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The First Emperor and the Terracotta Army, the Han and the Silk Road.

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

Qin & Han Empire · 221 BC-220 AD
秦漢 · Qin-Han

The Qin & Han Empire

From the First Emperor's unification, the Great Wall and the Terracotta Army through the founding of the Han by a peasant, the golden age of Emperor Wu and the opening of the Silk Road, to the invention of paper and the fall of the Han before the warlords. Slide across the centuries to read the major events of China's first great empires.

221 BC
The Qin Dynasty
1 / 10

The First Emperor forges an empire

Qin Shi Huang standardizes the script, coinage, weights and axle-widths, and divides China into centrally governed commanderies.

221 BC

The Qin Dynasty
  • Political

    The First Emperor forges an empire

    Qin Shi Huang, First Emperor of a united China, in a 19th-century portrait
    Via Wikimedia Commons

    Qin Shi Huang standardizes the script, coinage, weights and axle-widths, and divides China into centrally governed commanderies.

10 milestones

Meanwhile

Around 221 BC

Full Chronicle

The Qin & Han Empire

From the First Emperor's unification, the Great Wall and the Terracotta Army through the founding of the Han by a peasant, the golden age of Emperor Wu and the opening of the Silk Road, to the invention of paper and the fall of the Han before the warlords. Slide across the centuries to read the major events of China's first great empires.

  1. The Qin Dynasty

    • The First Emperor forges an empire

      Qin Shi Huang standardizes the script, coinage, weights and axle-widths, and divides China into centrally governed commanderies.

  2. The Qin Dynasty

    • The Great Wall and the northern frontier

      Qin armies drive back the Xiongnu nomads and link older ramparts into a single long wall along the steppe frontier.

  3. The Qin Dynasty

    • The Terracotta Army and the death of the emperor

      The First Emperor dies seeking immortality and is buried with an army of thousands of life-sized terracotta soldiers.

  4. Founding of the Han

    • The peasant who founded the Han

      The Qin collapses in revolt; the commoner Liu Bang triumphs in civil war and founds the Han dynasty as Emperor Gaozu.

  5. The Western Han

    • Emperor Wu and the height of the Han

      Emperor Wu expands the empire in every direction and makes Confucianism the doctrine of the state.

  6. The Western Han

    • Zhang Qian and the opening of the Silk Road

      The envoy Zhang Qian journeys into Central Asia, opening the trade routes that would carry Chinese silk to Rome.

  7. The Western Han

    • Sima Qian and the Records of the Grand Historian

      The court historian Sima Qian completes the Shiji, the model for two thousand years of Chinese history-writing.

  8. The Wang Mang Interregnum

    • Wang Mang usurps the throne

      The regent Wang Mang seizes power and founds the short-lived Xin dynasty, attempting sweeping and disastrous reforms.

  9. The Eastern Han

    • Cai Lun and the invention of paper

      The court official Cai Lun perfects a cheap papermaking process, one of China's most far-reaching gifts to the world.

  10. The Fall of the Han

    • The Yellow Turbans and the end of the Han

      A vast peasant uprising shatters the dynasty's authority, and by 220 the last Han emperor abdicates as warlords carve up China.