Historical Figures

The three Bronze Age dynasties of the traditional sequence. Writing, bronze casting and the idea of a single ruler over "all under Heaven" all begin here — though the earliest layers are known as much from later texts as from what archaeology has uncovered.

Qin's conquests in 221 BC created a single empire for the first time; Han then held it together for four centuries and gave the Chinese their own name for themselves. The Silk Road opened, Confucianism became state doctrine, and the template of imperial rule was set.

Sui reunified the country and dug the Grand Canal; Tang turned that unity into a cosmopolitan empire whose capital at Chang'an was the largest city on earth. When Tang fell in 907, five short dynasties and ten regional kingdoms divided the country for half a century.

The Song never ruled all of China. Liao, Western Xia and the Jurchen Jin held the north and north-west, and the Song paid tribute to buy peace. Inside its borders, though, came printing, paper money, a merchant navy and mass civil-service examinations.