What happened in history in China

A census counted fifty-nine million people in the Han empire.

Ping of Han established a national school system.

Ping died after being poisoned by Wang Mang, who became acting emperor.

Liu Xin completed a star catalogue and calculated the length of the year.

Wang Mang declared himself emperor of the Xin dynasty.

Wang Mang introduced an income tax of ten percent for professionals and skilled laborers.

Mother Lü initiated a rebellion against a county magistrate in Haiqu County, near modern Rizhao.

Lülin forces broke the siege of Kunyang, in modern Ye County, by a vastly superior Xin army.

Battle of Kunyang

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Lülin rebels stormed the Weiyang Palace and killed Wang. The Gengshi Emperor ascended the throne, restoring the Han dynasty.

The Gengshi Emperor was executed.

The Red Eyebrows appointed Liu Penzi their emperor.

The Han warlord Emperor Guangwu of Han took the title emperor.

Guangwu of Han

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The Red Eyebrows surrendered to the Han dynasty.

Ban Gu, the co-author of the Book of Han, is born.

Ban Gu

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Guangwu died. He was succeeded by his son Emperor Ming of Han.

Ming of Han

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The Buddhist White Horse Temple was established in Luoyang.

White Horse Temple

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A punitive Han expedition against the Xiongnu captured territory in the area of modern Hami City.

Ming died. He was succeeded by his son Emperor Zhang of Han.

Zhang of Han

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Wang Chong correctly theorized the nature of the water cycle.

Jin Midi died.

Jin Midi

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Zhang died. He was succeeded by his son Emperor He of Han.

Xu Shen completed the Shuowen Jiezi.

Xu Shen

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He of Han died.

He's infant son Emperor Shang of Han was made emperor of Han with empress dowager Deng Sui acting as regent.

Cai Lun invented papermaking.

Cai Lun

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Shang died.

Shang's young cousin Emperor An of Han became emperor, with Deng Sui continuing to act as regent.

An died.

The Marquess of Beixiang became emperor of the Han dynasty.

The Marquess of Beixiang died.

An's son Emperor Shun of Han became emperor of the Han dynasty.

Zhang Heng invented a seismometer capable of indicating the direction of earthquakes.

The Cantong qi was published.

Shun died. He was succeeded by his infant son Emperor Chong of Han, with empress dowager Liang Na and her brother Liang Ji acting as regents.

Chong of Han died.

Chong's young third cousin Emperor Zhi of Han became emperor of the Han dynasty, with Liang Na acting as regent.

Zhi of Han

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Liang Ji poisoned Zhi, killing him.

Emperor Huan of Han became emperor of the Han dynasty.

Huan of Han

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Lokaksema was born.

Lokaksema

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A Roman envoy arrived at the Han capital Luoyang.

It is possible that an alleged Roman embassy from "Daqin" that arrived in Eastern Han China in 166 via a Roman maritime route into the South China Sea, landing at Jiaozhou (northern Vietnam) and bearing gifts for the Emperor Huan of Han (r. 146–168), was sent by Marcus Aurelius, or his predecessor Antoninus Pius (the confusion stems from the transliteration of their names as "Andun", Chinese: 安敦).

Several ministers and some two hundred university students, who had opposed the influence of corrupt eunuchs at the royal court, were arrested.

Emperor Ling of Han became emperor of the Han dynasty.

Ling of Han

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Huan of Han died.

Cai Wenji was born.

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The earliest known reference to The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art appeared.

Ding Huan invented the rotary fan.

The Taoist sect leader Zhang Jue called on his followers in the Han provinces to rebel against the government.

Zhang Jue

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The Qiang people launched a rebellion against Han authority in the area of modern Wuwei.

Zhi Yao first translated Buddhist texts into Chinese.

Ling of Han died.

Ling's son Liu Bian became emperor of the Han dynasty.

Forces loyal to the warlords Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu massacred some two thousand eunuchs in the Han capital Luoyang.

The Han general Dong Zhuo deposed Liu Bian as emperor and appointed his brother Emperor Xian of Han in his stead.

Dong Zhuo

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A coalition led by Yuan Shao gathered at Hangu Pass in anticipation of an expedition against Dong.

Dong was assassinated by his foster son Lü Bu.

The warlord Sun Ce attacked and conquered territory administered by Lu Kang.

Sun Ce

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War between Cao Cao and Zhang Xiu almost take Cao Cao's life. Cao Cao's oldest son perished in the battle, but Zhang Xiu later (199) surrendered to Cao Cao to face Yuan Shao together.

The allied forces of the warlords Cao Cao and Liu Bei defeated an army loyal to Lü Bu in Xuzhou.

Forces loyal to Cao Cao dealt a bloody defeat to Yuan Shao near the confluence of the Bian and Yellow Rivers.

Forces loyal to the warlords Liu Bei and Sun Quan decisively repelled Cao Cao in an attempted invasion across the Yangtze River.

Engravings on a cliff-side mark one widely accepted site of Chibi, near modern Chibi City, HubeiCao Cao

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Cao Cao defeated an alliance of anti-Han rebels in modern Tongguan County, securing his control over Guanzhong.

Battle of Tong Pass

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Liu Zhang, the governor of Yi Province in modern Sichuan and Chongqing, surrendered Chengdu to Liu Bei.

Liu Zhang

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A plague outbreak forced Sun Quan to abandon the attempted conquest from Cao Cao of a fortress at Hefei.

Liu Bei ambushed and dealt a bloody defeat to Cao Cao's army in Hanzhong.

Cao Cao repelled an attack by Liu Bei's general Guan Yu in modern Fancheng District, at great cost to both sides.

Battle of Fancheng

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Liu Bei's generals Shi Ren and Mi Fang defected to Sun Quan, surrendering to his general Lü Meng the main defense posts of Jingzhou.

Lü Meng

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Cao Cao's son Cao Pi forced Xian to abdicate the throne and declared himself emperor of Cao Wei.

Cao Pi

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Liu Bei declared himself emperor of Shu Han.

Liu Bei

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The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism introduced meditation to other oriental countries. Bodhidharma is traditionally considered the transmitter of the concept of Zen to China. However, the first "original school" in East Asia was founded by his contemporary Zhiyi in the 6th century in central China. Zhiyi managed to systematically organize the various teachings that had been imported from India in a way that their relationship with each other made sense.

Later, the Han, the Northern Dynasties and the Sui all repaired, rebuilt, or expanded sections of the Great Wall at great cost to defend themselves against northern invaders.

Non-Han dynasties also built their border walls: the Xianbei-ruled Northern Wei, the Khitan-ruled Liao, Jurchen Jin and the Tangut-established Western Xia, who ruled vast territories over Northern China throughout centuries, all constructed defensive walls but those were located much to the north of the other Great Walls as we know it, within China's province of Inner Mongolia and in Mongolia itself.

A large meteorite fell onto the rebel Lu Ming-Yueh's camp, destroying a wall-attacking tower in 616. The death toll from this enent is estimated to be more than 10 people.

Chinese martial arts originated during the legendary, possibly apocryphal, Xia Dynasty more than 4000 years ago. It is said the Yellow Emperor Huangdi (c. 2698 BCE) introduced the earliest fighting systems to China. The Yellow Emperor is described as a famous general who before becoming China's leader, wrote lengthy treatises on medicine, astrology and martial arts. One of his main opponents was Chi You who was credited as the creator of jiao di, a forerunner to the modern art of Chinese wrestling.

The 1290 Chihli earthquake occurred on 27 September with an epicenter near Ningcheng, Zhongshu Sheng (Zhili or Chihli), Yuan Empire. The earthquake had an estimated surface wave magnitude of 6.8 and a maximum felt intensity of IX (Violent) on the Mercalli intensity scale. One estimate places the death toll at 7,270, while another has it at 100,000.

The 1303 Hongdong earthquake occurred in China, then part of the Mongol Empire, on September 25. The shock was estimated to have a magnitude of 8.0 and it had a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). With catastrophic damage, it was one of the deadliest recorded earthquakes of all time. In Taiyuan and Pingyang, nearly 100,000 houses collapsed and over 200,000 people died from collapsing buildings and loess caves in a similar manner to the situation that would be experienced 253 years later in the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake (陕西).

1310 Western Hubei landslide in 1310, in China. The death toll from this landslide is estimated to be 3,466 people.

The second plague pandemic breaks out in China. Widely known as the "Black Death" or the Great Plague, it is regarded as one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people in Eurasia.

Bubonic plague is reported in central Asia.

Bubonic plague breaks out in China and India.

The Great Wall concept was revived again under the Ming in the 14th century, and following the Ming army's defeat by the Oirats in the Battle of Tumu. The Ming had failed to gain a clear upper hand over the Mongolian tribes after successive battles, and the long-drawn conflict was taking a toll on the empire. The Ming adopted a new strategy to keep the nomadic tribes out by constructing walls along the northern border of China. Acknowledging the Mongol control established in the Ordos Desert, the wall followed the desert's southern edge instead of incorporating the bend of the Yellow River.

The Ming Dynasty in 1407 founded the imperial library, the Wen Yuan Pavilion. It also sponsored the massive compilation of the Yongle Encyclopedia, containing 11,000 volumes including copies of over 7000 books. It was soon destroyed, but similar very large compilations appeared in 1725 and 1772.

Yongle Encyclopedia

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During the 1440s–1460s, the Ming also built a so-called "Liaodong Wall". Similar in function to the Great Wall (whose extension, in a sense, it was), but more basic in construction, the Liaodong Wall enclosed the agricultural heartland of the Liaodong province, protecting it against potential incursions by Jurched-Mongol Oriyanghan from the northwest and the Jianzhou Jurchens from the north.

The Ch'ing-yang event of 1490 (also Ch'ing-yang, Chi-ing-yang or Chíing-yang meteor shower) is a presumed meteor shower or air burst in Qingyang in March or April 1490. The area was in the province of Shaanxi but is now part of Gansu. If a meteor shower did occur, it may have been the result of the disintegration of an asteroid during an atmospheric entry air burst. More than 10,000 people were struck dead. All of the people in the city fled to other places.

The 1556 Shaanxi earthquake or Huaxian earthquake is the deadliest earthquake in recorded history: according to imperial records approximately 830,000 people lost their lives. It occurred on the morning of 23 January 1556 in Shaanxi, during the Ming Dynasty. More than 97 counties in the provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Gansu, Hebei, Shandong, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu and Anhui were affected.

Tianyi Chamber, founded in 1561 by Fan Qin during the Ming Dynasty, is the oldest existing library in China. In its heyday it boasted a collection of 70,000 volumes of antique books.

Qi Jiguang between 1567 and 1570 also repaired and reinforced the wall, faced sections of the ram-earth wall with bricks and constructed 1,200 watchtowers from Shanhaiguan Pass to Changping to warn of approaching Mongol raiders.

Continue in Storyteller

Chinese martial arts developed with Ming-era treatises such as Ji Xiao Xin Shu.

10 homes destroyed in Changshou District, Chongqing, China, in 1639. The death toll from this event is estimated to be "Tens" .

Towards the end of the Ming, the Great Wall helped defend the empire against the Manchu invasions that began around 1600. Even after the loss of all of Liaodong, the Ming army held the heavily fortified Shanhai Pass, preventing the Manchus from conquering the Chinese heartland. The Manchus were finally able to cross the Great Wall in 1644, after Beijing had already fallen to Li Zicheng's rebels.

Under Qing rule, China's borders extended beyond the walls and Mongolia was annexed into the empire, so constructions on the Great Wall were discontinued. On the other hand, the so-called Willow Palisade, following a line similar to that of the Ming Liaodong Wall, was constructed by the Qing rulers in Manchuria. Its purpose, however, was not defense but rather to prevent Han Chinese migration into Manchuria.

1668 Shandong earthquake occurred on July 25, 1668, in Qing Empire (now China), there were an estimated 42,571 deaths.

1718 Gansu earthquake occurred on June 19, 1718 in Qing Empire (now China), there were an estimated 73,000 deaths.

The human plague is reported intermittently in the Chinese province of Yunnan, where the third plague pandemic would begin in the 1860s.

1786 Dadu River landslide dam; triggered by the 1786 Kangding-Luding earthquake in China. The death toll from this landslide is estimated to be 100,000 people.

After suffering its first defeat to the West in the First Opium War in 1842, the Qing imperial court struggled to contain foreign intrusions into China. Efforts to adjust and reform the traditional methods of governance were constrained by a deeply conservative court culture that did not want to give away too much authority to reform.

Third Pandemic is the designation of a major bubonic plague pandemic that began in Yunnan province in China in 1855, fifth year of the Xianfeng Emperor of the Qing dynasty. This episode of bubonic plague spread to all inhabited continents, and ultimately more than 12 million people died in India and China, with about 10 million killed in India alone. According to the World Health Organization, the pandemic was considered active until 1960, when worldwide casualties dropped to 200 per year.

Third plague pandemic

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Following defeat in the Second Opium War in 1860, the Qing tried to modernize by adopting certain Western technologies through the Self-Strengthening Movement from 1861.

Following defeat in the Second Opium War in 1860, the Qing tried to modernize by adopting certain Western technologies through the Self-Strengthening Movement from 1861.

The plague spreads from Yunnan Province to Beihai on the Chinese coastline.

A census counted fifty-nine million people in the Han empire.

Ping of Han established a national school system.

Ping died after being poisoned by Wang Mang, who became acting emperor.

Liu Xin completed a star catalogue and calculated the length of the year.

Wang Mang declared himself emperor of the Xin dynasty.

Wang Mang introduced an income tax of ten percent for professionals and skilled laborers.

Mother Lü initiated a rebellion against a county magistrate in Haiqu County, near modern Rizhao.

Lülin forces broke the siege of Kunyang, in modern Ye County, by a vastly superior Xin army.

Battle of Kunyang

Continue in Storyteller

Lülin rebels stormed the Weiyang Palace and killed Wang. The Gengshi Emperor ascended the throne, restoring the Han dynasty.

The Gengshi Emperor was executed.

The Red Eyebrows appointed Liu Penzi their emperor.

The Han warlord Emperor Guangwu of Han took the title emperor.

Guangwu of Han

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The Red Eyebrows surrendered to the Han dynasty.

Ban Gu, the co-author of the Book of Han, is born.

Ban Gu

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Guangwu died. He was succeeded by his son Emperor Ming of Han.

Ming of Han

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The Buddhist White Horse Temple was established in Luoyang.

White Horse Temple

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A punitive Han expedition against the Xiongnu captured territory in the area of modern Hami City.

Ming died. He was succeeded by his son Emperor Zhang of Han.

Zhang of Han

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Wang Chong correctly theorized the nature of the water cycle.

Jin Midi died.

Jin Midi

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Zhang died. He was succeeded by his son Emperor He of Han.

Xu Shen completed the Shuowen Jiezi.

Xu Shen

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He of Han died.

He's infant son Emperor Shang of Han was made emperor of Han with empress dowager Deng Sui acting as regent.

Cai Lun invented papermaking.

Cai Lun

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Shang died.

Shang's young cousin Emperor An of Han became emperor, with Deng Sui continuing to act as regent.

An died.

The Marquess of Beixiang became emperor of the Han dynasty.

The Marquess of Beixiang died.

An's son Emperor Shun of Han became emperor of the Han dynasty.

Zhang Heng invented a seismometer capable of indicating the direction of earthquakes.

The Cantong qi was published.

Shun died. He was succeeded by his infant son Emperor Chong of Han, with empress dowager Liang Na and her brother Liang Ji acting as regents.

Chong of Han died.

Chong's young third cousin Emperor Zhi of Han became emperor of the Han dynasty, with Liang Na acting as regent.

Zhi of Han

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Liang Ji poisoned Zhi, killing him.

Emperor Huan of Han became emperor of the Han dynasty.

Huan of Han

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Lokaksema was born.

Lokaksema

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A Roman envoy arrived at the Han capital Luoyang.

It is possible that an alleged Roman embassy from "Daqin" that arrived in Eastern Han China in 166 via a Roman maritime route into the South China Sea, landing at Jiaozhou (northern Vietnam) and bearing gifts for the Emperor Huan of Han (r. 146–168), was sent by Marcus Aurelius, or his predecessor Antoninus Pius (the confusion stems from the transliteration of their names as "Andun", Chinese: 安敦).

Several ministers and some two hundred university students, who had opposed the influence of corrupt eunuchs at the royal court, were arrested.

Emperor Ling of Han became emperor of the Han dynasty.

Ling of Han

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Huan of Han died.

Cai Wenji was born.

Continue in Storyteller

The earliest known reference to The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art appeared.

Ding Huan invented the rotary fan.

The Taoist sect leader Zhang Jue called on his followers in the Han provinces to rebel against the government.

Zhang Jue

Continue in Storyteller

The Qiang people launched a rebellion against Han authority in the area of modern Wuwei.

Zhi Yao first translated Buddhist texts into Chinese.

Ling of Han died.

Ling's son Liu Bian became emperor of the Han dynasty.

Forces loyal to the warlords Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu massacred some two thousand eunuchs in the Han capital Luoyang.

The Han general Dong Zhuo deposed Liu Bian as emperor and appointed his brother Emperor Xian of Han in his stead.

Dong Zhuo

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A coalition led by Yuan Shao gathered at Hangu Pass in anticipation of an expedition against Dong.

Dong was assassinated by his foster son Lü Bu.

The warlord Sun Ce attacked and conquered territory administered by Lu Kang.

Sun Ce

Continue in Storyteller

War between Cao Cao and Zhang Xiu almost take Cao Cao's life. Cao Cao's oldest son perished in the battle, but Zhang Xiu later (199) surrendered to Cao Cao to face Yuan Shao together.

The allied forces of the warlords Cao Cao and Liu Bei defeated an army loyal to Lü Bu in Xuzhou.

Forces loyal to Cao Cao dealt a bloody defeat to Yuan Shao near the confluence of the Bian and Yellow Rivers.

Forces loyal to the warlords Liu Bei and Sun Quan decisively repelled Cao Cao in an attempted invasion across the Yangtze River.

Engravings on a cliff-side mark one widely accepted site of Chibi, near modern Chibi City, HubeiCao Cao

Continue in Storyteller

Cao Cao defeated an alliance of anti-Han rebels in modern Tongguan County, securing his control over Guanzhong.

Battle of Tong Pass

Continue in Storyteller

Liu Zhang, the governor of Yi Province in modern Sichuan and Chongqing, surrendered Chengdu to Liu Bei.

Liu Zhang

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A plague outbreak forced Sun Quan to abandon the attempted conquest from Cao Cao of a fortress at Hefei.

Liu Bei ambushed and dealt a bloody defeat to Cao Cao's army in Hanzhong.

Cao Cao repelled an attack by Liu Bei's general Guan Yu in modern Fancheng District, at great cost to both sides.

Battle of Fancheng

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Liu Bei's generals Shi Ren and Mi Fang defected to Sun Quan, surrendering to his general Lü Meng the main defense posts of Jingzhou.

Lü Meng

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Cao Cao's son Cao Pi forced Xian to abdicate the throne and declared himself emperor of Cao Wei.

Cao Pi

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Liu Bei declared himself emperor of Shu Han.

Liu Bei

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The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism introduced meditation to other oriental countries. Bodhidharma is traditionally considered the transmitter of the concept of Zen to China. However, the first "original school" in East Asia was founded by his contemporary Zhiyi in the 6th century in central China. Zhiyi managed to systematically organize the various teachings that had been imported from India in a way that their relationship with each other made sense.

Later, the Han, the Northern Dynasties and the Sui all repaired, rebuilt, or expanded sections of the Great Wall at great cost to defend themselves against northern invaders.

Non-Han dynasties also built their border walls: the Xianbei-ruled Northern Wei, the Khitan-ruled Liao, Jurchen Jin and the Tangut-established Western Xia, who ruled vast territories over Northern China throughout centuries, all constructed defensive walls but those were located much to the north of the other Great Walls as we know it, within China's province of Inner Mongolia and in Mongolia itself.

A large meteorite fell onto the rebel Lu Ming-Yueh's camp, destroying a wall-attacking tower in 616. The death toll from this enent is estimated to be more than 10 people.

Chinese martial arts originated during the legendary, possibly apocryphal, Xia Dynasty more than 4000 years ago. It is said the Yellow Emperor Huangdi (c. 2698 BCE) introduced the earliest fighting systems to China. The Yellow Emperor is described as a famous general who before becoming China's leader, wrote lengthy treatises on medicine, astrology and martial arts. One of his main opponents was Chi You who was credited as the creator of jiao di, a forerunner to the modern art of Chinese wrestling.

The 1290 Chihli earthquake occurred on 27 September with an epicenter near Ningcheng, Zhongshu Sheng (Zhili or Chihli), Yuan Empire. The earthquake had an estimated surface wave magnitude of 6.8 and a maximum felt intensity of IX (Violent) on the Mercalli intensity scale. One estimate places the death toll at 7,270, while another has it at 100,000.

The 1303 Hongdong earthquake occurred in China, then part of the Mongol Empire, on September 25. The shock was estimated to have a magnitude of 8.0 and it had a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). With catastrophic damage, it was one of the deadliest recorded earthquakes of all time. In Taiyuan and Pingyang, nearly 100,000 houses collapsed and over 200,000 people died from collapsing buildings and loess caves in a similar manner to the situation that would be experienced 253 years later in the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake (陕西).

1310 Western Hubei landslide in 1310, in China. The death toll from this landslide is estimated to be 3,466 people.

The second plague pandemic breaks out in China. Widely known as the "Black Death" or the Great Plague, it is regarded as one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people in Eurasia.

Bubonic plague is reported in central Asia.

Bubonic plague breaks out in China and India.

The Great Wall concept was revived again under the Ming in the 14th century, and following the Ming army's defeat by the Oirats in the Battle of Tumu. The Ming had failed to gain a clear upper hand over the Mongolian tribes after successive battles, and the long-drawn conflict was taking a toll on the empire. The Ming adopted a new strategy to keep the nomadic tribes out by constructing walls along the northern border of China. Acknowledging the Mongol control established in the Ordos Desert, the wall followed the desert's southern edge instead of incorporating the bend of the Yellow River.

The Ming Dynasty in 1407 founded the imperial library, the Wen Yuan Pavilion. It also sponsored the massive compilation of the Yongle Encyclopedia, containing 11,000 volumes including copies of over 7000 books. It was soon destroyed, but similar very large compilations appeared in 1725 and 1772.

Yongle Encyclopedia

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During the 1440s–1460s, the Ming also built a so-called "Liaodong Wall". Similar in function to the Great Wall (whose extension, in a sense, it was), but more basic in construction, the Liaodong Wall enclosed the agricultural heartland of the Liaodong province, protecting it against potential incursions by Jurched-Mongol Oriyanghan from the northwest and the Jianzhou Jurchens from the north.

The Ch'ing-yang event of 1490 (also Ch'ing-yang, Chi-ing-yang or Chíing-yang meteor shower) is a presumed meteor shower or air burst in Qingyang in March or April 1490. The area was in the province of Shaanxi but is now part of Gansu. If a meteor shower did occur, it may have been the result of the disintegration of an asteroid during an atmospheric entry air burst. More than 10,000 people were struck dead. All of the people in the city fled to other places.

The 1556 Shaanxi earthquake or Huaxian earthquake is the deadliest earthquake in recorded history: according to imperial records approximately 830,000 people lost their lives. It occurred on the morning of 23 January 1556 in Shaanxi, during the Ming Dynasty. More than 97 counties in the provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Gansu, Hebei, Shandong, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu and Anhui were affected.

Tianyi Chamber, founded in 1561 by Fan Qin during the Ming Dynasty, is the oldest existing library in China. In its heyday it boasted a collection of 70,000 volumes of antique books.

Qi Jiguang between 1567 and 1570 also repaired and reinforced the wall, faced sections of the ram-earth wall with bricks and constructed 1,200 watchtowers from Shanhaiguan Pass to Changping to warn of approaching Mongol raiders.

Continue in Storyteller

Chinese martial arts developed with Ming-era treatises such as Ji Xiao Xin Shu.

10 homes destroyed in Changshou District, Chongqing, China, in 1639. The death toll from this event is estimated to be "Tens" .

Towards the end of the Ming, the Great Wall helped defend the empire against the Manchu invasions that began around 1600. Even after the loss of all of Liaodong, the Ming army held the heavily fortified Shanhai Pass, preventing the Manchus from conquering the Chinese heartland. The Manchus were finally able to cross the Great Wall in 1644, after Beijing had already fallen to Li Zicheng's rebels.

Under Qing rule, China's borders extended beyond the walls and Mongolia was annexed into the empire, so constructions on the Great Wall were discontinued. On the other hand, the so-called Willow Palisade, following a line similar to that of the Ming Liaodong Wall, was constructed by the Qing rulers in Manchuria. Its purpose, however, was not defense but rather to prevent Han Chinese migration into Manchuria.

1668 Shandong earthquake occurred on July 25, 1668, in Qing Empire (now China), there were an estimated 42,571 deaths.

1718 Gansu earthquake occurred on June 19, 1718 in Qing Empire (now China), there were an estimated 73,000 deaths.

The human plague is reported intermittently in the Chinese province of Yunnan, where the third plague pandemic would begin in the 1860s.

1786 Dadu River landslide dam; triggered by the 1786 Kangding-Luding earthquake in China. The death toll from this landslide is estimated to be 100,000 people.

After suffering its first defeat to the West in the First Opium War in 1842, the Qing imperial court struggled to contain foreign intrusions into China. Efforts to adjust and reform the traditional methods of governance were constrained by a deeply conservative court culture that did not want to give away too much authority to reform.

Third Pandemic is the designation of a major bubonic plague pandemic that began in Yunnan province in China in 1855, fifth year of the Xianfeng Emperor of the Qing dynasty. This episode of bubonic plague spread to all inhabited continents, and ultimately more than 12 million people died in India and China, with about 10 million killed in India alone. According to the World Health Organization, the pandemic was considered active until 1960, when worldwide casualties dropped to 200 per year.

Third plague pandemic

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Following defeat in the Second Opium War in 1860, the Qing tried to modernize by adopting certain Western technologies through the Self-Strengthening Movement from 1861.

Following defeat in the Second Opium War in 1860, the Qing tried to modernize by adopting certain Western technologies through the Self-Strengthening Movement from 1861.

The plague spreads from Yunnan Province to Beihai on the Chinese coastline.