DYNASTIES AND EMPERORS By: Sophia Karson

Do you know about Dynasties and emperors? However, a Dynasty is a famous family that ruled parts of China or sometimes the whole country. An emperor is a leader that is in a specific dynasty.

The First Emperor In 221 B.C “the first Chinese emperor” was born. His name was Qin Shi Haungdi. That means first emperor in Chinese. He is very argent. He through away all the Chinese legends and stories because he wanted to be the first emperor. This man was good and bad. He spied on other Kingdoms and bribed people. Instead of calling him self the king changed his name to and emperor. Kingdom would also be called and empire. He threw all the books away because he wanted to be the first emperor. He didn’t let kids and adults learn things. They Couldn’t get any education. He especially didn’t like Confucius's teachings about Respect. The first emperor only wanted people to listen to him. Common citectins Couldn’t talk to him. these are good things he did. He connected the great wall of China. He made people use all the same types of measurements and money.

MONGOL RULE Mongol leader, Genghis Khan, and his army defeated China in 1206 B.C. China became part of the Mongol empire. Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, established the Yuan Dynasty. They ruled China for almost 100 years. Because the Mongols ruled the land from almost present-day Turkey, they started to trade between the East and West. For example, Marco Polo was a famous trader who came from Italy to China by the silk road.

THE MING DYNASTY The Mongols were pushed away from China in 1368 B.C. the Ming dynasty lasted for 267 years. To be part of the people had to take and pass a difficult test. The test was on a number of subjects and on Confucius. The men who got the greatest scores got the best jobs. However the rulers were very cruel; they did not treat the peasants well. The Ming Dynasty completed many building projects. In Beijing, they built the Forbidden City for the emperor to live in. It has almost 1000 buildings and is on 185 acres of land. They also rebuilt the Grand Canal. This helped make the economy better. Finally, parts of the Great Wall of China was rebuilt by the Ming Dynasty. The arts were very important during the Ming Dynasty. They created new works in art, literature, music, poetry and porcelain. This Dynasty is also famous for crafting beautiful blue and white vases.

XIA DYNASTY They don’t know if this dynasty is true. People have no archaeological evidence, but showed in some books. This was found by “Yu the great”. I only know that they used bronze weapons.

HAN DYNASTY  A lot of Chinese people are Han people. Many wars took place after the Qin Dynasty ended. The victor was Xiang Yu he had a friend that helped him. His name was Lui Bang. For his help, Xiang Yu gave him a part of western China, but he revolted against Xiang Yu and he became emperor (206 B.C). He renamed himself Gaozu. Gaozu started the Han dynasty. It lasted 400 years. These are some important events that happened during this dynasty.  1. Peaceful and Successful  2. This was the first time the Chinese Dynasty had full time and highly trained solders.  3. Buddhism traveled from India to China  4. The government would ask the scholars for advice, Unlike the Qin dynasty.  5. Nomads from Mongolia attacked China  6. The emperor Wadi continued to work on the Great Wall of China Finally, the last Han emperor resigned and the empire broke into many kingdoms

SUI DYNASTY  General Yang Jain started the Sui dynasty.  These are important events that happened:  1. Built new canals  2. Forced people to do things  3. People rebelled and the dynasty ended

TANG DYNASTY  Wu Zetain became the first and only empress. She was smart and ruthless. She killed people all the people that made her upset.

SONG DYNASTY  There was lots of learning. They did map making, mathematics, engineering and astronomy.

ZHOU DYNASTY  The Zhou Dynasty wanted people to learn about the Chinese history. Their religions were, Daoism, Legalism and Confucianism. They used Iron weapons and crossed- bow weapons to help them fight in war. Their kingdom was much larger than the Shangs. The Zhou dynasty introduced a new way to rule the Chinese Kingdom. They believed that if the king didn’t respect his people someone else would take over. This dynasty encouraged learning and respect for others. Confucius wanted to teach people about honesty and respect for others. This became a peaceful place because they believed in respect.

THE QING DYNASTY The Manchu people conquered the Ming Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty began in 1644 and ended in They had the most land of any Chinese Dynasty. The first Qing emperor was a foreigner. They managed to rule China because the army was so strong. They had tough laws and made Chinese men put their hair in a pig tails. During this dynasty it was fairly peaceful. However, many European traders came to China at this time and took over land from China, such as Hong Kong. Many died fighting over a drug called opium. After 99 years the Europeans gave the land back to China. The last emperor of Imperial China was Pu –Yi. He was only three years old when he became an emperor! He reigned for 4 years before Imperial China (dynasties) came to an end in The People’s Republic of China started on January 1 st, 1912.