Ancient China: Did you mean...?

Relations between ancient Japan and China have a long history, and in certain periods the exchange of political, religious and cultural practices between the two was intense. China, the much older state and the...

In Ancient China, it was widely known that it was better to be born a male than a female. To be born a female meant being subordinate to one’s father, then to one’s husband and if a wife became a widow, then she...

China's bronze-casting traditions can be traced back to about 2000 BCE. Elaborate bronze vessels were made for ritual and ceremonial use, often to make offerings to ancestors. The materials and technology of this long-standing...

The Yuan Dynasty was established by the Mongols and ruled China from 1271 to 1368. Their first emperor was Kublai Khan (r. 1260-1294) who finally defeated the Song Dynasty which had reigned in China since 960. Stability and peace...

The rulers of China's Ming dynasty (1368-1644) acquired an insatiable desire for silver in the 16th century, largely to pay for huge prestige projects like building the Forbidden City in Beijing and repairing the...

Knife money of the Warring States period retained some features of the real tools, including the ring and the strengethening ridges on the handle. The States in the north and north-east issued knife money. 1. Zhao...

This votive of Maitreya, the Buddha of the future as a bodhisattva, dates from the early 6th century CE during the Northern Wei Dynasty, and it is made of chalkstone. It comes from the Longmen Cave Temples in China's...

The civil service examinations of Imperial China allowed the state to find the best candidates to staff the vast bureaucracy that governed China from the Han Dynasty onwards (206 BCE - 220 CE). The exams...

During the Warring States period, 475-221 BCE, the various states used different forms of spade money. There are several weight systems, and this is reflected in the inscriptions. 2. Zhou State, 300s BCE, Warring...

The Silk Road was a network of ancient trade routes, formally established during the Han Dynasty of China in 130 BCE, which linked the regions of the ancient world in commerce between 130 BCE-1453 CE. The Silk Road was not a single...