The Pre-Imperial Age
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.
80,000 BCE: Homo-not-terribly-Sapiens
appears in modern Dao County, Hunan*, which suggests very strongly
that the Neanderthals who have become the Anglo-Saxon/Americans are evolutions
from an entirely different species of simian, as are the several varieties of
African...
* Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River
in South Central China, Hunan is a southern province, bordered to the
north by Hubei, to the east by Jiangxi, to the south by Guangdong and Guangxi,
to the west by Guizhou, and to the northwest by Chongqing.
20,000 BCE: Pottery was used in
Xianrendong (“Immortal”) Cave: click here and/or
here for
data, and also for the adjacent Diaotonghuan (“overhanging rock”). On the map,
look for the Guilin region, and then go to the south-western fringes of Dushan
Mountain in Yangshuo county (map here)
7600 BCE: The Zengpiyan Culture
appeared; called this because the first evidence of the domestication of
pigs is here, and that is how you say “pigs” in Chinese (1st evidence in China?
or were they already in other parts of the world?); click here for
the National Park that bears the name, and much more about it.
7500 BCE: The Pengtoushan (“Neolithic”) Culture appeared, around the central Yangtze River region, in
north-western Hunan province, but discovered buried beneath the Liyang Plain. Rice
was first domesticated here - and hardly surprising,
given the geography!
[probably China was the first to do this,
but I need to check: answer here and here]. Click here for
more detail on the Pengtoushan
7000 BCE: The Peiligang,
or sometimes Jiahu-Peiligang, and sometimes Peiligang-Cishan Culture (see
below for that) appeared, in north-central Hunan, along the middle and lower
Yellow River, and on the plains of northern and central China: large
villages, often with protective ditches and the houses semi-subterranean;
hunting, fishing and gathering; domesticated dogs from about 6000 BCE (see
below); tortoiseshell rattles and lots of pottery, including complex clay
furniture. Click here for
the Xinzheng site; here for
more data [why was it called that? why 3 variant
names?]
6500 BCE: The Cishan Culture appeared, in northern China, on the eastern foothills of
the Taihang Mountains, and especially in the lowland plains of the eastern
Middle Yellow River in Hebei Province. Click here for
the archeological site (the culture is mamed for the site)
6000 BCE: Dogs were first domesticated
in China But read here and be
surprised... because... which dogs? just as there are dozens of species under
the generic name “humans”, so with trees, fish, birds and especially dogs, of
whom there are over 400 recognised breeds; the answer here is the evolution of
the wolf, so more likely the alsatian than the pit bull or the Bergamasco Shepherd
picture source here
3630 BCE: Silk processing was
invented by The Yangshao Culture [why was it called that? click here]
2570 BCE: Silk was produced by The Liangzhu Culture, the
last Chinese Neolithic jade culture in the Yangtze ("Changjiang"
in Chinese, literally, the "long river") River
Delta.
Liáng and Zhù became famous later on through the tale of “The
Butterfly Lovers” - read their tale here, or
learn about their concerto here
2500 BCE: Battle of Banquan: The
forces of the divine farmer Shennong were repelled by a force of tribes allied
under the Yellow Emperor [this sounds like mythology
reduced to pseudo-history; and clearly the Chinese agree with me: click here for
Shennong, here for
the Yellow Emperor]. Some sort of a battle may well have taken place, but
clearly not the one described here: it is thought that it led to the formation
of the Huaxia tribe, the basis of the Han people who will be central to our
story from now onwards.
Battle of Zhuolu: A combined army of tribes under the Yellow
Emperor defeated Hmong invasion at Zhuolo. Again
this may well have a historical base, but click here rather
than me trying to explain
2366 BCE: Zhi became king (though
this belongs to the mythological age): not to be confused with the later Han
Emperor Zhi
2200 BCE: Great Flood: Yu the Great (also known as Yu the Engineer and Da Yu,
“The Tamer of the Flood”: click here) completed a drainage
system which ended the periodic and destructive flooding of the Yellow and
Yangtze Rivers.
(Reliable Archaeological discoveries depict that it happened
around 1920 BCE, but I think that those were the same archaeologists who also
found wood from Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat, and fragments of the stone tablets
that Moses dropped on Mount Sinai: this, again, is mythology, not history, and
the number of references to further floods as this timeline continues...) [How
does that relate to the Biblical and Greek flood-myths? or is it more a matter
of wadis?]
The Nine Tripod Cauldrons (Jiuding) were forged from metal given
in tribute to Yu by the Nine Provinces. Or not, because this too
belongs to mythology. A very thorough investigation here,
including the significance of the number 9.
The image at the top of this page is also from the Jiahu excavation, and shows the oldest playable musical instruments yet discovered, anywhere.
*
THE XIA DYNASTY: National Geographic’s account of all the Chinese dynasties here; World History Encyclopedia on the Xia, including a discussion of myth v history, here; more maps like the one on the left here
2117 BCE: Tai Kang became king of the Xia dynasty
2075 BCE: Xiang of Xia became king of the Xia dynasty
2047 BCE: Xiang was murdered and displaced as king on the orders of the warlord Han Zhuo. His pregnant wife fled the capital Shangqiu... [Confucius' home town: click here] ... Xiang's wife gave birth to a son, Shao Kang
2007 BCE: The people of Shangqiu welcomed an army loyal to Shao into
the city. Han committed suicide
1985 BCE: Zhu of Xia became king of the Xia dynasty
1968 BCE: Zhu died. He was succeeded by his son Huai of Xia [each of the successors in this
list gets named with a place; I am assuming this was a Princedom or other
aristocratic title, because otherwise the children lived in a different part of
the country from their parents: similarly, in England, the heir to the throne
is always given the title Prince of Wales, but lives in London. As this is the
Xia dynasty there is therefore no need to state it, and therefore, after this
instance, I will delete the irrelevance]
1924 BCE: Huai died. He was succeeded by his son Mang
1906 BCE: Mang was succeeded by his son Xie
1900 BCE: The Erlitou Culture appeared in the Yellow River valley: early Bronze Age.
[Eritou is an archaeological site in Yanshi – on the south bank
of the Luo River, 5 miles southwest of Yanshi city in Henan Province: click here]
1890 BCE: Xie was succeeded by his son Bu Jiang
1831 BCE: Bu abdicated in favor of his younger brother Jiong
Mount Tai earthquake: Taishan is China’s Sacred
Mountain, and today a UNESCO site, click here
1810 BCE: Jiong was succeeded by his son Jin
1789 BCE: Jin was succeeded by his cousin, Bu's son Kong Jia
1758 BCE: Kong was succeeded by his son Gao
1747 BCE: Gao was succeeded by his son Fa
1728 BCE: Fa was succeeded by his son Jie
And how depressing to read a page of history, the account of an epoch, and all there is to tell, besides the grey fragments, is the findings of one archaeological dig, and an earthquake. This, sadly, is how human history is generally recorded, across the whole world, not just China.
*
THE SHANG DYNASTY: The Smithsonian account here; the adjacent map here
1675 BCE: Jie was succeeded by Tang, marking the
beginning of the Shang dynasty
1600 BCE: Battle of Mingtiao: the Shang clan (later Shang dynasty)
overthrow the corrupt and last emperor of the Xia dynasty [our first instance of
bias/failed scholarship in this timeline: “corrupt” is an emotive term and
should not be used in any historical work unless the evidence to verify it is
included; obviously the man who overthrew him, and therefore wrote down the
history of the event from his perspective, needed an excuse for the coup, but
maybe the victim was an entirely honest man and the other a criminal usurper:
there must be evidence and clearly we have none. The problem will recur
constantly through this essay]
1500 BCE: The Erligang Culture appeared: Bronze Age and urban, and as with everything that we have learned about China thus far, the Yangzi River is the key (as are the major rivers to every ancient culture from the Tigris and Euphrates to the Thames and the St Lawrence seaway). It appears to be named Erligang from one of the archeological discoveries at Zhengzhou in 1951: click here
The capital of the Shang dynasty was moved from Yan to Yin [which
names again leave me wondering how much of this is archaeology and how much
mythology; and reinforced by the oracle bones coming next!]
1250 BCE: Wu Ding became king of the Shang dynasty. Oracle bones were first used for divination; evidence of oracle bone script first appears: click here and here to find out what they were
1200 BCE: Wu's wife, the general and high priestess Fu Hao, died and
was buried at the tomb of Fu Hao in Yinxu
1192 BCE: Wu died. He was succeeded by his son Zu Geng
1170 BCE: Geng Ding became king of the Shang dynasty
1147 BCE: Geng was succeeded by his son Wu Yi
1112 BCE: Wu was killed by lightning while out hunting. He was
succeeded by his son Wen Ding
1101 BCE: Wen was succeeded by his son Di Yi
1076 BCE: Di died
1075 BCE: Di was succeeded as king of the Shang dynasty by his son
Zhou
1050 BCE: King Wen of Zhou died
1046 BCE: Battle of Muye: The forces of the predynastic Zhou, led by
King Wu of Zhou and aided by Shang dynasty defectors, dealt a bloody defeat to
Shang forces at Muye, near Yinxu
Zhou committed suicide by
burning himself with his jewels on the Deer Terrace Pavilion
1043 BCE: Wu died
And
again, nothing, no achievements. They ruled. So what? They had power, and no
doubt reaped its benefits, and did nothing for their people except, for a
while, protect them from someone else who wished to have that power. Education?
Science? Culture? The building of an economy, even just a bridge, a palace ? Nothing - oh yes, the Deer Terrace Pavilion, for which I haven't even bothered to provide a link, because it was worse than nothing. Just names,
and emptiness.
But
then, at last, not much, but still...
*
ZHOU DYNASTY: The ChinaKnowledge account here, and note that there were actually two an Eastern and a Western Zhou, though the timeline below is mostly Western Zhou. And speaking of timelines, click here for the adjacent map.
1042 BCE: Wu was succeeded by his son Cheng
1034 BCE: Chinese bronze
inscriptions (Jinwen) came into use (probably
from the 17th century BCE, but don’t tell Wikipedia: a full account, including the illustration below, here)
1021 BCE: Cheng died
1020 BCE: Cheng was succeeded by his son Kang
1000 BCE: The Classic of Poetry was
compiled, and you can’t compile an anthology of this sort if there haven’t been poets
writing for some considerable time, so why have none been listed? However, this link
insists that the time in question was 770–256 BCE, and the compiler Confucius –
so maybe Wikipedia has got its dates wrong; this website
reckons 9th century, so maybe both the above are wrong!
The Classic is known in Chinese as the Shijing or Shih-ching or sometimes Shi King, and in English rather more Solomonically as “The Book of Song”, or Ovidically as “The Book of Odes”; it was indeed one of the five great works of Kun Fu Se, though he didn’t actually write it, but simply 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, and see 213 BCE for what
happened to the book later on.
996 BCE: Kang died
976 BCE: Mu became king of the Zhou dynasty
964 BCE: Mu led an unsuccessful expedition against the Quanrong
[expedition is an interesting choice of term! Robert Scott and
Roald Amundsen also led “expeditions”]
922 BCE: Mu died. He was succeeded by his son Gong
900 BCE: Gong died
899 BCE: Gong's son Ji Jian, known by his Temple-name as King Yi of
Zhou, succeeded to the throne
892 BCE: Ji Jian died
891 BCE: Ji Jian's uncle, Mu's son Xiao, became king of the Zhou
dynasty
886 BCE: Xiao died
885 BCE: Ji Jian's son Ji Xie, known by his Temple-name as King Yi of
Zhou, succeeded to the throne
878 BCE: Ji Xie died
877 BCE: Ji Xie's son Li became king of the Zhou dynasty
842 BCE: A popular revolt forced Li into exile near Linfen
841 BCE: The Gonghe Regency came into power - click here, not so much for the explanation of who this yet-another-power-faction was, as for the detailed survey of the Zhou era
828 BCE: Li died
827 BCE: Li's son Xuan became king of the Zhou dynasty
782 BCE: Xuan died
781 BCE: Xuan's son You became king of the Zhou dynasty
779 BCE: You took Bao Si as his
concubine [and apparently his next-door-neighbours won the synchronised
origami tournament on the same day, but that didn’t make it into the history
books]
771 BCE: The Marquess of Shen, whose daughter had been replaced by
Bao Si as queen, led an attack on Haojing in alliance with the Quanrong. You
and Bao's son Bofu were killed
770 BCE: You's son Ping became king of the Zhou dynasty. Ping moved the Zhou capital east to Luoyang
720 BCE: Ping died
719 BCE: Ping's grandson Huan became king of the Zhou dynasty
707 BCE: Battle of Xuge: Huan, in coalition with the Zhou vassal
states Chen, Cai and Wey, led a punitive expedition against Zheng. The
coalition was defeated and Huan was wounded
697 BCE: Huan died
696 BCE: Huan's son Zhuang became king of the Zhou dynasty
685 BCE: Huan became duke of Qi [why are we being told about lesser nobility, unless they did something of merit and significance? but see my note at 311 BCE, and then be even more confused: or did they sometimes call themseves king, and sometimes duke?]
682 BCE: Zhuang died
681 BCE: Zhuang's son Xi became king of the Zhou dynasty
677 BCE: Xi died
676 BCE: Xi's son Hui became king of the Zhou dynasty
652 BCE: Hui died
651 BCE: Hui's son Xiang became king of the Zhou dynasty
645 BCE: The Qi chancellor Guan Zhong died
632 BCE: Battle of Chengpu: Jin and its allies decisively defeated a
coalition led by Chu
630 BCE: Sunshu Ao was born [Sunshu Ao (孙叔敖, c. 630 – c. 593 BCE) was a Chinese hydraulic engineer and politician. He was a court minister serving the administration of King Zhuang of Chu during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. During his governmental career, Sunshu Ao was given notice by King Zhuang, who had him promoted to the rank of Prime Minister in the State of Chu. Sunshu Ao was entrusted with many endeavours of the state, and because of a large dam, reservoir, and irrigation project he had established, he is also credited as the first known hydraulic engineer of China.] A much more likely story about flood prevention than the one at 2200 BCE, above!
619 BCE: Xiang died
618 BCE: Xiang's son Qing became king of the Zhou dynasty
613 BCE: Qing died
612 BCE: Qing's son Kuang became king of the Zhou dynasty
607 BCE: Kuang died
606 BCE: Kuang's brother Ding became king of the Zhou dynasty
600 BCE: Knife money came into
use. [“One of the earliest examples of coinage in the world, knife
money takes its name from the unusual shape used for this unique currency.
Knife money was largely created and used by merchants in China from the 5th to
the 1st century BCE. Their shape and design varies depending on the province
from which they originate” - much more with pictures from this website]
picture source here
595 BCE: Battle of Bi: Chu decisively defeated Jin at Bi, near modern
Xingyang
586 BCE: Ding died
585 BCE: Ding's son Jian became king of the Zhou dynasty
575 BCE: Battle of Yanling: A numerically superior Chu force was
defeated by Jin in modern Yanling County. King Gong of Chu was injured
572 BCE: Jian died
571 BCE: Jian's son Ling became king of the Zhou dynasty
551 BCE: Kon Fu Se (Confucius) was born: Zhong Ni (his birthname, but he was given the title Kong Fūzǐ - 孔夫子 - "Master Kong" - which is then Latinised as Confucius): either Aug 27 or Sept 28 for his birthdate; mentioned on Jan 3. (Sept 28 according to my list but some say Aug 27). No need to write more here as those links are inside this blog
548 BCE: The earliest surviving
reference to Go appeared [what? a Monopoly board? No - but yes, it was a game. “It is known as Weiqi in Chinese, Igo or Go in
Japanese, and Baduk or Paduk, sometimes Gi in Korean. Go originated in ancient
China, centuries before its earliest known references in 5th century BC writing” - that is quoted from here. I
suspect it may even be the source of shach-mat, I mean chess]
545 BCE: Ling died
544 BCE: Ling's son Ji Gui, known by his Temple-name as King Jing of
Zhou, became king of the Zhou dynasty
The Chinese people were first divided into a caste system of four occupations. “The imperial system divided Chinese society into five broad classes: the nobility and the ‘four occupations’. In order of decreasing status, the "four occupations" included the shi (gentry), nong (farmers), gong (craftspeople), and shang (merchants)”. From this website; and I wonder if placing merchants at the bottom was a recognition of Confucius’ splendid comment, in the Analects, that “the superior man knows what is good, the inferior man knows what sells”?
543 BCE: The Zheng prime minister
Zichan [aka Gongsun Qiao] established
the state's first written civil code: very interesting comparison of his with several other ancient law codes, here; and see my note at 356 BCE
520 BCE: Ji Gui died. He was succeeded by his son Dao
Dao was murdered by his
brother
519 BCE: Dao's brother Ji Gai, known by his Temple-name as King Jing
of Zhou, succeeded him
515 BCE: The Wu king Liao was killed by the assassin Zhuan Zhu [as
will happen repeatedly in this timeline, but without ever making clear that it
is doing so, there is usually a central kingdom of China, and at least one
warlord, or rebel-district, or breakway-domain. Our “centre” at the moment is Zhou;
Wu is simultaneous, but elsewhere; and Chu, and Yue, both listed below,
likewise]
514 BCE: King Helü of Wu became king of Wu
506 BCE: Battle of Boju: Wu decisively defeated a numerically
superior Chu force
500 BCE: Cast iron was first
invented in China. [that should read “earliest
known use of...”, and anyway it appears to be wrong, by at least one nought: click here]
486 BCE: The Wu king Fuchai ordered the building of the Han Canal - click here
484 BCE: Wu Zixu died [data here]
482 BCE: The Yue king Goujian captured the Wu capital in a surprise assault
479 BCE: The generally agreed upon date of Confucius' death
477 BCE: Ji Gai died
475 BCE: Ji Gai's son Yuan became king of the Zhou dynasty
473 BCE: Wu was annexed by Yue
470 BCE: Mozi was born: the
principal rival to Confucius, Mohism, the philosophy of “The Ten Theses”, is
named for him: data here
469 BCE: Yuan died
518 BCE: Yuan's son Zhending became king of the Zhou dynasty
465 BCE: Goujian died [data here]
441 BCE: Zhending died. He was succeeded by his son Ai
Ai was murdered and
succeeded as king by his younger brother Si
Si was murdered by his
brother Kao
440 BCE: Kao became king of the Zhou dynasty
432 BCE: The tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng was constructed [out of what? clay? stone? was this the first?] two websites to explore for this: here is huge, here much briefer
426 BCE: Kao died
425 BCE: Kao's son Weilie became king of the Zhou dynasty
403 BCE: Partition of Jin: Weilie recognized the Jin nobles Marquess Wen of Wei, Marquess Lie of Zhao and Marquess Jing of Han as marquesses, granting de jure independence from Jin to the states of Wei, Zhao and Han [a Marquess is female, a Marquis is male; these should all be the latter]
402 BCE: Weilie died
401 BCE: Weilie's son An became king of the Zhou dynasty
400 BCE: Gan De was born [not
Mahatma Gan De obviously, so who was he?] “Gan was one of the earliest
practitioners of Chinese astronomy. As the earliest attempt to document the sky
during the Warring States period, Gan De's work possesses high scientific
value. He wrote two books, the Treatise on Jupiter and the 8-volume Treatise on
Astronomical Astrology.” More here, and
here for confirmation that Galileo was by no means the first.
picture source and still more on Chinese astronomy here (NB Tang was the first ruler of the Shang Dynasty - see 1675 BCE - and his name is sometimes used by historians, rather than Shang)
Shi Shen was born: “a contemporary of Gan De born in the State of Wei, also known as the Shi Shenfu.” Much more here (including the same map above, because both Gan De and Shi Shen worked on it)
The first Chinese star catalogue was compiled; known as the Hsing Ching, it was probably the work of the astronomers Shih Shen and Kan Tê [click here]
389 BCE: The Zuo Zhuan was
published. [what was it? answer here] An ancient
commentary on the Chunqiu (“Spring and Autumn Annals”) and the first sustained
narrative work in Chinese literature
386
BCE:
The city of Handan was founded to serve as the
Zhao capital [“Handan is situated on the higher ground
on the western side of the North China Plain, on the great north-south route
between Beijing and Zhengzhou and Luoyang (both in Henan province), where it is
crossed by a long-established route from Jinan in Shandong province westward
into the mountains of Shanxi province”: this from Britannica]
381 BCE: The Chu prime minister Wu Qi was murdered by nobles at the funeral of its king Dao
376 BCE: An died
375 BCE: An's son Lie became king of the Zhou dynasty
Zheng was annexed by Han
370 BCE: Zhuang Zhou was born; or sometimes Zhuangzi; the key figure in Daoism: more here
369 BCE: Lie died
368 BCE: Lie's brother Xian became king of the Zhou dynasty
361 BCE: Duke Xiao of Qin became duke of Qin [see my
note at 685 BCE, or better go straight to 311 BCE]; this is not mainstream
China, but an obscure province, but we shall see it gradually taking over more
and more of the land, until it rules it entirely, and the first Emperor comes
from Qin
356 BCE: Xiao's adviser Shang Yang implemented a legal code in Qin based on the Canon of Laws which established punishment for complicity in a crime, established a system of military ranks, and implemented policies encouraging the cultivation of unsettled land: the establishment of a police state, effectively (very effectively, in this case): “...assigning land to soldiers based upon their military successes, and stripping nobility unwilling to fight of their land rights. The army was separated into twenty military ranks, based upon battlefield achievements...” fuller picture here, but for follow-up, how does it compare with other early law codes, eg Hammurabi or the Mosaic, or the one at 543 BCE, above?
354 BCE: Battle of Guiling: Wei laid siege to the Zhao capital Handan
353 BCE: Battle of Guiling: The Wei army fled Handan in response to
reports of a Qi attack on their capital Daliang and were defeated by Qi forces
at Guiling, in modern Changyuan County
Battle of Maling: Qi dealt Wei a bloody defeat
The crossbow was first used in China: click here
338 BCE: Xiao died, and was succeeded by his son Huiwen
Shang and his family were
executed by dismemberment on charges of treason.
321 BCE: Xian died
320 BCE: Xian's son Shenjing of Zhou became king of the Zhou dynasty
319 BCE: The Confucian Mencius - “The Second Sage” or “Master Meng” - became a Qi official - more on him here
316 BCE: Sun Bin died [who
was he? apparently a general, military strategist, and writer - you can find
his book here]
[and
is this grey or amber? does he merit a listing?]
Shu was conquered and annexed by Qin
Ba was conquered and annexed by Qin
[as
always, I am leaving changes in the map-structure of China in green, as they inevitably
have an impact on the lives of ordinary people, whereas who could really care
less whether Charles or William or Harry sits on the throne and does the
pageantry?)
315 BCE: Shenjing died
314 BCE: Shenjing's son Nan succeeded to the throne of the Zhou
dynasty
311 BCE: Huiwen died [Ying
Si was his birthname and he was king of an entirely different place, or at
least of a state within China, rather than the country as a whole. He was the
first ruler of that state to denote himself as a King rather than a Duke, which
helps explain two previous items: 685 BCE and 361 BCE]
310 BCE: Huiwen's son Wu became king of Qin
Xun Kuang was born, or Xunzi as he pseudonymed himself, the third of the Confucian triplet with Kon Fu Se and Mencius: full account of him here
307 BCE: The Zhou king Wuling of Zhao ordered his cavalry to begin wearing clothes fashioned after those of the Donghu and Xiongnu peoples [how exciting? another regional Duke? why those clothes? click here for a sadly illustrationless but factually replete website: it includes this: "The costume worn by the Xiongnu nobility was eclectic and consisted of items of different origin. Those were mainly robes made of expensive silk, which were manufactured at Chinese (Han) workshops and presented by the emperor as gifts to the chanyu, who then passed them, as was the custom, to his confidants." Just imagine the SAS dressed in fine silk!]
Wu died
306 BCE: Wu's brother Zhaoxiang became king of Qin [we seem to have shifted entirely
from Chinese history to regional history; this will happen throughout the Wiki
timeline, so you are again warned]
305 BCE: Zou Yan was born. The Tsinghua Bamboo Slips were written. [who was he? what were they?] Regarded as the founder of natural science in China and the place to go if you want to know all about Yin and Yang: click here to do so. For the Bamboo Slips click here to see them, and here to learn about them
300 BCE: The Erya [or Erh-ya] was published. [what was it?] The oldest surviving Chinese dictionary: click here. Erh-ya means something like “Approach to correct expressions”, which is actually a better descriptor than “dictionary” (because a dictionary isn’t just about how you pronounce, which is diction, but the sources of the words, and their contemporary meanings)
The Guodian Chu Slips were produced. 
[what
were they? click here] More bamboo strips like the ones above, these were unearthed in
1993 at a dig at the village of Guodia, which is in Jingmen, which is in Hubei
province, about 5 miles north of Ying, which was the ancient Chu capital from
about 676 BC until 278 BC, before the State of Chu was over-run by the Qin:
click here for more, and here not only for even more, but for a much larger version of the illustration on the right, large enough that you can actually read it/them.
293 BCE: Battle of Yique: The Qin dealt a bloody defeat to a Wei-Han
alliance
278 BCE: The Qin conquered the Chu capital Ying
The Chu poet Qu Yuan wrote “Lament for Ying” and drowned himself in the Miluo River because he could not bear his exile any longer, and in despair for the state of his fellow countrymen. The Dragon Boat Festival was initiated as a consequence: click here
262 BCE: April: Battle of Changping: Zhao intercepted a Qin invasion
of the commandery of Shangdang
260 BCE: July: Battle of Changping: Qin forces encircled the Zhao
army, forcing its surrender. The Zhao general Zhao Kuo was killed in action. The captured
Zhao soldiers were executed
259 BCE: 18 February: Qin Shi Huang,
the man who would be the first to declare himself Emperor of China, the man who
built the Great Wall of China and had terracotta warriors made to keep him
company in his grave, born today [click here].
256 BCE: Nan submitted to Zhaoxiang and took the title Duke of West
Zhou
Nan died. His territory was annexed by Qin
The Dujiangyan irrigation system was built: a major city in Szechuan: click here for the UNESCO page
251 BCE: Zhaoxiang died
250 BCE: The first drawings of the repeating crossbow appeared in Chu records [but we knew about the crossbow in 342 BCE already; or maybe that one was a one-shot and not a repeater]; I presume this refers to the one that was excavated from a Chu burial site at Tomb 47 at Qinjiazui, Hubei Province: click here, but, with no regrets, I do not post illustrations of killing machines unless there is a very good reason
13 September: Zhaoxiang's son Xiaowen became king of Qin
15 September: Xiaowen died. He was succeeded by his son Zhuangxiang
247 BCE: 7 May: Zhuangxiang died. He was succeeded by his son Qin Shi
Huang [see
Feb 18 on the blog page, and 259 BCE above]
246 BCE: The Zhengguo Canal was completed by Zheng Guo of Qin: click here for its ironic starting-point
230 BCE: Qin's wars of unification: Qin invaded Han
227 BCE: Jing Ke failed in an assassination attempt on Qin Shi Huang [presumably imaginary
terracotta warriors protected him]
225 BCE: Qin conquered Wei
223 BCE: Qin conquered Chu
222 BCE: Qin conquered Yan
Qin conquered Zhao
221 BCE: Qin conquered Qi
[all of which presumably means China is one united land, at least for the moment]
The Heirloom Seal of the Realm was carved [and
what was it?] look left, and then click here
220 BCE: Qin Shi Huang took the
title Qin Shi Huang, first emperor of China [that’s
a fairly meaningless statement, which infers that it wasn’t his birthname, and
we have been misled by the timeline writer]: answer: it means “First Qin
Emperor”; as to his birthname, possibly Zhao Zheng, but Zhao was his tribe, so
more likely Ying Zheng: click here
click here for the next
section: b) The Qin Dynasty
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