China project

Tang China Gains Control of the Turkish Borderlands

657 BCE

In 657, the Tang dynasty took full control of the Turkish border, or “frontier” lands. This opened up a huge wave of creativity in China with new contact with the Middle East; it has been described as a golden age.

Tang Dynasty Founded

618 BCE

Before the Tang dynasty rose to power, the rule of the Sui dynasty came to an end. Li Yuan, a member of the courts, declared himself Emperor Guazhou. He created the Tang dynasty by changing the state title to Tang, which was common for different dynasties to do. Chang’an remained as the capital city.

Sui Dynasty

603 BCE

Between about 603 CE and 609 CE, the Grand Canal was built. The idea of building and expanding the Grand Canal was do to Emperor Wen’s (AKA Emperor Yang) need to get grain to his capitol and his armies faster. Emperor Wen enslaved millions of farmers to do this job, many of whom perished during construction. However, today the 1,100 mile Grand Canal is still the largest man made water way in the entire world.

Sui Dynasty

581 BCE

In 581 CE the Emperor of the Zhou dynasty fell incredibly ill and died. He left behind only a small child to be the successor. So, in the midst of the confusion deciding on if a child should get the throne, two advisories of the emperor appointed Yang Jian as the regent (or interim emperor)- soon after that, Yang just took the throne for himself and established himself Emperor Wen of the new Sui dynasty.

Han Dynasty

202 BCE

Liu Bang became the first Han Emperor and made Chang’an the capital city, moving military exploits, political control and Chinese culture. The central positioning allowed Liu Bang to keep rivals close and redirected military forces to better protect the capital. The Wei River made accessing the city harder, making it necessary to use the two major roads and leaving the emperor with complete control and sight of who was going in and out making it a strategical and wise move.

Han Dynasty

138 BCE

Emperor Wu 6th emperor of Han sent explorer Chang Ch’ien to explore the frontier west of the Chinese lands. On his second trip to Asia he was sent with the intention of trade and foreign alliances. Trading such commodities as jade spices, bronze, and most importantly highly sought after silks. This trade route became known as the Silk Road, opening trade all the way to the Caspian Sea. This action catapulted China into trade with other major countries.

Three Kingdoms

189

In 189 AD young Emperor Shao appointed to the throne. This only lasted so long before Dong Zhuo, a court official of the east at the time, had brought his army into Louyang to dethrone Emperor Shao and put Emperor Xian on the throne. After Zhuo had invaded Louyang, Cao Cao fled to Chenliu and began to assemble his military forces. As this political situation became smaller, a larger-scale civil war had finally broken out.