Ancient China History

China's civilization is the world's longest continuous — from the Xia dynasty (~2100 BCE) through 24 dynasties to the present. China invented paper (105 CE), the printing press (~868 CE, 400 years before Gutenberg), gunpowder (~9th century), the compass, porcelain, cast iron, paper money, and countless other technologies that transformed the world. The Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE) unified China for the first time and created the model for centralized imperial administration. The Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) established the Silk Road, expanded Chinese territory, and created a civil service based on merit examinations — a system lasting 2,000 years. The Tang dynasty (618–907 CE) was China's golden age of poetry, art, and international openness. China was the world's largest economy for most of human history — overtaken by Britain only in the 19th century.