Chinese Emperors Family Tree (Tang, Song, Ming & Qing Dynasties)

today I'm going to show you the family tree of Chinese emperors from the Tang Dynasty onwards I'll be using my Asian royal family trees chart which is available as a poster from my website useful charts calm the Chinese sections of this chart are shown here in the bright red and in this video we'll be looking at four Chinese dynasties the tang dynasty the Song Dynasty the Ming Dynasty and the Ching dynasty so we'll start up here at the top about 1400 years ago but before we begin I'd like to point out that I'll be using the temple names for the first two dynasties and the era names for the last two dynasties each Chinese Emperor can be referred to in several different ways and these are two of the ways that are commonly used the founder of the tang dynasty was Emperor Gao su and he established the dynasty with the help of his son who later became Emperor Taizong before the tang dynasty there was a short-lived dynasty called the sway dynasty the sway dynasty had United China after a long period of division and fur gals who was originally a governor serving the sway dynasty but with the help of his son he launched a rebellion and became the new emperor the tang dynasty is considered a golden age in Chinese history and its second emperor Emperor Taizong is considered one of the greatest Chinese emperors of all time the early Tang Dynasty was successful both militarily and economically and laid the groundwork for a long period of progress in peace during this time China had contact not only with nearby India but also with the Arab caliphates and the Byzantine Empire Tai zong was followed by his son emperor gaozong who is mostly remembered for having married this individual empress wu zetian the only reigning empress Chinese history wu was originally one of Taizong concubines but then married gaozong after he became emperor becoming his empress consort or main wife her power grew during his reign and by the time he died she was running the Empire their son jang seong was officially the next Emperor but Wu now Empress mother still held the power she soon deposed Zhang Zhang and made another one of her sons Emperor instead emperor ruizong but in the Year 690 emperor ruizong stepped aside and allowed his mother to become official Emperor so as we mentioned earlier wu zetian became the only female Emperor or reigning Empress in the history of China she reigned for about 15 years and technically this period is not part of the Tang Dynasty because her male ancestors were from the Chou dynasty instead so sometimes her reign is considered the second Cho dynasty in 705 when she was ill Zhang Zhang led a coup against his mother and had himself named Emperor again wu zetian died shortly thereafter but the drama continued and Zhang Zhang was eventually poisoned by his wife empress wei who wanted to wield power like wu zetian had she made her son a puppet Emperor and planned to kill ruizong but were way songs allies caught wind of this and killed the Empress and thus Wei Zhong became Emperor for a second time but after a few short years Roy zong retired and made his son Emperor instead that son became emperor xuanzong and finally there was some stability again this was the peak of the tang dynasty and chuan zang ended up becoming the longest reigning Tong Emperor near the end of his reign the on XI rebellion began with the rival yan dynasty being declared in northern China the civil war lasted seven years through the reign of emperor suzong to the start of the reign of emperor dies on there is some controversy over the impact of the civil war based on census data it is possible that it led to the deaths of 36 million people that would be two-thirds of China's population at the time and one out of every six people in the entire world at that time even if the death toll was not actually that high it was certainly very high making the rebellion one of the darkest events in Chinese history eventually tong won but the empire was notably weaker after that we get a clear line of succession down to emperor musong then we get three of his sons before the throne passes to their uncle emperor xuanzong there's a small mistake here this should be 846 anyhow emperor xuanzong was the last strong tong emperor after him we get a series of puppet rulers until the Tong dynasty formally ends here we then get a period of Chinese history known as the Five Dynasties and ten kingdoms period and it's not until the Song Dynasty that China is reunited again this reunification was done by Emperor Tai zu he was followed by his brother advertisin not to be confused with Emperor Taizong of Tong whom we discussed earlier it's not entirely clear why a brother became the successor when Tai zu did have sons some suspect that Tai zong might have killed Tai zu but we don't know for sure the Song Dynasty is famous for the many inventions that occurred during this period of Chinese history this included gunpowder movable type printing paper money and improved compass and much more this all happened while Europe was still coming out of its Dark Ages the first part of the Song Dynasty is sometimes called the northern song dynasty because its capital was at Chi Fung in the north its Emperor's were all descendants of Emperor Taizong during the reign of Emperor Qin zong an event occurred called the Jing Kong incident a rival dynasty in the north had been growing in power this dynasty was the Georgian dynasty also known as the great Jin to distinguish itself from an earlier Jin dynasty in 1127 they captured the song capital as well as the song Emperor the retired Emperor and many members of the royal family one of the few people to escape was the half-brother of the Emperor the ninth son of emperor ruizong he established a new capital in the south and therefore the dynasty after this point is known as the southern Song Dynasty but Isaac's line ended with him he adopted a descendant of Tai zu and the throne passed through him so the remaining song Emperor's are all descendants of Tai zu not to ties up we get two more Emperor's in this line before the throne passes to another descendant of Tai zu via a different line Emperor Li Zhong it was during the reign of Li Zhong that the Mongols started to enter the Song Dynasty having already defeated the Jin dynasty but the Song Dynasty held on a little longer with several descendants of Li Zhong reigning after him his son and then three young grandchildren but by 1279 the Song Dynasty was finished and the yuan dynasty descended from the great Mongol warlord Genghis Khan was firmly established it was around this time that Marco Polo visited China for more information of the Yuan Dynasty you can watch my video on the Genghis Khan family tree the next native Chinese dynasty was the Ming Dynasty it was established by the Han Liu Emperor he was followed by his grandson gen when but he was soon replaced by his uncle who became the young Emperor the young Liu Emperor moved the capital to Beijing where he built the Forbidden City which served as the Imperial Palace for the rest of Chinese history he also commissioned several famous sea explorations led by jenga who has been called the Christopher Columbus of China the young Lu Emperor was followed by his son and grandson and this period is known as the Ming dynasty's Golden Age the next Emperor reigned twice under two different names because there was a period in time in which he was captured by the Mongols and his brother reigned in his stead but since he did get the throne back the line continued through him to his son the reign of the hanji Emperor is seen as the second most prosperous period of the Ming Dynasty he's also notable as being one of the only Chinese emperors to have only one wife and no concubines but his son the Jiang the Emperor was very different the jangda Emperor had a lavish lifestyle and supposedly died because he fell into the Grand Canal drunk the throne then passed to his cousin who became the jiajing emperor and had a long reign it was around this time that China started to come into contact with European powers who were starting to explore the east as part of the Age of Discovery there were several early battles between Portugal and the Ming Dynasty but eventually the Ming Dynasty allowed Portugal to establish a trading base at Macau jiajing was followed by his son and then his grandson who became the wanly Emperor and the longest reigning Emperor the Ming Dynasty but during his reign the Ming Dynasty declined in the 1590s Japan invaded Korea and the Ming Dynasty supported Korea against the Japanese several decades later in 1644 the Ming Dynasty was replaced by the Ching dynasty the Ching dynasty was the last and most recent Imperial Chinese dynasty and under this dynasty the Chinese Empire reached its largest size in fact it became the fourth largest empire in world history larger than any other empire except the British Empire the Mongol Empire and the Russian Empire the Ching dynasty originated in Manchuria north of Beijing the Manchu people were descendants of the Georgian who had established the great Jin dynasty discussed earlier the dynasty starts with NeuroSky and his son Hong Tai ji who reigned before the Qin conquest of the Ming Dynasty but are sometimes referred to as emperors nonetheless the first Ching Emperor to rule over all of China was the Shunzhi Emperor but he died at age 22 setting the stage for the long reign of his son the Kangxi Emperor in fact the Kangxi Emperor reigned longer than any other emperor in Chinese history a total of 61 years he is generally considered to be one of the greatest Chinese emperors of all time he had great military successes such as fending off the Russians and taking over Taiwan and Tibet he also laid the groundwork for a long period of stability economic growth and culture achievements the Kangxi Emperor was followed by his son and then his grandson who became the Qianlong Emperor the Chon Lung Emperor reigned almost as long as his grandfather for a total of 60 years and was followed by his son and grandson so this clear line of succession combined with some very long reigns allowed China to reach new heights of prosperity but things began to change during the reign of the daoguang emperor as well as those of his son and grandson during this period China ended up fighting two wars with the British known as the opium wars basically Britain was buying a lot of Chinese goods but China was not buying a lot of British goods so in order to fix the trade imbalance the British started trading the drug opium this was obviously bad for China for many reasons so it led to war the result was that the British took control of Hong Kong and China opened up more trade opportunities with the West but the Ching dynasty faced another problem around the same time the Taiping rebellion in 1851 an individual named Hong Shui Kuan claimed to be the brother of Jesus Christ and proceeded to set up a rival kingdom within China based on his own version of Christianity although the Ching dynasty eventually won the civil war lasted fourteen years and resulted in 25 million deaths the next Emperor was the Guangxu Emperor a cousin of the previous Emperor but during the reign of these two emperors the real power behind the throne was this individuals mother Empress say she gwang-soo died just one day before Empress safety at age 37 so some suspected that she hadn't poisoned her choice for the next Emperor the three-year-old nephew of Gwangju named Puhi was accepted but puyi would not be Emperor for long his official name is the chian Tung Emperor and he was the last emperor of China the Xinhai revolution began in 1911 resulting in the Emperor's abdication in 1912 and in China becoming a republic of course China is now a communist Republic but that change didn't happen until 1949 finally let's answer the question who would be ampere today if the Qin Dynasty was restored well Puyi had a younger half-brother named Jin ug who lived until 2015 Jin ug had a son named Jin Yu Jiang who is now 76 and the current heir to the throne as a reminder if you'd like to purchase a copy of this poster which not only covers China but all the major parts of Asia you can head over to my website useful charts comm please note that I do not sell it or make it available as a PDF or any other electronic format but you can see close-ups of the other parts of the chart by watching the videos in the Asian history section of my channel thanks for watching

Channel: UsefulCharts

Views: 144,213

Rating: 4.8959732 out of 5

Keywords: tang dynasty family tree, ming dynasty family tree, southern song dynasty, northern song dynasty, empress wu, wu zetian, empress wu zetian, song dynasty family tree, qing dynasty family tree, imperial china, who would be emperor of china, chinese empire, qing empire, ching dynasty family tree, emperor taizong, yongle emperor, kangxi emperor, emperor puyi, chinese history, history of china, chinese emperor, chinese dynasties

Id: x5B1dCZFFLw

Length: 16min 12sec (972 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 23 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

this is real neat! thanks!

[u/john_ly98]

Starts from the tang dynasty.