Chinese Empire

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article may require copy editing for grammar, overcitation. You can assist by editing it. (April 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article may be too long to read and navigate comfortably. Consider splitting content into sub-articles, condensing it, or adding subheadings. Please discuss this issue on the article's talk page. (April 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Chinese Empire 中華帝國 (Chinese) Zhōnghuá Dìguó
c. 221 BC–1912
Flag (under Qing dynasty) (1844–1922) Coat of arms
Motto: None
Anthem:  鞏金甌 "Cup of Solid Gold" (1911–1912)
Approximate territorial extent of the various dynasties and states in Chinese history.
Status	Empire
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
Emperor aka Son of Heaven
• c. 221–210 BC (first)	Qin Shi Huang
• 1908–1912 (last)	Xuantong
Chancellor
• 221–208 BC (first)	Li Si
• 1911–1912 (last)	Yikuang
Legislature	Imperial Court
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
Area
All combined c.[1][2][3]	15,000,000–15,500,000 km2 (5,800,000–6,000,000 sq mi)
Population
• 1850	430,000,000
Currency	Ban Liang, Wu Zhu, Cash, Jiaochao, Tael, Paper money
Predecessor states and successor states Preceded by Succeeded by Warring States period Republic of China (1912–1949) Korea under Japanese rule French Indochina Russian Empire Taiwan under Japanese rule Kingdom of Nepal Bhutan British rule in Burma Bogd Khanate of Mongolia Russian Turkestan British Raj Emirate of Afghanistan Tibet (1912–1951)

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)
Related articles Art history Economic history Education history Legal history Jewish history LGBT history Media history Music history Timeline Military history Naval history Science and technology history Archaeology Cartography Discoveries Inventions Transport history Women's history
v t e

The Chinese Empire, also known as Imperial China, Empire of China,^[a] Celestial Empire, or simply China, was an imperial realm that spanned much of East, North, Central, South and Southeast Asia from the 3rd century BC to the 20th century.^[4]

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 Chinese Empire was first established.^[5] The Chinese Empire 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.^[6] 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 9th century, along with its territory spanned from Central Asia, Tibet, Mongolia to Northeast Asia and partial Southeast Asia until being put to bed by the An Lushan rebellion.^{[7][8][9][10]} The Chinese Empire marked its revival under the Mongol-based Yuan dynasty, in which China managed to incorporate Tibet and Mongolia into its inner territory. 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 the north, central, south and southeast Asia.^[11][12]

Following the 1911 Revolution, the Qing monarchy was abolished a year later, thus put an end to the centuries-old Chinese Empire following the imperial decree issuing abdication of the Xuantong Emperor.^[13] Yuan Shikai attempted to restore the Chinese Empire 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]}

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).