To understand contemporary China, one must look back into its past. As one of the world’s oldest civilizations, China’s more than 5,000 years of history are not confined to textbooks and museums; they continue to offer living wisdom today. Its long history was shaped not only by emperors and legendary figures, but also by the countless ordinary people who have lived on this land.
From the complex political struggles during the Three Kingdoms period and the mysterious bronze artifacts unearthed at Sanxingdui, to the lasting influence of Confucianism, which continues to influence Chinese social values and ways of life, China’s history reveals the breadth of human experience, as the ancients learned about the natural world, overcame disaster, dealt with conflict, sought better lives, or simply live out their days while creating arts and poetry and forming philosophical ideas.
Whether it’s the tumultuous Warring States period, lost tales along the ancient Silk Road, crime and punishment in the Ming and Qing dynasties, or the sweeping transformation of modern China, our collection of stories from Chinese history is yours to explore.
From the billowing robes of the Qing dynasty to the body-skimming silhouettes of the Republican era, the evolution of the “qipao,” a signature of Chi…
From ancient creation myths to everyday meals, the humble egg has long been woven into Chinese culture and cuisine
Fourteen hundred years ago this month, fratricidal bloodshed paved the way for one of China’s greatest emperors to ascend the throne. Yet what really…
Who gets to write history? Historians may have one answer, while young female history fandoms offer another.
Princess Li Jingxun was only nine when she died, yet from her resting place, she gifted the modern world a rare glimpse into 7th-century China—a forg…
Rocket scientists, novelists, Nobel Prize winners: meet the Chinese family whose bloodline reads like a who’s who of the modern world
From millennia-old rituals to everyday idioms, the Classic of Poetry’s importance to Chinese literary culture cannot be overstated—and a recent archa…
China’s great philosophers, historians, and poets had one thing in common. They got up from their desk and hit the dusty trail.
Step back 1,000 years into the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, when political chaos produced a litany of historical curiosities
Before the small, biometric-chipped booklet we now clutch when crossing borders, travel credentials in ancient China took many forms—from tokens and …
Prized in ancient China for their strength on and off the battlefield, horses have long been synonymous with talent and misused potential—a theme now…
Explore the multifaceted life of Song Emperor Zhao Kuangyin and the idioms it inspired
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