Dynasties of East Asia

Xia

Imperial China · -2070 – -1600

3 figures

Zhou

Imperial China · -1046 – -256

4 figures

Qin

Imperial China · -221 – -206

4 figures

Han

Imperial China · -206 – 220

2 figures

Tang Dynasty

Imperial China · 618 – 907

Often cited as the greatest imperial dynasty in ancient Chinese history, marking a golden age of cosmopolitan culture, poetry, military expansion, and the booming Silk Road trade.

5 figures

Yuan

China / East Asia · 1271 – 1368

The Mongol-founded dynasty that ruled all of China for nearly a century — the first time in Chinese history that the entire country was governed by a non-Han people. Established by Kublai Khan in 1271, the Yuan completed the conquest of the Southern Song in 1279 and made Khanbaliq (Beijing) its capital, hosting Marco Polo and binding the Pacific to the Mediterranean by Mongol post-roads. The dynasty collapsed under famine, plague, and Han rebellion in 1368, retreating to the steppe as the Northern Yuan.

8 figures

Ming

Imperial China · 1368 – 1644

5 figures

Joseon Dynasty

Korean Peninsula · 1392 – 1897

The final and longest-lived imperial dynasty of Korea, known for its strong Neo-Confucian ideology and high cultural achievement.

3 figures

Tokugawa Shogunate

Japan · 1603 – 1868

A centralized military dictatorship that brought 250 years of stability and isolation to Japan during the Edo period.

2 figures