Time Line of China

• Homo sapiens inhabiting China ( c. 75,000 B.C. )

• rice cultivation in Yangtze Valley ( c. 6500 B.C. )

• Yang-shao culture in China ( after c. 5000 B.C. )

• towns and fortifications built in China ( c. 3000 B.C. )
• potter's wheel in China ( c. 3000 B.C. )
• copper and silk manufactured in China ( c. 3000 B.C. )
• "Sage Kings" period in China begins
• cotton cultivated in Indus valley
• Xia dynasty founded in China by Yu the Great ( c. 2205 B.C. )

• first cities in China at Erlitou ( c. 1900 B.C. )
• earliest Chinese bronzes made at Erlitou ( c. 1900 B.C. )
• T'ang, first king of Shang dynasty in China ( 1766 B.C. )
• pictograph writing in China ( c. 1600 B.C. )
• war chariot introduced to China (c. 1350 B.C.)
• King Wu overthrows the Shang dynasty and begins the Chou dynasty (c. 1122 - 256 B.C.)
• settlements on the site of future Peking ( 1121 B.C. )

• Chou capital moved from Hao to Luoyang due to barbarian incursions ( 770 B.C.)

• earliest known use of iron in China ( c. 600 B.C. )
• birth of Confucius ( 551 B.C. )
• Lao-tse founds Taoism in China ( 550 B.C. )

• Sun Tzu writes The Art of War ( c. 500 B.C. )
• Warring States period begins in China ( 480 B.C. - 221 B.C. )

• crossbow invented in China ( c. 350 B.C. )

• Ch'in dynasty in China begins with Shih Huang Ti; founding of China (221 B.C.)
• the Great Wall of China is built (215 B.C.)
• civil war in China results in the overthrow of the Ch'in dynasty (209 - 202 B.C.)
• Former Han dynasty in China (207 B.C. - 9 A.D.)

• Hsin dynasty in China ( 9 - 23 A.D.)
• Later Han dynasty in China ( 22 A.D. )
• Silk Road from China to Rome opened ( 74 A.D. )

• Buddhism reaches China ( c. 100 A.D. )

• last Han emperor deposed (220 A.D.)
• China divides into three kingdoms (220 A.D.)
• compass invented in China ( 271 A.D. )

• China reunited under the Sui dynasty by Yang Jian (589 A.D.)

• Tang dynasty begins under Li Yuan (618 A.D.)

• first printed newspaper appears in Peking ( 748 A.D. )

• collapse of the Tang dynasty (907 A.D.)
• Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907 - 960 A.D.)

• Mongol attacks on China begin (1211 A.D.)