Beginning with Qin Shi Huangdi, who unified China in 221 BCE and founded the Qin dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE), China has had the longest continuously centralized state in history. Ancient Chinese culture-particularly the administrative and educational systems-and the Chinese imperial model influenced cultures across Southeast Asia. The Han dynasty (206 BCE-CE 220) laid the foundation by establishing Confucianism as the state ideology. The Tang (618-907) created a cosmopolitan society that ruled the broadest territory of any dynasty up until that time. The Song (960-1279) fully implemented China's meritocratic civil service system. Under the Ming (1368-1644), China developed maritime commerce on a vast scale. And the last Chinese imperial dynasty, the Qing (1644-1911), welcomed tribute-bearers from across Eurasia, impressing visitors with its peace and prosperity and patronage of learning and culture.
Featuring full-color photographs and maps, summaries of key people and key sites, primary source documents, a chronology, glossary, bibliography, and further resources, Empires of Ancient China discusses the philosophical traditions of Confucianism, Daoism, and Chinese Buddhism; the imperial bureaucracy and civil service system; art, culture, and science; as well as the many inventions that originated here, from paper to printing to gun powder.
Included are excerpts from ancient Chinese writers such as Confucius, Zhuangzi, Sima Qian, and Li Qingzhao, as well as accounts from foreign visitors such as Ibn Battuta.