ANSWER KEY
Imperial China Timeline Table
Name:
Date:
Period:
Textbook – chapters 15-18, https://sites.google.com/site/mrvailsclass2/early-imperial-china-and-classical-japan, http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/china-history/the-yuan-dynasty.htm
Dynasty Order &
Picture
Han (206 B.C.E – 220
C.E.)
Number of Years (pg. 182)
Type of
Government
Bureaucracy
Aristocracy
Civil service
exams
Confucianism
Buddhism
Tang (618 – 907 C.E.)
289 years
Aristocracy
Civil Service
Exams
Confucianism
Daoism
Buddhism
Song (960 – 1279 C.E.)
319 years
Meritocracy
Civil Service
Exams
NeoConfucianism
Yuan (Mongols) (1279
– 1368 C. E. )
89 years
Rule by
foreigners.
Islam and
Christianity
426 years
Philosophy
Developments/Events Inventions/Discoveries Contact with
Foreigners
Empire expanded to
Paper
Extended
the Taklaman Desert
Compass
influence
Trade via the Silk Road Porcelain
throughout
Continued building
Iron plow
SE Asia
the Great Wall for
Steel
including
protection.
Korea,
Mongolia,
and Vietnam
Most prosperous and Block printing
Welcomed
advanced civilization.
Gunpowder (850 C.E.)
contact with
Increased food
Playing cards
foreigners.
production.
Mechanical clocks
Trade of
Golden Age in
goods and
literature & art.
ideas
Tea became very
flourished.
popular for drink and
medicine.
The Silk Road reached
its Golden Age.
Population doubled
Paper money
Overseas
due to improved rice
Advanced weaponry
trade
farming.
Rocket technology
flourished.
Increased food
Magnetic compass
production.
Moveable type printing
Improved agricultural (about 1050 C.E.)
techniques.
Canal locks
Economic
Disease prevention
development.
(vaccines)
Urbanization
develops.
Increase sea
navigation.
Sea trade expanded.
Sea trade flourished
Foreigners
Built capital city of
bringing in many goods encouraged
http://www.chinahighlig
hts.com/travelguide/chi
na-history/the-yuandynasty.htm
Ming (1368 – 1644
C.E.)
276 years
End of civil
service exam.
Marco Polo
served under
Kublai Khan.
(late 1200s
C.E.)
were
tolerated.
Beijing.
Prosperity & stability;
social system based
on class (Chinese
people were
considered lower class
citizens with few
rights); extravagance
Civil service
exam
reinstated.
Scholar
officials ruled
government.
China saw itself
as superior and
sought
tributary
countries.
Conservative
policies which
made change
and adaptation
difficult.
NeoConfucianism;
traditional
values.
Buddhism
Zheng He (Admiral of
the Western Seas,
voyages from 1405 –
1433 C.E.) brought
many tributaries from
his sea expeditions.
Stopped expeditions
due to need for
money to pay for
army to fight off
attacking Mongols.
Turned inward.
Textbook – chapters 15-18
https://sites.google.com/site/mrvailsclass2/early-imperial-china-and-classical-japan
http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/china-history/the-yuan-dynasty.htm
from foreign lands
such as diamonds,
pearls, cotton, ginger,
cloves, black pepper,
and walnuts. Many
skills were also
welcomed from
foreign lands such as
astronomy,
mathematics,
medicine, and water
management.
Built largest fleet of
ships in the world;
Zheng He brought
sashes made of gold
thread decorated with
pearls and gems,
medicines, dyes,
spices, and ivory from
his expeditions. They
also brought back
exotic animals such as
the giraffe, zebra,
ostrich, lion and
leopard.
& welcomed
Began with
being open
to foreigners
but after
Zheng He’s
death, rulers
isolated
China from
foreign
contact.