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Puyi is the last emperor in the Qing dynasty and also the last emperor in Chinese history. He ascended the throne at age three and was forced to abdicate in 1912. Along with his abdication was the end of the Qing dynasty and China’s imperial period. After the September 18th Incident in 1931, Puyi became the puppet emperor for Manchukuo under Japanese control until 1945. He was kept as a captive by the Soviet army for s few years before being taken over by the Chinese government in 1950. Since then, Puyi was nothing different from an ordinary Chinese person. On Oct.17, 1967, Puyi died in Beijing and was buried in Hualong royal cemetery.
Modern Chinese history refers to the history between the founding of the People’s Republic of China and today. It's divided into the new democratic society and the socialist society. During this time, China has evolved from establishing and consolidating its regime to leading the Chinese people to a prosperous, democratic, and self-reliant path. The timeline below illustrates the difficult past and the outstanding achievements that have been made by today.
Liu Bang, also called Emperor Gaozu, is the founder of the great Han Dynasty (202 B.C - 220 A.D). He is the first grass-root emperor in Chinese history who turned out to be an outstanding militarist, politician, and strategist. From the uprising against the tyrannical rule of the Qin dynasty (221 - 207 B.C) to establishing the Han dynasty, Liu Bang and his supporters struggled for seven years. In 202 B.C, Liu Bang realized his dream of being an emperor, and he ruled for seven years before death.
Taizong Li Shimin (598 - 649), the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty, is a brilliant politician, strategist, militarist, and poet. He served under his father, Li Yuan, as a general at a young age and gained prestige among soldiers and people. Later, he was made Qin Wang (Lord of the Qin State) for his extraordinary contributions during the founding of the Tang Dynasty. In 626, Li Shimin staged a coup in Xuanwu Gate, killing the crown princess Li Jiancheng and other princes against him. He also forced his father, Li Yuan, the Gaozu Emperor, to abdicate. In the same year, Li Shimin established himself the Emperor Taizong and began his reign. He proved himself an outstanding emperor, creating a golden age of the Reign of Zhenguan. He was so successful that people forgave his crime of murdering brothers. On July 10, 649, Taizong passed away and was buried in Zhaoling Mausoleum.
Genghis Khan (1162-1227), also called Borzhijin Tiemuzhen, was a brilliant politician, militarist, and Mongol empire founder. He rose to power in his middle ages, established the Mongol Empire in 1206, and claimed himself the emperor the same year. Later, Genghis Khan launched a series of wars of conquest, and he even went as far as to the central Asia and the short of the Black Sea. In 1227, Tiemuzhen caught ill on conquering the Western Xia Kingdom and died before the surrender of the conquest. He left the strategy of uniting the Southern Song dynasty and eradicating the Jin Kingdom first. Genghis Khan was buried in a mysterious place, and he was revered as the Yuan Taizu by his grandson Kublai Khan after the founding of the Yuan dynasty.
Qin Shi Huang (259 c. - 210.c), Ying Zheng, was the son of King Zhuangxiang of Qin State. He inherited the throne at thirteen and became the first emperor in Chinese history at the age of thirty-nine. During almost four decades’ reign, Qin Shi Huang proved himself to be a brilliant politician, strategist, reformist, and ruthless man. He established the first centralized country in Chinese history and entitled himself Emperor.
Empress Dowager Cixi (Nov.29, 1835-Nov.15, 1908), a concubine of Xianfeng Emperor and mother of Tongzhi Emperor, is an essential political figure in the late Qing Dynasty and the actual ruler of Qing court. She held power for 47 years, during which she launched two coups, set up two crowns, and promoted the social transformation three times. Only three years after her death, the game-changing Xinhai Revolution broke out, and China was dragged into the modern age.
Wu Zetian (624 - 705) is an outstanding politician in the Tang Dynasty, the founding monarch of Wuzhou age (690 - 705), the only orthodox female empress in Chinese history. She was an extraordinary woman, talented, intelligent, and ruthless in the ruling. She rose step by step from a nameless person in the royal court to an intimidating ruler and grabbed the Li family's power. Some people may judge here, but what we can’t deny is that Wu Zetian was a female hero who dared to challenge the patrilineal society and proved to be a brilliant empress.
Sui Dynasty (581 - 618) is a dynasty of grand unity preceding the Tang Dynasty and following the chaotic eras of Southern and Northern Dynasties. It’s the second unification in Chinese history, and it’s often regarded together with Tang Dynasty as both dynasties shared a similar culture, system, and social characteristics. Modern people often believe that the Tang Dynasty was a prosperous time; only a few can acknowledge that the flourishing Tang Dynasty was the Sui Dynasty's continuity.
The Qin Dynasty, from 221BC to 207BC, was the first unified, centralized country with multiple ethnicities in Chinese history. Though it ended only after the ruling of two emperors, the new systems established by Emperor Shi Huang made pioneering contributions to the development of China as a unified multi-ethnic country. They took Chinese history on a new path in the following 2,000 years.
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