of information and scholars who were against imperial ideology and brutal punishments. Fell to Rebellion but started the Dynastic Cycle.

Han Dynasty (207 BCE to 220 CE): Long lived Dynasty, less brutal than the Qin but still centralized. Eventually adopted Confucianism as the state ideology. Paper and blast furnace developed.

Three Kingdoms (220 to 280) Han State divides into three dynasties that fight for dominance, Shu, Wei and Wu.

Northern and Southern Dynasties (420 to 589) China divided between the Northern and Southern states

Sui Dynasty (589 to 618) China is reunified, introduction of the Imperial Civil Service Examination

Tang Dynasty (618 to 907): Creation of the Grand Canals and the rise of Buddhism.

Song Dynasty (960 to 1279): Development of gunpowder and movable type printing. Large scale urbanization happens.

Yuan Dynasty: (1279 to 1368):made all the worse by Europeans using superior military technology to force china open and impose unfair treaties on China. A few small scale attempts to industrialize fail, eventually leading to the collapse of the Imperial government.

Koumintang (1917 to 1949): Nationalist government founded after the abolition of the Imperial Government, theoretically on Democratic principles, but did not function as such and has little influence. Much of the country descends into warlordism and is devastated by the Japanese invasion.

People's Republic of China (1949 onward): Communist regime started by Mao Zedong who ruled using radical economic policies with some major failures (Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution). After Mao's death the Chinese Communist Party swiched to a largely market economy that has been growing rapidly.

Chinese People of Note

Sun Tzu: