History of China

China is the world's oldest continuous civilization, with written records dating back at least 3,500 years. Turtle shells with ancient Chinese writing reminiscent of those of the Shang dynasty have been found and dated to almost 9000 years old. This suggests that the origins of the Chinese civilization, starting first with city-states may be older than 10,000 years. Although 5,000 years being commonly used by Chinese as the age of their civilization when China became a large kingdom or Empire. Successive dynasties developed systems of bureaucratic control, which gave the agrarian-based Chinese an advantage over neighboring nomadic and mountain-dwelling cultures. The forced imposition of a common system of writing by the Qin emperor (200 BC) and the development of a state ideology based on Confucianism (100 BC) strengthened the Chinese civilization. Politically, China alternated between periods of political union and disunion, and was occasionally conquered by external ethnicities, of which many were eventually assimilated into the Chinese identity. These cultural and political influences from many parts of Asia as well as successive waves of immigration and emigration merged to create the familiar image of Chinese culture and people today.

Mongols and the Yuan Dynasty

(元朝) The Jin Dynasty was defeated by the Mongols, who then proceeded to defeat the Southern Song in a long and bloody war — the first war ever in which firearms played an important role. Some estimate that about half of the population, i.e. 50 million Han Chinese people may have perished in total as a result of the Mongol's invasion and conquest. During the era after the war, called the Pax Mongolica, adventurous Westerners, like Marco Polo, travelled all the way to China and brought the first reports of its wonders to their unbelieving compatriots. In China, the Mongols were divided between those who wanted to remain focused on the steppes and those who wanted to adopt the customs of those they conquered.

Related Topics:
Mongol - Pax Mongolica - Marco Polo

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Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, wanting to adopt Han Chinese customs, established the Yuan Dynasty. This was the first dynasty to rule the whole of China with Beijing as the capital. Beijing had been ceded to Liao in AD 938 with the 16 Prefectures of Yan Yun (燕雲十六州); before that, it had been the capital of the Jin, who did not rule all of China.

Related Topics:
Kublai Khan - Genghis Khan - Han Chinese - Yuan Dynasty - Beijing - 938 - 16 Prefectures of Yan Yun

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