1.
Cao Wei
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Cao Wei was one of the three major states that competed for supremacy over China in the Three Kingdoms period. With its capital at Luoyang, the state was established by Cao Pi in 220, based upon the foundations laid by his father, Cao Cao, towards the end of the Eastern Han dynasty. Historians often add the prefix Cao to distinguish it from other Chinese states known as Wei, such as Wei of the Warring States period and Northern Wei of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. The authority of the ruling Cao family gradually weakened after the death of the second Wei emperor, Cao Rui, and eventually fell into the hands of Sima Yi, a Wei regent, and his family, in 249. Towards the end of the Eastern Han dynasty, northern China came under the control of Cao Cao, in 213, Emperor Xian granted Cao Cao the title of Duke of Wei and gave him ten cities as his dukedom. At that time, the part of China was divided into two areas controlled by two other warlords, Liu Bei and Sun Quan. In 216, Emperor Xian promoted Cao Cao to the status of a vassal king — King of Wei —, Cao Cao died on 15 March 220 and his vassal king title was inherited by his son Cao Pi. Later that year, on 11 December, Cao Pi forced Emperor Xian to abdicate in his favour and took over the throne, however, Liu Bei immediately contested Cao Pis claim to the Han throne and declared himself Emperor of Shu Han a year later. Sun Quan was nominally a vassal king under Wei, but he declared independence in 222, Cao Pi ruled for six years until his death in 226 and was succeeded by his son, Cao Rui, who ruled until his death in 239. Throughout the reigns of Cao Pi and Cao Rui, Wei had been fighting numerous wars with its two rival states — Shu and Wu. The Shu invasions were repelled by the Wei armies led by the generals Cao Zhen, Sima Yi, Zhang He and others, Shu did not make any significant gains in the expeditions. On its southern and eastern borders, Wei engaged Wu in a series of armed conflicts throughout the 220s and 230s, including the battles of Dongkou, however, most of the battles resulted in stalemate and neither side managed to significantly expand its territory. Around that time, as the Korean kingdom Goguryeo consolidated its power, Goguryeo initiated the Goguryeo–Wei Wars in 242, trying to cut off Chinese access to its territories in Korea by attempting to take a Chinese fort. However, Wei responded by invading and defeated Goguryeo, hwando was destroyed in revenge by Wei forces in 244. In 249, during the reign of Cao Ruis successor, Cao Fang and this event marked the collapse of imperial authority in Wei, as Cao Fangs role had been reduced to a puppet ruler while Sima Yi wielded state power firmly in his hands. Sima Yi died in 251 and passed on his authority to his eldest son, Sima Shi, Sima Shi deposed Cao Fang in 254 and replaced him with Cao Mao. After Sima Shi died in the year, his younger brother, Sima Zhao, inherited his power. In 260, Cao Mao attempted to back state power from Sima Zhao in a coup
2.
Hohhot
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Hohhot, abbreviated Hushi, formerly known as Kweisui, is the capital of Inner Mongolia in North China, serving as the regions administrative, economic, and cultural centre. Its population was 2,866,615 inhabitants at the 2010 census, the name of the city in Mongolian means Blue City—Kuku-Khoto in Mongolian—although it is also wrongly referred to as the Green City. The color blue in Mongol culture is associated with the sky, eternity and purity, in Chinese, the name has also been variously romanized as Kokotan, Kokutan, Kuku-hoton, Huhohaote, Huhehot, Huhhot, or Köke qota. Marco Polo reports traveling to the Province of Tenduc, which has identified as the region around the modern-day Hohhot. His itinerary took him from Tangut nation he called the Kingdom of Egrigaia, in 1557, the Tümed Mongol leader Altan Khan began building the Da Zhao Temple in the Tümed plain in order to convince the Ming dynasty government of his leadership of the southern Mongol tribes. The town that grew up around this temple was called the Blue Town, the Ming had been blockading the Mongols access to Chinese iron, cotton, and crop seeds, in order to dissuade them from attacking the northern China plain. But in 1570, Altan Khan successfully negotiated the end of the blockade by the establishment of a relationship with the Ming. The population of Guihua grew to over 150,000 in the early 1630s as local Mongol princes encouraged the settlement of Han Chinese merchants, sometimes Mongol armies attacked Guihua, such as the total razing of the city by Ligdan Khan in 1631. Altan Khan and his successors constructed temples and fortress in 1579,1602 and 1727, the Tümed Mongols had long been semiagricultural there. Hui merchants gathered north of the gate of the citys fortress and their descendants forms the nucleus of the modern Huimin district. After the Manchus founded the Qing dynasty, the Kangxi Emperor sent troops to control the region, the Qing dynasty built a strong garrison town near Guihuas northeast called Suiyuan, supervising southwestern Inner Mongolia in 1735–39 against Mongol attacks from the north. Guihua and Suiyuan became Guihua County of Qing China, french missionaries established a Catholic church in Guihua in 1874, but the Christians were forced to flee to Beijing during the antiforeign Boxer Rebellion of 1899–1901. In 1913, the government of the new Republic of China united the garrison town of Suiyuan, Guisui town was the center of Guisui County and the capital of Suiyuan Province in northern China. In 1918, the American specialist of Inner Asia Owen Lattimore noted Guisuis ethnic composition as A town purely Chinese except for the Lama monasteries, the Tümeds are now practically nonexistent and the nearest Mongolians are to be sought at 50 or 60 miles distance on the plateau. During the progressive Japanese invasion of China in the 1930s, the Japanese created the state of Mengjiang headed by Prince De. After the surrender of Japan in 1945, the Republic of China renamed the city back to its original name, the Communist Party of Chinas forces drove out the Republics General Fu Zuoyi in Suiyuan during the Chinese Civil War. After the Chinese Revolution in 1949, Guisui was renamed Hohhot, Guisui was chosen as the regions administrative centre in 1952, replacing Zhangjiakou. In 1954, the new China renamed Guisui to Hohhot, though with a different Chinese pronunciation of Huhehaote, the city has seen significant development since Chinas reform and opening began
3.
Datong
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It had a population of 3,318,057 at the 2010 census of whom 1,629,035 lived in the built up area made of 3 out of 4 urban districts, namely Chengqu, Kuangqu and Nanjiao District. The town was founded as Píngchéng in 200 BC during the Han dynasty, located near the Great Wall Pass to Inner Mongolia, it blossomed during the following period and became a stop-off point for camel caravans moving from China into Mongolia and beyond. It was sacked at the end of the Eastern Han dynasty, pingcheng became the capital of Northern Wei from 398 AD until 494 AD, when the well-known Yungang Grottoes were constructed during the later part of this period. The city was renamed Datong in 1048 AD and it was the Xijing of the Jurchen Jin dynasty prior to being sacked by the Mongols. It was sacked again at the end of the Ming dynasty in 1649 AD, Datong was close to the Beidi kingdom of Tai, which was conquered by the Zhou dynasty in 457 BC. It bordered on the Hu nomads and traded in horses, Tai was later a commandery or county. Datong is the northernmost city of Shanxi, and is located in the Datong Basin, with an area spanning latitude 39° 03–40°44 N. The urban area is surrounded on three sides by mountains, with only to the east and southwest. Within the prefecture-level city elevations generally increase from southeast to northwest, Datong borders Ulanqab to the northwest and Zhangjiakou to the east, Shuozhou to the southwest and Xinzhou to the south. The well-known Datong Volcanic Arc lies nearby in the Datong Basin, Datong has a continental, monsoon-influenced steppe climate, influenced by the 1,000 metres + elevation, with rather long, cold, very dry winters, and very warm summers. Monthly mean temperatures range from −10.6 °C in January to 22.0 °C in July, Due to the aridity and elevation, diurnal temperature variation is often large, averaging 13.3 °C annually. There barely is any precipitation during winter, and more than ¾ of the precipitation occurs from June to September. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 54% in July to 66% in October, sunshine is abundant year-round, kuang District is largely made up of separate mines throughout the metropolitan area. The Yungang Grottoes are a collection of caves located 16 km west of Datong. There are over 50,000 carved images and statues of Buddhas and bodhisattvas within these grottoes, most of these icons are around 1000 years old. Within the city itself, there are a few surviving sites of historical interest such as the Nine-Dragon Wall, the Huayan Monastery, further afield is the Hanging Temple built into a cliff face near Mount Heng. Most of the sites in this region date to the Tang and Ming dynasties. The railway locomotive works began to attract increasing numbers of enthusiasts from the 1970s
4.
Luoyang
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Luoyang, formerly romanized as Loyang, is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River and Yellow River in Central China. It is a city in western Henan province. It borders the capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north. Situated on the plain of China, Luoyang is one of the cradles of Chinese civilization. The name Luoyang originates from the location on the north or sunny side of the Luo River. Since the river flows from west to east and the sun is to the south of the river, Luoyang has had several names over the centuries, including Luoyi and Luozhou, though Luoyang has been its primary name. It has been called, during various periods, Dongdu, Xijing, during the rule of Wu Zetian, the city was known as Shendu The greater Luoyang area has been sacred ground since the late Neolithic period. This area at the intersection of the Luo river and Yi River was considered to be the center of China. Because of this aspect, several cities – all of which are generally referred to as Luoyang – have been built in this area. In 2070 BC, the Xia Dynasty king Tai Kang moved the Xia capital to the intersection of the Luo and Yi, in 1600 BC, Tang of Shang defeated Jie, the final Xia Dynasty king, and built Western Bo, a new capital on the Luo River. The ruins of Western Bo are located in Luoyang Prefecture, in the 1136 BC a settlement named Chengzhou was constructed by the Duke of Zhou for the remnants of the captured Shang nobility. The Duke also moved the Nine Tripod Cauldrons to Chengzhou from the Zhou Dynasty capital at Haojing, a second Western Zhou capital, Wangcheng was built 15 km west of Chengzhou. Wangcheng became the capital of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty in 771 BC, the Eastern Zhou Dynasty capital was moved to Chengzhou in 510 BC. Later, the Eastern Han Dynasty capital of Luoyang would be built over Chengzhou, modern Luoyang is built over the ruins of Wangcheng, which are still visible today at Wangcheng Park. In 25 AD, Luoyang was declared the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty on November 27 by Emperor Guangwu of Han, for several centuries, Luoyang was the focal point of China. In AD68, the White Horse Temple, the first Buddhist temple in China, was founded in Luoyang, the temple still exists, though the architecture is of later origin, mainly from the 16th century. An Shigao was one of the first monks to popularize Buddhism in Luoyang, in 190 AD, Chancellor Dong Zhuo ordered his soldiers to ransack, pillage, and raze the city as he retreated from the coalition set up against him by regional lords from across China. The court was moved to the more defensible western city of Changan
5.
Chang'an
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Changan is an ancient capital of more than ten dynasties in Chinese history, today known as Xian. Changan means Perpetual Peace in Classical Chinese, during the short-lived Xin dynasty, the city was renamed Constant Peace, yet after its fall in AD23, the old name was restored. By the time of the Ming dynasty, the name was changed to Xian, meaning Western Peace. Changan had been settled since Neolithic times, during which the Yangshao Culture was established in Banpo in the citys suburb, from its capital at Xianyang, the Qin dynasty ruled a larger area than either of the preceding dynasties. The imperial city of Changan during the Han dynasty was located northwest of todays Xian. During the Tang dynasty, the area to be known as Changan included the area inside the Ming Xian fortification, plus small areas to its east and west. The Tang Changan hence, was 8 times the size of the Ming Xian, during its heyday, Changan was one of the largest and most populous cities in the world. Around AD750, Changan was called a million peoples city in Chinese records, while modern estimates put it at around 800, 000–1,000,000 within city walls. According to the census in 742 recorded in the New Book of Tang,362,921 families with 1,960,188 persons were counted in Jingzhao Fu, the strategic and economic importance of ancient Changan was mainly due to its central position. The roads leading to Gansu, Sichuan, Henan, Hubei, the site of the Han capital was located 3 km northwest of modern Xian. As the capital of the Western Han, it was the political, economic and it was also the eastern terminus of the Silk Road, and a cosmopolitan metropolis. By 2 AD, the population was 246,200 in 80,000 households and this population consisted mostly of the scholar gentry class whose education was being sponsored by their wealthy aristocratic families. In addition to civil servants was a larger underclass to serve them. Initially, Emperor Liu Bang decided to build his capital at the center of the sun and this location was the site of the holy city Chengzhou, home of the last Zhou emperors. The magical significance of location was believed to ensure a long-lasting dynasty like the Zhou. However, in practice the strategic value of a capital located in the Wei Valley became the deciding factor for locating the new capital. To this end, it is recorded c 200 BC he forcibly relocated thousands of clans in the aristocracy to this region. First, it kept all potential rivals close to the new Emperor and his adviser Liu Jing described this plan as weakening the root while strengthening the branch
6.
Monarchy
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The actual power of the monarch may vary from purely symbolic, to partial and restricted, to completely autocratic. Traditionally and in most cases, the monarchs post is inherited and lasts until death or abdication, occasionally this might create a situation of rival claimants whose legitimacy is subject to effective election. Finally, there have been cases where the term of a reign is either fixed in years or continues until certain goals are achieved. Thus there are widely divergent structures and traditions defining monarchy, Monarchy was the most common form of government until the 19th century, but it is no longer prevalent. Currently,47 sovereign nations in the world have monarchs acting as heads of state,19 of which are Commonwealth realms that recognise Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state. The monarchs of Cambodia, Japan, and Malaysia reign, the word monarch comes from the Greek language word μονάρχης, monárkhēs which referred to a single, at least nominally absolute ruler. In current usage the word usually refers to a traditional system of hereditary rule. Depending on the held by the monarch, a monarchy may be known as a kingdom, principality, duchy, grand duchy, empire, tsardom, emirate, sultanate, khaganate. The form of societal hierarchy known as chiefdom or tribal kingship is prehistoric, the Greek term monarchia is classical, used by Herodotus. The monarch in classical antiquity is often identified as king, the Chinese, Japanese and Nepalese monarchs continued to be considered living Gods into the modern period. Since antiquity, monarchy has contrasted with forms of democracy, where power is wielded by assemblies of free citizens. In antiquity, monarchies were abolished in favour of such assemblies in Rome, much of 19th century politics was characterised by the division between anti-monarchist Radicalism and monarchist Conservativism. Many countries abolished the monarchy in the 20th century and became republics, advocacy of republics is called republicanism, while advocacy of monarchies is called monarchism. In the modern era, monarchies are more prevalent in small states than in large ones, most monarchs, both historically and in the modern day, have been born and brought up within a royal family, the centre of the royal household and court. Growing up in a family, future monarchs are often trained for the responsibilities of expected future rule. Different systems of succession have been used, such as proximity of blood, primogeniture, and agnatic seniority. While most monarchs have been male, many female monarchs also have reigned in history, rule may be hereditary in practice without being considered a monarchy, such as that of family dictatorships or political families in many democracies. The principal advantage of hereditary monarchy is the continuity of leadership
7.
Emperor Xuanwu of Northern Wei
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Xuanwu was an emperor of the Xianbei dynasty of Northern Wei. He is known within China as Beiwei Xuanwudi and he was born Tuoba Ke, but later changed his surname so that he became Yuan Ke. During Xuanwus reign, Northern Wei appeared, outwardly, to be at its prime, Xuanwu was an avid Buddhist and often personally lectured on the Buddhist sutras. During his reign, Buddhism effectively became the state religion, Tuoba Ke was born in 483, as the second son of Emperor Xiaowen. His mother was Xiaowens concubine Consort, Gao Zhaorong, little is known about his childhood, including whether he was raised by his mother Gao or not. In 496, Xiaowen changed the name of the clan from Tuoba to Yuan. Xiaowen deposed him, and in 497 created Yuan Ke crown prince to replace Yuan Xun, later that year, Gao, who was in Pingcheng, travelled south to rejoin her son in Luoyang, but she died on the way. Historians generally believe that she was murdered by Xiaowens wife, Empress Feng Run, later in 499, Xiaowen, while on a campaign against rival Southern Qi, grew ill and died. Yuan Kes attendants largely suspected Yuan Xie of wanting to take the throne himself, Yuan Ke, at age 16, then took the throne as Xuanwu at Luyang, before the army could return to Luoyang. Xuanwu initially wanted to make Yuan Xie, who was popular and well-regarded, prime minister, but Yuan Xie refused, by 500, Xuanwu recalled Yuan Xie to be prime minister. Gao Zhao, in particular, became powerful during Xuanwus reign. However, Northern Wei did not take further actions when Southern Qi was subsequently thrown into war during the rebellions of the generals Cui Huijing. In 501, the general Yu Lie and Yuan Xiang warned Xuanwu that Yuan Xi was growing corrupt and Yuan Xie was growing too popular, traditional historians generally regard this as the starting point of Northern Weis decline. Late in 501, Yuan Xi, displeased that his power wa being stripped and his plot was discovered, however, and he was executed. From this point on, Xuanwu grew increasingly suspicious of members of the imperial clan, later in 501, Xuanwu created Yu Lies niece, Consort Yu, empress. Later that year, with Xiao Yans forces crushing Xiao Baojuans, however, Xuanwu only authorized small scale attacks, which were generally fruitless. Xiao Yan soon defeated Xiao Baojuan and by 502 had overthrown Southern Qi, in 504, Xuan Xiang, who had taken over Yuan Xis posts, was accused by Gao Zhao of corruption. He was demoted to commoner rank, and died soon thereafter, at Gaos suggestion and despite Yuan Xies opposition, Xuanwu subsequently put the imperial princes under heavy guard, effectively putting them under house arrest
8.
Northern and Southern dynasties
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The Northern and Southern dynasties was a period in the history of China that lasted from 420 to 589, following the tumultuous era of the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Wu Hu states. It is sometimes considered as the part of a longer period known as the Six Dynasties. Though an age of war and political chaos, it was also a time of flourishing arts and culture, advancement in technology. The period saw large-scale migration of Han Chinese to the south of the Yangtze. The period came to an end with the unification of all of China proper by Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, during this period, the process of sinicization accelerated among the non-Chinese arrivals in the north and among the indigenous people in the south. Notable technological advances occurred during this period, the invention of the stirrup during the earlier Jin dynasty helped spur the development of heavy cavalry as a combat standard. Historians also note advances in medicine, astronomy, mathematics, intellectuals of the period include the mathematician and astronomer Zu Chongzhi. After the collapse of a united China under the Han dynasty in 220 due in part to the Yellow Turban. Of these, Cao Wei was the strongest, followed by Eastern Wu and Shu Han, after a 249 coup by Sima Yi, the Sima family essentially controlled Cao Wei and the conquest of Shu by Wei rapidly followed. Following a failed coup by the ruling Cao family against the Sima family, Sima Yan then founded the Jin Dynasty as Emperor Wu of Jin and the conquest of Wu by Jin occurred in 280, ending the Three Kingdoms period and reuniting China. The Jin dynasty was weakened after the War of the Eight Princes from 291-306. During the reigns of Emperor Huai and Emperor Min, the country was put into danger with the uprising of the northern non-Han people collectively known as the Five Barbarians. Invading non-Han armies almost destroyed the dynasty in the Disaster of Yongjia of 311, changan met a similar fate in 316. However, a scion of the house, Sima Rui, Prince of Langya, fled south of the Huai River to salvage what was left in order to sustain the empire. In the north, the Five Barbarians established numerous kingdoms, leading to the period being known as the Sixteen Kingdoms, eventually, the Northern Wei conquered the rest of the northern states in 386. The designation of specific households for military service in the system eventually led to a falling out in their social status. Faced with shortage of numbers, Jin generals were often sent on campaigns to capture non-Chinese people in the south in order to draft them into the military. The Northern dynasties began in 439 when the Northern Wei conquered the Northern Liang to unite northern China and it can be divided into three time periods, Northern Wei, Eastern and Western Weis, Northern Qi and Northern Zhou
9.
Eastern Wei
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The Eastern Wei followed the disintegration of the Northern Wei, and ruled northern China from 534 to 550. As with Northern Wei, the family of Eastern Wei were members of the Tuoba clan of the Xianbei. Yuan Shanjian was a ruler as the real power lay in the hands of Gao Huan. His sons Gao Cheng and Gao Yang were able to pursue his policy of controlling the emperor, but in 550 Gao Yang deposed Yuan Shanjian and founded his own dynasty, the Northern Qi. The Buddhist art of the Eastern Wei displays a combination of Greco-Buddhist influences from Gandhara and Central Asia, List of Bronze Age States List of Classical Age States List of Iron Age States List of pre-modern great powers
10.
Former Qin
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The Former Qin was a state of the Sixteen Kingdoms in China. Founded by an officer in Shi Les dynasty, it completed the unification of North China in 376 and its capital was Xian up to the death of the ruler Fu Jiān in 385. Despite its name, the Former Qin was much later and less powerful than the Qin Dynasty which had ruled all of China during the 3rd century BC, the adjective former is used to distinguish it from the Later Qin state. The severe defeat of the Former Qin in the Battle of Fei River in 383 encouraged uprisings, one fragment, at present-day Taiyuan, Shanxi was soon overwhelmed in 386 by the Xianbei under the Later Yan and the Dingling. The other struggled in greatly reduced territories around the border of present-day Shaanxi and Gansu until disintegration in 394 following years of invasions by Western Qin, in 327, the Gaochang commandery was created by the Former Liang under the Han Chinese ruler Zhang Gui. After this, significant Han Chinese settlement occurred, meaning that a part of the population becoming Chinese. In 383, the General Lu Guang of Former Qin seized control of the region, all rulers of Former Qin proclaimed themselves Emperor, except for Fu Jiān who claimed the title Heavenly Prince but was posthumoustly considered an emperor. ¹ Fu Sheng was posthumously given the title even though he had reigned as emperor. Chinese history Chinese sovereign Di Fu Jian Wang Meng Battle of Fei River
11.
Northern Liang
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The Northern Liang was a state of the Sixteen Kingdoms in China. It was founded by the Xiongnu Juqu family, although they supported the Han official Duan Ye as prince, they overthrew him in 401. All rulers of the Northern Liang proclaimed themselves wang, most Chinese historians view the Northern Liang as having ended in 439, when its capital Guzang fell to Northern Wei forces and its prince Juqu Mujian was captured. It was during the Northern Liang that the first Buddhist cave shrine sites appear in Gansu Province, the two most famous sites are Tiandishan, which was south of the Northern Liang capital at Yongcheng, and Wenshushan, halfway between Yongcheng and Dunhuang. Maijishan lies more or less on a route connecting China and Central Asia. It had the advantage of located not too distant from a main route that also ran N-S to Chengdu. The remnants of the Juqu family were slaughtered, Xiongnu List of past Chinese ethnic groups Wu Hu Sixteen Kingdoms Gansu Gaochang Avars
12.
Western Wei
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The Western Wei followed the disintegration of the Northern Wei, and ruled northern China from 535 to 557. As with the Northern Wei state that preceded it, the family of Western Wei were members of the Tuoba clan of the Xianbei. After the Xianbei general Yuwen Tai killed the Northern Wei emperor Yuan Xiu, although smaller than the Eastern Wei in territory and population, Western Wei was able to withstand the attacks from the eastern empire. Due to its better economical conditions, Western Wei was even able to conquer the western part of the Liang empire in the south. In 557 Yuwen Tais nephew Yuwen Hu deposed Emperor Gong and placed Yuwen Tais son Yuwen Jue on the throne, ending Western Wei and establishing Northern Zhou
13.
Chinese language
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Chinese is a group of related, but in many cases mutually unintelligible, language varieties, forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Chinese is spoken by the Han majority and many ethnic groups in China. Nearly 1.2 billion people speak some form of Chinese as their first language, the varieties of Chinese are usually described by native speakers as dialects of a single Chinese language, but linguists note that they are as diverse as a language family. The internal diversity of Chinese has been likened to that of the Romance languages, There are between 7 and 13 main regional groups of Chinese, of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin, followed by Wu, Min, and Yue. Most of these groups are mutually unintelligible, although some, like Xiang and certain Southwest Mandarin dialects, may share common terms, all varieties of Chinese are tonal and analytic. Standard Chinese is a form of spoken Chinese based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. It is the language of China and Taiwan, as well as one of four official languages of Singapore. It is one of the six languages of the United Nations. The written form of the language, based on the logograms known as Chinese characters, is shared by literate speakers of otherwise unintelligible dialects. Of the other varieties of Chinese, Cantonese is the spoken language and official in Hong Kong and Macau. It is also influential in Guangdong province and much of Guangxi, dialects of Southern Min, part of the Min group, are widely spoken in southern Fujian, with notable variants also spoken in neighboring Taiwan and in Southeast Asia. Hakka also has a diaspora in Taiwan and southeast Asia. Shanghainese and other Wu varieties are prominent in the lower Yangtze region of eastern China, Chinese can be traced back to a hypothetical Sino-Tibetan proto-language. The first written records appeared over 3,000 years ago during the Shang dynasty, as the language evolved over this period, the various local varieties became mutually unintelligible. In reaction, central governments have sought to promulgate a unified standard. Difficulties have included the great diversity of the languages, the lack of inflection in many of them, in addition, many of the smaller languages are spoken in mountainous areas that are difficult to reach, and are often also sensitive border zones. Without a secure reconstruction of proto-Sino-Tibetan, the structure of the family remains unclear. A top-level branching into Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages is often assumed, the earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones from around 1250 BCE in the late Shang dynasty
14.
Standard Chinese
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Its pronunciation is based on the Beijing dialect, its vocabulary on the Mandarin dialects, and its grammar is based on written vernacular Chinese. Like other varieties of Chinese, Standard Chinese is a language with topic-prominent organization. It has more initial consonants but fewer vowels, final consonants, Standard Chinese is an analytic language, though with many compound words. There exist two standardised forms of the language, namely Putonghua in Mainland China and Guoyu in Taiwan, aside from a number of differences in pronunciation and vocabulary, Putonghua is written using simplified Chinese characters, while Guoyu is written using traditional Chinese characters. There are many characters that are identical between the two systems, in English, the governments of China and Hong Kong use Putonghua, Putonghua Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, and Mandarin, while those of Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, use Mandarin. The name Putonghua also has a long, albeit unofficial, history and it was used as early as 1906 in writings by Zhu Wenxiong to differentiate a modern, standard Chinese from classical Chinese and other varieties of Chinese. For some linguists of the early 20th century, the Putonghua, or common tongue/speech, was different from the Guoyu. The former was a prestige variety, while the latter was the legal standard. Based on common understandings of the time, the two were, in fact, different, Guoyu was understood as formal vernacular Chinese, which is close to classical Chinese. By contrast, Putonghua was called the speech of the modern man. The use of the term Putonghua by left-leaning intellectuals such as Qu Qiubai, prior to this, the government used both terms interchangeably. In Taiwan, Guoyu continues to be the term for Standard Chinese. The term Putonghua, on the contrary, implies nothing more than the notion of a lingua franca, Huayu, or language of the Chinese nation, originally simply meant Chinese language, and was used in overseas communities to contrast Chinese with foreign languages. Over time, the desire to standardise the variety of Chinese spoken in these communities led to the adoption of the name Huayu to refer to Mandarin and it also incorporates the notion that Mandarin is usually not the national or common language of the areas in which overseas Chinese live. The term Mandarin is a translation of Guānhuà, which referred to the lingua franca of the late Chinese empire, in English, Mandarin may refer to the standard language, the dialect group as a whole, or to historic forms such as the late Imperial lingua franca. The name Modern Standard Mandarin is sometimes used by linguists who wish to distinguish the current state of the language from other northern. Chinese has long had considerable variation, hence prestige dialects have always existed. Confucius, for example, used yǎyán rather than colloquial regional dialects, rime books, which were written since the Northern and Southern dynasties, may also have reflected one or more systems of standard pronunciation during those times
15.
Pinyin
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Pinyin, or Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Chinese, which is written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones, Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters. The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang and it was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as a standard in 1982. The system was adopted as the standard in Taiwan in 2009. The word Hànyǔ means the language of the Han people. In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji in Beijing and this was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years later, another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, and the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese. One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing Dynasty scholar-official, the first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu. A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the effect of the kana syllabaries. This galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script, while Song did not himself actually create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts. The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and it was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. This Sin Wenz or New Writing was much more sophisticated than earlier alphabets. In 1940, several members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Societys new journal. Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Yat-sens son, Sun Fo, Cai Yuanpei, the countrys most prestigious educator, Tao Xingzhi, an educational reformer. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, biographies, some contemporary Chinese literature, and a spectrum of textbooks
16.
Cantonese
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Cantonese, or Standard Cantonese, is a variety of Chinese spoken in the city of Guangzhou in southeastern China. It is the prestige variety of Yue, one of the major subdivisions of Chinese. In mainland China, it is the lingua franca of the province of Guangdong and some neighbouring areas such as Guangxi. In Hong Kong and Macau, Cantonese serves as one of their official languages and it is also spoken amongst overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and throughout the Western World. When Cantonese and the closely related Yuehai dialects are classified together, Cantonese is viewed as vital part of the cultural identity for its native speakers across large swathes of southeastern China, Hong Kong and Macau. Although Cantonese shares some vocabulary with Mandarin, the two varieties are mutually unintelligible because of differences in pronunciation, grammar and lexicon, sentence structure, in particular the placement of verbs, sometimes differs between the two varieties. This results in the situation in which a Cantonese and a Mandarin text may look similar, in English, the term Cantonese is ambiguous. Cantonese proper is the variety native to the city of Canton and this narrow sense may be specified as Canton language or Guangzhou language in English. However, Cantonese may also refer to the branch of Cantonese that contains Cantonese proper as well as Taishanese and Gaoyang. In this article, Cantonese is used for Cantonese proper, historically, speakers called this variety Canton speech or Guangzhou speech, although this term is now seldom used outside mainland China. In Guangdong province, people call it provincial capital speech or plain speech. In Hong Kong and Macau, as well as among overseas Chinese communities, in mainland China, the term Guangdong speech is also increasingly being used among both native and non-native speakers. Due to its status as a prestige dialect among all the dialects of the Cantonese or Yue branch of Chinese varieties, the official languages of Hong Kong are Chinese and English, as defined in the Hong Kong Basic Law. The Chinese language has different varieties, of which Cantonese is one. Given the traditional predominance of Cantonese within Hong Kong, it is the de facto official spoken form of the Chinese language used in the Hong Kong Government and all courts and it is also used as the medium of instruction in schools, alongside English. A similar situation exists in neighboring Macau, where Chinese is an official language along with Portuguese. As in Hong Kong, Cantonese is the predominant spoken variety of Chinese used in life and is thus the official form of Chinese used in the government. The variant spoken in Hong Kong and Macau is known as Hong Kong Cantonese, Cantonese first developed around the port city of Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta region of southeastern China
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Jyutping
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Jyutping is a romanisation system for Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong, an academic group, in 1993. Its formal name is The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanisation Scheme, the LSHK promotes the use of this romanisation system. The name Jyutping is a contraction consisting of the first Chinese characters of the terms Jyut6jyu5, only the finals m and ng can be used as standalone nasal syllables. ^ ^ ^ Referring to the pronunciation of these words. There are nine tones in six distinct tone contours in Cantonese, however, as three of the nine are entering tones, which only appear in syllables ending with p, t, and k, they do not have separate tone numbers in Jyutping. Jyutping and the Yale Romanisation of Cantonese represent Cantonese pronunciations with the letters in, The initials, b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, ng, h, s, gw, kw. The vowel, aa, a, e, i, o, u, the coda, i, u, m, n, ng, p, t, k. But they differ in the following, The vowels eo and oe represent /ɵ/ and /œː/ respectively in Jyutping, the initial j represents /j/ in Jyutping whereas y is used instead in Yale. The initial z represents /ts/ in Jyutping whereas j is used instead in Yale, the initial c represents /tsʰ/ in Jyutping whereas ch is used instead in Yale. In Jyutping, if no consonant precedes the vowel yu, then the initial j is appended before the vowel, in Yale, the corresponding initial y is never appended before yu under any circumstances. Jyutping defines three finals not in Yale, eu /ɛːu/, em /ɛːm/, and ep /ɛːp/ and these three finals are used in colloquial Cantonese words, such as deu6, lem2, and gep6. To represent tones, only tone numbers are used in Jyutping whereas Yale traditionally uses tone marks together with the letter h. Jyutping and Cantonese Pinyin represent Cantonese pronunciations with the letters in, The initials, b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, ng, h, s, gw, kw. The vowel, aa, a, e, i, o, u, the coda, i, u, m, n, ng, p, t, k. But they have differences, The vowel oe represents both /ɵ/ and /œː/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas eo and oe represent /ɵ/ and /œː/ respectively in Jyutping. The vowel y represents /y/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas both yu and i are used in Jyutping, the initial dz represents /ts/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas z is used instead in Jyutping. The initial ts represents /tsʰ/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas c is used instead in Jyutping. To represent tones, the numbers 1 to 9 are usually used in Cantonese Pinyin, however, only the numbers 1 to 6 are used in Jyutping
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Southern Min
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Southern Min, or Minnan, is a branch of Min Chinese spoken in certain parts of China including southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong, Hainan, and southern Zhejiang, and in Taiwan. The Min Nan dialects are spoken by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora, most notably the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia. In common parlance, Southern Min usually refers to Hokkien, including Amoy and Taiwanese Hokkien, the Southern Min dialect group also includes Teochew, though Teochew has limited mutual intelligibility with Hokkien. Hainanese is not mutually intellgible with other Southern Min and is considered a separate branch of Min. Southern Min is not mutually intelligible with Eastern Min, Pu-Xian Min, any other Min branch, Hakka, Cantonese, Shanghainese or Mandarin. Southern Min dialects are spoken in the part of Fujian. The variant spoken in Leizhou, Guangdong as well as Hainan is Hainanese and is not mutually intelligible with other Southern Min or Teochew, Hainanese is classified in some schemes as part of Southern Min and in other schemes as separate. Puxian Min was originally based on the Quanzhou dialect, but over time became heavily influenced by Eastern Min, eventually losing intellegility with Minnan. A forms of Southern Min spoken in Taiwan, collectively known as Taiwanese, Southern Min is a first language for most of the Hoklo people, the main ethnicity of Taiwan. The correspondence between language and ethnicity is not absolute, as some Hoklo have very limited proficiency in Southern Min while some non-Hoklo speak Southern Min fluently, there are many Southern Min speakers also among Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. Many ethnic Chinese immigrants to the region were Hoklo from southern Fujian and brought the language to what is now Burma, Indonesia and present-day Malaysia and Singapore. In general, Southern Min from southern Fujian is known as Hokkien, Hokkienese, many Southeast Asian ethnic Chinese also originated in the Chaoshan region of Guangdong and speak Teochew language, the variant of Southern Min from that region. Southern Min-speakers form the majority of Chinese in Singapore, with the largest group being Hokkien, despite the similarities the two groups are rarely seen as part of the same Minnan Chinese subgroups. The variants of Southern Min spoken in Zhejiang province are most akin to that spoken in Quanzhou, the variants spoken in Taiwan are similar to the three Fujian variants and are collectively known as Taiwanese. Those Southern Min variants that are known as Hokkien in Southeast Asia also originate from these variants. The variants of Southern Min in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong province are known as Teochew or Chaozhou. Teochew is of importance in the Southeast Asian Chinese diaspora, particularly in Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sumatra. The Philippines variant is mostly from the Quanzhou area as most of their forefathers are from the aforementioned area, the Southern Min language variant spoken around Shanwei and Haifeng differs markedly from Teochew and may represent a later migration from Zhangzhou
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Hokkien
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Hokkien /hɒˈkiɛn/ is a group of Southern Min dialects spoken throughout Southeastern China, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and by other overseas Chinese. Hokkien originated in southern Fujian, the Min-speaking province and it is closely related to Teochew, though there is limited mutual intelligibility, and is somewhat more distantly related to Hainanese and Leizhou dialect. Besides Hokkien, there are also other Min and Hakka dialects in Fujian province, the term Hokkien is etymologically derived from the Southern Min pronunciation for Fujian, the province from which the language hails. The variety is known by other terms such as the more general Min Nan or Southern Min. Fujianese and Fukienese are also used, although they are somewhat imprecise, the term Hokkien is not usually used in Mainland China or Taiwan. Conversely Hokkien is the name in Southeast Asia in both English, Chinese or other languages. Speakers of Hokkien, particularly those in Southeast Asia, typically refer to Hokkien as a dialect, people in Taiwan most often refer to Hokkien as the Taiwanese language, with Minnan and Holo also being used and 福建話 is not as common. Hokkien originated in the area of Fujian province, an important center for trade and migration. The major pole of Hokkien varieties outside of Fujian is Taiwan, the Taiwanese version mostly have origins with the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou variants, but since then, the Amoy dialect is becoming the modern prestige standard for the language. There are many Hokkien speakers among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia as well as in the United States, many ethnic Han Chinese emigrants to the region were Hoklo from southern Fujian, and brought the language to what is now Burma, Indonesia and present day Malaysia and Singapore. Many of the Hokkien dialects of this region are similar to Taiwanese and Amoynese. Hokkien is reportedly the native language of up to 80% of the Chinese people in the Philippines, Hokkien speakers form the largest group of overseas Chinese in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines. Southern and part of western Fujian is home to four principal Hokkien dialects, Chinchew, Amoy, Chiangchew and Longyan, originating from the cities of Quanzhou, Xiamen, Zhangzhou and Longyan. As Xiamen is the city of southern Fujian, Amoy is considered the most important, or even the prestige dialect. It is a hybrid of the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects, same as Amoy dialect, the varieties of Hokkien spoken in Taiwan are hybrids of the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects, and are collectively known as Taiwanese Hokkien or just Taiwanese. Used by a majority of the population, it bears much importance from a socio-political perspective, the varieties of Hokkien in Southeast Asia originate from these dialects. The Singaporeans, Southern Malaysians and people in Indonesias Riau and surrounding islands variant is from the Quanzhou area and they speak a distinct form of Quanzhou Hokkien called Southern Peninsular Malaysian Hokkien. Among ethnic Chinese inhabitants of Penang, and other states in Northern Malaysia and Medan, with areas in North Sumatra, Indonesia
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History of China
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Written records of the history of China can be found from as early as 1500 BC under the Shang dynasty. Ancient historical texts such as the Records of the Grand Historian and the Bamboo Annals describe a Xia dynasty, with thousands of years of continuous history, China is one of the worlds oldest civilizations, and is regarded as one of the cradles of civilization. Much of Chinese culture, literature and philosophy developed during the Zhou dynasty. This is one of multiple periods of failed statehood in Chinese history, between eras of multiple kingdoms and warlordism, Chinese dynasties have ruled parts or all of China, in some eras control stretched as far as Xinjiang and Tibet, as at present. In 221 BC Qin Shi Huang united the warring kingdoms and created for himself the title of emperor of the Qin dynasty. Successive dynasties developed bureaucratic systems that enabled the emperor to control vast territories directly, in the 21 centuries from 206 BC until AD1912, routine administrative tasks were handled by a special elite, the Scholar-officials. Young men were selected through difficult examinations and were well-versed in calligraphy and philosophy. What is now China was inhabited by Homo erectus more than a million years ago, recent study shows that the stone tools found at Xiaochangliang site are magnetostratigraphically dated to 1.36 million years ago. The archaeological site of Xihoudu in Shanxi Province is the earliest recorded use of fire by Homo erectus, the excavations at Yuanmou and later Lantian show early habitation. Perhaps the most famous specimen of Homo erectus found in China is the so-called Peking Man discovered in 1923–27, fossilised teeth of Homo sapiens dating to 125, 000–80,000 BC have been discovered in Fuyan Cave in Dao County in Hunan. The Neolithic age in China can be traced back to about 10,000 BC, Early evidence for proto-Chinese millet agriculture is radiocarbon-dated to about 7000 BC. The earliest evidence of cultivated rice, found by the Yangtze River, is carbon-dated to 8,000 years ago, farming gave rise to the Jiahu culture. At Damaidi in Ningxia,3,172 cliff carvings dating to 6000–5000 BC have been discovered, featuring 8,453 individual characters such as the sun, moon, stars, gods and these pictographs are reputed to be similar to the earliest characters confirmed to be written Chinese. Chinese proto-writing existed in Jiahu around 7000 BC, Dadiwan from 5800 BC to 5400 BC, Damaidi around 6000 BC, some scholars have suggested that Jiahu symbols were the earliest Chinese writing system. With agriculture came increased population, the ability to store and redistribute crops, Later, Yangshao culture was superseded by the Longshan culture, which was also centered on the Yellow River from about 3000 BC to 2000 BC. 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 a ancient city. The site was first discovered in 1929 and then re-discovered in 1986, Chinese archaeologists have identified the Sanxingdui culture to be part of the ancient kingdom of Shu, linking the artifacts found at the site to its early legendary kings
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Xia dynasty
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The Xia dynasty is the first dynasty in traditional Chinese history. It is described in ancient historical chronicles such as the Bamboo Annals, the Classic of History, according to tradition, the dynasty was established by the legendary Yu the Great after Shun, the last of the Five Emperors gave his throne to him. The Xia was later succeeded by the Shang dynasty, the Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project concluded that the Xia existed between 2070 and 1600 BCE. The first documentary reference to the Xia dates from more than a years later. Therefore, despite efforts by Chinese archaeologists to link the Xia with Bronze Age Erlitou archaeological sites, the Xia dynasty was described in classic texts such as the Classic of History, the Bamboo Annals, and the Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian. According to tradition, the Huaxia were the people of the Han Chinese. Traditional histories trace the development of the Xia to the legendary Three Sovereigns, according to ancient Chinese texts, before the Xia dynasty was established, battles were frequent between the Xia tribe and Chi Yous tribe. The Xia tribe slowly developed around the time of Zhuanxu, one of the Five Emperors, based on this, tradition ascribes the ancestry of the Xia clan to Zhuanxu. Gun, the father of Yu the Great, is the earliest recorded member of the Xia clan, when the Yellow River flooded, many tribes united together to control and stop the flooding. Gun was appointed by Emperor Yao to stop the flooding and he ordered the construction of large blockades to block the path of the water. The attempt of Gun to stop the flooding lasted for nine years, after nine years, Yao had already given his throne to Shun. Yu was highly trusted by Shun, so Shun appointed him to finish his fathers work, Yu was dedicated to his work. People praised his perseverance and were inspired, so much so that other tribes joined in the work, yus success in stopping the flooding increased agricultural production. The Xia tribes power increased and Yu became the leader of the surrounding tribes, soon afterwards Shun sent Yu to lead an army to suppress the Sanmiao tribe, which continuously abused the border tribes. After defeating them, he exiled them south to the Han River area and this victory strengthened the Xia tribes power even more. As Shun aged, he thought of a successor and relinquished the throne to Yu, yus succession marks the start of the Xia dynasty. As Yu neared death he passed the throne to his son, Qi, instead of passing it to the most capable candidate, the Xia dynasty began a period of family or clan control. It is believed that Zhenxun was one of the capitals of the dynasty, jie, the last king, was said to be corrupt
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Shang dynasty
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The Shang dynasty or Yin dynasty, according to traditional historiography, ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, succeeding the Xia dynasty and followed by the Zhou dynasty. The classic account of the Shang comes from such as the Book of Documents, Bamboo Annals. The Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project dated them from c.1600 to 1046 BC, the Shang dynasty is the earliest dynasty of traditional Chinese history supported by archaeological evidence. Tens of thousands of bronze, jade, stone, bone, the Anyang site has yielded the earliest known body of Chinese writing, mostly divinations inscribed on oracle bones – turtle shells, ox scapulae, or other bones. More than 20,000 were discovered in the scientific excavations during the 1920s and 1930s. The inscriptions provide critical insight into many topics from the politics, economy, many events concerning the Shang dynasty are mentioned in various Chinese classics, including the Book of Documents, the Mencius and the Zuo Zhuan. Working from all the documents, the Han dynasty historian Sima Qian assembled a sequential account of the Shang dynasty as part of his Records of the Grand Historian. His history describes some events in detail, while in other cases only the name of a king is given, a closely related, but slightly different, account is given by the Bamboo Annals. The Annals were interred in 296 BC, but the text has a complex history, the name Yīn is used by Sima Qian for the dynasty, and in the current text version of the Bamboo Annals for both the dynasty and its final capital. It has been a name for the Shang throughout history. Since the Records of Emperors and Kings by Huangfu Mi, it has often used specifically to describe the later half of the Shang dynasty. In Japan and Korea, the Shang are still referred to almost exclusively as the Yin dynasty, however it seems to have been a Zhou name for the earlier dynasty. The word does not appear in the bones, which refer to the state as Shāng. It also does not appear in securely-dated Western Zhou bronze inscriptions, xie is said to have helped Yu the Great to control the Great Flood and for his service to have been granted a place called Shang as a fief. Sima Qian relates that the dynasty itself was founded 13 generations later, when Xies descendant Tang overthrew the impious and cruel final Xia ruler in the Battle of Mingtiao. The Records recount events from the reigns of Tang, Tai Jia, Tai Wu, Pan Geng, Wu Ding, Wu Yi and the final king Di Xin. According to the Records, the Shang moved their capital five times, Di Xin, the last Shang king, is said to have committed suicide after his army was defeated by Wu of Zhou. Legends say that his army and his equipped slaves betrayed him by joining the Zhou rebels in the decisive Battle of Muye, according to the Yi Zhou Shu and Mencius the battle was very bloody
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Zhou dynasty
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The Zhou dynasty was a Chinese dynasty that followed the Shang dynasty and preceded the Qin dynasty. This period of Chinese history produced what many consider the zenith of Chinese bronze-ware making, the dynasty also spans the period in which the written script evolved into its almost-modern form with the use of an archaic clerical script that emerged during the late Warring States period. He even received sacrifice as a harvest god, the term Hòujì was probably an hereditary title attached to a lineage. Jus son Liu, however, led his people to prosperity by restoring agriculture and settling them at a place called Bin, tai later led the clan from Bin to Zhou, an area in the Wei River valley of modern-day Qishan County. Taibo and Zhongyong had supposedly fled to the Yangtze delta. Jilis son Wen bribed his way out of imprisonment and moved the Zhou capital to Feng, the Zhou enfeoffed a member of the defeated Shang royal family as the Duke of Song, which was held by descendants of the Shang royal family until its end. This practice was referred to as Two Kings, Three Reverences, according to Nicholas Bodman, the Zhou appear to have spoken a language not basically different in vocabulary and syntax from that of the Shang. A recent study by David McCraw, using lexical statistics, reached the same conclusion, the Zhou emulated extensively Shang cultural practices, perhaps to legitimize their own rule, and became the successors to Shang culture. At the same time, the Zhou may also have connected to the Xirong, a broadly defined cultural group to the west of the Shang. According to the historian Li Feng, the term Rong during the Western Zhou period was used to designate political and military adversaries rather than cultural. The proto-Zhou were first located in the Shaanxi-Shanxi highland, where they absorbed elements from the Guangshe culture, King Liu moved his people to the lower Fen Valley and to the western bank of the Yellow River, where they resumed agriculture. His son Qing Jie, led the Zhou to the valley of the Jing River. They stayed there until Dan Fu moved again to the Wei Valley in order to avoid incursion by the Rongdi nomads. During this period, the Zhou mingled with the Qiang people, in all these stages, the advanced Shang bronze culture constantly imparted its influence on the Zhou. The Qi area was the region in all these influences would come to fruition. The contact among the proto-Zhou, the native Shaanxi Longshan, the Qiang, King Wu maintained the old capital for ceremonial purposes but constructed a new one for his palace and administration nearby at Hao. Although Wus early death left a young and inexperienced heir, the Duke of Zhou assisted his nephew King Cheng in consolidating royal power. Wary of the Duke of Zhous increasing power, the Three Guards, Zhou princes stationed on the eastern plain, to maintain Zhou authority over its greatly expanded territory and prevent other revolts, he set up the fengjian system
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Western Zhou
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The Western Zhou period was the first half of the Zhou dynasty of ancient China. It began when King Wu of Zhou overthrew the Shang dynasty at the Battle of Muye, the dynasty was successful for about seventy-five years and then slowly lost power. The former Shang lands were divided into fiefs which became increasingly independent of the king. In 771, the Zhou were driven out of the Wei River valley, few records survive from this early period and accounts from the Western Zhou period cover little beyond a list of kings with uncertain dates. King Wu died two or three years after the conquest, because his son, King Cheng of Zhou was young, his brother, the Duke of Zhou assisted the young and inexperienced king as regent. Wus other brothers, concerned about the Duke of Zhous growing power, formed an alliance with other regional rulers, the Duke of Zhou stamped out this rebellion and conquered more territory to bring other people under Zhou rule. The Duke formulated the Mandate of Heaven doctrine to counter Shang claims to a right of rule. With a feudal system, royal relatives and generals were given fiefs in the east, including Luoyang, Jin, Ying, Lu, Qi. While this was designed to maintain Zhou authority as it expanded its rule over an amount of territory. When the Duke of Zhou stepped down as regent, the remainder of Chengs reign, the fourth king, King Zhao of Zhou led an army south against Chu and was killed along with a large part of the Zhou army. The fifth king, King Mu of Zhou is remembered for his visit to the Queen Mother of the West. Territory was lost to the Xu Rong in the southeast, the reigns of the next four kings are poorly documented. The ninth king is said to have boiled the Duke of Qi in a cauldron, the tenth king, King Li of Zhou was forced into exile and power was held for fourteen years by the Gonghe Regency. Lis overthrow may have accompanied by Chinas first recorded peasant rebellion. When Li died in exile, Gonghe retired and power passed to Lis son King Xuan of Zhou, King Xuan worked to restore royal authority, though regional lords became less obedient later in his reign. The twelfth and last king of the Western Zhou period was King You of Zhou, some scholars have surmised that the sack of Haojing might have been connected to a Scythian raid from the Altai before their westward expansion. Most of the Zhou nobles withdrew from the Wei River valley and this was the start of the Eastern Zhou period, which is customarily divided into the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period. It is possible that the Zhou kings derived most of their income from lands in the Wei valley
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Spring and Autumn period
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The Spring and Autumn period was a period in Chinese history from approximately 771 to 476 BC which corresponds roughly to the first half of the Eastern Zhou dynasty. The periods name derives from the Spring and Autumn Annals, a chronicle of the state of Lu between 722 and 479 BC, which associates with Confucius. The gradual Partition of Jin, one of the most powerful states, marked the end of the Spring and Autumn period, in 771 BC, the Quanrong invasion destroyed the Western Zhou and its capital Haojing, forcing the Zhou king to flee to the eastern capital Luoyi. The event ushered in the Eastern Zhou dynasty, which is divided into the Spring and Autumn, during the Spring and Autumn period, Chinas feudal system of fengjian became largely irrelevant. The Zhou court, having lost its homeland in the Guanzhong region, held nominal power, during the early part of the Zhou dynasty period, royal relatives and generals had been given control over fiefdoms in an effort to maintain Zhou authority over vast territory. As the power of the Zhou kings waned, these became increasingly independent states. The most important states came together in regular conferences where they decided important matters, during these conferences one vassal ruler was sometimes declared hegemon. As the era continued, larger and more powerful states annexed or claimed suzerainty over smaller ones, by the 6th century BC most small states had disappeared and just a few large and powerful principalities dominated China. Some southern states, such as Chu and Wu, claimed independence from the Zhou, in Chengzhou, Prince Yijiu was crowned by his supporters as King Ping. The Zhou court would never regain its authority, instead. Though the king de jure retained the Mandate of Heaven, the title held little actual power, a total of 148 states are mentioned in the chronicles for this period,128 of which were absorbed by the four largest states by the end of the period. The kings prestige legitimized the military leaders of the states, over the next two centuries, the four most powerful states—Qin, Jin, Qi and Chu—struggled for power. These multi-city states often used the pretext of aid and protection to intervene, during this rapid expansion, interstate relations alternated between low-level warfare and complex diplomacy. Duke Yin of Lu ascended the throne in 722 BC, from this year on the state of Lu kept an official chronicle, the Spring and Autumn Annals, which along with its commentaries is the standard source for the Spring and Autumn period. Corresponding chronicles are known to have existed in states as well. In 717 BC, Duke Zhuang of Zheng went to the capital for an audience with King Huan, during the encounter the duke felt he was not treated with the respect and etiquette which would have been appropriate, given that Zheng was now the chief protector of the capital. In 715 BC Zheng also became involved in a dispute with Lu regarding the Fields of Xu. The fields had been put in the care of Lu by the king for the purpose of producing royal sacrifices for the sacred Mount Tai
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Warring States period
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The Warring States Period derives its name from the Record of the Warring States, a work compiled early in the Han dynasty. The political geography of the era was dominated by the Seven Warring States, namely, Qin, The State of Qin was in the far west, with its core in the Wei River Valley and Guanzhong. This geographical position offered protection from the states of the Central Plains, the Three Jins, Northeast of Qin, on the Shanxi plateau, were the three successor states of Jin. These were, Han, south, along the Yellow River, Zhao, the northernmost of the three. Qi, located in the east of China, centred on the Shandong Peninsula, described as east of Mount Tai, Chu, located in the south of China, with its core territory around the valleys of the Han River and, later, the Yangtze River. Yan, located in the northeast, centred on modern-day Beijing, late in the period Yan pushed northeast and began to occupy the Liaodong Peninsula Besides these seven major states, some minor states also survived into the period. Yue, On the southeast coast near Shanghai was the State of Yue, Sichuan, In the far southwest were the States of Ba and Shu. These were non-Zhou states that were conquered by Qin late in the period, in the Central Plains comprising much of modern-day Henan Province, many smaller city states survived as satellites of the larger states, though they were eventually to be absorbed as well. Zhongshan, Between the states of Zhao and Yan was the state of Zhongshan, the Spring and Autumn period was initiated by the eastward flight of the Zhou court. There is no one single incident or starting point for the Warring States era, some proposed starting points are as follows,481 BC, Proposed by Song-era historian Lü Zuqian, since it is the end of the Spring and Autumn Annals. 476–475 BC, The author, Sima Qian, of Records of the Grand Historian who chose the year of King Yuan of Zhou. 403 BC, The year when Han, Zhao and Wei were officially recognised as states by the Zhou court, author Sima Guang of Zizhi Tongjian tells us that the symbol of eroded Zhou authority should be taken as the start of the Warring States era. The Spring and Autumn period led to a few states gaining power at the expense of many others, during the Warring States period, many rulers claimed the Mandate of Heaven to justify their conquest of other states and spread their influence. Other major states also existed, such as Wu and Yue in the southeast, the last decades of the Spring and Autumn era were marked by increased stability, as the result of peace negotiations between Jin and Chu which established their respective spheres of influence. This situation ended with the partition of Jin, whereby the state was divided between the houses of Han, Zhao and Wei, and thus enabled the creation of the seven major warring states. This allowed other clans to gain fiefs and military authority, and decades of struggle led to the establishment of four major families. The Battle of Jinyang saw the allied Han, Zhao and Wei destroy the Zhi family, with this, they became the de facto rulers of most of Jins territory, though this situation would not be officially recognised until half a century later. The Jin division created a vacuum that enabled during the first 50 years expansion of Chu and Yue northward
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Qin dynasty
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The Qin dynasty was the first dynasty of Imperial China, lasting from 221 to 206 BCE. The strength of the Qin state was increased by the Legalist reforms of Shang Yang in the fourth century BC. It is also the shortest dynasty in Chinese history, lasting only 15 years with two emperors, Qin administration was by no means purely punitive, and was not harsher than was generally prevalent at the time. Though often anathema to Legalist philosophy, Confucianism and its values too coexisted with Legalism during the reign of the First Emperor, Qin administrative documents considered such matters as filial piety, and one circulated letter reads that The purpose of all standards. Is to teach and lead the people, rid them of dissoluteness and depravity. during its reign over China, the Qin sought to create an imperial state unified by highly structured political power and a stable economy able to support a large military. This allowed for the construction of projects, such as a wall on the northern border. For years, local rulers built walls along Chinas northern border to protect their villages from invaders, Three hundred thousand peasants and convicts were forced to work on this 1,400 mile wall. The Qin dynasty introduced reforms, currency, weights and measures were standardized. The Qins military was revolutionary in that it used the most recently developed weaponry, transportation, an attempt to restrict criticism and purge all traces of old dynasties led to the supposed burning of books and burying of scholars later espoused by Confucians. Despite its military strength, the Qin dynasty did not last long, the advisors squabbled among themselves, however, resulting in both their deaths and that of the second Qin emperor. Popular revolt broke out a few later, and the weakened empire soon fell to a Chu lieutenant. Despite its rapid end, the dynasty influenced future Chinese empires, particularly the Han, in the 9th century BC, Feizi, a supposed descendant of the ancient political advisor Gao Yao, was granted rule over Qin City. The modern city of Tianshui stands where this city once was, during the rule of King Xiao of Zhou, the eighth king of the Zhou dynasty, this area became known as the state of Qin. In 897 BC, under the regency of Gonghe, the became a dependency allotted for the purpose of raising and breeding horses. One of Feizis descendants, Duke Zhuang, became favoured by King Ping of Zhou, as a reward, Zhuangs son, Duke Xiang, was sent eastward as the leader of a war expedition, during which he formally established the Qin. The state of Qin first sent an expedition into central China in 672 BC. By the dawn of the fourth century BC, however, the tribes had all been either subdued or conquered. The resulting city greatly resembled the capitals of other Warring States, notably, Qin Legalism encouraged practical and ruthless warfare
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Han dynasty
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The Han dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms period. Spanning over four centuries, the Han period is considered an age in Chinese history. To this day, Chinas majority ethnic group refers to itself as the Han people and it was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han, and briefly interrupted by the Xin dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang. This interregnum separates the Han dynasty into two periods, the Western Han or Former Han and the Eastern Han or Later Han, the emperor was at the pinnacle of Han society. He presided over the Han government but shared power with both the nobility and appointed ministers who came largely from the gentry class. The Han Empire was divided into areas controlled by the central government using an innovation inherited from the Qin known as commanderies. These kingdoms gradually lost all vestiges of their independence, particularly following the Rebellion of the Seven States, from the reign of Emperor Wu onward, the Chinese court officially sponsored Confucianism in education and court politics, synthesized with the cosmology of later scholars such as Dong Zhongshu. This policy endured until the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911 AD, the Han dynasty was an age of economic prosperity and saw a significant growth of the money economy first established during the Zhou dynasty. The coinage issued by the government mint in 119 BC remained the standard coinage of China until the Tang dynasty. The period saw a number of limited institutional innovations, the Xiongnu, a nomadic steppe confederation, defeated the Han in 200 BC and forced the Han to submit as a de facto inferior partner, but continued their raids on the Han borders. Emperor Wu of Han launched several campaigns against them. The ultimate Han victory in these wars eventually forced the Xiongnu to accept vassal status as Han tributaries, the territories north of Hans borders were quickly overrun by the nomadic Xianbei confederation. Imperial authority was seriously challenged by large Daoist religious societies which instigated the Yellow Turban Rebellion. When Cao Pi, King of Wei, usurped the throne from Emperor Xian, following Liu Bangs victory in the Chu–Han Contention, the resulting Han dynasty was named after the Hanzhong fief. Chinas first imperial dynasty was the Qin dynasty, the Qin unified the Chinese Warring States by conquest, but their empire became unstable after the death of the first emperor Qin Shi Huangdi. Within four years, the authority had collapsed in the face of rebellion. Although Xiang Yu proved to be a commander, Liu Bang defeated him at Battle of Gaixia. Liu Bang assumed the title emperor at the urging of his followers and is known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu, Changan was chosen as the new capital of the reunified empire under Han
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Xin dynasty
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The Xin dynasty was a Chinese dynasty which lasted from 9 to 23 AD. It interrupted the Han dynasty, dividing it into the periods of the Western Han, the sole emperor of the Xin dynasty, Wang Mang, was the nephew of Grand Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun. After the death of her step-grandson Emperor Ai in 1 BC, after several years of cultivating a personality cult, he finally proclaimed himself emperor in 9 AD. However, while a creative scholar and politician, he was an incompetent ruler and he died in the siege, and the Han dynasty was restored by descendants of the former imperial clan. Wars With the Xiongnu - A translation from Zizhi tongjian Chapter 13–17 - pp 404–601 ISBN 978-1-4490-0605-1
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Three Kingdoms
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The Three Kingdoms was the tripartite division of China between the states of Wei, Shu, and Wu, following the Han dynasty and preceding the Jin dynasty. The term Three Kingdoms itself is something of a mistranslation, since each state was eventually headed not by a king, nevertheless, the term Three Kingdoms has become standard among sinologists. Academically, the period of the Three Kingdoms refers to the period between the foundation of the state of Wei in 220 AD and the conquest of the state of Wu by the Jin dynasty in 280. The earlier, unofficial part of the period, from 184 to 220, was marked by infighting between warlords in various parts of China. The middle part of the period, from 220 and 263, was marked by a more militarily stable arrangement between three states of Wei, Shu, and Wu. The later part of the era was marked by the conquest of Shu by Wei, the usurpation of Wei by the Jin dynasty, the Three Kingdoms period is one of the bloodiest in Chinese history. While the census may not have been particularly accurate due to a multitude of factors of the times, technology advanced significantly during this period. Shu chancellor Zhuge Liang invented the wooden ox, suggested to be a form of the wheelbarrow. Wei mechanical engineer Ma Jun is considered by many to be the equal of his predecessor Zhang Heng, although relatively short, this historical period has been greatly romanticized in the cultures of China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. It has been celebrated and popularized in operas, folk stories, novels and in recent times, films, television. The best known of these is Luo Guanzhongs Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the authoritative historical record of the era is Chen Shous Records of the Three Kingdoms, along with Pei Songzhis later annotations of the text. There is no set time period for the era, and many definitions are given. The strictest rule of dating would be to deem the era to be from the point where all three states coexisted as independent states up until the downfall of the Shu-Han states. Mao Zonggang, a commentator on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, mentions in his commentary on Chapter 120 of the novel that, the Han royal house declined when the eunuchs abused the sovereign and officials subverted the government. In doing so, he suggests that the historiography of the Three Kingdoms should begin at the rise of the Ten Eunuchs to power. He further argues that the Romance of the Three Kingdoms defines the end of the era as 280, to end the tale before Hans enemy had itself met its fate would be to leave the reader unsatisfied. The novel could have ended with the fall of Wei, to end the tale before Hans ally had fallen would be to leave the reader with an incomplete picture. So the tale had to end with the fall of Wu, the power of the Eastern Han dynasty went into depression and steadily declined from a variety of political and economic problems after the death in 105 of Emperor He
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Shu Han
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Shu or Shu Han was one of the three major states that competed for supremacy over China in the Three Kingdoms period. The state was based in the area around present-day Sichuan and Chongqing, towards the end of the Eastern Han dynasty, Liu Bei, a warlord and distant relative of the Han imperial clan, rallied the support of many capable followers. Following the counsel of his advisor, Zhuge Liang, and Zhuges Longzhong Plan, Liu Bei took over Yi Province from the warlord Liu Zhang between 212 and 215 and wrestled control of Hanzhong from his rival Cao Cao in 219. From the territories he gained, Liu Bei established a position for himself in China during the years of the Han dynasty. However, in 219, the alliance between Liu Bei and his ally, Sun Quan, was broken when Sun sent his general Lü Meng to invade Jing Province, Liu Bei lost his territories in Jing Province to Sun Quan. Guan Yu, the general guarding Liu Beis assets in Jing Province, was captured and executed by Sun Quans forces. Cao Cao died in 220 and was succeeded by his son, Cao Pi, Cao Pi then established the state of Cao Wei and declared himself emperor. Liu Bei contested Cao Pis claim to the throne and proclaimed himself Emperor of Shu Han in 221. Although Liu Bei is widely seen as the founder of Shu, he never claimed to be the founder of a new dynasty, rather, Liu Bei ruled as emperor for less than three years. In 222, he launched a campaign against Sun Quan to retake Jing Province and avenge Guan Yu, however, due to grave tactical mistakes, Liu Bei suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Sun Quans general Lu Xun and lost the bulk of his army. He survived the battle and retreated to Baidicheng, where he died from illness a year later, Liu Beis son Liu Shan succeeded his father, making him the youngest of three rulers at only 16. Before his death, Liu Bei also appointed the chancellor Zhuge Liang, Zhuge Liang was the de facto head of the Shu government throughout Liu Shans reign and was responsible for masterminding most of Shus policies during his regency. When Liu Shan succeeded his father, Shu was the weakest of the three major powers, following his fathers defeat in 221, the portion of Jing Province previously held by Shu was now firmly under the control of Wu. This greatly limited Shu in terms of resources and manpower, Zhuge Liang advocated an aggressive foreign policy towards Wei, because he strongly believed it was critical to the survival of Shu and its sovereignty. Between the years of 228 and 234, he launched a series of five military campaigns against Wei, with the aim of conquering Changan, most of the battles were fought around present-day Gansu and Shaanxi provinces. However, aside from gaining Jiang Wei as an officer in 228, the Shu government was then headed by Jiang Wan, Fei Yi and others after Zhuge Liangs death, and Shu temporarily ceased its aggression towards Wei. The Wei regent Cao Shuang launched an invasion of Hanzhong in 244, despite being outnumbered 2-to-1, the Shu forces successfully defeated them at the Battle of Xingshi, with the humiliated Wei forces fleeing. Between 247 and 262, the Shu general Jiang Wei resumed Zhuge Liangs legacy by leading a series of campaigns against Wei
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Eastern Wu
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Wu, commonly known as Eastern Wu or Sun Wu, was one of the three major states that competed for supremacy over China in the Three Kingdoms period. It previously existed from 220–222 as a vassal kingdom nominally under Cao Wei, its rival state and it became an empire in 229 after its founding ruler, Sun Quan, declared himself Emperor. Its name was derived from the place it was based in — the Jiangnan region and it was called Eastern Wu because it occupied most of eastern China in the Three Kingdoms period, and Sun Wu because the family name of its rulers was Sun. During its existence, Wus capital was at Jianye, but at times it was also at Wuchang. Sun Ce broke off relations with Yuan Shu around 196-197 after the latter declared himself emperor — an act deemed as treason against Emperor Xian, the figurehead ruler of the Han dynasty. The warlord Cao Cao, who was the de facto head of government in the Han imperial court, Sun Ce was assassinated in the summer of 200 and was succeeded by his younger brother, Sun Quan. Sun Quan, like his brother, also paid nominal allegiance to Emperor Xian while maintaining autonomous rule over the Wu territories. In 208, Sun Quan allied with the warlord Liu Bei, Sun Quan and Liu Bei maintained their alliance against Cao Cao after the battle for the next ten years or so, despite having some territorial disputes over Jing Province. In 219, Sun Quan severed ties with Liu Bei when he sent his general Lü Meng to invade Lius territories in Jing Province, Guan Yu, who was defending Liu Beis assets in Jing Province, was captured and executed by Sun Quans forces. After that, the boundaries of Sun Quans domain extended from beyond the Jiangdong region to include the part of Jing Province. In 220, Cao Caos son and successor, Cao Pi, ended the Han dynasty by forcing Emperor Xian to abdicate in his favour, Sun Quan agreed to submit to Wei and was granted the title of a vassal king, King of Wu, by Cao Pi. A year later, Liu Bei declared himself emperor and founded the state of Shu Han, in 222, Liu Bei launched a military campaign against Sun Quan to take back Jing Province and avenge Guan Yu, leading to the Battle of Xiaoting. However, Liu Bei suffered a defeat at the hands of Sun Quans general Lu Xun and was forced to retreat to Baidicheng. Liu Beis successor, Liu Shan, and his regent, Zhuge Liang, made peace with Sun Quan later, Sun Quan declared independence from Wei in 222, but continued to rule as King of Wu until 229, when he declared himself Emperor of Wu. His legitimacy was recognised by Shu, Sun Quan ruled for over 30 years and his long reign resulted in stability in southern China. During his reign, Wu engaged Wei in numerous wars, including the battles of Ruxu, Shiting, however, Wu never managed to gain any territory north of the Yangtze River while Wei also never succeeded in conquering the lands south of the Yangtze. The conflict resulted in the emergence of two rivalling factions, each supporting either Sun He or Sun Ba, in Sun Quans imperial court. Sun Quan eventually deposed Sun He and forced Sun Ba to commit suicide, while Lu Xun, Sun Quan appointed his youngest son, Sun Liang, as the crown prince after the incident
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Sixteen Kingdoms
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The period ended with the unification of northern China by the Northern Wei in the early 5th century. Cui Hong did not count several other kingdoms that appeared at the time including the Ran Wei, Zhai Wei, nor did he include the Northern Wei and its predecessor Dai, because the Northern Wei eventually became the ruling dynasty of northern China. Among the handful of the states founded by Han Chinese, several founders had close relations with ethnic minorities, the father of Ran Min, the founder of the Ran Wei, was adopted into a Jie ruling family. Feng Ba, who is considered by historians to be the founder of the Northern Yan, had been assimilated into Xianbei culture. Gao Yun, considered by historians to be the Northern Yan founder, was an ethnic Korean who had been adopted by Xianbei nobility. Due to fierce competition among the states and internal political instability, from 376 to 383, the Former Qin briefly unified northern China, but its collapse led to even greater political fragmentation. The Sixteen Kingdoms is considered to be one of the most chaotic periods in Chinese history, from the late Han Dynasty to the early Jin dynasty, large numbers of non-Han Chinese peoples living along Chinas northern periphery settled in northern China. Some of these such as the Xiongnu and Xianbei had been pastoralist nomads from the northern steppes. Others such as the Di and Qiang were farmers and herders from the mountains of western Sichuan, as migrants, they lived among Han Chinese and were sinified to varying degrees. Some attained official positions in the court and military and they also faced discrimination and retained clan and tribal affiliations. The War of the Eight Princes during the reign of the second Jin ruler Emperor Hui severely divided and weakened imperial authority, hundreds of thousands were killed and millions were uprooted by the internecine fighting. Popular rebellions against heavy taxation and repression erupted throughout the country, in Sichuan, Li Xiong, a Di chieftain, led a successful rebellion and founded Cheng Han kingdom in 304. Thus began the creation of independent kingdoms in northern China as Jin authority crumbled, most of these kingdoms were founded by ethnic minority leaders who took on Chinese reign names. Jin princes and military governors often recruited ethnic minorities into their armies in their suppression of rebellions and his regime, later renamed Zhao, is designated by historians as the Han Zhao or Former Zhao. After Liu Yuan died in 310, his son Liu Cong killed older brother Liu He, Liu Cong captured the Jin capital Luoyang and Emperor Hui in 311. In 316, Liu Congs uncle Liu Yao seized Changan and the Emperor Min, Sima Rui, a Jin prince who had moved to the South, continued the dynasty as the Eastern Jin from Jiankang. The collapse of Jin authority in the North led other leaders to declare independence, in 313, Zhang Gui, the ethnic Han governor of Liangzhou founded the Former Liang in modern-day Gansu. In 315, Tuoba Yilu, a Xianbei chieftain, founded the Dai in modern-day Inner Mongolia, after Liu Congs death, the kingdom was split between Liu Yao and General Shi Le
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Sui dynasty
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The Sui Dynasty was a short-lived imperial dynasty of China of pivotal significance. It was succeeded by the Tang dynasty, which inherited its foundation. Founded by Emperor Wen of Sui, the Sui dynasty capital was Changan and they also spread and encouraged Buddhism throughout the empire. By the middle of the dynasty, the unified empire entered a golden age of prosperity with vast agricultural surplus that supported rapid population growth. A lasting legacy of the Sui dynasty was the Grand Canal, the dynasty, which lasted only thirty-seven years, was undermined by ambitious wars and construction projects, which overstretched its resources. Particularly, under Emperor Yang, heavy taxation and compulsory labor duties would eventually induce widespread revolts, the dynasty is often compared to the earlier Qin dynasty for unifying China after prolonged division. Wide-ranging reforms and construction projects were undertaken to consolidate the newly unified state, after crushing an army in the eastern provinces, Yang Jian usurped the throne to become Emperor Wen of Sui. In a bloody purge, he had fifty-nine princes of the Zhou royal family eliminated, Emperor Wen abolished the anti-Han policies of Zhou and reclaimed his Han surname of Yang. In his campaign for southern conquest, Emperor Wen assembled thousands of boats to confront the forces of the Chen dynasty on the Yangtze River. The largest of ships were very tall, having five layered decks. They were outfitted with six 50-foot-long booms that were used to swing and damage enemy ships, besides employing Xianbei and other Chinese ethnic groups for the fight against Chen, Emperor Wen also employed the service of people from southeastern Sichuan, which Sui had recently conquered. In 588, the Sui had amassed 518,000 troops along the bank of the Yangtze River. The Chen dynasty could not withstand such an assault, by 589, Sui troops entered Jiankang and the last emperor of Chen surrendered. Although Emperor Wen was famous for bankrupting the treasury with warfare and construction projects. He established granaries as sources of food and as a means to market prices from the taxation of crops. The large agricultural surplus supported rapid growth of population to historical peak, the state capital of Changan, while situated in a military-secured heartland of Guanzhong, was remote from the economic centers to the east and south of the empire. Emperor Wen initiated the construction of the Grand Canal, with completion of the first route that directly linked Changan to the Yellow River, Later Emperor Yang would enormously enlarge the scale of the Grand Canal construction. Externally, the emerging nomadic Turkic Khaganate in the north posed a threat to the newly founded dynasty
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Media related to Northern Wei Dynasty at Wikimedia Commons
