Chinese Emperors

Objectively speaking, Chinese splendid ancient history roughly is the history of Chinese Emperors(Chinese Monarchs) and their contributions and encumbrances to the development of Chinese feudalistic period. And also they were the supporters and repressors of Chinese ancient culture.

Initially, the earliest title of Huangdi(皇帝, Emperor) appeared in ancient time was the generalization of Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors( In general, three sovereigns are Heaven Sovereign or Sui Ren, Earth Sovereign or Shen Nong and Human Sovereign or Fu Xi, as well as Five Emperors were Emperor Fuxi, Emperor Huangdi, Emperor Shennong, Emperor Yao and Emperor Shun). They together were esteemed as the forefathers of China as well as the founders of Chinese culture.

After Emperor Qinshihuang united China at the first time, he thought of himself as Huangdi (Emperor) to show that his contributions exceeded Five Emperors and his moral surpassed Three Sovereigns. He was the first man calling himself as Huangdi in Chinese history. From then on, Chinese emperors in different dynasties used to call themselves Huangdi as well until the downfall of Chinese feudalism in 1912. Over the past 2000 years of Chinese feudalistic history, emperors were the top dominators of China, and became the symbol of Chinese feudalistic administration. In accordance with the statistics, in total the time that China under the reign of Emperors was 2132 years from Emperor Qinshihuang enthroned in 221 BC to Emperor Puyi’s abdication in 1912. During this time, China had totally 494 emperors. China under their reigns experienced a lot of splendid time and glorious dynasties but also suffered a lot from their wrongdoings and ridiculous policymaking. But all in all, China in this section of time was marvelous and powerful in all aspects. Some biref classificationas of dynasties and the representative emperors of different dynasties are available as below:

1. 2100 BC-1066 BC Xia and Shang Dynasty Emperors

Da Yu	Xia Jie	Shang Tang	Shang Zhou

2. 1066 BC - 221 BC Zhou Dynasty Emperors Including Warring States Period

Emperor Wenwang	Emperor Wuwang	Emperor Youwang	Emperor Liwang

Liu Bei	Sun Quan	Cao Cao	Cao Pi

Emperor Sui Wendi	Emperor Sui Yangdi	Emperor Tang Taizong	Emperor Tang Xuanzong

Emperor Song Taizu	Emperor Song Taizong	Emperor Song Huizong	Emperor Song Gaozong

Genghis khan	Kublai Khan	Emperor Ming Taizu	Emperor Ming Chengzu

Emperor Kangxi	Emperor Yongzheng	Emperor Qianlong	Emperor Puyi