Ancient China

Where can I find information about Ancient China?

(Years 7-10)

Colour photo of the Jinshanling section of Great Wall of China. It was built from 1570 CE during the Ming dynasty. — Image: The Great Wall of China at Jinshanling-edit by Severin.stalder on Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 3.0 Unported. Image cropped.

Entry last updated: 27/05/26

Introduction

The history of Ancient China goes back over 4000 years. It is one of the oldest and longest living civilisations. We can still see some of this history in the Great Wall and the Terracotta Army. Much of Ancient China was ruled by different dynasties which were powerful families that ruled China for a very long time. Xia, Shang, and Qin are some examples of these powerful dynasties.

List of dynasties

A dynasty is when a country is ruled by one family over a long period of time. Here are some of the more well-known dynasties in Ancient China.

Xia Dynasty (c. 2070 to 1600 BCE): Earliest dynasty. Whether this dynasty was real or a myth is argued about.

Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 to 1046 BCE): Earliest Chinese dynasty with archaeological evidence.

Zhou Dynasty (1046 to 256 BCE): Dynasty that ruled for the longest time.

Qin Dynasty (221 to 207 BCE): First imperial dynasty of China. Beginning of the Great Wall.

Han Dynasty (206 BCE to 220 CE): A very prosperous period with a lot of political uncertainty and disorder. Beginning of the Silk Road.

Tang Dynasty (618 to 907 CE): The Silk Road continued to be important during this period.

Song Dynasty (960 to 1279 CE): Divided into two periods, the Northern Song (960 to 1127 CE) and the Southern Song (1127 to 1279 CE).

Yuan Dynasty (1279 to 1368 CE): China came under Mongolian rule.

Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644 CE): Last dynasty to be ruled by Han Chinese.

EPIC resources

EPIC is a collection of reliable resources covering lots of different topics. It’s put together especially for New Zealand school students and helps to answer questions like this.

If you're asked for a password, speak to your school librarian or chat with a librarian on AnyQuestions.

Middle School (Gale In Context)

This database contains lots of curriculum topics in science, history, literature, and social issues for intermediate and junior secondary students.

Look down the page to Cultures and select Ancient China from the list of topics.
Go down the page to find biographies, images, articles, videos, audio, and news updates on Ancient China.

Tips: To use the EPIC resources you will need a password from your school librarian. Or you can chat with one of our AnyQuestions librarians. Your public library may have some EPIC databases too.

Britannica School Middle

This online version of Encyclopedia Britannica covers history, geography, social sciences and science topics.

Enter 'China' in the search box.
Choose the article on China (country in East Asia).
Open the History section to find information about Chinese history from its beginnings.

Tips: If you find that there is too much information, change the level from 2 to 1 on the Navigator.

World History (Gale In Context)

This EPIC resource covers a range of history topics from around the world including ancient civilisations.

Enter 'Ancient China' into the search box.
Look down the page at the biographies, images, articles, and other resources.
Read the biography on Lao-Tzu, the ancient Chinese philosopher, and the reference article on Chinese Mythology .
Remember to explore the other results as well.
Or go to Browse Topics and look for one of the dynasties, eg Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644.

Tips: Info can be written from a certain perspective or point of view. It’s good to compare different stories about events to get a more accurate idea of what happened.

General websites

The websites below will lead you to information on the history, culture, and people of Ancient China.

Ducksters

This is a fun, educational website with information that's easy to understand. Sometimes it's a good idea to start simple to help understand a topic.

Select the History section and find Ancient China.
This topic covers the dynasties, culture, important people like Confucius, and fun facts about Ancient China.

Tips: Company websites (with .com or .co) can have useful info, but we need to check how reliable it is. Check the About us link on the website, if you can find one. That can tell you what the company’s mission and values are.

World History Encyclopedia

This is a great place for information about different historical civilisations. The information available includes timelines, articles, videos, and more.

Enter the search word 'Ancient China' into the search box.
Open the result Ancient China. It has facts about when this civilisation began and the different dynasties that ruled Ancient China.
Remember to look at other results like Women in Ancient China and Daily Life in Ancient China.

Tips: We like sites like this because articles include where they got their information from and information on who wrote the article. Just look to the bottom of the page for the 'Bibliography' and 'About the author'.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy is an educational site filled with articles and videos on lots of topics in science, maths, history, computers and more. You can close any pop ups or banners that ask for a donation or to sign up.

Look down the page to find the list of courses.
Under the heading Social Studies chooseWorld history.
Look through different time periods to select a lesson, like Shang China or Ancient and Imperial China.
Make your way through the videos, articles, and quizzes.

Tips: Websites with .org or .net in the address can have useful info, but you need to check that it’s reliable. Check the About link on the website, if you can find one. That can tell you what the organisation’s mission and values are.

History

This is the website for the History Channel. Its main focus is US history, but it also has worldwide topics.

Search using the keywords 'Ancient China'.
Look for the article Ancient China.
This page links to articles about some Chinese dynasties, the Great Wall of China, and Chinese
inventions.

Tips: Some websites have advertisements (or ads) which ask us to buy something or tell us to ‘click here’. It’s best to ignore these ads and focus on the information we’re looking for.