Editing Han Chinese (section)

=== Imperial history ===
==== Qin dynasty ====
{{Main|Qin dynasty}}
The chaotic Warring States period of the Eastern Zhou dynasty came to an end with the unification of China by the western state of [[Qin (state)|Qin]] after its [[Qin's wars of unification|conquest of all other rival states]]{{when|date=February 2015}} under King [[Ying Zheng]]. King Zheng then gave himself a new title "[[First Emperor of Qin]]" ({{lang-zh|c=秦始皇帝|p=Qín Shǐ Huángdì}}), setting the precedent for the next two millennia. To consolidate administrative control over the newly conquered parts of the country, the First Emperor decreed a nationwide standardization of currency, writing scripts and measurement units, to unify the country economically and culturally. He also ordered large-scale infrastructure projects such as the [[Great Wall of China|Great Wall]], the [[Lingqu Canal]] and the Qin road system to militarily fortify the frontiers. In effect, he established a centralized bureaucratic state to replace the old feudal confederation system of preceding dynasties, making Qin the first [[Qin dynasty|imperial dynasty]] in Chinese history.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

This dynasty, sometimes phonetically spelt as the "Ch'in dynasty", has been proposed in the 17th century by [[Martino Martini]] and supported by later scholars such as [[Paul Pelliot]] and [[Berthold Laufer]] to be the etymological origin of the modern English word "China".{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

==== Han dynasty ====
{{Main|Han dynasty}}
[[File:China.Terracotta statues007.jpg|thumb|upright|A female servant and male advisor dressed in [[Han Chinese clothing|silk robes]], ceramic figurines from the Western Han era]]

The reign of the first imperial dynasty was short-lived. Due to the First Emperor's autocratic rule and his massive labor projects, which fomented rebellion among his population, the Qin dynasty fell into chaos soon after his death. Under the corrupt rule of his son and successor [[Huhai]], the Qin dynasty collapsed a mere three years later. The Han dynasty (206 BC–220 CE) then emerged from the ensuing [[Chu-Han contention|civil wars]] and succeeded in establishing a much longer-lasting dynasty. It continued many of the institutions created by the Qin dynasty, but adopted a more moderate rule. Under the Han dynasty, art and culture flourished, while the Han Empire [[History of the Han dynasty|expanded militarily in all directions]]. Many Chinese scholars such as [[Ho Ping-ti]] believe that the concept ([[ethnogenesis]]) of Han ethnicity, although being ancient, was formally entrenched in the Han dynasty.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.claytonbrown.org|title=Clayton D. Brown Research on Chinese History: Ethnology, Archaeology, and Han Identity|website=Claytonbrown.org|access-date=12 December 2017|archive-date=18 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190118075448/http://www.claytonbrown.org/|url-status=live}}</ref> The Han dynasty is considered one of the [[golden age]]s of Chinese history, with the modern Han Chinese people taking their ethnic name from this dynasty and the Chinese script being referred to as "[[Chinese characters|Han characters]]".{{sfnp|Schaefer|2008|p=279}}

==== Three Kingdoms to Jin ====
{{Main|Three Kingdoms|Sixteen Kingdoms|Northern and Southern dynasties|Sui dynasty|Tang dynasty}}
[[File:China, 742.svg|upright=1.45|thumb|Map of [[:File:Tang Dynasty circa 700 CE.png|Tang Empire]] in 742, showing the [[Administrative divisions of the Tang dynasty|major provinces]] of the empire|alt=]]
The fall of the Han dynasty was followed by an age of fragmentation and several centuries of disunity amid warfare among rival kingdoms. There was a brief period of prosperity under the native Han Chinese dynasty known as the [[Jin dynasty (266–420)|Jin]] (266–420 BC), although protracted struggles within the ruling house of Sima (司馬) sparked off a protracted period of fragmentation, rebellion by immigrant tribes that served as slaves and indentured servants, and extended non-native rule.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

'''Non-native rule'''

{{Unreferenced section|date=September 2024}}

[[File:晋太保建昌公谢安.jpg|thumb|[[Xie An]], who led the [[Jin dynasty (266–420)|Jin dynasty]] army defeated the [[Di (Five Barbarians)|Di]] (one of the [[Five Barbarians]]) ruled [[Former Qin]] army in the [[Battle of Feishui]] was honoured in the [[Wu Shuang Pu|Table of Peerless Heroes]].]]

During this time, areas of northern China were overrun by various [[Five Barbarians|non-Han nomadic peoples]], which came to establish kingdoms of their own, the most successful of which was the [[Northern Wei]] established by the [[Xianbei]]. From this period, the native population of China proper was referred to as Hanren, or the "People of Han" to distinguish them from the nomads from the steppe. Warfare and invasion led to one of the first great migrations of Han populations in history, as they fled south to the [[Yangtze|Yangzi]] and beyond, shifting the Chinese demographic center and speeding up sinicization of the far south. At the same time, most of the nomads in northern China came to be sinicized as they ruled over large Chinese populations and adopted elements of their culture and administration. Of note, the Xianbei rulers of Northern Wei ordered a policy of systematic sinicization, [[Change of Xianbei names to Han names|adopting Han surnames]], institutions, and culture, so the Xianbei became Han Chinese.

'''Sui and Tang'''[[File:Figures in a cortege, tomb of Li Xian, Tang Dynasty.jpg|thumb|252x252px|<small>Cortege of Emperor Li Xian, Emperor of the Tang</small>]]Han Chinese rule resumed during the Sui and Tang dynasties, led by the Han Chinese families of the Yang (杨) and Li (李) surnames respectively. Both the Sui and Tang dynasties are seen as high points of Han Chinese civilization. These dynasties both emphasized their aristocratic Han Chinese pedigree and enforced the restoration of Central Plains culture, even the founders of both dynasties had already intermarried with non-Han or partly-Han women from the Dugu and Yuwen families.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

The Sui (581–618) and Tang (618–907) dynasties saw continuing emigration from the Central Plains to the south-eastern coast of what is now China proper, including the provinces of [[Fujian]], [[Guangdong]], and [[Hainan]]. This was especially true in the latter part of the Tang era and the Five Dynasties period that followed; the relative stability of the south coast made it an attractive destination for refugees fleeing continual warfare and turmoil in the north.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

==== Song to Qing ====
{{Main|Song dynasty|Yuan dynasty|Ming dynasty|Qing dynasty}}
[[File:南宋 · 斗浆图 Tea Fighting Southern Song dynasty.png|thumb|<small>Tea competition in Song China</small>]]
[[File:史可法像.jpg|left|thumb|[[Shi Kefa]], the [[Three Departments and Six Ministries|Minister of War]] of [[Ming dynasty]], was famous for his tenacious defence in Yangzhou against the [[Manchu]] ([[Qing dynasty|Qing]]) invasion followed by the [[Yangzhou massacre]] commanded by the Manchu army.|350x350px]]

The next few centuries saw successive invasions of Han and non-Han peoples from the north. In 1279, the [[Mongols]] conquered all of China, becoming the first non-Han ethnic group to do so, and established the [[Yuan dynasty]]. [[Emigration]], seen as disloyal to ancestors and ancestral land, was banned by the Song and Yuan dynasties.<ref>{{Cite book|first1 = Pál|last1 = Nyíri|first2 = Igorʹ|last2 = Rostislavovich Savelʹev|title = Globalizing Chinese migration: trends in Europe and Asia|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=77F23y4RrnUC&pg=PA208|publisher = Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|year = 2002|page = 208|isbn = 978-0-7546-1793-8|access-date = 29 October 2015|archive-date = 14 December 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211214010926/https://books.google.com/books?id=77F23y4RrnUC&pg=PA208|url-status = live}}</ref>

[[Hongwu Emperor|Zhu Yuanzhang]], who had a [[Sinocentrism|Han-centered concept of China]], and regarded expelling "[[Hua–Yi distinction|barbarians]]" and restoring Han people's China as a mission, established the [[Ming dynasty]] in 1368 after the [[Red Turban Rebellions]]. During this period, China referred to the Ming Empire and to the Han people living in them, and non-Han communities were separated from China.<ref name="md">{{cite journal |last1=Jiang |first1=Yonglin |title=Thinking About the 'Ming China' Anew: The Ethnocultural Space In A Diverse Empire-With Special Reference to the 'Miao Territory' |journal=Journal of Chinese History |date=January 2018 |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=27–78 |doi=10.1017/jch.2017.27 }}</ref>

Early [[Manchu people|Manchu]] rulers treated China as equivalent to both the Ming Empire and to the Han group.<ref name="md" /> In 1644, the Ming capital, [[Beijing]], was captured by [[Li Zicheng]]'s peasant rebels and the [[Chongzhen Emperor]] committed suicide. The Manchus of the [[Qing dynasty]] then allied with former Ming general [[Wu Sangui]] and seized control of Beijing. Remnant Ming forces led by [[Koxinga]] fled to [[Taiwan]] and established the [[Kingdom of Tungning]], which eventually capitulated to Qing forces in 1683. Taiwan, previously inhabited mostly by non-Han aborigines, was sinicized during this period via large-scale migration accompanied by assimilation, despite efforts by the Manchus to prevent this, as they found it difficult to maintain control over the island. In 1681, the [[Kangxi Emperor]] ordered construction of the [[Willow Palisade]] to prevent Han Chinese migration to the three northeastern provinces, which nevertheless had harbored a significant Chinese population for centuries, especially in the southern [[Liaodong]] area. The Manchus designated Jilin and Heilongjiang as the Manchu homeland, to which the Manchus could hypothetically escape and regroup if the Qing dynasty fell.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Mark C. |last1=Elliott |date=August 2000 |title=The Limits of Tartary: Manchuria in Imperial and National Geographies |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |volume=59 |issue=3 |pages=603–46 |jstor=2658945 |doi=10.2307/2658945 }}</ref> Because of increasing Russian territorial encroachment and annexation of neighboring territory, the Qing later reversed its policy and allowed the consolidation of a demographic Han majority in Northeast China. The [[Taiping Rebellion]] erupted in 1850 from the [[Anti-Qing sentiment|anti-Manchu]] sentiment of the Han Chinese, which killed at least twenty million people and made it [[List of wars by death toll|one of the bloodiest conflicts]] in history.<ref name="hm">{{cite magazine|author=Ian Buruma|url=https://harpers.org/archive/2022/02/the-great-wall-of-steel-xi-jinping-chinese-nationalism/|title=The Great Wall of Steel|magazine=[[Harper's Magazine]]|date=February 2022|access-date=30 March 2024|archive-date=30 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240330054104/https://harpers.org/archive/2022/02/the-great-wall-of-steel-xi-jinping-chinese-nationalism/|url-status=live}}</ref> Late Qing revolutionary intellectual [[Zou Rong]] famously proclaimed that "China is the China of the Chinese. We compatriots should identify ourselves with the China of the Han Chinese".<ref name="ww" />