Chinese Dynasties
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Jin Dynasty
Si-ma Yan began the Jin Dynasty; he ruled from 265-289A.D. As an emperor, he was called Wu Di. The Jin managed to reunify China when, in 280 A.D., they conquered the Wu Kingdom, thus ending the period of The Three Kingdoms. Despite this success, they were not a...
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Three Kingdoms
The end of the Han Dynasty was followed by a long period of disunity and civil war. It began with the Three Kingdoms. These kingdoms grew out of the three chief economic areas of the Han Dynasty. The leaders of the kingdoms strove to reunite the empire and were...
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Han Dynasty
The Han Empire began in 206 B.C. when Liu Bang, prince of Han, defeated the Qin army in the valley of Wei. The defeat was part of a larger rebellion that began after the first Emperor’s death. The people were dissatisfied with the tyranny of the Qin leaders and...
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Qin Dynasty
The Qin came to power in 221 B.C. They were one of the western states that existed during the Warring States Period. They conquered the other Warring States, unifying China for the first time. Their leader named himself the First Emperor, or Shi huangdi, thus begin...
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Zhou Dynasty
The Zhou began as a semi-nomadic tribe that lived to the west of the Shang Kingdom. Due to their nomadic ways, they learned how to work with people of different cultures. After a time, they settled in the Wei River valley, where they became vassals of the Shang...
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Shang Dynasty
The Shang, rather than the Xia, is considered by most to be the first true dynasty of China. Like the Xia, the Shang were originally considered to be a myth. They were discovered because Chinese pharmacists were selling oracle bones the Shang had created; the pharm...
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Xia Dynasty
For many years, the Xia Dynasty was thought to be a part of a myth that the Chinese tell as part of their history. The Xia Dynasty was in oral histories, but no archaeological evidence was found of it until 1959. Excavations at Erlitou, in the city of Yanshi, uncov...
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Neolithic Period
The Neolithic Period began in China about 12,000 B.C. The Neolithic lasted until about 2,000 B.C. It is defined by a spread of settled agricultural communities, but hunting and gathering was still practiced. The largest concentration of agriculture was below the...