East Asia Dynasties Timeline

Xia Dynasty Chinese Start

2200 BCE

The Xia dynasty is the first dynasty in traditional Chinese historiography.

Shang Dynasty Chinese Start

1766 BCE

The Shang Dynasty's accomplishments and characteristics include bronze work, military technology, including horse-drawn chariots, writing, a calendar, and religion, which featured ancestor worship and oracle bones.

Xia Dynasty Chinese End

1700 BCE

Shang Dynasty Chinese End

1080 BCE

Zhou Dynasty Chinese Start

1045 BCE

The most significant achievement of the Zhou Dynasty was the development of the Chinese philosophies, including Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism.

Qin Dynasty Chinese Start

221 BCE

Well-known achievements is the creation of the Great Wall and a large army of Terracotta Warriors.

Zhou Dynasty Chinese End

221 BCE

Han Dynasty Chinese Start

206 BCE

The Han dynasty is known its long reign and its achievements, which included the development of the civil service and government structure.

Qin Dynasty Chinese End

206 BCE

Silla Dynasty Korean Start

57 BCE

The Silla dynasty was immensely significant to Korea because it was the first ever ruling power to bring unity amongst the people of Korea.

Goguryeo Dynasty Korean Start

37 BCE

Goguryeo (Koguryo) was the kingdom which ruled northern Korea during the Three Kingdoms period.

Baekje Dynasty Korean Start

18 BCE

Baekje was a great maritime power; its nautical skill, which made it the Phoenicia of East Asia, was instrumental in the dissemination of Buddhism throughout East Asia and continental culture to Japan.

Han Dynasty China End

221

Sui Dynasty Chinese Start

581

The Sui dynasty also had a stable economy, which was militaristic, and they were legalists.

Sui Dynasty Chinese End

618

Tang Dynasty Chinese Start

618

During the Tang rule China experienced a time of peace and prosperity that made it one of the most powerful nations in the world. This time period is sometimes referred to as the Golden Age of Ancient China.

Baekje Dynasty Korean End

660

Goguryeo Dynasty Korean End

668

Parhae Dynasty Korean Start

698

The state of Parhae grew powerful and wealthy. It was a hostile rival to Silla, the most significant power on the Korean peninsula, and Silla built a defensive wall along its northern border. Like Silla, Parhae was among the states that offered tribute to the Tang.

Nara and Heian Period Japanese Start

710

The most influential of these aristocratic families were the Fujiwara, who basically controlled the Japanese royal court and encouraged a highly-refined elite culture.

Tang Dynasty Chinese End

907

Goryeo Dynasty Japanese Start

918

Other achievements of the dynasty were elegant wooden structures, literary histories, cast-metal movable type, and the production of gunpowder.

Parhae Dynasty Korean End

926

Silla Dynasty Korean End

935

The Silla dynasty was immensely significant to Korea because it was the first ever ruling power to bring unity amongst the people of Korea.

Song Dynasty Chinese Start

960

Song Dynasty. Starting in 960 and ending in 1279, the Song Dynasty consisted of the Northern Song (960-1127) and the Southern Song (1127-1279). With a prosperous economy and radiant culture, this period was considered as another period of 'golden age' after the glorious Tang Dynasty

Nara and Heian Period Japanese End

1192

Kamakura Period Japanese Start

1192

Japanese warlords, known as shoguns, claimed power from the hereditary monarchy and their scholar-courtiers, giving the samurai warriors and their lords' ultimate control of the early Japanese empire.

Song Dynasty Chinese End

1279

Yuan Dynasty Chinese Start

1279

Genghis Khan and his successors expanded the Mongol Empire across Asia, eventually conquering northern China.

Kamakura Period Japanese End

1333

Muromachi Period Japanese Start

1338

Art of all kinds—architecture, literature, Noh drama, Kyōgen (comedy), poetry, sarugaku (folk entertainment), the tea ceremony, landscape gardening, and flower arranging—all flourished during Muromachi times.

Yuan Dynasty Chinese End

1368

Ming Dynasty Chinese Start

1368

Known for its trade expansion to the outside world that established cultural ties with the West, the Ming Dynasty is also remembered for its drama, literature and world-renowned porcelain.

Goryeo Dynasty Japanese End

1392

Joseon Dynasty Korean Start

1392

Joseon was the last dynasty of Korea and its longest-ruling Confucian dynasty. During its reign, Joseon encouraged the entrenchment of Chinese Confucian ideals and doctrines in Korean society.

Muromachi Period Japanese End

1573

Azuchi-Momoyama Period Japanese Start

1573

The lasting influence of the Ashikaga era is in the arts and culture of Japan. During this period, the samurai class enthusiastically embraced Zen Buddhism, which had been imported from China as early as the seventh century.

Azuchi-Momoyama Period Japanese End

1603

Edo Period Japanese Start

1603

Tokugawa period, also called Edo period, (1603–1867), the final period of traditional Japan, a time of internal peace, political stability, and economic growth under the shogunate (military dictatorship) founded by Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Ming Dynasty Chinese End

1644

Qing Dynasty Chinese Start

1644

The Qing Dynasty was the final imperial dynasty in China, lasting from 1644 to 1911. It was an era noted for its initial prosperity and tumultuous final years, and for being only the second time that China was not ruled by the Han people.

Edo Period Japanese End

1868

Meiji Period Japanese Start

1868

Also called the Meiji Emperor, he was the first ruler of Japan to wield actual political power in centuries.

Joseon Dynasty Korean End

1910

Qing Dynasty Chinese End

1911

Meiji Period Japanese End

1912

Taisho and Early Showa Period Japanese Start

1912

During the era of the weak Emperor Taisho, the political power shifted from the oligarchic clique (genro) to the parliament and the democratic parties.

Taisho and Early Showa Period Japanese End

1945