As modern archeology gradually confirms ancient records of’ the country’s earliest rimes, it seems that, however far back you go, China’s history is essentially the saga of its dynasties, a succession of warring rulers who ultirnately differed only in the degree of their autocracy.
Although this generalized view is inevitable in the brief account below, bear in mind that, while the concept of being Chinese has been around for over two thousand years, the closer you look, the less “China” seems to exist as an endty - right from the start, regionalism played an important part in the country’s history. And while concentrating on the great events, it’s also easy to forget that the lot of’ those ruled was often appalling.

The emperors may have lived in splendour while their courts produced talented writers, poets and artisans, but among the peasantry taxes, LAN’ fine and early death were the norm. While the Cultural Revolution, ingrained corruption, and clampdowns on political dissent in Beijing and Tibet may not be a good track record for the People’s Republic, it’s also true that only since its birth in 1949 - which seems like yesterday in China’s immense timescale - has even the possibility of decent quality of life been imaginable for the ordinary citizen.

Prehistory and the Three Dynasties
Chinese legends hold that the creator, Pan Ku, was born from the egg of chaos and grew to flu the space between Yin, the earth, and Yang, the heavens. For eighteen thousand years Pan Ku chiseled the earth to its present state with the aid of a dragon, a unicorn, a phoenix and a tortoise.
When he died his body became the soil, rivers and rain, his eyes the sun and moon,
while his parasites transformed into human beings. A pantheon of semi divine rulers known as the Five Sovereigns followed, each reigning for a hundred years or more and inventing fire, the calendar, agriculture, silk breeding and marriage. Later a famous triumvirate included Yao the
Benevolent who abdicated in favour of Shu. Shu toiled in the sun until his skin turned black and then he abdicated in favour of Yu the Great, tamer of floods and said to be the founder of China’s first dynasty, the Xia. The Xia was reputed to have lasted 439 years until their last degenerate and corrupt king was overthrown by the Shang dynasty. The Shang was in turn succeeded by the Zhou, who ended this legendary era by virtue of leaving court histories behind them.

Together, the Xia, Shang and Zhou are generally known as the Three Dynasties.
As far as archeology is concerned, homo erectus remains from Liaoning, Anhui, Belling and Yunnan provinces indicate that China was already broadly occupied by human ancestors well before modern mankind began to emerge 200,000 years ago. Excavations of more recent Stone Age sites show that agricultural communities based around the fertile Yellow River and Yangzi basins, such as Banpo in Shaanxi and Homudu in Zhejiang, were producing pottery and silk by 5000 BC. It was along the Yellow River, too, that solid evidence of the bronze-working Three Dynasties first came to light, with the discovery of a series of large rammed-earth palaces at Erlitou near Luoyang, now believed to have been the Xia capital in 2000 BC.
Little is known about the Xia, though their territory apparently encompassed Shanxi, Henan and Hebei. The events of the subsequent Shang dynasty, how-ever, were first documented just before the time of Christ by the historian Sima Qian, and his previously discredited accounts have been supported in recent years by a stream of finds. Based over much the same area as their predecessors and lasting from roughly 1750 BC to 1040 BC, Shang society had a king, a class system and a skilled bronze technology which permeated beyond the borders into Sichuan, and produced the splendid vessels found in today’s museums. Excavations on the site of Yin, the Shang capital, have found tombs stuffed with weapons, jade ornaments, traces of silk and sacrificial victirns - indicating belief in ancestor worship and an afterlife.
The Shang also practised divination by incising questions onto tortoiseshell or bone and then
heating them to study the way in which the material cracked around the words. These oracle bones provide China’s earliest written records, covering topics as diverse as rainfall, dreams and ancestral curses.
Around 1040 BC a northern tribe, the Zhou, overthrew the Shang, expanded their kingdom west of the Yellow River into Shaanxi and set up a capital at Xi’an. Adopting many Shang customs, the Zhou also introduced the doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven, a belief justifying successful rebellion by declaring that heaven grants ruling authority to leaders who are strong and wise, and takes it from those who aren’t - still an integral part of the Chinese
politicalperspective. The Zhou consequently styled themselves “Sons of Heaven” and ruled through a hierarchy of vassal lords, whose growing independence led to the gradual dissolution of the Zhou kingdom from around 600 BC.

Dynasties of China

Qin Dynasty
Han Dynasty
Jin Dynasty
Zhou Dynasty
Shang Dynasty
Xia Dynasty
Qing Dynasty
Sui Dynasty
Ming Dynasty
Yuan Dynasty