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Oracle bones and bronze kings, Confucius and the Warring States: China before the empire.

Use the timeline below to navigate through major events and milestones.

Ancient China · to 221 BC
中國 · Zhongguo

Ancient China: Xia, Shang & Zhou

From the Neolithic villages of the Yellow River and the semi-legendary Xia through the bronze kings and oracle bones of the Shang, the long Zhou dynasty and its Mandate of Heaven, the age of Confucius and the hundred schools of thought, to the Warring States and the unification by Qin in 221 BCE. Slide across the millennia to read the major events that shaped China before the empire.

5000 BC
Neolithic China
1 / 10

The Yangshao and the millet villages

Along the Yellow River, Neolithic farmers of the Yangshao culture raise millet, keep pigs, and paint bold red-and-black pottery.

5000 BC

Neolithic China
  • Cultural

    The Yangshao and the millet villages

    Along the Yellow River, Neolithic farmers of the Yangshao culture raise millet, keep pigs, and paint bold red-and-black pottery.

10 milestones
Full Chronicle

Ancient China: Xia, Shang & Zhou

From the Neolithic villages of the Yellow River and the semi-legendary Xia through the bronze kings and oracle bones of the Shang, the long Zhou dynasty and its Mandate of Heaven, the age of Confucius and the hundred schools of thought, to the Warring States and the unification by Qin in 221 BCE. Slide across the millennia to read the major events that shaped China before the empire.

  1. Neolithic China

    • The Yangshao and the millet villages

      Along the Yellow River, Neolithic farmers of the Yangshao culture raise millet, keep pigs, and paint bold red-and-black pottery.

  2. The Xia Dynasty

    • Yu the Great and the first dynasty

      Tradition holds that Yu the Great tamed the floods and founded the Xia, China's first hereditary dynasty.

  3. The Shang Dynasty

    • The Shang and the bronze kings

      The Shang dynasty rules the Yellow River plain, casting magnificent ritual bronzes and building the first great Chinese cities.

  4. The Shang Dynasty

    • Oracle bones and the birth of writing

      Shang diviners scratch questions to the ancestors onto ox bones and turtle shells — the earliest known Chinese writing.

  5. The Western Zhou

    • The Zhou conquest and the Mandate of Heaven

      King Wu of Zhou overthrows the last Shang king and proclaims that Heaven has withdrawn its mandate from a corrupt house.

  6. The Eastern Zhou

    • The fall of the west and the Eastern Zhou

      Nomad raiders sack the Zhou capital; the court flees east to Luoyang, and royal power fades before the great vassal states.

  7. Spring and Autumn

    • Confucius and the age of the philosophers

      Confucius is born into a fractured age and teaches a moral order of virtue, ritual, and benevolent government.

  8. Spring and Autumn

    • Laozi, Sun Tzu, and the hundred schools

      Daoism, Legalism, Mohism and the art of war flourish as thinkers offer rival cures for a warring world.

  9. The Warring States

    • The Warring States

      The great states swallow their neighbours until seven kingdoms wage total war across China with mass conscript armies.

  10. The Warring States

    • Qin unifies all under Heaven

      The king of Qin conquers the last rival state, ends the Zhou world, and proclaims himself First Emperor of a united China.