Chinese dynasties
Ming, Qing, Han
Chinese dynasties are the successive ruling families that governed China from ancient times through 1912.
The major dynasties—Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, Tang, Song, Ming, Qing—each lasted generations or centuries, rising and falling in a pattern the Chinese called the dynastic cycle.
Historical periods are typically named for their dynasty: Tang poetry, Ming porcelain, Qing empire.
- HanChina's largest ethnicity
- MingChinese imperial era, 1368–1644
- Mandate of HeavenHeaven-granted authority to rule
- emperorMale ruler of empire
- ZhouAncient Chinese dynasty
calligraphy · porcelain · civil service exams · historiography · peasant uprisings · civil war · Shang · centralization · naval expeditions · printing press · Tang · silk · Silk Road · Terracotta Army · historical records · warlord · Confucianism · concubine
Chinese dynastiesrepublics
States with elected governance
democracies · Republic of China · People's Republic of China · parliamentary systems · theocracies
Chinese dynastiesWarring States period
Era of Chinese disunity
interregnum · civil wars · Mongol invasions · Japanese occupation · power vacuums
Chinese dynastiesbarbarian kingdoms
Post-imperial Germanic polities
Roman Empire · colonial powers · Mughal Empire · Ottoman Empire