Chinese Dynasties

Chinese Dynasties

Chinese history contains periods of growth and prosperity separated by violent revolution and ongoing warfare. Each dynasty has left its mark on the country and defines not just a particular time or a family of rulers, but a cultural period which affected all of Chinese life from art and philosophy to agriculture and the development of the feudal system.

Even today, Chinese refer to historical events not by their date but by the dynasty in which they took place.

Xia 2000 - 1700 BC

The Xia dynasty had long been part of oral legend in China, but it wasn’t until excavations at Anyang in Henan province in 1928, and in particular at Erlitou in the 1960’s, that archeological evidence from the period began to emerge. Artifacts uncovered include clay pots covered with thick, swirling patterns, but also intricate jade pendants decorated with snake or dragon-like carvings and polished with sand.

Although some urban sites have been excavated, the Xia dynasty was essentially agrarian and pre-literary. Because there are no textual records, there is still some debate about whether Xia can be regarded as a dynasty or as a bridge between China’s neolithic cultures and the beginning of the Shang dynasty.

Shang 1700 - 1027 BC

Shang is regarded by many as China’s first real dynastic period. A more complex society than the various neolithic cultures from which it emerged, Shang society included domestic horses, a clear class structure and a ruler who derived his authority from his role as high priest of the god Di, conducting rituals that frequently included human sacrifices. In fact, it’s the Shang king’s communications with Di that provided the first clues to the dynasty’s existence. At the end of the 19^th century, ‘dragon bones’ sold by Chinese pharmacists were recognized as tortoise-shells engraved with the earliest known Chinese characters. The bones would have been heated during ceremonies and the king would divine the future according to the pattern the cracks formed through the inscriptions.

The Shang dynasty is perhaps best known for the quality of its bronze ritual vessels. Huge numbers of these vessels have been recovered, carefully shaped and decorated, and in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. In particular, the Shang dynasty marks the first appearance of the taotie, a stylized animal mask which appears as a decoration throughout the period. The taotie is often depicted with horns and fangs, although its appearance can vary considerably. Some have likened the face to that of a dragon or a tiger, and its staring eyes often appear on sacrificial vessels.

Although the Shang kingdom was relatively small and limited to little more than the eastern basin of the Yellow River, it is believed to have had at least five capitals, thirty kings and been able to amass armies of between 3,000 and 5,000 men.

Zhou 1027 - 221 BC

The Shang period was not entirely peaceful and there were frequent battles with the Qiang, a group living to the west. Between the Qiang and the Shang however lay the Zhou who, around 1027 BC, rose against the Shang and seized the kingdom.

Zhou documents provide the first contemporary record of a Chinese dynasty. Not surprisingly, they portray the conquest of the Shang as a victory of just warriors against a despotic king. Early Zhou leaders too are shown as the model of ideal rule with an authority that derived from the ‘mandate of heaven.’ As long as the ruler, the ‘Son of Heaven,’ was just and fulfilled his sacred duties, the mandate would be maintained; tyranny however would result in the mandate being withdrawn and the ruler overthrown. It was during the Zhou dynasty that Chinese ideas of morality and just rule were first written. This was the period of Confucius and his follower Mencius, the rise of Daoism and the concept of harmony expressed in the balance of yin and yang.

Artistically, bronze vessels continued to be made but the taotie was replaced by bird-like imagery, and long inscriptions filled the space previously taken by geometric patterns.

The Zhou dynasty was China’s longest but is usually divided into two periods: the Western Zhou (1027 - 771 BC), and the Eastern Zhou (770 - 221 BC), when the most powerful regional lords battled for supremacy.

Qin 221-207 BC

Zhou rulers had made it a policy to decentralize power, creating a network of powerful lords who first overthrew the Zhou ruler and then competed for the throne. The winner was Qinshi Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, and the first emperor of China. Although his was one of the shortest dynasties in Chinese history, it was also one of the most influential, lending its name to the united country, leaving the Great Wall snaking across the northern border and tombs filled with terracotta soldiers.

Han 206 BC - 220 AD

The death of the Yellow Emperor brought an almost immediate end to the Qin dynasty. Nobles began once again to fight for the throne with the eventual winner a former director of a postal relay station named Liu Bang. Confucian scholars were brought back to the court and the empire was expanded reaching Vietnam and, more importantly, securing the Silk Road. In 9 AD, the Han emperor was briefly overthrown, but a peasant rebellion led by a group called the Red Eyebrows soon restored the dynasty.

Han art and literature is filled with mythic motifs and tales of the supernatural. The Huainanzi, for example, is a Daoist text that describes the mountain gods, some of whom, it said, had human faces and dragon’s bodies. There was a fascination too with the afterlife and in particular the realm of the Queen Mother of the West. Rivers of immortality were believed to flow through the kingdom she shared with a three-footed crow, a nine-tailed fox and a dancing toad.

The Three Kingdoms 220-589 AD

The collapse of the Han dynasty in a rebellion led by the Yellow Turbans brought a period of civil war and disunity. China was divided into three kingdoms, Wei, Shu and Wu, each vying to unite the kingdom. The intrigues and strategies employed by each of the states is graphically described in the Three Kingdoms, one of China’s classic novels.

But as the country lay divided and at war, traders from India brought with them not just goods and merchandise, but also the various strands of Buddhism then growing on the Indian sub-continent. By 477 AD, north China already had almost 6,500 Buddhist temples and over 77,000 monks and nuns; south China could boast over 2,800 temples and 82,000 clerics.

With Buddhism of course, came Buddhist art. In Dunhuang, work began on “The Caves of the Thousand Buddhas” where hundreds of caves were decorated with exquisite paintings of Buddhist images and celestial beings. In Yungang, over 51,000 Buddha images were carved into the surface of the cliff, including one statue over 45 feet tall.

Tang 618 - 907 AD

The chaotic Three Kingdoms period and the anarchy that followed were brought to an end by the Buddhist general Sui Wen-ti. He conquered the south and united the country, but his son’s attempt to conquer Korea led to his assassination, a new power struggle, and the rise of Li Yuan, the first Tang Emperor.

The Tang dynasty is regarded as the highest point of Chinese civilization. The country was at its largest and wealthiest. Its new-found confidence was reflected particularly in its art and literature. Porcelain became more refined and funerary statues acquired an unprecedented grace and charm. Poetry reached its peak and poems written during the period are still quoted by Chinese today. Many of the poems would have been recited in teahouses, a new place of entertainment that made use of the tea that was beginning to be grown in the south.

As the empire grew however, so did the power of the generals. The end of the Tang dynasty was marked by internal rebellions and eventually, invasion by the northern tribes.

Song 907 – 1276 AD

After a period of upheaval, when one ruler after another was quickly overthrown, Chao K’uang-Yin, a former general was named emperor by his troops. Concentrating on a strategy of uniting the south while paying tribute to the tribes in the north, the Song rulers created a new period of prosperity. This was the dynasty in which gunpowder was first used in warfare and neo-Confucianism brought the veteran social philosophy back to the court.

Most importantly, this was also the golden age of Chinese painting. An art form that had previously been limited largely to Buddhist subjects divided into two schools: a decorative style that concentrated on realism and detail; and a more expressionist style that saw painting as a reflection of the artist’s inner feelings. Poetry began to discuss everyday life, and towards the end of the Song dynasty, blue-and-white porcelain made its first appearance.

Militarily however, the Song empire remained weak, preferring diplomacy to warfare. In 1125, the empire was overrun by the Jin, forcing the emperor to flee south. In 1275, China fell to the Mongols.

Yuan 1279 - 1368 AD

The Yuan dynasty was China’s first experience of foreign rule. It wouldn’t be the last. Genghis Khan led his forces through China on his way to Asia and Europe, leaving his grandson, Kublai Khan, to rule as the first emperor of the Yuan dynasty.

The Mongols brought China a very different culture. They excluded Chinese from government and placed restrictions on trade. Intellectuals who would previously have been called to the court or made officials turned to the arts and in particular to Chinese opera which flourished even under Mongol censorship. But while drama developed, China regressed. State revenues shrunk, canal building sucked up money and the country grew poorer. This was the China that Marco Polo found when he arrived on the Silk Road.

Ming 1368 – 1644 AD

Impoverished by high taxation, limited trade and ambitious engineering project, the Yuan dynasty was overthrown in 1368 in a peasant revolt. The new Hongwu Emperor rebuilt the Great Wall it to guard against a second Mongol invasion and, despite the state’s Confucian leanings, Hongwu maintained a strong military. This was also a period of naval exploration, at least for a while. Chinese ships reached Africa and maritime Asian nations arrived with tribute. These foreign contacts however, were shortlived and China retreated into itself, convinced that it needed nothing from the outside world.

Helped by the expansion of wood-block printing, the Ming dynasty was also the age of the Chinese novel. Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Golden Lotus and Journey to the West, the story of the Monkey King’s attempt to bring Buddhism to China, were all written in this period and are still read today.

Qing 1644 – 1911 AD

A series of weak and young rulers coincided with the growing power of the Manchus in the north. After attacking the Chinese cities in Manchuria, the Manchus eventually invaded the country, establishing, in 1644, the second foreign dynasty to rule China.

Unlike the Mongols however, the Manchu adopted Chinese dress and customs. Neo-Confucianism was made the official doctrine, demanding loyalty to the emperor, but Chinese culture was preserved and Chinese were excluded only from the very senior court positions. The delicate balance between occupier and occupied was disturbed not from within but from without. Contacts with European governments and the relative ease of foreign travel exposed China to new influences and led intellectuals to wonder about the state of the country and its place in the world. They saw part of the problem as the imperial system itself. In 1911, the last emperor was overthrown and China’s dynastic period was brought to an end.