Xia, Shang, Zhou Dynasties
Preceded by a very long primeval period, the Xia Dynasty arose around the end of 2,100 B.C.—the first dynasty in the Chinese history. Following the Xia Dynasty arose the Shang Dynasty (about 1,600 B.C.—1,000 B.C.), the Western Zhou Dynasty (about 1,000 B.C.—700 B.C.), the Spring-Autumn and the Warring States periods (700 B.C.—221 B.C.) . China evolved through an independent phase of social transition. 
  　China was among the earliest countries developing economically. As early as five to six millennia ago the people living in the Yellow River Valley undertook agriculture as a primary subsistence means and also bred livestock. More than 3,000 years ago , during the Shang Dynasty the technology of smelting bronze was invented and some iron tools were known to be in use already . The ceramic industry already existed then. There was both unglazed and colored glazed pottery. Silk reeling and weaving was fairly advanced, bringing forth the initiative jacquard weaving technique in the world. 　
　During the Warring States period (475 B.C.—221 B.C.), Li Bing and his sons led the construction of the famous Dujiangyan Dam (near modern Chengdu), a water conservancy project, solving reasonably the interrelated problems of irrigation, flood diversion and sand discharging. This project was a splendid achievement of the water conservancy technology in the olden days, and it still functions now. Philosophy and ideology thrived during the Spring-Autumn and the Warring States periods when exponents of various schools wrote books and founded doctrines asserting their views on politics and sociology. There emerged the phase of A Hundred Schools Contend with the advent of representative personages, such as Master Lao , Confucius , Master Mo and Master Sun .

Qin Dynasty
In 221 B.C. Ying Zheng, the highly-gifted, ambitious king of the Qin Kingdom ended the turmoil and chaos among the dukes and kings in the Warring States period, and established the first united, centralized, multi-national feudal monarchy-the Qin, styling himself the First Emperor or the Shi Huangdi. The First Emperor unified the vocabulary, the measurement system and the currency, founded the prefectures and counties system, constructed the famous Great Wall and built extravagant palaces, mausoleums and temporary palaces.
　　Now the architectures above the ground have long been demolished in battles and fires, but the things underground have been preserved. Just take the instance of the discovery of the terra cotta warriors buried in the proximity of the mausoleum of the First Emperor. These are reputed as the Eighth World Wonder, the grandeur of which attracts numerous admiring tourists from home and abroad.

Three Kingdoms
The Han Dynasty survived for 426 years. By 220 A.D. China evolved into the Three Kingdoms period, in tripartite balance of the Wei Kingdom, the Shu Kingdom and the Wu Kingdom (220-280). The three most prominent political personages in this period were Cao, Zhuge Liang and Sun Quan. Cao was the virtual founder of the Wei Kingdom.
　　The Wei Kingdom dominated over the other two Kingdoms by promoting capable and diligent ministers and stationing troops in the frontiers. Zhuge Liang served as the prime minister of the Shu Kingdom and has long been esteemed as the symbol of ancient Chinese wisdom.
　　His noble moral character summed up in his words , Sparing no effort in the performance of duty ,has inspired the Chinese , over the past hundreds of years .Sun Quan was the founder of Wu Kingdom . He allied with Liu Bei, the King of the Shu Kingdom, to defeat Cao at "Red Cliff". Afterwards, he defeated Liu Bei in the Battle at Yiling.
　　He appointed officials responsible for farming specially, and stationed troops to open up wasteland, thus spurring the development of the middle and lower reaches of the Changjiang (Yangtze) River. Their deeds were adapted into a classic novel, the “Romance of Three Kingdoms”.

Sui and Tang Dynasties
Following the Three Kingdoms were consecutively the Jin Dynasty (the Western Jin and the Eastern Jin, 265—420 ) , the Southern-Northern Dynasties (420—589 ) and the Sui Dynasty ( 581—618 ).
　　By 618 the Tang Dynasty was set up by a general named Li Yuan (618—907). Li Shiming (the second son of Li Yuan), Emperor Tai Zong of Tang (626—649) , was acclaimed as one of the foremost distinguished emperors in Chinese history.
 His reign was called the Peaceful Order in the Zhenguan Reign, during which he promulgated a series of policies for social recuperation and national consolidation, pushing the country onto the pinnacle of prosperity in Chinese feudalist history.
　　The Tang Dynasty saw further advancement in many fields such as farming , handicrafts , commerce , textile , dyeing , ceramics , metallurgy and shipbuilding , while a crisscross network of highways and waterways emerged throughout the empire , and extensive social and cultural relations were established with many countries , such as Japan , Korea , India , Persia and Arabia .
Song and Yuan Dynasties

Following the Tang Dynasty came the period of the Five Dynasties and the Ten Kingdoms (907—960). In 960 Zhao Kuangyin, a senior general of the Later Zhou Dynasty launched a rebellion. His lieutenants clothed him in the yellow imperial gown and asked him to ascend the throne. Thus he established the Song Dynasty (960—1279).
  In 1260, Genghis Khan founded the Mongol Empire upon his unification of scattered Mongol tribes. Kublai, a grandson of Genghis Khan, swept southward across Central China in 1271 and founded the Yuan Dynasty (1217—1368) with Dadu (Beijing) assigned as the capital. 　
　　During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, industry and commerce, as well as foreign trade, developed greatly, and many advanced, foreign merchants and travelers visited China. Marco Polo, a Venetian merchant, traveled extensively in China. In his travel notes he portrayed vividly in detail the thriving industry and commerce, as well as the immense fortunes in China.
Paper making, printing, compass and gunpowder were the Four Great Inventions in ancient Chinese science and technology. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties further new progress in these fields was achieved, contributing greatly to the global civilizations.
Ming and Early Qing Dynasties
In the 1368 the Ming Dynasty (1368—1644) was instituted by Zhu Yuan hang, styled Taizu of Ming. After Zhu Di, the fourth son of the Taizu of Ming, succeeded to the throne, he embarked upon large-scale construction projects of the city wall and moat, palaces and temples in Beijing, and later on officially transferred the capital northward to Beijing.
      The Ming Dynasty witnessed a definite improvement in agriculture and handicrafts, and toward its concluding stage even witnessed rudiment of capitalism. Meanwhile frequent friendly contacts with the countries in Asia and Africa were made. 
　　During the later period of the Ming Dynasty arose a new military power in the Northeast of China. Led by Nu’erhachi , their chieftain , the Manchu tribesmen on horsebacks struggled with the Ming forces for three generations at the Great Wall , and finally established the Qing Dynasty ( 1644—1911 ) in 1644 . The two most renowned Qing emperors were Emperor Kang Xi (1661—1722 ) and Emperor Qian Long ( 1735—1796 ) , whose reigns were recognized as the “heyday in Kang-Qian Period”.
 
Opium War and Late Qing Dynasty

The Opium War that broke out in 1840 marked a turning point in the Chinese history. Toward the down of the 19th century Britain dumped its opium in mammoth quantities into China, causing an unfavorable flow of silver, inflation and financial austerity in China.
     In 1839, Lin Zexu, a special envoy of the imperial court stationing in Guangzhou, was responsible for the prohibition of the opium products. For the protection of its opium dumping, Britain waged a war of invasion on China in 1840. At the outset, the Chinese patriots, led by Lin and some generals, launched a gallant resistance against the invaders. But owing to the concessions offered by the corrupt and incompetent Qing imperial court, the Nanjing Treaty, an unequal treaty surrendering China’s sovereignty under humiliating terms, was signed in the end. From then onwards, China gradually sank into a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society.
　
　　Since the end of the Opium War, the imperialist powers , such as Britain, the United States, France, Russia, Japan, etc. continued to coerce the Qing court to sign various unequal treaties , seizing further concessions and planning to establish spheres of influence in China , creating a tide of carving up of China . In order to resist the feudal oppression and the alien invasion, the Chinese people spared no efforts to wage unyielding struggles with a host of outstanding hero and heroines emerging among them. In 1851, Hong Xiuquan led the Revolt of the Tai Ping Tian Guo (Tai Ping Heavenly Kingdom), the biggest peasant revolutionary campaign in the modern history of China.
 
　　Just entering the 20th century, the Revolution of 1911, a bourgeois democratic revolution led by Sun Yat-sen, succeeded in overthrowing the rule of the Qing Dynasty, terminating the over-two-millennia-old feudal, monarchial system. The temporary government of Republic of China was constituted. However, the triumphant fruit was usurped by Yuan Shikai, a military lord in the north, due to the compromising, yielding attitude of the Chinese bourgeoisie. The populace still lived in miseries and poverty.
After the Revolution of 1911
Influenced by the October Revolution in Russia, the May 4th Movement, an anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism campaign triggered by patriotic students, broke out in 1919; the proletariat as a social class began to ascend the political stage. This campaign was recognized as a milestone in the modern Chinese history between the old democratic revolution and the new democratic revolution, bringing about the spread of Marxism-Leninism in China and its integration with the Chinese revolutionary practice. Both ideologically and organizationally the campaign served to prepare for the advent of the Communist Party of China.
In 1924 , positive cooperation was carried out by Sun Yat-sen , pioneer of the Chinese democratic revolution and founder of the Chinese Nationalist Party ( Kuomingtang or KMT ) , and the Communist Party of China , for the purpose of jointly mobilizing the masses of industrial workers and peasants for making the northern expedition against the warlords . Shortly after the demise of Sun, the right-wing bloc of the Nationalist Party represented by Jiang Jieshi conducted a reactionary coup and recklessly massacred the communists and other revolutionaries，aborting the vigorous Grand Revolution and setting up the tyrannous government of the Nationalist Party based in Nanjing . Henceforth, the Communist Party of China set out to lead the Chinese people to struggle against the reactionary rule of KMT in a ten-year-long land revolution war.
　　In July 1937, Japan started a full-scale war of aggression against China. The KMT armies waged an array of operations at the front battlefields, giving a crushing blow to the invaders. The Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army under the leadership of CPC opened up the rear-battlefields and launched a series of strenuous resistance against a greater proportion of the Japanese armies and almost all the puppet armies under most arduous conditions, exerting a decisive role in the final victory of the war Resistance against Japan.
In June 1946, Kuomingtang launched an all-round assault to the Liberated Areas under CPC, triggering a civil war on an unprecedented scale. To finally liberate all the Chinese people, the CPC armies and the populace in the Liberated Areas engaged in the nationwide Liberation War. Following the victories in the three gigantic battles won by the CPC forces (the Battle in Liaoning-Shenyang, the Huaihai Campaign and the Battle in Tianjin and Beijing), the KMT government was finally overthrown and a historic victory of the new democratic revolution was achieved. On the basis of the Liberation War victory, the Peoples Republic of China was founded in 1949.