Lecture Two: History of China

By: Xueyan Hu CTGU

Timeline of China

1 Prehistory1.1 Paleolithic1.2 Neolithic

2 Ancient era2.1 Xia Dynasty (ca. 2100-ca. 1600 BC)2.2 Shang Dynasty (ca. 1700-1046 BC)2.3 Zhou Dynasty (1066-256 BC)2.4 Spring and Autumn Period (722-476 BC)2.5 Warring States Period (476-221 BC)

Timeline of China3. Imperial era

3.1 Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC)3.2 Han Dynasty (202 BC–AD 220)3.3 Wei and Jin Period (AD 265–420)3.4 Wu Hu Period (AD 304–439)3.5 Southern and Northern Dynasties (AD 420–589)3.6 Sui Dynasty (AD 589–618)3.7 Tang Dynasty (AD 618–907)3.8 Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (AD 907–960)3.9 Song, Liao, Jin, and Western Xia Dynasties (AD 960–1234)3.10 Yuan Dynasty (AD 1271–1368)3.11 Ming Dynasty (AD 1368–1644)3.12 Qing Dynasty (AD 1644–1911)

4. Modern era4.1 Republic of China4.2 1949 to Present

Primitive Society

China, one of the world’s most ancient civilizations, has a recorded history of nearly 4,000 years.

A fossil anthropoid unearthed in Yuanmou in Yunnan Province, “Yuanmou Man,” who lived approximately 1.7 million years ago, is China’s earliest primitive man known so far.

Yuanmou Man site

The Neolithic Age started in China about 10,000 years ago, and relics from this period can be found all over the country. Artificially grown rice and millet as well as farming tools have been found in the remains of Hemudu in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province, and Banpo, near Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province, respectively. These relics date back some 6,000-7,000 years. Hemudu Banpo

Slave Society The Xia Dynasty was founded in 2070 B.C. The center of its activities was the western section of modern Henan Province and the southern section of modern Shanxi Province, and its sphere of influence reached the northern and southern areas of the Yellow River. With the Xia Dynasty, China entered slave society

Yu ,the Great, Conquered the Flood (大禹治水 )

Yu

Shang Dynasty

the Shang Dynasty is renowned for its high development of bronze techniques, which brought about the separation of Chinese society into town and country dwellers.

司母戊鼎

 

四羊方尊 甲骨文

The Zhou DynastyIt’s a significant period in Chinese history which experienced the evolution of the Chinese society from a slave one to a feudal one.

Spring and Autumn PeriodSpring and Autumn (770-476 B.C.) and Warring States (475-221 B.C.) periods, are characterized by the decline in power of the ruling house and struggles for power among regional powers, marking the transition from slave society to feudal society.

Warring States period 匈 河 奴 燕

秦 水 魏长平

赵 蓟

邯郸水 济

临淄齐

咸阳郑周 韩

大梁

水

淮

江

水楚

郢

The Hundred Schools of Thought of Chinese philosophy blossomed during this period, and such influential intellectual movements as Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism and Mohism were founded, partly in response to the changing political world. The Spring and Autumn Period is marked by a falling apart of the central Zhou power. China now consists of hundreds of states, some of them only as large as a village with a fort.

百家争鸣

Lao Zi Confucius

Mencius Mo Zi

the Qin Dynasty

The Qin Dynasty is well known for beginning the Great Wall of China, which was later augmented and enhanced during the Ming Dynasty. The other major contributions of the Qin include the concept of a centralized government, the unification of the legal code, development of the written language, measurement, and currency of China after the tribulations of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods.

Qin Shi Huang had work on his enormous mausoleum started early in his reign. The terracotta warriors of the “underground army” guarding the mausoleum, unearthed in 1974, amazed the world. The 8,000 vivid, life-size pottery figures, horses and chariots have been called the “eighth wonder of the world.”

Han Dynasty (206 B.C. - A.D. 220) and the

"Silk Road"

Liu Bang established the powerful Han Dynasty in 206 B.C. During theHan Dynasty, agriculture, handicrafts and commerce flourished, and the population reached 50 million.

Liu Bang

Silk Road Zhang Qian was dispatched twice as his envoy to the

Western Regions, and in the process pioneered the route known as the "Silk Road" from Chang'an (today's Xi'an, Shaanxi Province), through Xinjiang and Central Asia, and on to the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Chinese silk goods were traded to the West along the Silk Road.

Tang Dynasty (618 - 907) After the Han Dynasty and the Three

Kingdoms Period (220-265), the Jin Dynasty (265-420), the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-589) and the Sui Dynasty (581-618) were succeeded by the Tang Dynasty, established by Li Yuan in 618.

Li Shimin, or Emperor Taizong (r. 626-649), son of Li Yuan, adopted a series of liberal policies, pushing the prosperity of China’s feudal society to its peak.

盛世唐朝（贞观之治）

“唐宴春”酒

By the 660s, China’s influence had firmly taken root in the Tarim and Junggar basins and the Ili River valley, and even extended to many city-states in Central Asia. During this period, extensive economic and cultural relations were established with many countries, including Japan, Korea, India, Persia and Arabia.

唐蕃古道

Besides political hegemony, the Tang also exerted a powerful cultural influence over neighboring states such as those in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. Such was the dynasty's influence that even today, the Chinese term for Chinatown bears the dynastic title (Tangrenjie ( 唐人街 ), or The Tang People's Street).

Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties

(960 - 1911) The period of the Five Dynasties and Ten States, which succeeded the Tang Dynasty, was one of almost continual warfare.

Song Dynasty (960-1279) In 960, Zhao Kuangyin, a general of the

State of Later Zhou, established the Song Dynasty (960-1279), historically known as the Northern Song Dynasty.

When the Song Dynasty moved its capital to the south, historically called the Southern Song Dynasty, it brought advanced economy and culture to the south, giving a great impetus to economic development.

《清明上河图》

Yuan Dynasty (AD 1271–1368)

The Jurchen-founded Jin Dynasty was defeated by the Mongols, who then proceeded to defeat the Southern Song in a long and bloody war, the first war in which firearms played an important role.

During the era after the war, adventurous Westerners such as Marco Polo travelled all the way to China and brought the first reports of its wonders to Europe.

four great inventions (Song-Yuan

period )

printing papermaking the compass gunpowder

During the Song-Yuan period, the “four great inventions” in science and technology of the Chinese people in ancient were further developed, and introduced to foreign countries, making great contributions to world civilization.

Ming Dynasty (AD 1368–1644)

Throughout the Yuan Dynasty, which lasted less than a century, there was relatively strong sentiment among the populace against the Mongol rule. The frequent natural disasters since the 1340s finally led to peasant revolts. The Yuan Dynasty was eventually overthrown by the Ming Dynasty in 1368.

China under the early Ming Dynasty was not isolated. Foreign trade and other contacts with the outside world, particularly Japan, increased considerably. Chinese merchants explored all of the Indian Ocean, reaching East Africa with the voyages of Zheng He.

郑和（ 1371——1435 年）

During his reign, he dispatched a eunuch named Zheng He to leada fleet of many ships to make sevenfar-ranging voyages. Passing the Southeast Asian countries, the Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf and Maldives Islands, Zheng He explored as far as Somalia and Kenya on the eastern coast of Africa. These were the largest-scale and longest voyages in the world before the age of Columbus.

郑和下西洋路线

Qing Dynasty (AD 1644–1911) The Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) was

founded after the defeat of the Ming, the last Han Chinese dynasty, by the Manchus. The Manchus were formerly known as the Jurchen. When Beijing was captured by Li Zicheng's peasant rebels in 1644, the last Ming Emperor Chongzhen committed suicide. The Manchu then allied with Ming Dynasty general Wu Sangui and seized control of Beijing, which became the new capital of the Qing dynasty.

Modern Period (1840 - 1919) 

During the 19th century, the Qing Dynasty declined rapidly. Britain smuggled large quantities of opium into China, making the Qing government impose a ban on the drug.

巡视戒烟的清朝官员

The Revolution of 1911 led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen was one of the greatest events in modern Chinese history, as it overthrew the 200-odd-year-old Qing Dynasty, ending over 2,000 years of feudal monarchy, and established the Republic of China

New-Democratic Revolution (1919 -

1949) The May 4th Movement of 1919 is regarded as

the ideological origin of many important events in modern Chinese history. Its direct cause was the unequal treaties imposed on China after the First World War.

Out of strong patriotism, students initiated the movement, and it further developed into a national protest movement of people from all walks of life. It also marked the introduction into China of various new ideologies, among which the spread of Marxism-Leninism was worthy of special mention.

Under the influence of Russia’s October Revolution of 1917, 12 delegates, including Mao Zedong, representing communist groups in different places throughout the nation, held the First National Congress in Shanghai in 1921 to found the Communist Party of China (CPC).

The Chinese people led by the CPC underwent successively the Northern Expeditionary War (1924-27), War of Agrarian Revolution (1927-37), War of Resistance Against Japan (1937-45) and War of Liberation (1946-49). Owing to the cooperation and joint resistance of the CPC and Kuomintang the Japanese aggressors were defeated.

War of Resistance Against Japan War of Liberation

But shortly after the anti-Japanese war, the Kuomintang launched a civil war again. After the three-year War of Liberation led by the CPC, the Kuomintang government was finally overthrown in 1949.

渡江战役

People's Republic of China (1949- )  On October 1, 1949 a grand

ceremony was witnessed by 300,000 people in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, and Mao Zedong, chairman of the Central People’s Government, solemnly proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

The CPC reinstated Deng Xiaoping, previously general secretary of the CPC, in all the Party and governmental posts he had been dismissed from during the “cultural revolution.” In 1979, China instituted a guiding policy of “reform and opening to the outside world” under Deng’s leadership, and the focus was shifted to modernization.

Deng Xiaoping Shen Zhen