China Dynastic History

Two ‘tragic’ figures

Chinese History is measured Dynasty to Dynasty

First Emperor of China 225 B.C.

China’s last Emperor

Last emperor of China (1908–12) and the first of Manchukuo (1934–5), born in Beijing, China. Emperor at the age of two, after the 1912 revolution he was given a pension and a summer palace. Known in the West as Henry Puyi, in 1932 he was called from private life by the Japanese to be provincial dictator of Manchukuo, under the name of Kangde. Taken prisoner by the Russians in 1945, he was tried in China as a war criminal (1950), pardoned (1959), and became a private citizen. He died as a gardener in Beijing in 1967. The story of his life was made into a successful film (The Last Emperor) in 1988.

Pu Yi’s ‘Tomb’

Emperor ‘Henry’ Pu Yi1906 - 1967

Chin Shih Huang to Pu Yi

The Han Dynasty

206 B.C. – 221 A.D.

Followed the brutality of the Qin (Chin) Dynasty

Most Chinese still consider themselves as ‘Han’ Chinese

47 Emperors (average reign 9 years)

Confucian Principles “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”

Confucious (551 – 479 B.C.)1. Ruler – accountable

2. Competent Administrators

3. People – Value order

Sui and Tang Dynasties

589 - 907

Capital established in Xi’an

‘Silk Road’ heavily used (movement)

Transport (silks and spices)

Migration (Marco Polo)

Ideas (Islam and Christianity)

Emperor Yang of Sui (Hua Mulan)

Ming Dynasty 1368 - 1644Population reaches 350 million

Portuguese and British ‘open’ China

Capital moves to Beijing/Nanjing

13 Emperor tombs

Forbidden City built (15 years 1 million people)

Built from 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980

surviving buildings with 8,707 bays of rooms

Qing (or Ching or Manchu) Dynasty 1644 - 1911

Problems with ‘outsiders’

Opium for silk and pottery

Japanese invasion

The ‘downhill’ slide

baby emperors

controlling relatives

eunuchs and concubines

The Han Dynasty lasted 427 years

The Sui/Tang 318 years

The Ming 266 years

The Qing 267 years

The Communist ‘dynasty’ has been around 59 years

General Secretary of the Communist Party of ChinaDeng Xiao Ping - General Secretary 1956–1967 Vacant - 1967-1980 Hu Yaobang - General Secretary 1980-1987 Ziao Ziyang - General Secretary 1987-1989 Jiang Zemin - General Secretary 1989-2002 Hu Jintao - General Secretary since 2002

When I despair, I remember that all throughout history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible. But, in the end, they always fall.

Gandhi