China, from the Neolithic to 1949

Chinese history on one line: the Neolithic cultures, the Xia of tradition, the Shang and Zhou, the empire from Qin to Qing, and the Republic, to the founding of the People’s Republic on 1 October 1949, with two later milestones. Dynasties, reigns and wars are durations; people, works, inventions and battles are moments. **How it is dated.** Before 841 BCE, the first year Chinese history dates year by year, the dates are the Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project’s conventional figures, and approximate. Years are proleptic Gregorian with BCE (1 BCE is year 0); dates known to the day before 1582 are converted from the Julian dates in the sources, which are kept under Historical dates. Days are UTC date markers. A sample timeline built from the cited sources, not a definitive history.

134 moments · 5000-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE – 1997-07-01T00:00:00Z CE · by @athan · @athan

Moments

1. Neolithic cultures 5000-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
2. Hemudu: rice on the Yangtze 4800-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
3. Banpo village 4500-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
4. Taosi 2300-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
5. The first dynasties 2070-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
6. Palaces and bronze at Erlitou 1700-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
7. The Shang at Zhengzhou 1600-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
8. Pan Geng moves to Yin 1300-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
9. Oracle bones 1250-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
10. Tomb of Fu Hao 1200-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
11. Sanxingdui 1100-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
12. Battle of Muye 1046-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
13. Zhou 1000-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
14. 841 BCE: the first dated year 0841-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
15. Haojing falls 0771-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
16. Spring and Autumn Annals begin 0722-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
17. Laozi and the Daodejing 0571-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
18. Confucius born 0551-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
19. Sunzi, The Art of War 0500-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
20. Confucius dies 0479-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
21. Partition of Jin 0403-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
22. The Analects 0400-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
23. Mencius born 0372-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
24. Shang Yang’s reforms in Qin 0356-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
25. Battle of Changping 0260-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
26. The last Zhou king 0256-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
27. Dujiangyan 0256-07-01T00:00:00Z BCE
28. Ying Zheng becomes king of Qin 0246-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
29. Qin and Han: the empire 0230-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
30. Qin unifies China 0221-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
31. Qin joins the northern walls 0214-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
32. Burning of the books 0213-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
33. The First Emperor dies 0210-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
34. The Terracotta Army 0210-07-01T00:00:00Z BCE
35. Chen Sheng and Wu Guang rise 0209-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
36. Battle of Gaixia 0202-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
37. Zhang Qian goes west 0138-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
38. The Imperial Academy 0124-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
39. Records of the Grand Historian 0091-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE
40. Wang Mang’s Xin dynasty 0009-01-01T00:00:00Z CE
41. The Han restored 0025-01-01T00:00:00Z CE
42. White Horse Temple 0068-01-01T00:00:00Z CE
43. Cai Lun’s paper 0105-01-01T00:00:00Z CE
44. Zhang Heng’s seismoscope 0132-01-01T00:00:00Z CE
45. Yellow Turban Rebellion 0184-01-01T00:00:00Z CE
46. Battle of Red Cliffs 0208-01-01T00:00:00Z CE
47. Three Kingdoms and division 0220-01-01T00:00:00Z CE
48. The Han ends 0220-12-11T00:00:00Z CE
49. Jin reunites China 0280-01-01T00:00:00Z CE
50. Luoyang sacked 0311-01-01T00:00:00Z CE