Curated playlist
Former countries in Chinese history
- Yuan dynastyThe Yuan dynasty began with a name drawn from an ancient Chinese text about the origin of the universe. In 1271, Kublai Khan opened his proclamation by citing a clause from the Commentaries on the I Ching and declared that his empire would…
- Han dynastyThe Han dynasty gave its name to the people who make up the majority of modern China. They call themselves the Han people. Their spoken tongue is the Han language, and the script they write is made of Han characters. That naming runs deep,…
- Zhou dynastyThe Zhou dynasty ruled China for 789 years, from around 1046 BC until 256 BC, making it the longest-reigning dynasty in Chinese history. At the moment it fell, the state of Qin swept in and killed the last Zhou king, Nan, at the old…
- Jin dynasty (1115–1234)The Jin dynasty declared itself the Great Jin in 1115, and its name meant gold. Not gold in a figurative sense, but gold as in the Jurchen word alchun, possibly drawn from a river east of Harbin whose waters the Jurchens called golden.…
- Jin dynasty (266–420)On the 4th of February 266, a man named Sima Yan declared himself emperor of a new dynasty and forced the last ruler of Cao Wei to abdicate. That dynasty was called Jin. It would last a century and a half, reunite a fractured China, then…
- Dzungar KhanateThe Dzungar Khanate was the last nomadic empire of Oirat Mongol origin, and at its height it stretched from southern Siberia in the north to Tibet in the south, from the western edge of Mongolia to present-day Kazakhstan. For more than a…
- Song dynastyThe Song dynasty ruled China from 960 to 1279, and within that span it created the world's first government-issued paper money, built the world's first permanent standing navy, and recorded the oldest surviving formula for gunpowder.…
- Tang dynastyOn the 18th of June in the year 618, word reached Li Yuan that Emperor Yang of Sui had been murdered by a general named Yuwen Huaji. Li Yuan had already occupied Chang'an months earlier, reducing the Sui emperor to a retired figurehead and…
- Mongol EmpireThe Mongol Empire became the largest contiguous empire in history. At its height it stretched from the Sea of Japan to Eastern Europe, reaching north into Siberia and south into the Indian subcontinent. It pushed west as far as the Levant…
- ManchukuoManchukuo lasted just thirteen years, from 1932 until its dissolution in 1945, yet it carried the grand title of empire and the trappings of a brand new civilization. A press release from the Japanese Information Service on the 1st of…
- MoghulistanMoghulistan arose north of the Tengri Tagh mountains in the 14th century. Its name comes from the Persian for Land of the Mongols. The khanate was formally independent from around 1347 until the early 1700s. Today its territory falls…
- Kingdom of KhotanThe Kingdom of Khotan endured for over a thousand years on the southern rim of the Taklamakan Desert, one of the most arid places on earth. Tucked into a ribbon of oasis fed by two mountain rivers, it became a city of silk, jade, and…