Chinese Emperors Family Tree | Qin Dynasty to Qing Dynasty (221 BCE - 1912 CE) 

Chart 1: usefulcharts.com/products/ancient-history-family-trees Chart 2: usefulcharts.com/products/asian-royal-family-trees Project Imperial China playlist: ru-vid.com/group/PLfp1VB3Lm4IliePR_gQtPa27Gof_XPh0F

One interesting fact about the Qianlong Emperor is that he abdicated out of filial piety towards his grandfather, so that the Kangxi Emperor would have the longest reign. He still held a ton of power after his abdication until he died three years later.

Despite his turbulent life, Puyi ended up better than many last emperors. He became an ordinary citizen in Communist China who worked and sustained his own life. It was said that if you lived in Beijing at the time, you would likely see Puyi at least once on a bus

Xia dynasty is like dark matter in the universe, we still can't find a dynasty called "Xia", but the mature language and writing system of Shang dynasty could not appear from void, such as YanShi/ErLiTou Culture, a pre-Shang culture with regular stone walls, city planning and design, and water conservancy systems, which means it has been highly developed already.

Usually Wu Zetian is referred to as a Female Emperor instead of an Empress bc of the implications of the words. Her rise to power is incredibly interesting

An interesting thing to note is that the Qing Dynasty kept the Ming Dynasty heirs around under the title of Marquis of Extended Grace. The last Marquis was Zhu Yuxun who some even wanted to become the new emperor after the 1911 Revolution overthrew the Qing. He vanished entirely from records in 1933 after the Republic of China abolished his title, last thing I know he did was follow Puyi into Manchuria. I often wonder what happened to him.

FYI: 1. The "Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors" (三皇五帝 _sanhuang wudi_ ) are the source of the Sinocentric term for "Emperor" (皇帝 _huangdi_ lit. "August Emperor", now commonly "Emperor (of China)"), a neologism first used by Zheng of Qin after his unification wars, therefore as the *First Emperor of Qin (秦始皇帝 Qin shi huangdi)* 2. Kangxi Emperor's reign was indeed long because he was *enthroned at the very young age of 7* (8 by East Asian reckoning) 3. China's "Century of Humiliation" actually started way back during the latter reign of Qianlong Emperor, when in his old age he became muddled & complacent as to allow corruption and yes-men in his court. And even though he "retired" in favor of his son Jiaqing Emperor, for 4 more years he still held power (similar to regents past such as his ancestors Dorgon (Hong Taiji's paternal half-brother) & Empress Xiaozhuangwen (Hong Taiji's concubine as well as Shunzhi Emperor's biological mother)), and even though Jiaqing tried hard to fix his father's problems, Qing's eventual downfall began during his reign 3. The Opium Wars are the reason East Asia (China, Japan, Korea) remains averse to and still designates illegal drugs (both usage & trafficking) as a penal crime 4. Guangxu Emperor's "(adoptive) mother" being Dowager Empress Cixi (and in effect Xianfeng Emperor's as well) was made with consideration to legitimate succession, as well as concessions with the imperial clan. Biologically speaking *Guangxu's mother is Dowager Empress Cixi's younger sister* (hence they're actually aunt-nephew) 5. The reason why Puyi's descendants took the surname "Jin" was because the imperial house of Qing, *the Aisin Gioro clan, in the Manchu language means "gold"* , and in Chinese that's 金 (Mandarin Pinyin _jin_ )

You talked about that story of the sleeve… and forget to add that “cutting the sleeve” is basically synonymous with male homosexuality in Chinese. Just to add that in the last part “head of house” may not be the one who would sit on the throne should the empire be reestablished. “Head of house” is the most senior of the royal family. For example, during much of Qianlong’s reign the head of house was the 12th son of Kangxi, who was way behind in succession lineup but was the most senior of the family. He presided over family affairs while Qianlong worried about state affairs. But who knows? The empire is gone and whatever rules of succession don’t govern them anymore.

Kudos to Jack for his pronunciation!! Chinese names can be tricky for those unfamiliar with the language, and many people end up butchering them as a result 😂 It's refreshing to see a non-Chinese-speaking RU-vid creator take the time to familiarise themselves with the proper pronunciation of pinyin, it makes for a way more pleasing video. Love your work Jack, we stan 🙌

28:18 EXTREMELY big inaccuracy here D: yuan shikai actually overthrew the republic of china for a really short amount of time. the actual person who founded the republic of china was none other than sun yat-sen. yuan shikai wanted to re-establish the monarchy and made himself de facto emperor. sun yat-sen is extremely important in chinese history for this reason, and so this really needs to be changed/addressed as a mistake in some form however as a chinese person who had an entirely separate subject of chinese history from western history, this was nostalgia for my history nerd brain.

USA "The Grand Central Station has a magnificient history of 200 years" Japan "Hold my Sapporo beer" China "Hold my Qindao beer"

I love the inclusion of a fan-made chart.

Awesome vid Matt and Jack!

Yuan shi kai actually proclaimed himself emperor after seizing power, though it didn't last long since he died shortly after. The founder of the republic was Sun yet-san, a very important figure in China's modern history, which you failed to mention!

Gaozu was not a name. It was a title given by his successor. Most dynasties had a 'Gaozu'. So as 'Hui', 'Wu' and so on. They were not names. They were titles.

The Yellow Emperor's mother was struck by lightning and he was born, talk about being spontaneous. It must've been shocking for her to learn that she was pregnant w him and she made it through all of that, legendary :)

Great, I love how you can follow the history through the 2 charts in one video, and thank you a lot for including mine at the end :D Love the channel

that intro had me hooked in seconds, content is top notch.

Dang these family trees are insane

Thanks for this!

14:00 correction Princess Anle was the daughter of Zhongzong and Empress Wei. She was the one that wanted to be crown princess and was killed with her mother after Ruizong came to power. Princess Taiping was the sister of Zhongzong who helped put their brother Ruizong in power; she was pretty bad ass and physically pulled the puppet emperor Shang (Zhongzong’s son and Empress Wei’s puppet) off the throne when Ruizong was proclaimed. Princess Taiping also wanted to emulate her mother and control her brother Ruizong who later became Retired Emperor but she was forced to commit suicide after she lost a power struggle with her nephew Emperor Xuanzong who she originally partnered with to take down Empress Wei and Princess Anle.

Props on filling us in on this giant family in such a short time! 🤯

"The reason why China suffers bitterly from endless wars is because of the existence of feudal lords and kings" - Qin Shi Huang

You should do a family tree for Monaco

Great video, Thanks!

Love these ngl. Theyre amazing

Wow! I love this!

Awesome video!

Great video!

8:40 WangMang is a fancy guy. People consider him as a morden people but teleport to an ancient age. He was literally publishing communism and many morden political pholosophy in thousands of year ago.

Error: Tang dynasty Zhongzong/Ruizong part. Taiping was Zhongzong's (and Ruizong's) sister and Wu Zetian's favourite daughter, who helped bring Ruizong to the throng by deposing Zhongzong's wife after Zhongzong's death (allegedly killed by this wife of his), rather than the other woman deposed together with this wife. Taiping would ultimately try to grab power for herself but was eventually defeated, but that was some years later. Error: Qing dynasty end. Someone born in 1942 now working as a minor government official. This is impossible as minor government officials' mandatory retirement age is 60. In extraordinary cases this might be extended to 65 but no more. So he is a retired former minor government official.

great video！

Love these vids

There is a mistake with Republic of China part... the one that represented Taiwan today was not the same one as 1911 one, but the one that replaced the 1911 one in 1927 after Nanjing fell to KMT. Also, Yuan Shikai declared himself as the Emperor of Chinese Empire in 1915, but announced his abdication in 1916 due to his dramatic increasing unpopularity in the country. The Republic of China of 1911, which was largely influenced by "Beiyang" warlords, would eventually be succeeded by a new centralized KMT-led Republican government after KMT took over Nanjing, but the its legal authority over the entire China was only established after 1928 when the last powerful Beiyang clique - Fengtian clique declared their allegiance to Nanjing, and further stabilized after Central Plains War in 1930.

There is one small mistake here.Princess Taiping is the sister of Emperor Zhongzong,while Princess Anle is the daughter who want to be the crown princess. Both the princesses are adored by their parents and brothers,thus wield enormous power.Ironiclly,they both was forced to commit suicide after they lose their power.

Love from the Chinese! This is one of the best videos on Chinese history I have seen on RU-vid, thank you very much : )

I should watch Three Kingdoms again, I can hear Chen Jianbin giggle all throughout this ^^

Great video as always, but I just want to point out that most of the "names" of monarchs aren't their actual names, instead they are titles used either during their reigns, or by their descendents and historians after their death. That's why there're certain patterns and repetition for. some of the names in the chart, like how the first emperors of Han and Tang Dynasty shared the name "Gaozu"

This is really interesting

actually during Ming dynasty it was Chinese Navy who has beaten Portuguese army and then we let them only do business in Macau. We also beat Netherlands navy.

Many many thanks for this. Loved how u got up to the current times. Waow!!! What a history😊

Very educational and objective

basically this video could be the best among all these videos about Chinese history.

Nice video 😀

For the qin dynasty, you might also include when they were just a vassal under Zhou

this is wonderful. just to mention; there is a very beautiful portrait of Emperor Huizong of Yuan that you could have used.

truly excellent chronology of china civilization emperors to the present cpc reign of leadership...

China is the most underrated nation in the world by the West, and how small this chart is, is proof.

china is like the most interesting place in the past and even right know

Great video as always! are there any plan to do a similar one for the entire Islamic caliphate from 632ad -1924 ad ?

I was just thinking the other day on whether you would do a Chinese Emperor video. How on earth did you read my mind? Thank for the video mate.

There is inconsistency at 22:00. That guy's temple name is Yingzong. The era name during his first rule is Zhengtong and Tianshun for his second.

Interesting thing about Wu Zetian was that she was called emperor instead of empress during her reign, this is because emperor is a gender neutral term in Chinese, with empress only meaning wife of the emperor. Likewise, had she remarried, her husband wouldn’t be called emperor and would instead be called husband of the emperor.

A lot of the pronunciations are very good, some of the best I've heard from a non Mandarin speaker.

Very very very good channel 🦍

Great wall is Qin Shi Huang but grand canal is not. It's about 800 years later in Sui Dynasty.

Wu Zetian is also the concubine of Emperor Taizong, technically, Wu Zetian was the step-mother and wife of Emperor GaoZong

Would love to see an alt history video about Yuan Shikais reign as emperor and what would’ve happened if he succeeded in establishing another dynasty

Han Gaozu Liu Bang endorsed Daoist ideas. It was Han Wudi Liu Che who established the state of Confucianism being the official political philosophical orthodoxy.

Legend!

The most likely reason for the switch of using era names instead of the temple names or posthumous names to refer the emperors is the standadize of era names. China had used era names for naming years from the Western Han dynasty. However it is until the Ming dynasty that an emperor has only 1 era name associated to him (YingZong is an exception, since he accended to the throne twice) Like Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, he got 3 eras under his belt. (Xiantian, Kaiyuan and Tianbao)

In Chinese, there is no word for empress, there is only a word for a queen consort (皇后). So they didn’t know what to call Wu zitian and ended up just calling her emperor, as “empress” in Chinese only applies to the main female consort of a emperor (all the emperors were super horny or whatever they usually had a whole army of secondary wives)

"Conceived when his mother was struck by lightning" well someone certainly had a high opinion of his performance

A M A Z I N G !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will re-watch this many times.

There was also another modern claimant. When Yuan Shikai helped establish the Republic of China, he shortly forwent democracy and declared himself emperor of the Chinese Empire. His descendants live on and include a famous American scientist. And perhaps we can also count the Falungong as being a modern claimant, with their leader claiming lineage to the Tang Dynasty and advocating for a 'New Tang Dynasty'.

Thanks 👍💯🎯🙃🌹💕

Can you do more elaborated version of family trees for Han Dynasty, Three Kingdoms, and Jin Dynasty? Admittedly, the Three Kingdoms only had few emperors, but still, as a fan of Three Kingdoms stories, I kind of want to see it.

UsefulCharts, are you gonna make a video on Confucius's family tree and if so when? Please let me know. Thank you very much.

Fun fact : Empress Wu Zetian of Tang dynasty remamed Wa to Japan. So the mother of state name of Japan is she.

As a Chinese, your explanation are much better than my teachers

Princess Taiping is Zhongzong's sister, Wu zetian's youngest daughter, the princess you were referring to was Princess Anle

Nice work! Can you do one for Formosa?

If we are going to chase back the family tree, at 3:07 Qing Shi Huang (first emperor) you might want to elaborate more, especially there are a lot of evidence and scripture relate back earlier. The collapse of Shang dynasty and fighting of subsitery state are just bunch of cousins fighting eachother.

Mmm. Useful information for down the road.

Little mistake. From what I know, Emperor Ai of Han is the son of Liu Kang, not of Emperor Cheng. And Emperor Ping's father is Liu Xing, another brother of Emperor Cheng.

One thing that's interesting but wasn't mentioned in the video was that Emperor Gaozu of Tang's mother was the sister of Emperor Wen of Sui's wife.

Make a video on gupta emperors family trees

Before Jin Dynasty there was a Liao Dynasty founded bu the Khitans. Liao was at constant wars with Song until they themselves were conquered by the Jurchen.

11:23 the way he said that made it sound all the more brutal

I’m surprised Matt didn’t use a narrator who has a Chinese background, or Chinese history RU-vid channel for this. As he uses Muslims for videos about Muslim families, and Indians for videos about India.

Sad they didn’t mention Emperor Huizong of Song being a great artist and poet

做得挺好的

Great video, would be great if it includes Liao dynasty though On a side note, when I was in school, we used to joke about the 乾 in "qianlong" because 乾 is usually pronounced differently and means "dry"

U should do a family tree about the Inca Royal Family

yes!

Vanakam 🦚 thank you for sharing

Actually Shikai Yuan managed to literally establish the Empire of China under his power in 1920s(but was soon forced to abdicate by the republic-protector rebels, making the literal empire lasting less than a quarter of a year) becuase he was, in fact, a monarchist and an eager politician for personal power. Shikai officially forced the royals of Qing to abdicate and formed the first republic in 1912 just to compromise with the republicans to attempt to make sure that he himself would be free from future bloodsheds when he still had millitary advantages against republicans and power advantage over the Manchurian royals.

7:03 "I was influenced by a number of women" well I don't know how this personal detail about the narrator's life ties in to the Han dynasty's history

24:33 1661-1850 189 years 5 Emperors That's how you have a golden age

At the end, you should have continued down the line of the Last Emperor Pu Yi's brother, Pujie's family line, because Pujie married Hiro Saga, a Japanese noblewoman who was of distant relation to Emperor Hirohito, meaning that the Aisin-Gioro Manchu Imperial line of Manchu China, is now by blood, connected to the Imperial Japanese family.

3:42 Unfair to blame it on Qin Shi Huang. He basically had everything planned, he even appointed his most capable son to inherite the throne. Not his fault that his prime minister and head of eunuch conspired to manipulate his will.

Kinda wish he went more into the 3 kingdoms era, was my favourite era of Chinese history lol

Through one of the Princes of Han and a bit of a miracle of tight record keeping on royals behalf I can trace my ancestry to the Han Emperor I kept tracing further after I first discovered James the 4th and Margaret Drummond where the royal lineage began for us and it kept going further and I was astounded that thats where the basic roots of my family started as after him I can trace only a few generations then nothing.

You missed the short lived Empire of China in 1916 under Emperor Hongwu (Yuan Shikai)

Jin Yuzhang can be inherited Order of the Peacock Feather, Order of the Blue Feather, Grand Order of the Imperial Throne, Order of the Double Dragon, Order of the Yellow Dragon, Order of the Red Dragon, Order of the Blue Dragon, Order of the Black Dragon as pretender of Qing Dynasty by his own right. However, he can be inherited Grand Order of the Orchid Blossoms, Order of the Illustrious Dragon, Order of the Auspicious Clouds, Order of the Pillars of State by his own right from Manchukuo as well.

Do one from the Xia dynasty to the Qing dynasty next.

13:58, the princess is An-le, not Taiping. Taiping was Zhongzong's sister mentioned there.

Would be cool with an episode on Yu the Great

The video is very good, and the research on Chinese history is quite in-depth, but there are still mistakes and it is not detailed enough. China has more than 200 emperors, and there are many more important emperors that you did not mention. In addition, the strength of a dynasty cannot be judged only by its territory, but also by the dynasties in other regions at the same time. According to this standard, the Qing Dynasty is actually relatively weak. The strongest was the Tang Dynasty, followed by the Han Dynasty, the third was the Qin Dynasty, the fourth was the Ming Dynasty, and then the Qing Dynasty.

Qin Shi Huang and Han gaozu are not their names,that's the respectful title(谥号)after death，their name should be YingZheng(嬴政) and Liu Bang（刘邦），most Chinese last names are come from the emporer of Zhou dynasty, Ji(姬).