History of china| How was China founded?|Read in any language|

 History of china

Chinese people often say that their country has a history of more than 5,000 years.

People may hold different opinions on the exact length of history.

But the earliest dynasty found by archaeology was the Shang Dynasty.

Bronze, jade and pottery unearthed,

It can be traced back to 1600 BC, and it has a history of more than 3,600 years.

Archaeologists also found oracle bones with hieroglyphs,

Oracle is considered to be the earliest script in China.

After the fall of the Shang Dynasty, the Zhou Dynasty appeared.

The Zhou Dynasty established a royal rule composed of a network of enfeoffment systems,

The territorial kingdoms are ruled by princes and kings.

The early Zhou Dynasty was relatively peaceful,

But after 476BC, seven powerful vassals appeared,

There are frequent wars between them.

Many important thinkers in ancient China also appeared during this period,

Including Confucius and Mencius.

After hundreds of years of war, Qin and Chu came to the fore,

In the end, Qin defeated Chu and established China's first feudal dynasty, Qin Dynasty.

The Qin Dynasty was ruled by the first emperor of China, Qin Shihuang.

He strengthened the power of centralization, established a legal system,

Weights and measures have been unified across the country, as well as Chinese characters.

They are not the same as the Chinese characters we know now, but they are related.

Qin Shihuang imposed heavy taxes on the people and carried out many projects, including the construction of the Great Wall.

He also ordered the burning of a large number of books that he was dissatisfied with.

The history of the Qin Dynasty is very short. Qin Shihuang died in 210 BC.

He was buried in a large mausoleum in Xi'an.

As everyone knows, Qin Shihuang has 6000 terracotta warriors,

There are also a large number of treasures as funerals to accompany him through later lives.

At the end of the Qin Dynasty, Liu Bang rebelled against the rule of the Qin Dynasty and established the Han Dynasty.

The Han Dynasty established a bureaucratic system based on performance and military merit.

During this period, the country also adopted Confucianism for the first time.

The classic works of Confucius have been revised and used to guide state rule.

In the middle of the Han Dynasty, there was a brief chaos when Wang Mang usurped the throne.

The Eastern Han Dynasty retains a lot of historical materials, we can learn about Yuefu,

Sacrifices, court ceremonies, and information on new agricultural techniques.

The Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire were basically in the same period.

Both book scriptures and novel literary forms emerged in the Han Dynasty,

In addition, the invention of paper, the development of new farm tools and carts,

New methods of smelting metals and the advent of new herbs.

The political and cultural system of the Han Dynasty was very successful and became a model for later generations to follow.

After the collapse of the Han Dynasty, China's historical wars continued and were very complicated.

Many changes have also taken place in the country’s rule and borders.

The northern power was transferred to the hands of the prime minister, Cao Cao, and his son succeeded to the throne in 220 AD.

Wei State fought a power battle with Shu State and Wu State.

The war between these three countries is now full of legends in Chinese history.

Wei Guo eventually defeated other countries, but he quickly perished.

In 256 AD, the Western Jin Dynasty was established.

After a short period of peace, not long after the Huns invaded.

Northern China is occupied by different ethnic minorities,

It is also known as the "Sixteen Nations".

The Northern Wei Dynasty was the kingdom that occupied the largest area and lasted the longest.

In 317 AD, the Eastern Jin Dynasty was established by the imperial family of the Jin Dynasty,

But to a large extent it is dominated by landowners.

The area south of the Yangtze River was also very chaotic in the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

That period is often called the Six Dynasties and lasted until 589 AD.

During this period, many religions became popular,

Including Taoism, it is considered to be a system of belief in gods.

During this period, Buddhism also spread widely in China.

It originated in India, but was adopted by many barbarian kingdoms in northern China.

After more than four hundred years of war, China was once again unified in 581 AD under the rule of the Sui Dynasty.

They established a series of state institutions, which were adopted by later dynasties.

The Sui Dynasty also planned to build a grand canal across the country.

However, the peasants' uprisings continued in the end of the Sui Dynasty.

Soon after the Sui Dynasty fell, Li Yuan, the emperor of Tang Dynasty, established the Tang Dynasty.

In order to consolidate the rule of the Tang Dynasty,

Many remnants of the Sui dynasty and insurgents need to be eliminated.

The rule of the Tang Dynasty has gone through three centuries,

It is regarded as the golden age in Chinese history.

The Tang Dynasty had a strong bureaucratic system and implemented an imperial examination system.

Chang'an, now Xi'an, was established as the capital.

Through a large number of wars with barbarian tribes, the territory of the Tang Dynasty continued to grow.

The Silk Road was expanded.

All rural land is managed by the state,

But it can be leased to the people in accordance with the "land equalization system".

The Tang Dynasty was a period of golden development of painting, poetry, pottery, and Buddhism.

The country has also incorporated many foreign cultural elements.

In the Tang Dynasty, an outstanding female ruler usurped power,

She is Empress Wu Zetian.

In the middle of the Tang Dynasty, An Lushan Uprising appeared,

It severely shaken the centralization of the country.

At the border of the Tang Dynasty, other barbarian tribes appeared,

That is, Xixia, Khitan, and Privet, they also established their own dynasties.

In 960, there was another coup d'etat. Song Taizu established the Northern Song Dynasty and his capital was Kaifeng.

He successfully introduced many powerful generals to the country and granted them military positions.

The country has once again achieved great unity,

Established a strong government official system,

And the country has renewed its emphasis on Confucianism.

Confucius’ classic works have been re-interpreted by scholar Zhu Xi,

Thus was born Song Ming Confucianism.

In the end, the Privet tribe attacked Song and surrounded its capital, and the Northern Song Dynasty perished.

The invasion did not affect southern China, and the Southern Song Dynasty was established, and Hangzhou was established as the capital.

Many scholar-officials appeared during this period, and excellent works of poetry and painting emerged.

The economy of the Southern Song Dynasty was prosperous, and overseas trade was also expanded.

They established China's first navy and enhanced firearms.

Song successfully contained the power of the privet clan,

But they could not resist Mongolian aggression.

The Mongols defeated the Jin Dynasty and established the Yuan Dynasty in 1271.

Kublai Khan, also known as the "Great Khan", was also regarded as the emperor by the Chinese.

Historical records record that his grandfather Genghis Khan was the founder of the Yuan Dynasty.

The capital of Kublai Khan is the capital, which is now Beijing.

He improved agricultural technology and expanded the Grand Canal from north to south,

Extending trade along the Silk Road and promoting the use of paper money,

And attracted a large number of missionaries and travellers including Marco Polo,

Thus strengthened the connection with the West, and consolidated the country's rule on the basis of the provincial system.

The imperial court also blended Mongolian and Chinese culture,

And Buddhism, Taoism, and Western religions flourished.

The confrontation in the court and the conflict with Chinese Han culture also weakened the power of the country.

After a series of natural disasters and uprisings,

A dynasty established by the Han nationality came into being in 1368, this is the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty experienced a long period of stable rule of the country.

The emperor who founded the Ming Dynasty is also known as the Hongwu Emperor (Zhu Yuanzhang).

The Ming Dynasty accepted court orders from Southeast Asia and beyond.

One of the most famous emperors of the Ming Dynasty was Emperor Yongle.

He moved his capital to Beijing and made Nanjing his companion capital,

He also ordered the construction of the Imperial Palace Forbidden City in Beijing,

And built a royal tomb on the outskirts of Beijing.

He appointed his most trusted eunuch Zheng He as the commander of the fleet,

Carrying out voyages and completing diplomatic missions, his travels as far as the Middle East and Africa.

The Ming Dynasty also created a special trading agency responsible for international trade.

The rapid development of foreign economic activities has caused a large amount of silver to flood into China.

During this period, the Great Wall was expanded,

Many great Chinese classic novels have also been created.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, crop failures, floods, and large-scale epidemics occurred.

Li Zicheng, the leader of the peasant uprising, launched an invasion from Manchuria in northeastern China and eventually occupied Beijing.

The Qing Dynasty ruled China in 1644.

China began to be ruled by a foreign race again, that is, the Manchus, who are descendants of the privet race.

After that, Emperor Kangxi imitated the bureaucracy of the previous dynasty,

And followed the imperial examination, and inherited Confucianism.

He has expanded the area of ​​the country and strengthened the country's strength and self-confidence.

After that, the Qing Dynasty was ruled by two powerful monarchs,

They are Emperor Yongzheng and Emperor Qianlong.

They continued to take a series of military actions to expand the country's territory.

At the same time, in the 18th century, European powers established powerful maritime empires through international trade.

Especially the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

People know that Emperor Qianlong once told a British trade envoy,

His Qing empire did not need European goods.

Britain imported silk, tea, and pottery from China,

It also exports opium to China, most of which comes from India.

The Qing Dynasty banned opium in 1838, and Minister Lin Zexu dumped large quantities of opium into the sea.

So the British launched the Opium War, because the Chinese army was too weak to resist.

China was forced to open five ports for international trade and ceded Hong Kong to Britain.

In 1851, Hong Xiuquan led an uprising against the Qing Dynasty,

He was considered the contemporary Chinese Jesus Christ, and was finally suppressed by the Qing government.

The Second Opium War broke out in 1858.

The British and French forces invaded Beijing and ransacked the Summer Palace.

The Qing Dynasty tried to reform through the Westernization Movement.

In 1897 and 1898, Western countries occupied more of China’s territory,

Britain has also expanded its sphere of influence in Hong Kong.

The Boxer Rebellion launched an uprising against the division of Chinese territory by Western powers and the rise of Christian forces.

They fought against the Eight-Power Allied Forces in the West,

Destroyed European property and surrounded foreign embassies in Beijing.

Western powers sent troops to China one after another, and Empress Dowager Cixi and the emperor fled.

This series of events plunged China into a crisis.

At this time, a series of reform attempts appeared,

The revolutionary Sun Yat-sen tried to find a way to rejuvenate China,

After the Wuchang Uprising and the Chinese National Revolution,

Sun Yat-sen established the Provisional Government of the Republic of China,

Then Yuan Shikai became president,

But due to the lack of effective government management of the country,

The idea of ​​establishing a parliament under the constitution failed.

China has fallen into a separatist regime of warlords.

In the warlord's melee, the Kuomintang tried its best to maintain its rule.

The Communist Party was established in 1920.

In 1925, Chiang Kai-shek became the leader of the Kuomintang and ruled the country in name.

In 1931, Japan occupied Northeast China.

In 1936, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party reached an agreement to unite against Japan.

Japan invaded China in 1937 and launched a barbaric invasion of China.

War crimes such as mass killing of people and adultery of women were committed.

So you may have heard of the famous Nanjing Massacre.

In 1940 and 1941, cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party began to break down.

The two sides launched an all-round civil war to seize control of the country.

The Second World War ended in 1945,

The Communist Party seized power and established the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949.

The Kuomintang led their troops to retreat to Taiwan, the treasure island.

Beginning in 1949, the Communist Party began a one-party dictatorship over China.

Mao Zedong tried to build China into a socialist country,

And use Marxism-Leninism as the guiding ideology.

He implemented land reform, and during the Great Leap Forward,

It adopted rural collectivization and called for an industrialization movement.

Unfortunately, in the process of industrialization, a large number of agricultural laborers were transferred.

Caused severe food shortages and famine.

According to estimates by historians, these policies have caused at least 40 million deaths.

During the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976,

Mao Zedong’s regime purged a large number of dissidents,

And the Red Guards who supported him caused large-scale turmoil and robbery throughout the country.

These riots completely broke the normal life of the country and people.

Although there have been serious criticisms of Mao Zedong’s policies in history,

But some people say that his rule has narrowed the gap between the rich and the poor and made the people more equal.

Chairman Mao also turned China into an industrial country and developed infrastructure construction.

After Mao Zedong's death, there was a brief power struggle in the country.

Deng Xiaoping led China's reform and opening up,

The development of foreign economic and trade has promoted the take-off of China's economy.

The leaders after him are Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, and Xi Jinping.

Xi Jinping is now the leader of the country.

The Chinese believe that history is a cyclical process,

There are the ups and downs of the past dynasties.

As the opening white of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms goes:

"The general trend of the world, divided for a long time must be united, and united for a long time must be divided."

Since the establishment of the Communist People’s Republic,

Always emphasize the continuity of history,

That is, history is based on the past,

There is a connection with the past, not the beginning of a new history.

Does this mean that China's history is no longer a cyclical process?

Of course, the official history is written by the victor.

I can only cover these things in this basic introduction,

So I hope to give you a good overview.

I won’t comment much, I will leave the interpretation space to you!