Chinese Dynasties and their Time Period

The below information gives the Chinese dynasties and their time period

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ancient Times

Xia Dynasty (夏朝) – [2100 BC – 1600 BC]

Shang Dynasty (商朝) – [1600 BC – 1066 BC]

Zhou Dynasty (周朝)
|-->Western Zhou (西周)–[1066 BC – 771 BC]
|-->Eastern Zhou (东周) – [770 BC – 256 BC]
1.Period of Spring and Autumn (春秋时代)– [722 BC – 481 BC]
2.Warring States Period (战国时代) * – [403 BC – 221 BC]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Imperial Period

Qin Dynasty (秦朝) – [221 BC – 206 BC]

Han Dynasty (汉朝)
|-->Western Han (西汉) ** - [206 BC – 23 AD]
|-->Eastern Han (东汉) – [25 AD – 220 AD]

3 kingdoms Period (三国时代)
|-->Wei (魏) - [220 AD – 265 AD]
|--> Shu (蜀) – [221 AD – 263 AD]
|--> Wu (吴) – [222 AD – 280 AD]

Western Jin Dynasty (西晋) - [265 AD – 316 AD]

Eastern Jin Dynasty and 16 Kingdoms (东晋十六国)
|-->Eastern Jin (东晋)– [317 AD – 420 AD]
|-->16 Kingdoms (十六国) *** – [304 AD – 439 AD]

Northern and Southern Dynasties (南北朝)
|-->Southern Dynasty (南朝)
1. Song (宋) – [420 AD – 479 AD]
2. Qi (齐) – [479 AD – 502 AD]
3. Liang (梁)– [502 AD – 557 AD]
4. Chen (陈)– [557 AD – 589 AD]
|->Northern Dynasty (北朝)
1.Northern Wei (北魏)– [386 AD – 534 AD]
2a. Eastern Wei (东魏) – [534 AD – 550 AD]
2b. Northern Qi (北齐) – [550 AD – 577 AD]
3a. Western Wei (西魏) – [535 AD – 557 AD]
3b. Northern Zhou (北周) – [557 AD – 581 AD]

Sui Dynasty (隋朝) – [581 AD -618 AD]

Tang Dynasty (唐朝) – [618 AD – 907 AD]

5 Dynasties and 10 Kingdoms (五代十国)
|-->Late Liang (后梁) – [907 AD – 923 AD]
|-->Late Tang (后唐) – [923 AD – 936 AD]
|-->Late Jin (后晋) – [936 AD – 946 AD]
|-->Late Han (后汉) – [947 AD – 950 AD]
|-->Late Zhou (后周) – [951 AD – 960 AD]
|-->10 Kingdoms (十国) ****– [902 AD – 979 AD]

Song Dynasty (宋朝)
|-->Northern Song (北宋) – [960 AD – 1127 AD]
|-->Southern Song (南宋) – [1127 AD – 1279 AD]

Liao Dynasty (辽朝) - [907 AD – 1125 AD]

Western Xia Dynasty (西夏) - [1032 AD – 1227 AD]

Jin Dynasty (金朝) – [1115 AD – 1234 AD]

Yuan Dynasty (元朝) – [1279 AD – 1368 AD]

Ming Dynasty (明朝) – [1368 AD – 1644 AD]

Qing Dynasty (清朝) – [1644 AD – 1911 AD]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Modern Age

Republic of China (中华民国) ***** - [1912 AD – 1949 AD]

People’s Republic of China (中华人民共和国)– [1949 AD – today]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Notes

*- The Warring States Period consists of mainly 7 states:
Qin (秦)
Wei (魏)
Han (韩)
Zhao (赵)
Chu (楚)
Yan (燕)
Qi (齐)


** - The Western Han dynasty include a Xin dynasty (新朝) [9 AD – 23 AD] founded by Wang Mang. During Wang Mang’s period, peasant revolts occurred and a peasant regime was established. In 23 AD, Xin dynasty collapsed and in 25 AD, Eastern Han Dynasty was established.


***- During this period, except for eastern Jin, there existed a few feudal states.

These feudal states include:

Han (汉) or Early Zhao (前赵)
Cheng (成) or Cheng Han(成汉)
Early Liang (前凉)
Late Zhao (后赵) or Wei (魏)
Early Yan (前燕)
Early Qin (前秦)
Late Yan (后燕)
Late Qin (后秦)
Western Qin (西秦)
Late Liang (后凉)
Southern Liang (南凉)
Northern Liang (北凉)
Southern Yan (南燕)
Western Liang (西凉)
Northern Yan (北燕)
Xia (夏)

Historically, this were known as the “16 kingdoms”


****- During this period, except for Late Liang, Late Tang, Late Jin, Late Han and Late Zhou dynasties, there existed other feudal states.

These feudal states include:
Wu (吴)
Early Shu (前蜀)
Wu Yue (吴越)
Chu (楚)
Min (闽)
Southern Han (南汉)
Jing Nan(荆南) or Nan Ping (南平)
Late Shu (后蜀)
Southern Tang (南唐)
Northern Han (北汉)

Historically, these were known as the “10 kingdoms”



***** - Although Republic of China ceased to rule China from 1949 AD onwards, the nationalists regime in Taiwan still held the regime name of “Republic of China”.

Nice chart .. GZ..well-done! :D

What were the states during Chunqiu?

There were hundreds of small states before Chunqiu (Spring and Autumn) during the Zhou dynasty. I can't possibly name all of them there. They include Jin, Qi, Chu, Qin, Lu, Yan, Yue, Wu etc.

What happened was that during the Zhou dynasty, the Tianzi (the Zhou king) granted his relatives (princes) fiefdom to rule a certain territory with a small army. But when it comes to Chunqiu period (6th century BC), the Zhou kingdom lost the power to be the overlord for all these states. These states fought among themselves to vive for dominance..eventually 100 of states were reduced to 15 states towards end of Chunqiu through annexation and conquest. By warring states period, only 7 were left. By 221 BC, Qin conquered every state and unified China into the 1st empire.

Chun Qiu Zhan Guo (Spring and Autumn and the Warring States Era) are one of the most vibrant and violent periods of Chinese history. Almost all the famed philosophers and battle scholars came from that period. If you want to read a romance on it, I recommend Dong Zhou Lie Guo Zhi by Feng Meng Long. I am planning a translation project, in fact, but I just need more time...sorry guys...

I really have to say thank you to the creator of this website. :lol: I, being an Estonian and having nearly zero real information on Chinese history am really grateful for this page.

I will surely read and learn alot from here as a young history lover. Again thank you!!!!!!!!! ;)

Hi Kaleviopeg, welcome :lol: I'm Kutlug Kagan in AE btw B)

Well i am Kalevipoeg in AE!!!!!!!!! :)

Good luck in your doings and... Jõudu tööle! :lol:

Excellent chart! I specially like the fact that the Chinese names of the Dynasties are on display!

Well done and thank you...!

Great job GZ, but just a minor error that I noticed

The Warring States era is supposed to be "战国" and not "战过" as you have it

There are hundreds of them, too many to list all. But some of the major ones are

1. Jin: one of the most powerful states of Chun Qiu, this state would later divide into Zhao, Wei, and Han in the 5th century, so three of the powerful states in the warring states period come from this one. Jin is one of the most important states during Chun Qiu, it dominated the central plains for a long time.

2. Chu: the powerhouse of warring state has always been powerful, even during Chun Qiu it was still the largest and resourceful state, it fought the Jin for supremacy many times, and these two states are the two superpowers of late Chun Qiu.

3. Wu: this state is east of Chu, it started to rised when Jin gave support and training to it to counter Chu, it eventually grew so strong that it occupied Chu's capital, it defeatd Yue and forced it to become vassal.

4. Yue: this state rose as a result of Chu's support to counter Wu, also in the south east, it was defeated by Wu and forced to become tribute, but king Gou jian eventually regrouped his army and annihilated Wu and ended Wu's power, becoming a stong state. It extended into the Warring states period until destroyed by Chu in 333 b.c.

5. Qin: Qin isn't a great power compared to the other big ones, but it had a terrain advatage, and at this time, its already ambitious and attacked the central plains but was disastrously defeated by the Jin.

6. Qi: The powerful state of Qi is also already a great power. Its descended from Jiang Zi Ya, who is the primier of Zhou, Qi is especially given the right by the Zhou dynasty to sugjugate any kingdom that disobeys Qi, thus this gives Qi great prestige. during the early days of Chun Qiu, Qi Huan Gong managed to be the first person to dominate the central plain and Qi was the strongest state. But it later declined but was nevertheless strong and would regain strength under Qi Wei Wang in the warring states.

Other small states include, Cai, Song, Han,... The only state I want to mention is the Song state, its descended from the Shang dynasty kings, and after Qi Huan Gong, Song tried to revive the old Shang house and dominate the central plains, it gathered different states into meetings and alliances, but Song is too small of a state and it was eventually defeated and all hope of dominance ended, Song lasted into the warring states period until conquered by Qi.

Exelllent

Unfortunately Xia Dynasty (夏朝) never admitted by western scholars, according to them, Xia was a Dynasty in Chinese myth and rumer.

Western Han ended Jan. 10 9 AD, and then Wang Mang rose to the throne Jan 15th 9 AD. I don't think the Xin is too small of a dynasty to put in.

There is growing archaeological evidences about the Xia dynasty. Western scholars should be more up to date...

It's always the definition of when chinese history and civilization began. Western scholars tend to base the beginning of a civilization on archaeological proof. Chinese scholars tend to base more on ancient classics records, which did depict the first state/dynasty ever to exist in China is Xia (the beginning of chinese civilization). Perhaps, future achaeology discovery can unveal even more about the mystery of chinese history, for instance "terrocotta" tomb was not even recorded in "Shiji".

周初封诸侯“凡一千八百国”，
“春秋之初，尚有千二百国……
而见于《春秋》经传者百有七十国焉”

*there were 1700 legal states in early Zhou.
*at the beginning of Spring and Autum period, there were still 1200 states.
*but in the book of "ChunQiu" written by KongQiu in the late ChunQiu period, only 170 states are mentioned.
*at the end of ZhanGuo period, there were only 7 large states.

This is great! Thanks for this. Also, General ZhaoYun...I love your avatar picture!

I had a list of dynasties since almost a year ago.
I want to share it with you guys,its similar to the one you made.IIRC it was while looking at the info on websites,and google,piece by piece.And with a guy's help.Can anyone correct it if its wrong?.(P.S I didnt copy it from you guys).


Xia: circa 2000-1500 BC
Shang: 1700-1027 BC
Western Zhou: 1027-771 BC
Eastern Zhou: 770-221 BC
Qin: 221-207 BC
Western Han: 206 BC-AD 9
Xin: AD 9-24
Eastern Han: AD 25-220
Three Kingdoms: AD 220-280
Wei: AD 220-265
Shu: AD 221-263
Wu: AD 229-280
Western Jin: AD 265-316
Eastern Jin: AD 317-420
Southern and Northern Dynasties: AD 420-588
Southern Dynasties: AD 420-588
Song: AD 420-478
Qi: AD 479-501
Liang: AD 502-556
Chen: AD 557-588
Northern Dynasties: AD 386-588
Northern Wei: AD 386-533
Eastern Wei: AD 534-549
Western Wei: AD 535-557
Northern Qi: AD 550-577
Northern Zhou: AD 557-588
Sui: AD 581-617
Tang: AD 618-907
Five Dynasties Period: AD 907-960
Later Liang: AD 907-923
Later Tang: AD 923-936
Later Jin: AD 936-946
Later Han: AD 947-950
Later Zhou: AD 951-960
Ten Kingdoms Period: AD 907-979
Wu: AD 902-937
Wuyue: AD 907-978
Former Shu: AD 907-925
Min: AD 909-945
Southern Han: AD 917-971
Nanping: AD 924-963
Chu: AD 927-951
Later Shu: AD 934-965
Southern Tang: AD 937-975
Northern Han: AD 951-979
Liao: AD 916-1125
Song: AD 960-1279
Northern Song: AD 960-1127
Southern Song: AD 1127-1279
Western Xia: AD 1038-1227
Jin: AD 1115-1234
Yuan: AD 1279-1368
Ming: AD 1368-1644
Qing: AD 1644-1911

By the way,why are the Yuan,Jurchen(Jin) and Qing dynasties consider chinese when they were "barbarians",i.e mongols and manchurians.Its a bit ironic,that the last dynasty wasnt really "chinese".

They were considered 'chinese', because they ruled China and have a dynasty that model themselves after chinese dynasty. The Yuan, Jurchen, Qing were dynasties where the 'minorities' people ruled China..

Xin is traditionally considered as a part of Xihan. and Xihan is thought to be ended in 25AD whose last empor is LiuXuan

a similar example is that Zhou(周)[690-705AD] founded by Queen Wu Zetian(武则天) is considered as part of Tang Dynasty.(Wu Zetian rose to throne in 684.She altered the name of the dynasty to Zhou in 690. Li Xian, Wu's son, altered the name back to Tang in 705AD when he rose to throne)