-
1046 BCE
Mandate of Heaven
One of the earliest rulers of China, the Zhou established the idea of the Mandate of Heaven, in which a ruler must maintain harmony between heaven and Earth. -
221 BCE
The First Emperor
A Qin emperor created China’s first centralized, unified state -
635
The Glory of the Tang
The Tang dynasty introduced an age of extensiveness, welcoming Christianity to Xi’an. The same year, a Chinese Buddhist pilgrim arrived in India, initiating one of the great cultural exchanges in history. -
1088
The age of invention
During the Song Dynasty, the Chinese invented printing, paper money, soccer, gunpowder and the magnetic compass -
The greatest emperor
The declining Ming fell to the Manchus, who became China’s last dynasty, the Qing, and doubled the size of China