“Study the past, if you would divine
the future.” – Confucius

(China Casting)
Most Chinese histories are
mind-numbingly boring — giving way too much detail for the average Zhou.
This is not one of them (I hope). Instead, I want to give you The Big Picture—
hitting the high points and connecting the dots (admittedly, the early history
is a bit dry but moves quickly).
The Chinese like to
brag that they have the longest, continuous civilization in the world—some
5,000 years worth. But to put things in perspective, it’s not the oldest.
Compared to ancient Egypt
and Mesopotamia, China was relatively primitive. For
instance, metallurgy began in China
no earlier than 2500 BC…at least 1,000 years after those ancient civilizations.
But still, China’s
development has been impressive. Three thousand years ago, the Chinese were
casting bronze and other alloys (China casting), growing wheat,
millet and rice, weaving silk, and recording events in a written language of
thousands of characters.
Chinese
technology—transmitted to Europe in waves—has
had a big impact on the world development. For instance, many associate the
crossbow with Europe during the Middle Ages; it was invented fifteen centuries
earlier in China.
And a thousand years before the Industrial Revolution in England, the
Chinese were using advanced coke ovens and steel blast furnaces.
China’s history is a fascinating
cycle of rise and fall–alternating between periods of war and peace. Foreigners
played a big part too. Long before the Western “barbarians” came into the
picture, China
was ruled by invaders from the north—the Mongols in the late 13th century and
the Manchus in the mid-16th.
Yet the idea of
ruling from the center had been implanted by China’s First Emperor over
twenty-two centuries ago. Throughout Chinese history, this “Mandate from
Heaven” contained the idea — however imperfectly implemented — that rulers had
a duty to care for the people.
Source: http://www.china-mike.com/chinese-history-timeline/