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210
Burial of the Terra Cotta Army
There is a huge burial pit belonging to the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang which was the founding Qin dynasty emperor who unified China into a central state and also laid the foundation for the Great Wall. -
213
Period of the Book Burning Policy
In 213 BC, all classic works of the Hundred Schools of Thought except those from Li Ssu's own school of philosophy known as legalism were subject to book burning. Qin Shi Huang burned the other histories out of fear that they undermined his legitimacy, and wrote his own history books.Li Ssu said that any scholars from other schools were turned in for burning Classic Poetry and History, and then executed. -
310
Domestication of the Buffalo
Most species of the present farm and pet animals were domesticated before the beginning of written history. Paleolithic man started gathering food by hunting wild animals, mostly herbivorous, because these species were grazers and browsers due to which it was easier to kill them. This process gradually changed to taming and then domestication. -
310
First Chinese Emperor. (Shi Huangdi)
Shi Huangdi (259-210 B.C.) was a cruel ruler who readily killed or banished those who opposed him or his ideas. He is notorious for burning virtually all the books that remained from previous regimes. He even banned scholarly discussions of the past. -
551
Birth of Confucius
Confucius, the great Chinese sage, was born June 19th, 551 B.C. at Shang-ping, in the country of Lu. His own name was Kong, but his disciples called him Kong-fu-tse, (i.e. Kong the Master, or Teacher,) which the Jesuit missionaries Latinized into Confucius. -
551
The development of the weigi board game
Some say that Pythagoras used talking boards to help his studies and "unearth the revelations from the unseen world" In China, they used the weigi board to talk to spirits. They would use a wheeled table that pointed to signs. The signs were believed to be messages from the spirtual world. It was used up to the 19th century. -
Jan 19, 721
Connection of the Barbarian Walls to create the Great Wall
The history of these extraordinary fortifications goes back to the Chunqiu period (722-481 B.C.) and to the Warring States period (453-221 B.C.), so-called because of the long struggle among seven rival dynasties for supreme power. The construction of certain walls can be explained by these feudal conflicts, such as the one built by the Wei in 408 B.C. to defend their kingdom against the Qin. Its vestiges, conserved in the center of China, precede by many years the walls that the Kingdoms of Qin -
Jan 19, 1000
The Shi Jing Book of Songs
Shi Jing (诗经), translated variously as the Classic of Poetry, the Book of Songs, the Book of Poetry, or the Book of Odes, is the earliest existing collection of Chinese poems. It comprises 305 poems, some possibly written as early as 1000 BC. Shi Jing contains some of the oldest pieces of Chinese literature. It is said to have been compiled by Confucius himself, who has chosen out some 300 poems out of 3000. -
Jan 19, 1200
Death of Lady Hao
After Lady Fu Hao's death, her husband King Wu Ding buried her in a small but notably luxurious tomb in the Shang royal cemetery with many material indicators of her high status, including written records on over 100 oracle bones. She also became a venerated ancestor, known as Mu Xin, and the King offered sacrifices at her tomb for her intercession in warfare (among other military and political matters). -
Jan 19, 1200
First use of the crossbow
As a weapon there is evidence to suggest that the crossbow was in use in ancient China between the 5th and 6th century though it was not the hand weapon known today. A closer comparison would be to describe it as a giant catapult. However, more reliable records indicate the crossbow was in use in 341 BC during the Battle of Marling. Certainly crossbows have been found amongst the Terracotta army found in the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang 260-210 BC. -
Completion of the Erya. (Oldest Chinese Dictionary)
Chinese scholars interpret the first title character er" ( "you, your; adverbial suffix") as a phonetic loan character for the homophonous er ("near; close; approach"), and believe the second ya ("proper; correct; refined; elegant") refers to words or language.The Erya was considered the authoritative lexicographic guide to Chinese classic texts during the Han Dynasty, and it was officially categorised as one of the Thirteen Confucian Classics during the Song Dynasty. -
The Warring States Period
The period of the Warring States (Zhanguo or Chan-Kuo) refers to the era of about 475 BCE to 221 BCE. There was a larger state of Jin which broke up into the states of Han, Wu and Zhao. There also was to the south the state of Chu and to the east the states of Qi and Yan. These states, Han, Wu, Zhao, Chu, Qi and Yan, were thought to be the six major contenders for domination. As it turned out it was the state of Qin in the west that emerged victorious. -
Spring and Autumn Period
The Spring and Autumn Period was the time of the Eastern Zhou dynasty politically but it was the age of Confucius (Master K'ung) philosophically. He articulated the principles that justified the feudal system of the time. The name Spring and Autumn is taken from the book The Spring and Autumn Annals which is attributed to Confucius, if not as author at least as editor. This period also included the phenomenon of known as A Hundred Schools of Thought. -
Date of the oldest Silk found in China
Silk is one of the oldest known textile fibers and, according to Chinese tradition, was used as long ago as the 27th century BC. The silkworm moth was originally a native of China, and for about 30 centuries the gathering and weaving of silk was a secret process, known only to the Chinese. Tradition credits Hsi-ling-shi, the 14-year-old bride of the Emperor Huang Ti, with the discovery of the potential of the cocoon and the invention of the first silk reel. -
Battle of Banquan
In the late ruling period of Shennong (the Yan Emperor, a legendary ruler of China), tribes were moving from one place to another due to the increase of population over time. In this process, tribal skirmishes took place over land and property.
The Yan Emperor's tribe, counting on his huge population, invaded other tribes. At the request of all tribes under invasion, the Yellow Emperor launched a battle with the Yan Emperor in Banquan (present-day southeast of Zhuolu County in Heibi. They won.
