China: Political History and Notable People (inc. Politicians, Generals, Explorers, Inventors, etc.)

Dates indicate time of reign, not lifespan (unless otherwise noted or there is no date of reign publicly available)

1600 BCE - 1046 BCE - Shang Dynasty (All Facts)

• 1st historical dynasty of China

• Its capital was at Zhengzhou in Henan

• Characterized by

  • The practice of human sacrifice

1075 BCE - 1046 BCE - King Zhou / Zhou Xin (All Facts)

• 17th and final king of the Shang Dynasty of China

• Was reputed to be so strong strong that he could slay wild beasts with one blow of his fist

• He and his dynasty ended in fire and blood when he was deserted by his warriors, literally having went out in a blaze of glory when he supposedly put on his most splendid robes and jewels and set fire to his palace, perishing in the flames

1046 BCE - 246 BCE - Zhou Dynasty (All Facts)

• 2nd historical dynasty of China

• Composed of two smaller dynasties, its “Western” and “Eastern” variants

1046 BCE - 771 BCE - Western Zhou Dynasty (All Facts)

• 2nd historical dynasty of China, the first of the two sub-dynasties

• Its capital was at Hao in Xi’an

• Originally vassals of their predecessors, they overthrew them to establish their rule

• Characterized by

  • Their wise rule, having delegated authority over much of China to junior members of the royal family and to nobles who were given fiefs to rule

    • These nobles sought to continually expand the (Chinese) empire’s boundaries

  • The practice of human sacrifice, although it was not as prevalent as it was in the preceding dynasty

    • This was because they abandoned the preceding dynasty’s religion of ancestor worship and developed a newer theology in its place

  • Their recorded history, having inscribed their achievements on ornate bronze vases, and having provided accurate dates of events for the first time

• Developed a theology in which they worshipped Tian or “Heaven,” which was a semi-personal divinity

781 BCE - 771 BCE - King You (All Facts)

• He was the last king of the Western Zhou Dynasty

  • Was killed and his capital was sacked by disaffected vassals and hostile neighboring peoples

771 BCE - 246 BCE - Eastern Zhou Dynasty (All Facts)

• 2nd historical dynasty of China, the second of the two sub-dynasties

• Its capital was at Luoyang, which replaced the capital of the preceding dynasty which fell by the time this sub-dynasty emerged

• Dynasty that had established the state of Qin in the area of the former capital of Hao in the Wei valley

770 BCE - 481 BCE - The Spring and Autumn Period (All Facts)

• Period in Chinese political history corresponding roughly to the first half of the Eastern Zhou

• Characterized by the gradual erosion of royal power as local lords nominally subject to the Zhou exercised increasing political autonomy

685 BCE - 643 BCE - Duke Huan of Qin Ch’in (All Facts)

• Was recognized as “Ba” or ruler, at a meeting of feudal warlords anxious to bring order to the country which has been in turmoil since the collapse of the Western Zhou Dynasty

  • This prince of the line was rescued by a loyal feudal lord with a new capital established in the east at Luoyang

  • Ruled still owing allegiance to the Zhou

• Pursued a vigorous policy of building up the military and economic power of his state, encouraging agriculture, and developing the sea-salt industry

• Under his rule, the namesake state was the most advanced the powerful of the Chinese states

475 BCE - 221 BCE - Warring States Period of the Zhou Dynasty (All Facts)

• Period in Chinese political history in which the Kingdom of Jin (Chin) had split into three warring principalities: the Han, Wei, and Zhao

  • Prompted by a coup in 453 BCE

• Period of political and moral crisis and profound anarchy in which the great feudal lords tore each other apart

• Characterized by warfare, bureaucratic and military reform, and political consolidation

• Concluded with the wars of conquest that saw the state of Qin annex each of the other contender states by 221 BC and found the Qin dynasty

390 BCE - 338 BCE - Shang Yang (All Facts)

• Statesman of the western state of Qin (Chin) during the Warring States Period of the Zhou Dynasty

• Introduced a remarkable series of reforms to the state of Qin including having

  • Strengthened the power of the central government by dividing the state into 31 counties

    • Each county was governed by a magistrate directly responsible to himself

  • Made the sale and purchase of land easier

  • Insisted that agricultural taxes to be collected in cash rather than in kind (or by working them off in the fields)

  • Instituted a strict penal code characterized by having been applied to everyone regardless of their social status

• Enforced these new laws rigorously via his creation of “mutual responsibility groups”

• Under his regime, good work was rewarded

  • Success in farming and warfare brought

    • A grant of land

    • A non-hereditary title

338 BCE - 311 BCE - King Huiwen / Yang Si (All Facts)

• Statesman of Qin

• Notable for being the first ruler of Quin to adopt the title of “King” (wang) rather than “Duke”

  • This thus represented his making a claim to be the legitimate ruler of the whole of China at the time

  • This thus led to the increasing political consolidation of the Qin state, which would eventually overtake all of China at the time

251 BCE - 235 BCE - Lu Buwei (All Facts)

• Chancellor of Qin during the Warring States Period of the Zhou Dynasty

  • Commissioned his namesake “Spring and Autumn Annals”

• Was originally a merchant

  • While a merchant, he befriended the young prince of Quin who had been driven into exile

  • Sealed their friendship by presenting the prince with his own favorite concubine and when the prince ascended the throne, he rose with him

  • The new king married the concubine, who presented him with a son that looked like the namesake figure

  • When the king died, the queen showed renewed interest in the namesake figure

  • Fearing the consequences of getting together with her, he introduced her to a man of almost legendary virility whose sexual powers were seemingly unquenchable

  • From there, everyone seemed satisfied

• Was determined to raise the cultural standards of the Qin state, having been ashamed at Qin’s reputation for coarseness

247 BCE - 221 BCE - Qin Shi Huang (King Zheng of Qin)

• Final King of the Qin State

• State which succeeded in conquering all its rivals after decades of ruthless war in which hundreds of thousands were slaughtered

• After conquering all its rivals, he declared himself emperor

221 BCE - 207 BCE - Qin Dynasty (All Facts)

• 3rd historical dynasty of China

• Shortest lasting historical dynasty of China

221 BCE - 210 BCE - Qin Shi Huang (Emperor of Qin)

• First Emperor and Founder of (Imperial) China and First Emperor and Founder of the Qin Dynasty

  • Succeeded in conquering all the warring states (rivals of the Qin State) of China, thus ending the Warring States Period of the Zhou Dynasty and starting the Qin Dynasty

  • Unified all of China, then assumed the throne

  • Proclaimed himself “First August Lord” or Emperor of China

  • Architect of China’s political and administrative unity

• Constructed the First Great Wall of China

  • His first priority was in successful defense of China from northern invaders

  • Conscripted 300K men to build it

  • Formed a single line of frontier defense

  • Stretched from Liaodong in the East of China to Lintao in the West of China

  • Joined together the separate parts of the Great Wall

• Held a great assembly of ministers to decide how the other conquered states were to be governed

  • Their decisions were far-reaching yet had a profound effect on the future history of China

  • He rejected one proposal put forth by a group of conservative advisors which would have entailed the division of the empire into fiefs governed by his family and supporters in the old feudal style

    • His wisdom was shown since it was this very system of feudalism that led to the war between the old fiefdoms during the warring states period of the Zhou Dynasty

    • Thus, in short, he rejected the Feudal System of the Zhou Dynasty because it did not work and led to mass-slaughter

  • Instead, he set up a system of commanderies and prefectures run by salaried civil servants responsible to the central government

    • By this method, he had gathered the reins of power into his own hands

• Because he was the emperor, he wanted to make sure there would be no rebellion against his strict rule, so he

  • Ordered that all weapons must be handed in and melted down

  • Supervised the powerful families of the defeated states in which he had them fathered together in the capital of the Qin state where they were lodged comfortably

• Oversaw the enactment of civil laws to turn China into a genuinely unified state

  • Established that a single standard script be used for all official documents

  • Suppressed local variant scripts

  • Standardized weights and measures

  • Regulated the axle-width of carts so that they fit the established road-ruts

  • Applied the strict system of in law to every part of China

• Ordered that all books be burnt except for those that useful subjects such as medicine, agriculture, and divination

• Established the Qin Dynasty’s capital at Xianyang

• Buried in a vast tomb beneath a man-made mountain near his established capital at Xianyang

  • Guarded by an army of soldiers, made out of terracotta

    • These soldiers were buried in the ground around the tomb, ready to spring to their master’s aid in the afterlife

  • Rich grave-goods surround the body of the emperor, which were to be used by him in the afterlife

  • The interior of the dome which forms the roof of his tomb depict the constellations of the heavens, while the mountains and rivers of China are modelled below

210 BCE - 207 BCE - Qin Er Shi (All Facts)

• Second and final emperor of the Qin Dynasty of China

• Son of his predecessor

• Was an extremely weak ruler who fell under the influence of the court eunuch Zhao Gao, who had designs for the throne, who eventually forced him to commit suicide, leading to the decline of the dynasty and the emergence of the succeeding dynasty

  • The tight hold maintained by his predecessor fell away

  • Different factions struggled for power

  • He was forced to commit suicide, but his eunuch was then assassinated

  • The shockwaves then spread to the far corners of the empire

  • The conquered states began to rebel against the oppressive rule of the Qin under his regime

  • From all this turmoil, there emerged two contenders for supreme power

    • One was an aristocratic general named Xiang Yu

    • The other was his successor

202 BCE - 220 CE - Han Dynasty (All Facts)

• 4th historical dynasty of China

• Founded by Liu Bang / Gaozu

• Its capital was Changan

202 BCE - 195 BCE - Liu Bang / Gaozu of Han (All Facts)

• First Emperor and Founder of the Han Dynasty

• Man of humble peasant origins yet he was a forceful leader

• Consolidated his power and assumed the throne, bringing him victory over his rival Xiang Yu and having him be proclaimed to the throne via his

  • cautious approach

  • careful choice of subordinates

• Named his dynasty “Han” after the river which gave it name to the first state over which he ruled during his rise to power

• Promised to repeal the harsh laws of the prior Qin Dynasty established by Qin Shi Huang

  • However, after his first two years on the throne he negated that promise, setting on continuing to implement the harsh law of his predecessors

195 BCE - 180 BCE - Empress Dowager Lu (All Facts)

• Queen regent of the Han Dynasty

• Dominated court politics from the death of the founder of the Dynasty until the assumption to the throne of the fifth and succeeding emperor

180 BCE - 157 BCE - Wen of Han / Liu Heng (All Facts)

• 5th Emperor of the Han Dynasty

196 BCE - 154 BCE - Liu Pi / Prince of Wu (All Facts)

• King of Wu

• His son and heir was killed in a quarrel over a game of chess with the imperial heir-apparent

  • In response, he staged a revolt where he joined forces with six other kings and revolted against the imperial house

  • However, his revolt failed, marking a new stage in the centralization of Chinese imperial power at the time

195 BCE - 114 BCE - Zhang Qian (All Facts)

• Chinese politician, diplomat, and explorer

• Known as the “Great Traveler,” he was a strong and resourceful man

• He faced great dangers in opening up trade and diplomacy with India, Parthia, and Syria

• He made first contact with the Hellenistic world

• He brought the grapevine and alfalfa sprout to China

• He helped China greatly expand its knowledge of the world, especially in the Mediterranean

  • His travels changed the vast country of China’s relations with the rest of the world forever

• He volunteered to pass through the land of China’s enemies, the nomadic Xiongnu Confederation to make an alliance with the Yuezhi

  • He was captured almost immediately and taken to the Great Khan who treated him kindly and gave him a wife, but kept him prisoner for 10 years

  • He then escaped with his wife and one servant, but instead of fleeing to safety, he continued his journey

• He spent a year in Bactria where he found that smuggled had established a route there from China

• On his journey home, he again fell into the hands of the Xiongnu Confederacy, but escaped after a year in captivity

• After the Xiongnu had been defeated, he led an expedition with 300 men and gifts of gold and silk to dazzle the west with China’s riches

  • Thus, his exploration initiatives led to the establishment of the “Silk Roads” to central Asia

• Emperor Wu had made him “Marquis of Bowang”

157 BCE - 87 BCE - Wu of Han / Wudi / Liu Che (All Facts)

• 7th Emperor of the Han Dynasty

• Known as the “Martial Emperor”

  • He had waged successful but costly wars in central Asia, expanding Chinese territory considerably

  • Under his reign, China conquered the kingdoms of Yue (Fukien) and Nanyue (Canton and North Vietnam), with all the best lands in their known world belonging to them at that point

  • Pursued a ruthless policy of expansion, having taken Zhaoxian, a border kingdom in the Korean Peninsula

  • Captured Li-Guang-li and his large army of the states of the Tarim basin and Ferghana, making China the master of most of central Asia at that point

• Established Confucianism as the state religion

  • Established Confucian scholarship in order to control civil administration

• Under his reign, a magnificent canal was built

  • It was over 100 miles long

  • It connected the Changan (the Han Dynasty’s capital) with the Yellow River

• Turned the salt and iron industries into state monopolies

• Oversaw an infamous debate which was described in the pages of an edict he devised called “Discussions on Salt and Iron”

• Levied taxes on boats and carts

• Changed the system of officially appointed academicians, of whom there were traditionally 72, establishing chairs for only the 5 main classical traditions

140 BCD - 117 BCE - Huo Qubing (All Facts)

• Chinese military general and politician during the Han Dynasty

• Drove north of the Gobi Desert the Xiongnu, long-standing enemies of China, and became a national hero

100’s BCE - 74 BCE - Li Ling (All Facts)

• Chinese military general during the Han Dynasty

• Penetrated deep into central Asia at great odds, which ended in his surrender and defection to the Xiongnu

• Performed a heroic feat of arms near Dunhuang in 99 BCE

• Died tragically, a captive among adversaries

• Was praised by Siam Qian

87 BCE - 74 BCE - Zhao of Han (All Facts)

• 8th Emperor of the Han Dynasty

• Presided over the debate of the “Discourses on Salt and Iron”

  • He had his regent, Huo Guang, call on all the scholars of the empire to come to the capital, Changan, to debate the government's economic policies

  • He ordered the debate to look into matters such as the state’s monopoly of the salt and iron industries, a policy of his predecessor, but made it clear that he wanted to examine the suffering of the people more broadly

74 BCE - 48 BCE - Xuan of Han (All Facts)

• 10th Emperor of the Han Dynasty

• Under his reign, he

  • Forced the warrior nomads of the north, of the Xiongnu Confederacy, to pay tribute to him

  • Huhanye came to his court to celebrate the Chinese New Year where

    • Treated Huhanye and his Xiongnu Confederacy of nomads as a rival head of state more so than as a vassal

      • He was given the great honor of not having to prostrate himself before the emperor

      • He was seated higher than all the other nobles at court

    • Rewarded Huhanye and his Xiongnu Confederacy generously for his participation in the Han Tributary System

      • He was given tangible marks of the emperor’s appreciation including gold, silk, suits of clothes, 15 horses, and wagon loads of grain; which accompanied him back to his journey to the wild steppes of the Xiongnu

  • Diminished the Xiongnu Confederacy nomad threat to China