Editing China (section)

=== Imperial China ===
{{further|Chinese Empire|History of China#Imperial China}}

==== Qin and Han ====
[[File:Han Expansion.png|The [[southward expansion of the Han dynasty]] during the 2nd century&nbsp;BCE|thumb|upright=1.1]]

The Warring States period ended in 221&nbsp;BCE after the [[Qin (state)|state of Qin]] conquered the other six states, reunited China and established the dominant order of [[autocracy]]. [[King Zheng of Qin]] proclaimed himself the Emperor of the [[Qin dynasty]], becoming the first emperor of a unified China. He enacted Qin's [[Legalism (Chinese philosophy)|legalist]] reforms, notably the standardization of Chinese characters, [[Chinese units of measurement|measurements]], road widths, and [[history of Chinese currency|currency]]. His dynasty also [[Qin campaign against the Baiyue|conquered the Yue tribes]] in [[Guangxi]], [[Guangdong]], and [[Northern Vietnam]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sima |first=Qian |author-link=Sima Qian |title=Records of the Grand Historian |title-link=Shiji |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=1993 |isbn=0-231-08165-0 |location=Hong Kong |pages=11–12 |translator-last=Watson |translator-first=Burton |orig-date=c. 91 BCE |translator-link=Burton Watson}}</ref> The Qin dynasty lasted only fifteen years, falling soon after the First Emperor's death.<ref name="Bodde1986">{{Cite book |last=Bodde |first=Derk |author-link=Derk Bodde |title=The Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 BC – AD 220 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1986 |isbn=0-521-24327-0 |editor-last=Twitchett |editor-first=Denis |editor-link=Denis Twitchett |series=[[The Cambridge History of China]] |volume=1 |pages=20–102 |chapter=The State and Empire of Ch'in |editor-last2=Loewe |editor-first2=Loewe |editor-link2=Michael Loewe}}
</ref><ref name="Lewis2007">{{Cite book |last=Lewis |first=Mark Edward |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofimperia00broo |title=The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han |date=2007 |publisher=Belknap |isbn=978-0-6740-2477-9}}</ref>

Following [[Chu–Han Contention|widespread revolts]] during which the imperial library [[List of destroyed libraries#Human action|was burned]],{{efn|Owing to Qin Shi Huang's earlier policy involving the "[[burning of books and burying of scholars]]", the destruction of the confiscated copies at [[Xianyang]] was an event similar to the [[destruction of the Library of Alexandria|destructions]] of the [[Library of Alexandria]] in the west. Even those texts that did survive had to be painstakingly reconstructed from memory, luck, or forgery.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cotterell |first=Arthur |title=The Imperial Capitals of China |year=2011 |publisher=Pimlico |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=bZI764AEfcsC&pg=PA35 35–36]}}</ref> The [[Old Texts]] of the [[Five Classics]] were said to have been found hidden in a wall at the Kong residence in [[Qufu]]. [[Mei Ze]]'s "rediscovered" edition of the [[Book of Documents]] was [[Yan Ruoqu|only shown to be a forgery in the Qing dynasty]].}} the [[Han dynasty]] emerged to rule China between 206&nbsp;BCE and 220&nbsp;CE, creating a cultural identity among its populace still remembered in the ethnonym of the modern [[Han Chinese]].<ref name="Bodde1986" /><ref name="Lewis2007" /> The Han [[History of the Han dynasty|expanded the empire's territory considerably]], with military campaigns reaching [[Han–Xiongnu War|Central Asia, Mongolia]], [[Han conquest of Gojoseon|Korea]], and [[Han campaigns against Dian|Yunnan]], and the [[Southward expansion of the Han dynasty|recovery of Guangdong and northern Vietnam]] from [[Nanyue]]. Han involvement in Central Asia and [[Sogdia]] helped establish the land route of the [[Silk Road]], replacing the earlier path over the [[Himalayas]] to India. Han China gradually became the largest economy of the ancient world.<ref name="Dahlman Aubert 2001">{{Cite report |title=China and the Knowledge Economy: Seizing the 21st Century |last1=Dahlman |first1=Carl J. |last2=Aubert |first2=Jean-Eric |year=2001 |publisher=World Bank Publications |id={{ERIC|ED460052}} |series=WBI Development Studies |location=Herndon, VA}}</ref> Despite the Han's initial decentralization and the official abandonment of the Qin philosophy of Legalism in favor of [[Confucianism]], Qin's legalist institutions and policies continued to be employed by the Han government and its successors.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Goucher |first1=Candice |title=World History: Journeys from Past to Present |volume=1: From Human Origins to 1500 CE |last2=Walton |first2=Linda |year=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-1350-8822-4 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=zdwpAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA108 108]}}</ref>

==== Three Kingdoms, Jin, Northern and Southern dynasties ====
After the [[end of the Han dynasty]], a period of strife known as [[Three Kingdoms]] followed, at the end of which [[Cao Wei|Wei]] was swiftly overthrown by the [[Jin dynasty (266–420)|Jin dynasty]]. The Jin fell to [[War of the Eight Princes|civil war]] upon the ascension of a [[Emperor Hui of Jin|developmentally disabled emperor]]; the [[Five Barbarians]] then [[Upheaval of the Five Barbarians|rebelled]] and ruled northern China as the [[Sixteen Kingdoms|Sixteen States]]. The [[Xianbei]] unified them as the [[Northern Wei]], whose [[Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei|Emperor Xiaowen]] reversed his predecessors' apartheid policies and [[Northern dynasties|enforced a drastic sinification on his subjects]]. In the south, the general [[Emperor Wu of Liu Song|Liu Yu]] secured the abdication of the Jin in favor of the [[Liu Song]]. The various successors of these states became known as the [[Northern and Southern dynasties]], with the two areas finally reunited by the [[Sui dynasty|Sui]] in 581.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}

==== Sui, Tang and Song ====
The Sui restored the Han to power through China, reformed its agriculture, economy and [[imperial examination]] system, constructed the [[Grand Canal of China|Grand Canal]], and patronized [[Chinese Buddhism|Buddhism]]. However, they fell quickly when their conscription for public works and a [[Goguryeo–Sui War|failed war]] in [[Goguryeo|northern Korea]] provoked widespread unrest.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lee |first=Ki-Baik |title=A new history of Korea |date=1984 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-6746-1576-2 |page=47}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Graff |first=David Andrew |title=Medieval Chinese warfare, 300–900 |date=2002 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0-4152-3955-9 |page=13}}</ref>
Under the succeeding [[Tang dynasty|Tang]] and [[Song dynasty|Song dynasties]], Chinese economy, technology, and culture entered a golden age.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Adshead |first=S. A. M. |title=T'ang China: The Rise of the East in World History |date=2004 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=9780230005518 |page=54 |doi=10.1057/9780230005518_2}}</ref> The Tang dynasty retained control of the [[Western Regions]] and the Silk Road,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nishijima |first=Sadao |title=Cambridge History of China: Volume I: the Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220 |date=1986 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-5212-4327-8 |editor-last=Twitchett |editor-first=Denis |editor-link=Denis Twitchett |pages=545–607 |chapter=The Economic and Social History of Former Han |doi=10.1017/CHOL9780521243278.012 |editor-last2=Loewe |editor-first2=Michael |editor-link2=Michael Loewe}}</ref> which brought traders to as far as [[Mesopotamia]] and the [[Horn of Africa]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bowman |first=John S. |url=https://archive.org/details/columbiachronolo00john |title=Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture |date=2000 |publisher=Columbia University Press |pages=[https://archive.org/details/columbiachronolo00john/page/104 104–105] |url-access=registration}}</ref> and made the capital [[Chang'an]] a cosmopolitan urban center. However, it was devastated and weakened by the [[An Lushan rebellion]] in the 8th century.<ref>{{Cite book |title=China: Five Thousand Years of History and Civilization |date=2007 |publisher=City University of HK Press |isbn=978-9-6293-7140-1 |page=71}}</ref> In 907, the Tang disintegrated completely when the local military governors became ungovernable. The Song dynasty ended the [[Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period|separatist situation]] in 960, leading to a balance of power between the Song and the [[Liao dynasty]]. The Song was the first government in world history to issue paper money and the first Chinese polity to establish a permanent navy which was supported by the developed shipbuilding industry along with the sea trade.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Paludan |first=Ann |title=Chronicle of the Chinese Emperors |date=1998 |publisher=Thames & Hudson |isbn=0-5000-5090-2 |page=136}}</ref>

Between the 10th and 11th century CE, the population of China doubled to around 100 million people, mostly because of the expansion of rice cultivation in central and southern China, and the production of abundant food surpluses. The Song dynasty also saw a [[Neo-Confucianism|revival of Confucianism]], in response to the growth of Buddhism during the Tang,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Huang |first=Siu-Chi |title=Essentials of Neo-Confucianism: Eight Major Philosophers of the Song and Ming Periods |date=1999 |publisher=Greenwood |isbn=978-0-3132-6449-8 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=sjzPPg8eK7sC&pg=PA3 3]}}</ref> and a flourishing of philosophy and the arts, as [[landscape art]] and [[porcelain]] were brought to new levels of complexity.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Northern Song dynasty (960–1127) |date=October 2001 |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/nsong/hd_nsong.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010152800/https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/nsong/hd_nsong.htm |archive-date=10 October 2017 |access-date=27 November 2013 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art}}</ref> However, the military weakness of the Song army was observed by the [[Jin dynasty (1115–1234)|Jin dynasty]]. In 1127, [[Emperor Huizong of Song|Emperor Emeritus Huizong]], [[Emperor Qinzong of Song]] and the capital [[Kaifeng|Bianjing]] were captured during the [[Jin–Song wars]]. The remnants of the Song retreated to [[Northern and southern China|southern China]] and reestablished [[Southern Song Dynasty|the Song]] at [[Nanjing|Jiankang]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gernet |first=Jacques |url=https://archive.org/details/dailylifeinchina00gern/page/22 |title=Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250–1276 |date=1962 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-0720-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/dailylifeinchina00gern/page/22 22] |oclc=1029050217}}</ref>