The Age of Empire
QIN, HAN, XIN AND JIN
Note: The green, or for some titles red, text is the original Wikipedia timeline, frequently corrected by me for grammar and spelling errors. The blue text is my gradual development of the timeline into a fuller history and commentary (with follow-up notes in amber). Because I am interested in the positives of human history, and can only find negatives in most of the politics, I have reduced most of the political history from green to grey, so it is still there, and you are obviously free to follow the links and find out more, but I honestly cannot imagine why you would want to.
THE QIN DYNASTY
And
after two depressing pages of nothing but grey-upon-grey, lists of murdered kings and
territorial wars, with barely a human positive among them, the first three
items on this page...(well, maybe not the first one, which was simply a bulwark
against still more territorial wars, but still an extraordinary undertaking...)
Construction began on the Great Wall of China (click here for a
geographer’s eye view), here for a
lunar astronaut’s; see below for a tourist's (and then click here for the rest of the video):
Chancellor Li Si standardized the Chinese writing system with the
creation of Small Seal Script ["tensho" or Zhuan Shu in Chinese; click here to see it, learn how to write, draw and even calligraph it... my attempt to do so is below
214 BCE: The Lingqu Canal was
built [where? "also known as Dou Canal or Xing’an Canal, is located in Xing’an County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region."] click here
and
then, see my comment in brackets about the Great Wall, just above...and oh dear, how very sad, as here we go
again...
213 BCE: Burning of books and burying of scholars: All copies of the Classic of Poetry, the Book of Documents and works of the Hundred Schools of Thought were ordered burned [did any survive? do we know what they contained? (The Classic is under 1000 BCE)]
"The Classic" is known in Chinese as the Shijing or Shih-ching, and sometimes in English rather more Solomonically as “The Book of Song”, or Ovidically as “The Book of Odes”; it was one of the five great works of Kun Fu SE, though he didn’t actually write it, but antholoGised what had been written over a period of about 500 years before him. However the claim made by Amazon and others that it is “is the oldest collection of poetry in world literature” is wrong - by about three thousand years: try ancient pre-Babylonia! Click here to read the entire book in translation
"The Book of Documents" (the Shujing or Shangshu) is basically the
Chinese Bible: an anthology of mythohistorical and occasionally
genuine-historical legends from the time of the Creation of the world to the
start of the Zhou dynasty, likewise gathered by Kon Fu Se. And yes, it too
survived the banning and the burning: Click here to
read it in translation
For "The Hundred Schools of Thought" click here; but to understand the importance of the banning and the burning: the human world reached the first stage of adulthood around 600 BCE, and over the next four hundred years did what young adults do between leaving Middle School and graduating from university: the evidence of Greece at that time, and of Israel and Persia, confirmed by these four hundred years in China. Then the brainless alpha-male took over, established itself in power, killed off the threat from intelligent life, and human history reverted to pubescence, where it has basically remained ever since (cf Erdogan, Trump, Boris Johnson...)
210 BCE: 10 September: Qin Shi Huang died from mercury pills made by his
alchemists and court physicians; ironically these pills were meant to make Qin
Shi Huang immortal [oh,
but they did! he’s on this timeline as proof of it!]
Qin Shi Huang was buried
with the Terracotta Army in the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (the
full guided tour here, the picture below sourced here)
October: Qin Shi Huang's son Qin Er Shi succeeded him as emperor
209 BCE: The Xiongnu Chanyu Modu
Chanyu established the Xiongnu Empire on the Eurasian Steppe - and
will occupy this timeline as a force of opposition for the next 500 years: “Chanyu”
should in full be “Chengli Gutu Chanyu”, and is roughly the equivalent of
the Chinese designation “Tianzi” and the Christian designation “Jesus Christ”,
and means “Son of Heaven”; click here for a full history of
the Xiongnu
July: Dazexiang Uprising: Military officers Chen Sheng and Wu Guang began a rebellion for fear of being executed after failing to arrive at their posts
December: Dazexiang Uprising: Chen Sheng and Wu Guang were assassinated by their own men
I have to confess that I do rather like that July-December couplet, and shall consider placing the two men on my GER page, but the perpetrators will definitely be added to my list of those who stood up to unconscionable bullying
208 BCE: Li was executed on charges of treason. Zhao Gao, who had framed him, was appointed chancellor in his stead [not even pretending to be neutral on this occasion! Evidence. Provide evidence]
207 BCE: Battle of Julu: Chu forces led by the warlord Xiang Yu
defeated a numerically superior Qin force, killing a large fraction of the Qin
army
October: Zhao Gao had Qin Er Shi killed. Qin Er Shi's nephew Ziying
succeeded him
The Chu general Emperor
Gaozu of Han entered the Qin capital Xianyang
December: Ziying killed Zhao
December: Ziying surrendered to Gaozu
206 BCE: Feast at Hong Gate: Gaozu fled a banquet after it became
clear that Xiang had invited him there to be killed
Xiang led an army into Xianyang, burned the Epang Palace and killed Ziying and the royal family [click here for the actual palace, which is/was magnificent; click here to purchase and make your own model; I have no idea if there is a jigsaw puzzle available but you can create one using the photo below, here]
205 BCE: Battle of Jingxing: Han forces dealt a decisive defeat to a numerically superior Zhao army at Jingxing Pass
204 BCE: The Qin general Zhao Tuo
established the state of Nanyue [where was it? click here]
202 BCE: Battle of Gaixia: Gaozu's Han forces destroyed the Western Chu army led by Xiang in modern Suzhou
Gaozu took the title emperor and established his capital in
Luoyang
200 BCE: Battle of Baideng: The Xiongnu encircled and besieged a superior Han force
The multi-tube seed drill was invented [another of several items that need to be added to the Jan 1 list: click here]
*
START OF THE HAN DYNASTY [at what point of all these
names did the dynasty come formally into being: for a full list of the emperors
– who are listed individually below – click here]
195 BCE: 1 June: Gaozu died. He was succeeded by his son Hui
193 BCE: The Han chancellor Xiao He died
190 BCE: Chang'an became the eastern terminus of the Silk Road to Europe - click here for its UNESCO page
188 BCE: Hui died. He was succeeded by his son Qianshao
186 BCE: Zhang Liang died [previously unmentioned and left unexplained, which is typical of this wikipedia page: click here]
184 BCE: Qianshao was deposed and killed on the orders of the empress
dowager Empress Lü Zhi. He was succeeded by his brother Houshao
180 BCE: Lü Clan Disturbance: Houshao was deposed by imperial
officials led by Chen Ping and Zhou Bo. He was succeeded by his uncle, Gaozu's
son Emperor Wen of Han
168 BCE: The Mawongdui Silk Texts were buried at Mawongdui [what were they and why bury them?] answer to the first part here and/or here; answer to the second part here: they weren’t “buried”, the text should read “found buried” as in "dug up by archaeologists". Though it is entirely possible that they were also part of the tomb-luggage of whoever was buried there: more on this, and why they should be called “the Daoyintu texts”, and more illustrations like the two below, click here
157 BCE: Summer: Wen died. He was succeeded by his son Jing [if you don’t have a precise date, why does the season merit mentioning?]
141 BCE: 9 March: Jing died. He was succeeded by his son Wu
140 BCE: Wu adopted Confucianism - which is a significant statement, given the burnings of 213 BCE, above
139 BCE: The Eight Immortals of
Huainan published the Huainanzi - Daoism under the
patronage of a nobleman named Liu An; click here for
more. The Eight were Jìn Chāng, Léi Bèi, Lǐ Shàng, Máo Bèi, Sū Fēi, Tián Yóu, Wǔ Bèi and Zuǒ Wú. Not to be confused with the Eight Immortals (Bā xiān),
who crossed the sea in mythical time, seated clockwise in the boat in this
order: He Xian'gu, Han Xiang Zi, Lan
Caihe, Li Tieguai, Lü Dongbin, Zhongli Quan, Cao Guojiu and outside the boat is
Zhang Guo Lao; click here for more on them.
135 BCE: Han campaigns against Minyue: The Han dynasty invaded Minyue after a plea for assistance from its vassal state Nanyue
Southward expansion of the Han dynasty: The Han dynasty annexed
Minyue
133 BCE: June: Battle of Mayi: A Han deception failed to lure the
Xiongnu into an ambush at Mayi
125 BCE: Zhang Qian returned to the Han court to report on his travels to the kingdoms of Dayuan, Kangju, the Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek Kingdoms, Parthia and Mesopotamia [who was he and why did he go there?] Marco Polo in reverse! click here and/or here
119 BCE: January: Battle of Mobei: A Han expedition into the Orkhon Valley began which would deal a decisive and bloody defeat to the Xiongnu
111 BCE: Han campaigns against Minyue: The Minyue rump state of
Dongyue was invaded and annexed by the Han dynasty
Han–Nanyue War: The Han dynasty conquered and annexed Nanyue
109 BCE: Han campaigns against
Dian: The Han dynasty invaded and annexed the Dian Kingdom
[land changes again and therefore left
green, but only if it is land outside China that has now been added: need to
follow this up]
108 BCE: December: Battle of Loulan: Han forces attacked the Loulan
Kingdom at Lop Nur
102 BCE: Han forces laid siege to Kokand
100 BCE: Steel was first used in China [had it been used already elsewhere or did they invent it?] But this statement is clearly absolute and unpatented but still patent rubbish; I have it for absolute certain from the website of Service Steel, and they should know, that “Who invented steel? While no one knows of one person (or even one culture) that invented steel first, the ‘Father of Steel’ is widely considered to be Sir Henry Bessemer. An English engineer in the 1800s, he played a huge role in the beginning of the modern steel industry.” So there you have it. A white, European, Christian male, as it should be, as it must be, as it always is!
And for those who wish to dispute the
matter further, you are right to do so, because that website of nullius in
verba certainty, wikipedia,
insists that it wasn’t Bessemer, but Benjamin Huntsman in the 1740s, fully
eighty years earlier (yes, the info that started this listing is also from
wikipedia, but you don’t seriously expect its writers to read each other’s
pages, let alone check their claims?).
91 BCE: Sima Qian completed the Records of the Grand Historian [who was he and what were they? probably the entirety of the stuff listed in grey, above, but I need to confirm/verify (or correct) that statement] click here
87 BCE: 29 March: Wu died. He was succeeded by his young son Zhao, with Huo Guang, Jin Midi and Shangguang Jie acting as regents
86 BCE: Jin died
74 BCE: Zhao died
18 July: The Prince of Changyi was appointed emperor of Han by Huo
Guang [does
that mean the land wasn’t called China, but Han? and is that true of all the
dynasties?]
14 August: The Prince of Changyi was deposed [well, he lasted a month! more
than Liz Truss or Lady Jane Grey managed]
Huo appointed Wu's
great-grandson, then a commoner, Emperor Xuan of Han [if Wu
was the emperor in a royal dynasty, how does his g-g-son get to be a
commoner?]
67 BCE: December: Battle of Jushi: Han forces defeated the people of the
Gushi culture, at that time subject to the Xiongnu, at Jiaohe in modern Turpan [Gushi or Jushi? both are used,
but not usually in the same sentence! They were the Chinese Bedou, horsemen and
archers of the Gobi desert, and I choose the parallel deliberately, because
archaeologists have dug up shaman tombs replete with mummies... one essential
difference though: the Egyptians always preferred haoma where the Gushi used
cannabis: click here if
you’re not blocked in your country from perfectly reasonable Chinese websites
(or use VPN and get there anyway) ]
60 BCE: The Protectorate of the
Western Regions was established-
49 BCE: Xuan died
48 BCE: Xuan's son Yuan became emperor of the Han dynasty
Consort Ban was born [who was he, or she more
likely, given that "consort" is usually the official wife? based on this, she
was a nobody who barely merits mention in the gossip columns of the day, let
alone a history book:”Ban was smart and gifted with extraordinary retentive
memory and curiosity. She enjoyed reading. She became a low-rank royal
concubine of Emperor Cheng of Western Han Dynasty first, and upgraded to the
second-rank as Jie Yu after the emperor discovered her talent”. However, this website thinks
otherwise, and reckons her a major scholar if minor poet]
40 BCE: The earliest surviving
Chinese record of the treadle-operated tilt hammer appeared [add this to the Jan 1 list?]: for the facts about it, click here; for a modern equivalent, with drawings, here
37 BCE: Jing Fang died. Jing Fang (Chinese: 京房; pinyin: Jīng Fáng; Wade–Giles: Ching Fang, 78–37 BC), born Li Fang (李房), courtesy name Junming (君明), was born in present-day 東郡頓丘 (Puyang, Henan) during the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD). He was a Chinese music theorist, mathematician and astronomer. Click here, and read about the other Jing Fang who preceded him as well
36 BCE: December: Battle of Zhizhi: A Han force breached and destroyed a fortress occupied by the Xiongnu chanyu Zhizhi Chanyu at Taraz, killing him
33 BCE: Yuan died. He was succeeded by his son Cheng
30 BCE: The earliest surviving mention of the wheelbarrow [now there’s a scientific achievement that simply has to be on my Jan 1 list!]
18 BCE: Liu Xiang compiled the
Biographies of Exemplary Women. [I wonder what criteria
were used to grant entry!] and clearly this needs to be included in
Woman-Blindness. Click here for
more
7 BCE: Cheng died. He was succeeded by his nephew Ai
1 BCE:
Ai died
Ai's young cousin Ping
was appointed, with Wang Mang acting as regent
THERE
IS NO YEAR 0; it hasn’t been invented yet
2 CE:
A census counted fifty-nine million people in
the Han empire [the Roman Empire at the same time was
about 45 million, and about 200 million more made up the rest of the world’s
population]
3 CE:
Ping established a national school system [for
everybody? can you imagine? we didn’t get one of those in the UK until the
1960s].
Ban Biao, first author of the Book of Han, is born. [who was the second? need
to know more about both: did they teach Confucianism? was the book lit or
hist?] - history is the answer: click here: see 32 CE for the co-author, and 111 CE for the completion. See here for
Ban Biao
6 CE: 3 February: Ping died after being poisoned by Wang, who became acting emperor [I have included a list of all the emperors who lived to old age and died of natural causes in their beds, in a list in a footnote to the margin in the appendix to the bibliography]
8 CE:
Liu Xin completed a star catalogue and
calculated the length of the year [accurately?]
“Liu Xin is a host and journalist for the English-language Chinese government-broadcaster China Global Television Network (CGTN)”... ooops, sorry, I went to Wikipedia again, silly me. For Liu Xin who was also known as Zijun until he changed his proper name to Liu Xiu and thence was also known as Liu Yingshu... click here
*
XIN DYNASTY STARTS HERE: “Xin dynasty, (ad 9–25),
short-lived dynasty in China formed by Wang Mang, whose usurpation of power
from the ruling Liu family constituted an interim in the Han dynasty succession
and resulted in historians splitting the Han into the Xi (Western) Han (206
bc–ad 25) and the Dong (Eastern) Han (ad 25–220) dynastic ...” see Britannica for
the rest
9 CE: Wang declared himself emperor of the Xin dynasty, and introduced the well-field system of land distribution and agricultural production. [is that an early form of Communism or simply feudal slave-management à la Magna Carta and Joseph in Egypt? City of Peace offers an interesting example of tribal land-sharing that seems to have worked extremely well] Britannica dates the system to much later: click here. But this appears to be the original, albeit in modern English; astute readers will note that the Chinese term also provides a starting-point for both Sudoku and Rubik's Cube, and an explanation of why Communism failed
10 CE:
Wang introduced an income tax of ten percent for
professionals and skilled labourers [income
tax is fine if the money is being given back to the tax-payers through
infrastructure (roads, health, sewage, water, education...); the problem with
the feudal system is that it simply baa-baa’ed the black sheep - for which see
March 15]
Wang outlawed the private use of crossbows [use?
or possession?]
12 CE:
Wang abandoned the well-field system under
pressure from the aristocracy. [see my closing comment at 9CE!]
17 CE:
Wang imposed government monopolies on liquor,
salt, iron, coinage, forestry, and fishing [which
is precisely Joseph in Egypt]
Five items in a row which may not have been the most significant
moments in human history, but I have left them in green anyway, because they
recount what the ruler did, not just his name, his coming to power, his death:
a meaningful study of history has to be these green events, however slight
their long-term impact, and even if they failed disastrously: this is about
doing, not just about being.
Mother Lü initiated a rebellion
against a county magistrate in Haiqu County, near modern Rizhao. [Joan of Arc in China! And she won! And you
could read more if I let you, but the only interesting website I can find is on
the rejected-website list: see why here]
18 CE: Yang Xiong died [the Chinese philosopher of the Yetser ha Tov and the Yetser ha Ra: for which parallel click here] interesting man and well worth a much fuller investigation
23 CE: Battle of Kunyang: Lülin forces broke the siege of Kunyang, in modern Ye County, by a vastly superior Xin army
October 6: Lülin rebels stormed the Weiyang Palace and killed Wang
The Gengshi Emperor ascended the throne, restoring the Han
dynasty [Gengshi means “to make a fresh start”]
THE SECOND (RESTORED) HAN DYNASTY... BUT
25 CE: Red Eyebrows Rebellions: The Gengshi Emperor was executed, and Liu Penzi appointed Emperor [the second Peasants’ Revolt, following Mother Lü’s: click here]
5 August: The Han warlord Guangwu of Han took the title emperor: click here
BUT
27 CE:
Red
Eyebrows Rebels surrendered to the Han dynasty
31 CE: Du Shi invented waterwheel-powered bellows for smelting cast iron [another one for my Jan 1 list? click here for everything you could possibly want to know about this fascinating subject]
32 CE: Ban Gu, co-author of the Book of Han, is born [see 3 CE and 111 CE, and click here]
33 CE: A blockade of the Yangtze River by the rebel Gongsun Shu was broken by Han castle ships
43 CE:
Second
Chinese domination of Vietnam: Vietnam fell into Han control
45 CE: Ban Zhao, China's first female historian, is born. [that needs a mention on my W-B page!] see 111 CE: Ban Gu’s younger sister, it transpires: click here
52 CE:
The Yuejue Shu was written. [what
is it? click here for
starters; then here to
download the pdf of the full book in translation]
57 CE: 29 March: Guangwu died. He was succeeded by his son Ming [not to be confused with the Ming Dynasty, which was a millennium and more later]
58 CE:
The Han chancellor
Deng Yu died [what
is the difference between an emperor and a chancellor? click here for
the full governmental structure. The equivalent of Joseph to Pharaoh, and so,
again, the name is irrelevant unless the person did something that merits
remembering]
65 CE:
Ming's
half brother Liu Ying converted to Buddhism [and apparently his quarter-sister took
up knitting at exactly the same time]
68 CE: The Buddhist White Horse Temple was established in Luoyang [which is in west Henan province and is the earliest of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China: click here]
73 CE: February: Battle of Yiwulu: A punitive Han expedition against the Xiongnu captured territory in the area of modern Hami City [which is in eastern Xinjiang: click here]
75CE:
Ming
died. He was succeeded by his son Zhang
83 CE: Wang Chong correctly theorised the nature of the water cycle [correctly? this website says “Wang’s views concerning the source of rain is surprisingly close to our contemporary understanding, and Wang seems to have had some understanding of the water cycle.” So “theorised” is the correct term on this occasion]
87 CE:
Yuan An was appointed situ [what
does that mean? acting emperor? left in green until I can find an answer]
88 CE:
Zhang
died. He was succeeded by his son He [another
Wikipedia error; his name was Hedi, birthname Liu Zhao, Temple name Shi: click here]
89 CE: June: Battle of the Altai Mountains: Han
and allied forces defeated the army of the Northern Chanyu and accepted the
surrender of two hundred thousand Xiongnu soldiers in the Altai Mountains
97 CE: The Han general Ban Chao sent the envoy Gan
Ying to the outskirts of the Roman Empire [probably Augusta
Euphrantentis, where the Euphrates enters Arabia from Turkey: click here. But
what we need to know, and the timeline doesn’t tell us, is “what for?” and
“what did he achieve?” this needs following
up]
100 CE: Xu Shen [click here] completed the Shuowen Jiezi [click here to reserve your copy at the Library of Congress]
105 CE: Cai Lun invented papermaking (which makes it feel rather churlish to be writing this, and researching this, digitally, but click here anyway; and what distinguishes his paper from, say, Egyptian papyrus? click here]
13 February: He died [not “he” as in “him”, but He as in Hedi… see 88 CE above]. His infant son Shang was made emperor with the dowager empress Deng Sui acting as regent
106 CE: Shang died. Shang's young cousin An became emperor,
with Deng Sui continuing to act as regent [isn’t
it strange how many of these young emperors scarcely last a year!]
111 CE: Ban Zhao completed the Book of Han [see 3CE and 32 CE]
120 CE: Zhang Heng completed a star catalogue which also argued for a spherical moon that reflects light [does it say what light-source is being reflected? Don’t tell the people who burned Copernicus’ De Rerum! Click here for more] and how different was it from Liu Xin's in 8 CE?
125 CE: Zhang invented the first hydraulic-powered armillary sphere [and what actually is that?] all the websites I have perused (here, for example, and this is a Chinese site) insist that it was Su Song, and a thousand years later; for once though, I think Wikipedia may have got this right, and Su Song's was an improvement, not an invention: click here, though it spells his name as Zang, not Zhang
The earliest known Chinese depiction of a mechanical
distance-marking odometer was drawn [illustration needed; was this
also Zhang? even more fascinating than the what-was-it-called at 125 CE: click here]; but Zhang as the inventor is disputed here, though it does accept that two people in different parts of the world could have come up with the sme thing independently. Worth looking at this site as well
30 April: An died
The Marquess of Beixiang
became emperor of the Han dynasty [empress,
surely? or is Marquess just an error in English and it should be Marquis? and
if it is correct as a female ruler, was she the first?]
The Marquess of Beixiang died: [Liu Yi his birth-name; and male: click here, where his title is spelled correctly, as Marquis]
An's son Shun became emperor of the Han dynasty
Cai Yong was born [also known as Bohie: click here, but it’s just another minor politician – though the link does mention his hatred of the eunuchs, and the power they wielded, so perhaps this relates to the events of 166 CE, for which see below]
142 CE: The Cantong qi was published [detail needed; and why does “qi” not have a capital?... click here for some academic papers; there is an interesting looking website here, but MacAfee has put up a Caveat note so I haven’t opened it – maybe try it on a library computer and see what the issue is (a lot of Chinese wesbites are blocked in Britain, for no obvious reason in most cases, just the stupidity of world politics)]; or better still, use VPN, choose China for my IP preference, and then see it!
144 CE: Shun died. He was succeeded by his infant son Chong, with empress dowager Liang Na and her brother Liang Ji acting as regents
145 CE: Chong died [maybe
it’s just the normally high infant mortality rate of the pre-NHS era. Or maybe
not – see 146 CE, below]
Chong's young third
cousin Zhi of Han became emperor, with Liang Na acting as regent
146 CE: Liang Ji poisoned Zhi, killing him [Smithsonian has different
dates and data: click here]
1 August: Huan became emperor of the Han dynasty
147 CE: Lokaksema was born [Buddhist
monk – click here]
148 CE: The Buddhist missionary
An Shigao arrived in China [same website for this one:
click here – and maybe my tongue-in-cheek at 65
CE needs pulling back, because Buddhism became central to public life in China
from about 148 CE onwards (knitting nonetheless has outlasted it: a full history here)]
166 CE: Sino-Roman relations: A
Roman envoy arrived at the Han capital Luoyang [the
return visit presumably from Gan Ying’s trip in 97 CE; I wonder if there are
any written records by the Roman envoy, describing his trip]
Disasters of the Partisan Prohibitions: Several ministers and
some two hundred university students, who had opposed the influence of corrupt
eunuchs at the royal court, were arrested [see my note on Cai Yong
at 132 CE, though that doesn’t tell us what the “Partisan Prohibitions” were:
click here for
that, much more as well on the Han dynasty, and some really useful maps]
168 CE: Huan died
Ling became emperor of the Han dynasty
[I still need to put in birth and temple
names for several of the emperors listed above]
177 CE: Cai Wenji was born [Cai Yan properly; Wenji or sometimes Lady Wenji, was her nickname; composer, poet, and writer, ghastly life story – click here – and another for my Chinese list among the W-Bs]
179 CE: The earliest known reference to The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art appeared [click here]
180 CE: Ding Huan invented the rotary fan [click here]
184 CE: Yellow Turban Rebellion: The Taoist sect leader Zhang Jue called on his followers in the Han provinces to rebel against the government [must have clashed terribly with the red eyebrows; and I must check if Taoism and Daoism are dialect variations of language, or of philosophy, or even, though this is less likely, both – the answer can be found here: and of course there is a 3rd variation, which is Maoism, and that is definitely different]
Winter: Liang Province Rebellion: The Qiang people launched a
rebellion against Han authority in the area of modern Wuwei [is this why the Great Wall was
built? To keep the Visigoths out of Rome? Follow this through until 220CE and
you will understand that I am paralleling, not jesting: this is how empires
crumble]
185 CE: Zhi Yao first translated Buddhist texts into Chinese [not to be confused with this one, though very little seems to be known about our one: try here]
189 CE: 13 May: Ling died
Ling's son Liu Bian became emperor of the Han dynasty
Forces loyal to the warlords Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu massacred some two thousand eunuchs in the Han capital Luoyang [this argument over eunuchs seems to keep coming up at this time; apparently cutting off a man’s scrotum doesn’t reduce his testosterone drive at all, but merely alters the modes available for expending it]
28 September: The Han general Dong Zhuo deposed Liu Bian as emperor
and appointed his brother Xian in his stead
190 CE: February: Campaign against Dong Zhuo: A coalition led by Yuan
Shao gathered at Hangu Pass in anticipation of an expedition against Dong [and?]
192 CE: 22 May: Dong was assassinated by his foster son Lü Bu
194 CE: Sun Ce's conquests in Jiangdong: The warlord Sun Ce attacked
and conquered territory administered by Lu Kang
197 CE: War between Cao Cao and Zhang Xiu almost takes Cao Cao's
life. Cao Cao's oldest son perished in the battle, but Zhang Xiu later (199)
surrendered to Cao Cao to face Yuan Shao together
198 CE: Winter: Battle of Xiapi: The allied forces of the warlords Cao
Cao and Liu Bei defeated an army loyal to Lü Bu in Xuzhou
200 CE: November: Battle of Guandu: Forces loyal to Cao Cao dealt a
bloody defeat to Yuan Shao near the confluence of the Bian and Yellow Rivers
204 CE: The warlord Gongsun Kang established the Daifang Commandery
on the Korean Peninsula
208 CE: Winter: Battle of Red Cliffs: Forces loyal to the warlords Liu
Bei and Sun Quan decisively repelled Cao Cao in an attempted invasion across
the Yangtze River
211 CE: September: Battle of Tong Pass: Cao Cao defeated an alliance of
anti-Han rebels in modern Tongguan County, securing his control over Guanzhong
215 CE: Liu Bei's takeover of Yi Province: Liu Zhang, the governor
of Yi Province in modern Sichuan and Chongqing, surrendered Chengdu to Liu Bei
Battle of Xiaoyao Ford: A
plague outbreak forced Sun Quan to abandon the attempted conquest from Cao Cao
of a fortress at Hefei
219 CE: Battle of Han River: Liu Bei ambushed and dealt a bloody
defeat to Cao Cao's army in Hanzhong
September: Battle of Fancheng: Cao Cao repelled an attack by Liu Bei's
general Guan Yu in modern Fancheng District, at great cost to both sides
December: Lü Meng's invasion of Jing Province: Liu Bei's generals Shi
Ren and Mi Fang defected to Sun Quan, surrendering to his general Lü Meng the
main defense posts of Jingzhou
220 CE: 10 December: End of the Han dynasty: Cao Cao's son Cao Pi forced
Xian to abdicate the throne and declared himself emperor of Cao Wei
*
THE THREE KINGDOMS – this needs a fuller explanation because we are clearly about to do three separate but simultaneous histories and will need to be able to distinguish them – this site even has a map.
221 CE: Liu Bei declared himself emperor of Shu Han
Battle of Xiaoting: The
Shu Han generals Wu Ban and Feng Xi attacked and destroyed an Eastern Wu army
at Wu Gorge
222 CE: Sun Quan declared himself king of Eastern Wu
Battle of Xiaoting:
Eastern Wu forces attacked and burned the Shu Han camps and dealt serious
casualties during their retreat
223 CE:10 June: Liu Bei died. He was succeeded by his son Liu Shan,
with Li Yan and chancellor Zhuge Liang acting as regents
225 CE: Autumn: Zhuge Liang's Southern Campaign: The rebel leader Meng
Huo surrendered Nanzhong to Zhuge Liang
226 CE: 29 June: Cao Pi died. He was succeeded by Cao Rui, who may have
been his son or his wife Lady Zhen's by a previous marriage to Yuan Xi
228 CE: Battle of Jieting: Cao Wei forces encircled and destroyed a
Shu Han army guarding the supply line for an invasion in modern Qin'an County
Battle of Shiting: A Cao
Wei army was lured into an ambush by Eastern Wu in modern Qianshan County and
dealt heavy casualties on its retreat
229 CE: Sun Quan declared himself emperor of Eastern Wu
232 CE: Cao Zhi died
234 CE: Autumn: Battle of Wuzhang Plains: Shu Han forces made an
orderly retreat from Cao Wei forces on the Wuzhang Plains after Zhuge Liang
fell ill and died
239 CE: 22 January: Cao Rui died. He was succeeded by his young adopted
son Cao Fang, with Cao Shuang and Sima Yi acting as regents
244 CE: April: Battle of Xingshi: Shu Han forces stalled a Cao Wei
invasion at Mount Xingshi in the modern Changqing
National Nature Reserve [excellent website here]
247 CE: Jiang Wei's Northern Expeditions: Cao Wei pushed back an
invasion by the Shu Han general Jiang Wei across the Tao River
248 CE: Eastern Wu forces killed
the Vietnamese rebel Lady Triệu [how is that pronounced? click here to get
a taste of it, or here for a
drier explanation]
249 CE: Incident at Gaoping Tombs: Sima Yi took control of the Cao
Wei capital Luoyang during Cao Fang and Cao Shuang's absence
252 CE: Sun Quan died. He was succeeded by his young son Sun Liang,
with the general Zhuge Ke acting as regent
254 CE: Sima Yi's son, the regent Sima Shi, deposed Cao Fang, who
was succeeded by Cao Pi's grandson Cao Mao
255 CE: Ma Jun invented the
south-pointing chariot [that cannot be what it means! surely a chariot faces whatever direction the driver chooses! Explanation and picture here]
258 CE: Sun Liang was deposed by the regent Sun Chen.
Sun Liang's brother Sun
Xiu was made emperor of Eastern Wu
260 CE: Coup of Cao Mao: Cao Mao was murdered in a failed attempt to
kill the regent Sima Zhao at his residence
Cao Cao's grandson Cao Huan was made emperor of Cao Wei
263 CE: November: Conquest of Shu by Wei: The Cao Wei general Deng Ai
accepted the surrender of the Shu Han emperor Liu Shan outside the capital
Chengdu
Liu Hui [very brief bio here; much more here] published a revised version of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art [and may be the first to have used negative numbers]
Chapter 1: Land Surveying.
Chapter 2: Millet and Rice.
Chapter 3: Distribution by Proportion.
Chapter 4: Short Width.
Chapter 5: Civil Engineering.
Chapter 6: Fair Distribution of Goods.
Chapter 7: Excess and Deficit.
264 CE: 3 September: Sun Xiu died
Sun Quan's grandson Sun Hao was made emperor of Eastern Wu
265 CE: Cao Wei instituted the
nine-rank system of civil servants [click here]
6 September: Sima Zhao died. His eldest son and heir, Sima Yan, inherited his position as regent of Cao Wei and noble title of King of Jin
Pei Xiu introduced the grid reference and the concept of scale
to Chinese mapmaking ["introduced" infers someone else had already
invented it: click here but reckon you will need days to read it, and it will be worth every minute]
266 CE: 4 February: Cao Huan, last emperor of Cao Wei, abdicated in favour of Sima Yan
8 February: Sima Yan formally
enthroned himself as Emperor of Jin, establishing the Jin dynasty. Sima Yan is
posthumously known as Emperor Wu of Jin
*
THE JIN DYNASTY [click here for a very broad overview]
Be
aware that over the next section we will be given about five different
histories simultaneously, without any clarification of the distinctions: a
sporting equivalent would be learning that in 1989 Curtis Strange won the Open,
1990 Pete Sampras won the Open, 1991 John Parrott won the Open, etc, without
bothering to explain that the first was Golf, the second Tennis, the third
Snooker: here the differences are geographic regions operating as states or
warlordships
266 CE: 20 March: Emperor Wu of Jin established his wife Yang Yan as Empress
267 CE: 4 February: Emperor Wu of Jin established his oldest living son,
the developmentally disabled Sima Zhong, as Heir
280 CE: 15 March: Conquest of Wu by Jin: Sun Hao presented himself as a
prisoner to the Jin general Wang Jun
Chen Shou compiled the Records of the Three Kingdoms [what there is of it can be read in translation here; for the man here]: “The Records of the Three Kingdoms is regarded as the official and authoritative historical text on the Three Kingdoms and the end of the Later Han period of Chinese history. Written by Chen Shou in the 3rd century, the work combines the smaller histories of the rival states of Cao Wei, Shu Han and Eastern Wu of the Three Kingdoms into a single text.”
290 CE: 17 May: Emperor Wu died. He was succeeded by his developmentally disabled son Hui, with Yang Jun acting as regent
291 CE: War of the Eight Princes: Hui's wife Jia Nanfeng invited
troops loyal to his brother Sima Wei into the Jin capital Luoyang to imprison
the empress dowager Empress Yang Zhi and her relatives
304 CE: The Xiongnu noble Liu Yuan declared himself prince of Former Zhao
The Di warlord Li Xiong declared himself prince of Cheng Han
307 CE: 8 January: Hui was poisoned, probably by the regent Sima Yue
Hui's brother Huai became emperor of the Jin dynasty
311 CE: Huai was kidnapped from the capital Luoyang by Former Zhao
forces
313 CE: Goguryeo conquered and annexed the Lelang Commandery
14 March: Huai executed
Huai's nephew Min became emperor of the Jin dynasty
316 CE: Min surrendered to the Former Zhao general Liu Yao during a siege of the Jin capital Chang'an [see 190 BCE, above]
317 CE: Yuan declared himself prince of Jin, with his capital at Jiankang [which apparently is
318 CE: Min executed
319 CE: The Jie warlord Shi Le declared himself prince of Later Zhao
320 CE: Zhang Mao issued a
general pardon to the people of Former Liang [and
rightly too, because clearly the whole long history of megalomaniacal murder
and brutality by the rulers was the fault of the people and only the people,
and if they had now said sorry, why they merited a pardon!]
[stirrups aren’t exactly complex, so why were the previous so poorly drawn? Or were they just badly drawn on tombs?] click here and here for the history and the pictures (alas I can't find that tomb-picture; the one on the right is Monghol from the same period and the 2nd link)
323 CE: 3 January: Yuan died. He was succeeded by his son Ming
324 CE: The rebel Wang Dun died [what
did he do? Click here]
325 CE: 18 October: Ming died. He was succeeded by his young son Cheng
328 CE: The rebel Su Jun was defeated by the Jin generals Tao Kan
and Wen Jiao
329 CE: The Later Zhao general Shi Hu captured Shanggui in modern
Tianshui and killed the Former Zhao emperor Liu Xi and his nobility
337 CE: 23 November: The Xianbei Murong Huang declared himself prince of
Former Yan
342 CE: 26 June: Cheng died. He was succeeded by his brother Kang
344 CE: 17 November: Kang died. He was succeeded by his infant son Mu
347 CE: The
Jin general Huan Wen captured the Cheng Han capital Chengdu
351 CE: The Jin general and Di chief Fu Jian declared himself Tian
Wang of Former Qin
The Later Zhao emperor Shi Zhi and his court were killed by one of his generals on the orders of the warlord Ran Mi
353 CE: Wang Xizhi wrote the Lantingji Xu [which is what? click here]
361 CE: 10 July: Mu died
Mu’s cousin Ai became emperor of the Jin dynasty
365 CE: 30 March: Ai died. He was succeeded by his brother Emperor Fei
of Jin [interesting
how many of these names recur, but they don’t number them the way we do in
Europe: why isn’t he Ai II?]
366 CE: Gu Kaizhi became a Jin officer - the technical term in Chinese is "
369 CE: A Jin army led by Huan was annihilated as it retreated from the Former Yan capital Ye by the general Murong Chui
370 CE: The Former Yan emperor Murong Wei was captured by the Former
Qin prime minister Wang Meng
372 CE: 6 January: Huan deposed Fei in favour of his grand-uncle Jianwen
12 September: Jianwen died. He was succeeded by his young son Xiaowu
376 CE: 26 September: Duke Zhang Tianxi of Former Liang surrendered to
Former Qin
383 CE: November: Battle of Fei River: A Jin army defeated a massively
larger Former Qin force, inflicting some seven hundred thousand casualties and
expanding Jin territory north to the Yellow River
384 CE: The Xianbei Former Qin general Murong Chui declared himself
prince of Later Yan [ what
does “later” mean”? it has come up several times before]
The Former Qin general
Yao Chang declared himself prince of Later Qin
385 CE: The Xianbei chief and Former Qin vassal Qifu Guoren joined
an active rebellion and declared the independence of Western Qin
386 CE: 20 February: Emperor Daowu of Northern Wei declared himself prince
of Northern Wei
The Former Qin general Lü
Guang declared himself Tian Wang of the majority-Di Later Liang [what
does “Tian Wang” mean?” “Heavenly King” apparently and it is now the label on a
brand of sleeping medicines, and of watches – click here and here]
394 CE: The Former Qin emperor Fu Chong was killed and his territory
annexed by Western Qin forces
396 CE: Xiaowu was suffocated by one of his concubines. He was
succeeded by his young and severely disabled son An
397 CE: Xiongnu rebels established the Northern Liang, with the Han
Duan Ye as king
The Xianbei chief Tufa
Wugu declared the independence of Southern Liang from Later Liang
398 CE: Murong Chui's brother Murong De declared himself prince of
Southern Yan
400 CE: Six commanderies of Northern Liang seceded as Western Liang, under the kingship of the Han Li Gao
403 CE: Under military pressure from Southern Liang and Northern
Liang, the Later Liang emperor Lü Long surrendered his capital Guzang, in
modern Wuwei, to the Later Qin emperor Yao Xing
404 CE: Huiyuan wrote On Why Monks Do Not Bow Down Before Kings, arguing for the independence of Buddhist clergy from the monarchy [now that should be worth reading! but alas it proves not to be so: find out for yourself here]
405 CE: Tao Yuanming retired [he was a civil servant who became a reclusive poet, so is our writer describing his “retirement” as a civil service, or being wittily-clever about his “reclusiveness” coinciding with that moment? Oh, but I do hope it is this – but the evidence of wit and cleverness is not present in the previous pages, so perhaps I am being optimistic in vain: click here for the poet, here for the poems]
407 CE: The Later Yan emperor Murong Xi was beheaded by his adoptive nephew, the Korean people Gao Yun [is that just bad English? and did he personally wield the axe?], who became emperor of the successor state of Northern Yan
The Later Qin general
Helian Bobo declared himself Tian Wang of the majority-Xiongnu Xia [see
386 CE for the explanation of that term]
410 CE: 25
March: The Southern Yan
emperor Murong Chao was executed by Jin along with his court and nobility
414 CE: Western Qin conquered the Southern Liang capital Ledu, in
modern Haidong
417 CE: The Later Qin emperor Yao Hong surrendered to the Jin
general Emperor Wu of Liu Song
419 CE: 28 January: An was strangled on Wu's orders and succeeded by his
brother Emperor Gong of Jin
420 CE: Wu deposed Gong, marking the beginning of the Liu Song
dynasty
You can find David Prashker at:
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