History
Origin if the Name of Zhongguo
Zhong guo(China in Chinese) meant the central city or the central state. The Guo referred to city or state. After 1911 Revolution (led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen which overthrew the Qing Dynasty), Zhongguo was taken as the republic of China in 1949. The only one Zhongguo in the world is people’s republic of China with its capital in Beijing.

Introduction
It has 5000 years of recorded and tradition2 splendid projects

-The Great wall
Purpose of building:It is built of stone and maintained between the 5th century BC and 16th century to protect the norther borders of Chinese Empire from Xiongnu attacks.
Distance:6400kmLocation: Along an arc that roughly delineates the edge of Inner Mongolia
Number of people died: 2-3million Chinese died

-The Grand CanalInformation: Also known as the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal (京杭大运河) is the longest ancient canal or artificial river in the world.
Location: Beijing it passes through Tianjin and the provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the city of Hangzhou.
Distance: roughly 1,770 km

Four Great Inventions
-Compass (Made during spring and autum)Model of Han dynasty, used for indicating direction.

-Gunpowder (invented 9th century) In olden days Chinese used as Fireworks, while Europe used as weapons.

-Printing (made during eastern han dynasty)Sui and Tang dynasties used as block printing

- Paper Reason for using paper to write: As olden days cannot write oh tortoise shells, animal bones and wooden plates then, they tired writing on papers. Of course, early years papers was not suitable for writing, thus improvement had been made and was credited to the Chinese

About AC and BC
BC is from biggest to smallest year, For e.g. (2070 BC, next year is 2069 BC)While AC is from smallest to biggest year. Like what we are now, we belong to the AD generation.

Now, I shall begin with what happened in each dynasty (in increasing order)

See the time line for China, there are so many dynasty!!
-Xia Dynasty (2070-1600 BC)
Came into being the 21st century BC.
Earliest Dynasty, it was known as a myth then of it existence.

-Shang Dynasty(1600-1046 BC)
The first dynasty of which we have evidence.
Developing of writing system and was defeated about 1028 BC by Zhou people from west.

- Zhou Dynasty (1046-221 BC)
China ”iron age”
Time of great philosopher: Confuscius, famous thinker and teachings and philosophy which influenced Chinese Korean and Japanese thought and life. Lao-Tse, born before Confuscius and engaged in philosophical studies and conined the term dao道(studies of sky, earth and humanity. Sunzi, an author summed up the experience and lesson of many great battles in history. The book knows as Sunzi & The Art of Warfare孙子兵法.

-Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC)
Qin destroyed the power of the feudal lords, which the name “China” came about.
Great wall began to use to keep out invader (xiong nu) from the north.
Shortest dynasty on record (15 years)

-Han Dynasty (206 BC- 220AD)
Most glorious of dynasties.
Imporatant events and people: hanwudi, an extraordinary emperor whom is able to against the xiong nu which had been a long threatened the Han Empire. He make Confucianism a state ideology and found an ancient Silk road for economic and culture exchange. Also paper and porcelain, si maqian(historian) and his shiji(records of his histories).

-Three kingdoms (220-280 AC)
After Han Dynasty, there was civil war, thus, three kingdoms were developed. (Mention in previous blog;day 3 reflection)

-Jin Dynasty
Started by Sima Yan by conquering the Wu Kingdom (one of the three kingdom)Downfall of western Jin Dynasty ethnic groups broke out. Eastern Jin Dynasty was set up by Sima Rui. Thus, period of Jin is only from 265-316 and northern and southern dynasty was formed from 317-581.

-Sui Dynasty (581-618AD)
Nation’s economy was later ruined by Emperor Yang Di’s because of this corruption and his excessive spending on military and projects. Then, China became poor and Li Yuan, a military commander took over the capital and lead to Tang Dynasty

-Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD)
The “golden age” as the country is reviving.
Foreign relations were broader by using the Silk road.
New musical instruments, song and dance introduced.
Economic and culture bloom and China was powerful and ranked among the most advanced countries in the world then.

-Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD)
Continuation of the “golden age”.
Agriculture and commerce flourished as well for science and technology. Boom in calligraphy, painting and art.
Thinkers, scholars appearing.
Trades grew as Europe was interested in gunpowder, compass, movable type printing made by China.

-Liao Dynasty (907-1125 AD)

Jin Dynasty (1115-1234 AD)

Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368 AD)
The first time that a non-Chinese controlled China, who are, the Mongols.Under the Mongol’s rule, it boost the economy and promote science and culture. Europe learned of the Mongols through travellers like Marco Polo. Thus began the first interest in China by European merchants.Dominican and Franciscan missionaries sailed to China.During the nine decades of Yuan rule, there were no end to peasant insurrection.After the death of Kublai Khan, China was again troubled by quarrels

Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD)
The Ming Dynasty represented the return of Chinese rule.
The Great Wall was rebuilt and became a boundary line.During the Ming Dynasty the growth of agriculture and handicraft production brought an expansion to the economy. Overseas contacts increased. A notable example is provided by Zheng He, a noted navigator, who was sent overseas as envoy at the head of a large fleet, on seven voyages, the longest of which took him to the equator on the eastern African coast.The Ming Dynasty was overthrown in 1644 by the peasant armies under the command of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong.

Qing Dynasty (1644-1912 AD)
The last of China’s great dynasties began.
The Manchus, as did the Moguls, ruled through Chinese officials and Chinese institutions.The Manchus absorbed the best of Chinese literature, political system, art and philosophy and its territory was extensive and production boomed.After the middle period, all kinds of social contradictions increasingly surfaced and the Qing Dynasty began to decline. In 1840 when the Opium War broke out, the Qing court was faced with troubles at home and aggression from abroad. The Revolution of 1911 led by Sun Yat-sen 孙中山broke out and overthrew the Qing Dynasty, bringing two thousand years of Chinese feudal kingdom to an end.