China - History
Facts & Stats | History | Culture | Geography | Religion | Current Events | Links & Resources
|
China's history is remarkable for its span and depth. Archeologists and paleontologists have unearthed three million year old fossilized remains of our evolutionary ancestors in various locations in China. These finds are among the oldest known specimens of their kind. These early ancestors and their later evolutionary cousins relied on hunting and gathering to survive.
About 10,000 years ago, a dramatic shift occurred. Due to changing climatic conditions and improved methods of making stone tools, humans began to settle down. Tribal groups began to grow crops, and small villages began springing up along China's major waterways. The Yellow River Valley was home to two early cultures that we know the most about: the Yangshao and Longshan Cultures.
- Early Chinese Cultures (6000 - 2200 B.C.)
- Xia Dynasty (21st century - 17th century B.C.)
- Shang Dynasty (16th century - 11th century B.C.)
- Zhou Dynasty (11th century - 256 B.C.)
- Qin Dynasty (221 - 206 B.C.)
- Han Dynasty (206 B.C. - 220 A.D.)
- Wei, Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties (220 - 581 A.D.)
- Sui Dynasty (581 - 618 A.D.)
- Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 A.D.)
- Five Dynasties and Ten States Period (907 - 959 A.D.)
- Song Dynasty (960 - 1276 A.D.)
- Yuan Dynasty (1271 - 1368 A.D.)
- Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644 A.D.)
- Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911 A.D.)
- Republican China (1912 - 1949 A.D.)
- People's Republic of China (1949 - present)
