Chinese Dynasties – from Qin to Qing

In its history several lines of families (dynasties) ruled. At the beginning the land was divided by independent states that only occasionally deferred to the king. It was in 221 BC when The first unified Chinese state was established (Qin Dynasty). Then, an office of the Emperor was set up and the Chinese language was forcibly standardized. This state did not last long as the initiatives soon caused uprises and rebellion. The following Dynasty, the Han, created a lasting Han cultural identity among its populace that would last to the present day. The Han Dynasty expanded the empire's territory considerably with military campaigns reaching Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia and Central Asia, and also helped establish the Silk Road in Central Asia. The period following Han's collapse presented disunion and three kingdoms. Following dynasties reunified China with the Tang empire ruling until the 8th century. The Song dynasty was the first government in world history to issue paper money. Between the 10th and 11th centuries, the population of China doubled in size. This growth came about through expanded rice cultivation in central and southern China, and the production of abundant food surpluses. Within its borders, the Northern Song Dynasty had a population of some 100 million people.

It was a culturally rich period in for philosophy and arts. Landscape art and portrait painting were brought to new levels of maturity and complexity after the Tang Dynasty, and social elites gathered to view art, share their own, and make trades of precious artworks. Philosophers …reinvigorated Confucianism with new commentary, infused Buddhist ideals, and emphasized a new organization of classic texts that brought about the core doctrine of Neo-Confucianism.

In 1271, the Yuan Dynasty was established by a Mongol emperor that invaded China. Before the invasion, Chinese dynasties reportedly had approximately 120 million inhabitants; after it the 1300 census reported roughly 60 million people. A Chinese peasant managed to over through the Mongols and founded the Ming Dynasty. It continued to spread Neo-Confucianism and expand it with ideas such as individualism and innate morality. Japan and Korea are two countries that have adopted much of these philosophies.

The Qing Dynasty, which lasted until 1912, was the last dynasty in China. In the 19th century it took a defensive posture towards European imperialism, even though it engaged in imperialistic expansion into Central Asia. At this time China awoke to the significance of the rest of the world, the West in particular. As China opened up to foreign trade and missionary activity, opium produced by British India was forced onto Qing China. Two Opium Wars with Britain weakened the Emperor's control