Chinese dynasties: Did you mean...?

An 18th century CE engraving by Jacques Gabriel Huquier illustrating an audience with a Chinese emperor. (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

A Chinese miniature jade mask. 2nd millennium BCE. Height: 4 cm. (British Museum, London)

An 1804 print of a Chinese junk ship. The junk was capable of operating in shallow waters or on ocean voyages and was a mainstay of merchant and pirate shipping in Asia for centuries.

A Chinese lacquered coffin with dragon and bird decoration from the Chu state. 4th century BCE. (Hubei Provincial Museum, Wuhan, China)

Limestone figure depicting a Chinese celestial king. Tang dynasty, 7th-8th century CE. (Musée Guimet, Paris)

Emperor Taizu (960-976 CE), formerly known as Zhao Kuangyin, was the founder of the Song (aka Sung) dynasty which ruled China from 960 to 1279 CE. Taizu settled for a territorially smaller but more unified and prosperous China than was seen...

The Han Dynasty (202 BCE - 220 CE) was the second dynasty of Imperial China (the era of centralized, dynastic government, 221 BCE - 1912 CE) which established the paradigm for all succeeding dynasties up through 1912 CE. It succeeded the...

Left: A Chinese tea bowl of black glazed stone ware, Song Dynasty, 960-1279 CE. Right: A Chinese lacquered bowl stand, Yuan Dynasty, 13th century CE. (British Museum, London)

This Chinese bronze mirror with a phoenix motif dates from the Tang dynasty (618-907 CE). The phoenix was the female counterpart to the male dragon in mythology, and it was also a symbol of Chinese empresses. (Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto)

The Khitan people formed the Liao dynasty and ruled parts of Mongolia, Manchuria, and northern China from 907 to 1125 CE. Adopting elements of Chinese government and culture, the Khitan were more than a match for their rivals the Song dynasty...