captured the capital, Khanbaliq. The Yuan remnants fled
to Mongolia and sustained the regime. Other Mongol khanates in Central Asia continued to exist
after the fall of the Yuan dynasty in China.

Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty was founded by Zhu Yuanzhang in 1368, who proclaimed himself the Hongwu
Emperor. The capital was initially established in Nanjing, and then moved to Beijing from the reign
of the Yongle Emperor onwards.

Urbanization increased as the population grew and the division of labor became more complex.
Large urban centers, such as Nanjing and Beijing, also contributed to the growth of private
industry. In particular, small-scale industries emerged, often specializing in paper products, silk,
cotton, and porcelain. For the most part, however, relatively small urban centers with markets
proliferated throughout the country. City markets traded mainly in foodstuffs, 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, especially Japan, increased considerably. Chinese
merchants explored the entire Indian Ocean, reaching East Africa with the voyages of Zheng He.

The Hongwu Emperor, being the only founder of a Chinese dynasty who was also of peasant
origin, had laid the foundations of a state that was fundamentally based on agriculture. Trade and
commerce, which flourished in the earlier Song and Yuan dynasties, received less attention. The
neo-feudal lands of the Song and Mongol periods were expropriated by the Ming rulers. Landed
estates were confiscated by the government, fragmented, and rented out. Private slavery was
prohibited. Consequently, after the death of the Yongle Emperor, independent peasant landlords
predominated in Chinese agriculture. These laws might have paved the way for eliminating the
worst of the poverty during the earlier regimes. Towards the later era of the Ming Dynasty, with
the decline of government control, trade, commerce, and private industries revived.

The dynasty had a strong and complex central government that unified and controlled the empire.
The role of the emperor became more autocratic, although the Hongwu Emperor necessarily
continued to use what he called the "Grand Secretariat" to assist with the immense paperwork of
the bureaucracy, including memorials, imperial edicts in response, reports of various kinds, and tax
records. It was this very bureaucracy that later prevented the Ming government from being able to
adapt to changes in society and eventually led to its decline.
The Yongle Emperor tried vigorously to extend China's influence beyond its borders by demanding
that 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 soldiers was created. Chinese
armies conquered and occupied Vietnam for about 20 years, while the Chinese fleet sailed the
China Seas and the Indian Ocean, sailing as far as the east coast of Africa. The Chinese gained
influence in eastern Moghulistan. Several Asian maritime nations sent envoys bearing tribute for
the Chinese emperor. Domestically, the Grand Canal was expanded and became a stimulus to
internal trade. More than 100,000 tons of iron were produced annually. Many books were printed
using movable type. The imperial palace in the Forbidden City in Beijing reached its present
splendor. It was also during these centuries that the potential of southern China was fully realized.
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 that culminated in the capture
of the Zhengtong Emperor at Tumu. From then on, the Ming went on the defensive on the
northern border, leading to the construction of the Ming Great Wall. Most of what remains of the
Great Wall of China today was built or repaired by the Ming. Brick and granite work was expanded,
watchtowers were redesigned, and cannons were placed along its length.

At sea, the Ming became increasingly isolationist after the death of the Yongle Emperor. Treasure
voyages sailing the Indian Ocean were discontinued, and maritime prohibition laws were
established that prohibited the Chinese from sailing overseas. European merchants who arrived in
China in the midst of the Age of Discovery were repeatedly rebuked in their requests for trade,
and the Portuguese were repulsed by the Ming navy at Tuen Mun in 1521 and again in 1522.
Domestic and foreign demands for foreign trade, deemed illegal by the state, led to widespread
wokou piracy that attacked the southeastern coast during the Jiajing Emperor's rule, which only
subsided after the opening of ports in Guangdong and Fujian and much military repression. The
Portuguese were allowed to settle in Macau in 1557 to trade, which remained in Portuguese hands
until 1999. The Dutch entry into the Chinese seas was also met with fierce resistance, and the
Dutch were driven out of the Penghu Islands in the Sino-Dutch conflicts. from 1622-1624 and were
forced to settle in Taiwan. The Dutch in Taiwan fought with the Ming at the Battle of Liaoluo Bay in
1633 and lost, eventually surrendering to the Ming-loyalist Koxinga in 1662, after the fall of the
Ming dynasty.

In 1556, during the rule of the Jiajing Emperor, the Shaanxi earthquake killed an estimated
830,000 people, the deadliest earthquake of all time.

The Ming Dynasty was deeply involved in the Japanese invasions of Korea, which ended with the
withdrawal of all Japanese invading forces in Korea, and the restoration of the Joseon Dynasty, its
traditional ally and tributary state. The Ming Dynasty's regional hegemony was preserved at the
cost of its resources. Coincidentally, with Ming control in Manchuria in decline, the Manchu tribes,
under their chieftain Nurhaci, broke away from Ming rule and emerged as a unified and powerful
state, later proclaiming itself the Qing Dynasty. It went on to subjugate a much-weakened Korea as
a tributary, conquered Mongolia, and expanded its territory all the way to the outskirts of the
Great Wall. The Ming Dynasty's most elite army would be stationed at Shanhai Pass to protect the
last stronghold against the Manchus, which weakened the suppression of internal peasant
uprisings.

Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last imperial dynasty in China. Founded by the Manchus, it was the
second dynasty of conquest to rule the entirety of China proper, and roughly doubled the territory
controlled by the Ming. The Manchus were formerly known as the Jurchens and resided in the
northeastern part of Ming territory outside the Great Wall. They emerged as the main threat to
the late Ming Dynasty after Nurhaci united all the Jurchen tribes and declared the founding of the
Qing Dynasty in 1636. The Qing Dynasty established the Eight Banners system which provided the
basic framework for Qing military conquest. Li Zicheng's peasant rebellion captured Beijing in 1644
and the Chongzhen Emperor, the last Ming emperor, committed suicide. The Manchus allied with
the Ming general Wu Sangui to seize Beijing, which became the capital of the Qing Dynasty, and
then proceeded to subdue Ming remnants in the south. The decades of Manchu conquest resulted
in enormous loss of life and China's economic scale was drastically reduced. In total, the Qing
conquest of the Ming cost as many as 25 million lives. The early Manchu emperors combined the
traditions of Central Asian rule with the Confucian norms of traditional Chinese rule and were
considered a Chinese dynasty.

The Manchus imposed a 'queue order', forcing Han Chinese men to adopt the Manchu queue
hairstyle. Officials were required to wear Manchu Changshan-style clothing, but ordinary Han
civilians were allowed to wear traditional Han clothing. Bannermen were not allowed to perform
manual or trade work; they had to petition to be removed from banner status. They were
considered a form of nobility and were granted annual pensions, land, and cloth allowances. The
Kangxi Emperor ordered the creation of the Kangxi Dictionary, the most comprehensive Chinese
character dictionary ever compiled.

Over the next half-century, all areas previously under the Ming dynasty were consolidated under
the Qing. Conquests in Central Asia in the 18th century expanded territorial control. Between 1673
and 1681, the Kangxi Emperor suppressed the Revolt of the Three Feudatories, an uprising by
three generals in southern China who had been denied hereditary rule of large fiefs granted by the
previous emperor. In 1683, the Qing carried out an amphibious assault on southern Taiwan,
toppling the rebellious Kingdom of Tungning, which was founded by Ming loyalists Koxinga in 1662
after the fall of the Southern Ming, and had served as a base for continued Ming resistance in
southern China. The Qing defeated the Russians at Albazin, resulting in the Treaty of Nerchinsk.

By the end of the Qianlong Emperor's long reign in 1796, the Qing Empire was at its zenith. The
Qing ruled over a third of the world's population and had the world's largest economy. By area, it
was one of the largest empires in history.

In the 19th century, the empire was uneasy and externally threatened by Western powers. The
defeat of the British Empire in the First Opium War led to the Treaty of Nanking, under which
Hong Kong was ceded to Britain and opium imports were permitted. Opium consumption
continued to grow in China, negatively affecting social stability. Subsequent military defeats and
unequal treaties with other Western powers continued even after the fall of the Qing dynasty.

Internally, the Taiping Rebellion, a Christian religious movement led by the "Heavenly King" Hong
Xiuquan swept in from the south to establish the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and controlled about
a third of China proper for over a decade. The court, in desperation, gave Han Chinese officials
such as Zeng Guofan the power to raise local armies. After initial defeats, Zeng crushed the rebels
at the Third Battle of Nanking in 1864. This was one of the largest wars of the 19th century in
terms of troop involvement; there was a massive loss of life, with the death toll at around 20
million. A series of civil unrest followed, including the Punti–Hakka clan wars, the Nian Rebellion,
the Dungan Revolt, and the Panthay Rebellion. All of the rebellions were eventually put down, but
at enormous cost and with millions killed, severely weakening central imperial authority. China
never rebuilt a strong central army, and many local officials used their military power to effectively
rule independently in their provinces.

However, the dynasty appeared to recover in the Tongzhi Restoration, led by reformers from the
Manchu royal family and Han Chinese officials such as Zeng Guofan and his protégés Li Hongzhang
and Zuo Zongtang. Their Self-Strengthening Movement made effective institutional reforms,
imported Western factories and communications technology, with particular emphasis on
strengthening the military. However, reform was undermined by official rivalries, cynicism, and
disputes within the imperial family. The defeat of Yuan Shikai's modernized "Beiyang Fleet" in the
First Sino-Japanese War led to the formation of the New Army. The Guangxu Emperor, advised by
Kang Youwei, launched a comprehensive reform effort, the Hundred Days' Reform. Empress
Dowager Cixi, however, feared that hasty change would lead to bureaucratic opposition and
foreign intervention and quickly suppressed it.

In the summer of 1900, the Boxer Uprising opposed foreign influence and murdered Chinese
Christians and foreign missionaries. When the Boxers entered Beijing, the Qing government
ordered all foreigners to leave, but they and many Chinese Christians were besieged in the foreign
legation quarter. An Eight-Nation Alliance sent the Seymour Expedition of Japanese, Russian,
British, Italian, German, French, American, and Austrian troops to relieve the siege, but were
forced to retreat by Boxer and Qing troops at the Battle of Langfang. After the Alliance's attack on
the Dagu Forts, the court declared war on the Alliance and authorized the Boxers to join the
imperial armies. After fierce fighting at Tientsin, the Alliance formed the second, much larger
Gaselee Expedition and eventually reached Beijing; the Empress Dowager was evacuated to Xi'an.
The Boxer Protocol ended the war, demanding tremendous indemnities.

The Qing court then instituted "New Policies" of administrative and legal reform, including the
abolition of the examination system. But young officials, military men, and students debated
reform—perhaps a constitutional monarchy, or the overthrow of the dynasty and the creation of a
republic. They were inspired by an emerging public opinion shaped by intellectuals such as Liang
Qichao and the revolutionary ideas of Sun Yat-sen. A localized military uprising, the Wuchang
Uprising, began on October 10, 1911, in Wuchang, and soon spread. The Republic of China was
proclaimed on January 1, 1912, ending 2,000 years of dynastic rule.

Modern China

Republic of China

The Provisional Government of the Republic of China was formed in Nanking on March 12, 1912.
Sun Yat-sen became president of the Republic of China, but handed over power to Yuan Shikai,
who commanded the New Army. Over the next few years, Yuan proceeded to abolish the national
and provincial assemblies and declared himself the emperor of the Empire of China in late 1915.
His subordinates fiercely opposed Yuan's imperial ambitions; faced with the prospect of rebellion,
he abdicated in March 1916 and died of natural causes in June.

Yuan's death in 1916 left a power vacuum; the republican government was virtually shattered. This
paved the way for the Warlord Era, during which much of China was ruled by shifting coalitions of
competing provincial military leaders and the Beiyang government. Intellectuals, disillusioned by
the failure of the Republic, launched the New Culture Movement.
In 1919, the May Fourth Movement began as a response to the pro-Japanese terms imposed on
China by the Treaty of Versailles after World War I. It quickly became a nationwide protest
movement. The protests were a moral success as the cabinet fell and China refused to sign the
Treaty of Versailles, which had awarded German holdings in Shandong to Japan. The memory of
mistreatment at Versailles fuels resentment in the 21st century.

The political and intellectual ferment strengthened during the 1920s and 1930s. According to
Patricia Ebrey:

In the 1920s, Sun Yat-sen established a revolutionary base in Guangzhou and set out to unite the
fragmented nation. He welcomed the Soviet Union's assistance and entered into an alliance with
the fledgling Chinese Communist Party. After Sun's death from cancer in 1925, one of his protégés,
Chiang Kai-shek, took control of the Nationalist Party and succeeded in bringing most of southern
and central China under his rule in the Northern Expedition. Having defeated the warlords in
southern and central China by military force, Chiang was able to secure the nominal loyalty of the
warlords in the north and establish the Nationalist government in Nanking. In 1927, Chiang turned
against the CCP and ruthlessly purged communist elements from his NRA. In 1934, driven from
their mountain bases like the Chinese Soviet Republic, CCP 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.

The bitter Chinese civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists continued, openly or
clandestinely, through the 14-year Japanese occupation of various parts of the country. The two
Chinese parties nominally formed a United Front to oppose the Japanese in 1937, during the
Second Sino-Japanese War, which became part of World War II. Japanese forces committed
numerous war atrocities against civilians, including biological warfare and the Three Alls Policy, the
three alls being: "Kill all, burn all, and plunder all."

Following Japan's defeat in 1945, war resumed between Nationalist government forces and the
CCP, after failed attempts at reconciliation and a negotiated settlement. By 1949, the CCP had
established control over most of the country. Odd Arne Westad says that the Communists won the
Civil War because they made fewer military mistakes than Chiang, and because in his quest for a
powerful centralized government, Chiang antagonized too many interest groups in China.
Furthermore, his party was weakened in the war against the Japanese. Meanwhile, the
Communists told different groups, such as peasants, exactly what they wanted to hear, and
covered themselves with the cover of Chinese nationalism. During the civil war, both the
Nationalists and the Communists carried out mass atrocities, with millions of non-combatants
killed on both sides. These included deaths by forced conscription and massacres. When the
Nationalist government forces were defeated by CCP forces in mainland China in 1949, the
Nationalist government retreated to Taiwan with its forces, along with Chiang and a large number
of his supporters; the Nationalist government had taken effective control of Taiwan at the end of
World War II as part of the Japanese general surrender, when Japanese troops on Taiwan
surrendered to Republic of China troops.

Until the early 1970s, the Republic of China was recognized as the sole legitimate government of
China by the United Nations, the United States, and most Western nations, refusing to recognize
the People's Republic of China due to the Cold War. This changed in 1971 when the People's
Republic of China was installed in the United Nations, replacing the Republic of China. The KMT
ruled Taiwan under martial law until 1987, with the stated goal of being vigilant against
communist infiltration and preparing to retake mainland China. Political dissent was therefore not
tolerated during that period.

In the 1990s, the Republic of China underwent major democratic reform, beginning with the
resignation in 1991 of members of the Legislative Yuan and the National Assembly elected in 1947.
These groups were originally created to represent mainland Chinese constituencies. Restrictions
on the use of Taiwanese languages in the media and in schools were also lifted. This culminated in
the first direct presidential election in 1996 against Democratic Progressive Party candidate and
former dissident Peng Min-ming. In 2000, the KMT's status as the ruling party ended when the
DPP took power, only to regain its status in the 2008 election from Ma Ying-jeou.

Due to the disputed nature of Taiwan's political status, the Republic of China is currently
recognized by 14 UN member states and the Holy See as the legitimate government of "China."

People's Republic of China

Major fighting in the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949 when the Kuomintang withdrew from the
mainland, and the government moved to Taipei and maintained control over only a few islands.
The CCP remained in control of mainland China. On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the
People's Republic of China. "Communist China" and "Red China" were two common names for the
People's Republic of China.

The People's Republic of China was formed through a series of campaigns and five-year plans. The
economic and social plan known as the Great Leap Forward caused an estimated 45 million
deaths. Mao's government carried out mass executions of landlords, instituted collectivization,
and implemented the Laogai camp system. Executions, forced labor deaths, and other atrocities
resulted in millions of deaths under Mao. In 1966, Mao and his allies launched the Cultural
Revolution, which continued until Mao's death a decade later. The Cultural Revolution, motivated
by power struggles within the Party and fear of the Soviet Union, sent shockwaves through
Chinese society.

In 1972, at the height of the Sino-Soviet split, Mao and Zhou Enlai met with US President Richard
Nixon in Beijing to establish relations with the United States. In the same year, the People's
Republic of China was admitted to the United Nations in place of the Republic of China, as a
permanent member of the Security Council.

A power struggle followed Mao's death in 1976. The Gang of Four were arrested and accused of
the excesses of the Cultural Revolution, which marked the end of a turbulent political era in China.
Deng Xiaoping overtook Mao's anointed successor Chairman Hua Guofeng and gradually emerged
as the de facto leader over the following years.

Deng Xiaoping was China's paramount leader 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 major economic
reforms. The CCP subsequently loosened government control over citizens' personal lives and
communes were dissolved and many peasants were given multiple leases of land, greatly
increasing agricultural incentives and output. In addition, many free market areas were opened
up. The most successful free market areas were Shenzhen. It is located in Guangdong and the
property tax-free zone still exists today. This turn of events marked China's transition from a
planned economy to a mixed economy with an increasingly open market environment, a system
referred to by some as "market socialism" and officially by the CCP as "socialism with Chinese
characteristics". The People's Republic of China adopted its current constitution on December 4,
1982.

In 1989, the death of former General Secretary Hu Yaobang helped spark that year's Tiananmen
Square protests, during which students and others campaigned for several months, speaking out
against corruption and in favor of greater political reform, including democratic rights and
freedom of speech. However, they were finally put down on June 4 when army troops and vehicles
moved in and forcibly cleared the square, with many deaths. This event was widely reported and
brought worldwide condemnation and sanctions against the government. A filmed incident
involving the "tank man" was seen around the world.

General Secretary of the CPC and President of the People's Republic of China Jiang Zemin and
Premier of the People's Republic of China Zhu Rongji, both former mayors of Shanghai, led the
People's Republic of China after Tiananmen in the 1990s. Under Jiang and Zhu's ten-year
administration, the PRC's economic performance lifted about 150 million peasants out of poverty
and maintained an average annual gross domestic product growth rate of 11.2%. The country
formally joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. In 1997 and 1999, the former European
colonies of Hong Kong and Macau became special administrative regions of China.

Although the People's Republic of China needs economic growth to stimulate its development, the
government began to worry that rapid economic growth was degrading the country's resources
and environment. Another concern is that certain sectors of society are not benefiting sufficiently
from the PRC's economic development; an example of this is the large gap between urban and
rural areas. As a result, under former CCP General Secretary and Chairman Hu Jintao and Premier
Wen Jiabao, the PRC initiated policies to address issues of equitable resource distribution, but the
outcome is unknown. More than 40 million farmers were displaced from their land, usually for
economic development reasons, contributing to 87,000 demonstrations and riots in China in 2005.
For much of the population of the People's Republic of China, living standards improved
substantially and freedom increased, but political controls remained strict and rural. poor areas.

See also

Annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China

Chinese armor

Family tree of Chinese emperors

Ancient - Early - Middle - Late

Chinese exploration

Chinese historiography

Chinese sovereign

China's economic history

Ethnic groups in Chinese history

Foreign relations of imperial China

Four occupations

Golden Ages of China

History of canals in China

History of Hong Kong

History of Islam in China

History of Macau

History of science and technology in China

History of Taiwan

History of the Great Wall of China

List of Chinese monarchs

List of Neolithic cultures of China

List of rebellions in China

List of recipients of China's tribute

List of tax states of China

Military history of China before 1911

Monarchy of China

China's naval history

Outline of ancient China

History of China's population

Religion in China

Chronology of Chinese history

Women in ancient and imperial China

References

Literature

Benjamin Elman, Princeton University. Extensive lists of sinological resources and bibliography.

. Selective and annotated bibliography; until 1995.

Wilkinson, Endymion, Chinese History: A New Manual Fifth Edition, Harvard University, Asia
Center, 2018. Although aimed at research specialists, it contains summaries of important topics
that will be useful to general readers.

Further reading

Berkshire Encyclopedia of China

Clyde, Paul H. and Burton F. Beers. The Far East: A History of Western Impacts and Eastern
Responses, 1830-1975, college textbook.

Catchpole, Brian. A Cartographic History of Modern China, New Maps and Diagrams

Elleman, Bruce A. Modern Chinese Warfare, 1795-1989 363 pp.

Fairbank, John King and Goldman, Merle. China: A New History. 2nd ed. . 640 pp.

Fenby, Jonathan. The Penguin Story of Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power 1850 to
the Present. Popular History.

Gernet, Jacques, J.R. Foster and Charles Hartman. A History of Chinese Civilization. One-volume
survey.

612 pages. They emphasize China's encounters with successive waves of globalization.

Hsü, Immanuel. The Rise of Modern China. Detailed coverage from 1644-1999, at 1136 pp.;
emphasis on diplomacy and politics.

Keay, John. China: A History, 642 pp, popular history before 1760.

Leung, Edwin Pak-wah. Historical Dictionary of Revolutionary China, 1839-1976

Leung, Edwin Pak-wah. Political Leaders of Modern China: A Biographical Dictionary

Mote, Frederick W. Imperial China, 900–1800, 1,136 pp. Authoritative treatment of the Song,
Yuan, Ming and early Qing dynasties.

Perkins, Dorothy. Encyclopedia of China: The Essential Reference to China, Its History and
Culture. . 662 pp.

Roberts, JAG A Concise History of China. . 341 pages

Stanford, Edward. Atlas of the Chinese Empire, containing separate maps of the eighteen
provinces of China. Legible colour maps.

Schoppa, R. Keith. The Columbia Guide to Modern Chinese History. . 356 pp.

Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China, 876pp; Academic survey from 1644 to 1990

Wang, Ke-wen, ed. Modern China: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture and Nationalism. .

Westad, Odd Arne. Restless Empire: China and the World since 1750
Wright, David Curtis. A History of China 257 pp.

Wills, Jr., John E. Mountain of Fame: Portraits in Chinese History Biographical Essays on Important
Figures.

External links.

Orville Schell, John Delury, Asia Society website based on the book of the same name by Schell and
Delury.

Ulrich Theobald, Online Encyclopedia of Traditional China, including literature, philosophy, art and
other topics.

, a 100-minute lecture on Chinese history given by Yu Ying-shih, professor emeritus of East Asian
studies and history at Princeton University.

Literature:

Wikipedia.