Chinese Empire

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Imperial China
c. 221 BC–1912
Approximate territorial extent of the various dynasties and states in Chinese history.
Status	Imperial dynasties
Capital	Xianyang (c. 221 BC–206 BC) Chang'an (Daxing) (206 BC–9 AD, 190 AD–195 AD, 581–618. 618–904) Luoyang (23–190 AD, 196 AD, 904–907) Xuchang (196–220 AD) Beijing (Khanbaliq) (1271–1368, 1403–1912) Nanjing (1368–1644)
Official languages	Chinese
Common languages	Arabic Uyghur Manchu Kazakh Uzbek Russian Korean Tibetan Göktürk Mongol Vietnamese Burmese Zhuang Cantonese Kyrgyz Tajik Sogdian Ainu Persian ...and many more.
Religion	Confucianism Daoism Chinese folk religion Manicheism Buddhism Tengrism Islam Christianity Zoroastrianism Shamanism Judaism
Demonym(s)	Chinese
Government	Absolute monarchy
History
• Qin establishment	230–221 BC
• Rise of Han	206–202 BC
• Sui's reunification of China	581–618
• Rise of Tang	613–628
• Emergence of Yuan	1205–1279
• Ming dynasty	1368–1644
• Rise of Qing	1618–1683
• Monarchy abolished	12 February 1912
Currency	Ban Liang, Wu Zhu, Cash, Jiaochao, Tael, Paper money

Part of a series on the
History of China
Timeline Dynasties Historiography
Prehistoric Paleolithic Neolithic (c. 8500 – c. 2000 BC) Yellow, Yangtze, and Liao civilization
Ancient Xia (c. 2070 – c. 1600 BC) Shang (c. 1600 – c. 1046 BC) Zhou (c. 1046 – c. 256 BC) Western Zhou (1046–771 BC) Eastern Zhou (771–256 BC) Spring and Autumn (c. 770 – c. 476 BC) Warring States (475–221 BC)
Imperial
Modern Republic of China (mainland, 1912–1949)
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The Chinese Empire (or the Empire of China)^[a] is a term referring to the domain ruled by the Emperor of China. The period when China was ruled by an emperor is known as Imperial China. It was also known as the Celestial Empire in reference to the status of the Emperor of China as the Son of Heaven in the Sinosphere. For most of its history, China was organized into various dynasties under the rule of hereditary monarchs. In 221 BC, China was unified under an emperor for the first time, establishing the first great Chinese empire. Appointed non-hereditary officials began ruling counties instead of the aristocracy, ushering in more than two millennia of Chinese dynasties or empires including the Qin, Han, Jin, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing.

Originally emerged as a loose collection of various Han Chinese-speaking entities during the Warring States period, the Qin's wars of unification brought most of the Huaxia realm into one single dynasty, establishing Qin as the first imperial dynasty in 221 BC, the year where the first Chinese empire was established.^[1] Imperial China would continue to expand even after the collapse of the Qin dynasty, with the Han dynasty established itself with unprecedented expansion in the north, south and west.^[2] It would be the Tang dynasty four centuries later that China really achieved the golden age of its imperial realm, where China became the world's most powerful economic, political and military power, a status which China would hold until the 8th century, along with its territory spanned from Central Asia, Northeast Asia and partial Southeast Asia until being put to bed by the An Lushan rebellion.^[3][4][5][6] Imperial China marked its revival under the Mongol-based Yuan dynasty, in which Inner Asian territories like Tibet and Mongolia were incorporated. The Qing dynasty, founded three centuries after the fall of Yuan, laid ground to most of China's modern border today with its expansion into Inner Asia.^[7][8]

Following the 1911 Revolution, the Qing monarchy was abolished a year later, thus put an end to the era of Imperial China following the imperial decree issuing abdication of the Xuantong Emperor.^[9] Yuan Shikai attempted to restore the Chinese imperial rule three years later, with himself as the Emperor, but it was put to bed by the lack of popular support for the restoration of the monarchy.^{[citation needed]}

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