Chinese Empire (simplified Chinese:中华帝国;traditional Chinese:中華帝國;pinyin:Zhōnghuá Dìguó), orEmpire of China, refers to the realm ruled by theEmperor of China^[1] during the era ofImperial China. It was coined by western scholars to describe theMing andQing dynasties (or imperialChinese dynasties in general). Another term was the "Celestial Empire", in reference to the status of the emperor as theSon of Heaven. In 221 BC, China was unified under an emperor for the first time, and various imperial dynasties ruled China for a total of two millennia since then, including theQin,Han,Jin,Sui,Tang,Song,Yuan, Ming, and Qing, among others.

The word "China" has been used in English since the 16th century. China was previously known to Europeans asCathay, as used inMarco Polo's book onhis travels in the 13th century (during theYuan dynasty), and it took a while for most Europeans to be convinced that Cathay referred to China orNorth China.^[2] The term "Chinese Empire" first appeared in the 16th century (lateMing dynasty), and its usage increased during the followingQing dynasty.^[3]

As European explorers came into direct contact with theMing dynasty (1368-1644) of China during their voyages in the early 16th century, the European intellectual community began to update its concept of the Chinese political system. Initially however the vast majority of them considered Ming China a kingdom rather than an empire. It appeared that it wasMaximilianus Transylvanus who first considered China an empire in his work. In 1585,Juan González de Mendoza pointed out that Ming China was at the imperial level based on the multi-level system of thetribute system. Afterwards, Europeans likeMatteo Ricci,Álvaro Semedo,Martino Martini andPhilippe Couplet gradually constructed the name "Chinese Empire" by comparing the empire-kingdom level, translating European and Chinese concepts and constructing genealogies. However, popular adoption was a slow process. Even the 1615 bookDe Christiana expeditione apud Sinas by Matteo Ricci (one of the founding figures of theJesuit China missions) more often referred to Ming China as a kingdom than an empire. By the last decade of the Ming dynasty though, an increasing number of Europeans began to refer to the Ming dynasty as "Chinese Empire".^[3]

With thetransition from Ming to Qing, Europeans began to apply the name "Chinese Empire" to theQing dynasty (1644-1912).^[3] "Chinese Empire" (or "Empire of China") was commonly used during the Qing period, most notably in the western maps and internationaltreaties. TheTsardom of Russia began official communications with the Qing dynasty in the 1650s, and Russian documents from that period referred to Qing China as "Empire of China", "Chinese state" or the state ofBogda.^[4] In the 1689Treaty of Nerchinsk, the authoritativeLatin text used the name "Imperii Sinici" (meaning "Chinese Empire") to refer to the Qing realm.^[5][6]George Macartney, the first envoy ofGreat Britain to China in 1793, had famously said "the Empire of China is an old, crazy, first-rate Man of War, which a fortunate succession of able and vigilant officers have contrived to keep afloat for these hundred and fifty years past..." shortly afterhis mission to China.^[7] While the Qing dynasty tried to maintain the traditionalChinese tributary system, by the second half of the 19th century it had become part of a European-style community ofsovereign states.^[8] In the process, Qing dynasty's geographical boundaries were redefined by western powers and Japan through diplomacy and warfare. The Qing administration made an effort to effectively manage its borders whilemodernizing itself, and its dependencies inInner Asia (collectively known asChinese Tartary at that time) were internalized and integrated into China's imperial dominion as accepted by the western countries. Throughout the 19th century, western cartographers commonly includedManchuria,Mongolia,Xinjiang (Chinese Turkestan), andTibet, along withChina proper separated by lines, as part of the "Chinese Empire" in published maps. In the last decade of the Qing dynasty, maps published in China caught up with Western cartography, and China's Inner Asian frontiers were enclosed by fixed international boundaries and not separated from China proper by special demarcations.^[9]

While the term "Chinese Empire" may be used to specifically mean the Ming or the Qing dynasties during the existence of these dynasties, it was often used in a sense to refer to a continuous empire ruled by various dynasties in Chinese history, as the traditionalChinese historiography conceives its history in terms of an unbroken sequence of dynasties (seedynastic cycle).^[10] For example, whenJuan González de Mendoza talked about ancient China in his work in the late 16th century, he clearly stated in three places that the first (mythical) sovereign of China, theYellow Emperor, made the Chinese kingdom an empire; since China was already an empire during the time of the Yellow Emperor, all dynasties from then on were regarded as the continuation of the "empire". According toMatteo Ricci's view of "imperial power transfer", the name of the empire had not changed since ancient times, but it often had other names due to different ruling families; for instance, the name of "German Empire" would never change, but when the Austrian family ruled, it could also be called "Austrian Empire".^[3] Likewise, according to the newspaperNew York Herald published in 1853, "during four thousand and sixty years, twenty-one dynasties have swayed the destines of the Chinese Empire, embracing, besides the present sovereign, two hundred and twenty Emperors, whose average reigns have been nearly nineteen years each".^[11]

On the other hand, modern scholars usually consider the imperial dynasties separate states or empires rather than a single continuous empire, especially since the end of Imperial China. Meanwhile, the English term "Emperor" nowadays generally corresponds to the Chinese termHuangdi (皇帝), also referred to asEmperor of China. For example, theQin dynasty, which was the first to use the title Emperor orHuangdi, has been referred to as "the first Chinese Empire" in modern sources.^[12][13] On the other hand, the Qing dynasty is regarded as the last Chinese Empire.^[14] The dynasties in between them are similarly regarded as empires instead of a single continuous empire, and terms such as "Sui-Tang transition" and "Ming-Qing transition" were introduced in the second half of the 20th century to highlight the changes during transitions of these periods,^[15] While imperial dynasties are no longer considered a single empire, some dynasties may be grouped together by some scholars, such as the Qin and theHan dynasty that followed, collectively called the "Qin-Han Empire" by some researchers.^[16] Taken together, these two dynasties constitute the "classical" era ofChinese civilization, as did theGreeks andRomans in the West.^[17]

The period ofImperial China lasted more than two millennia, connecting ancient and modern history. Although Chinese dynasties or empires rose and fell during those centuries, including during periods of strife and war, Imperial China endured with remarkable constancy.^[18] The defining characteristics of all Chinese empires were their large scale and the diversity of their peoples.^[19]

Originally emerged as a loose collection of various Han Chinese-speaking entities during theWarring States period, theQin's wars of unification brought most of theHuaxia realm intoone single dynasty, establishing Qin as the first imperial dynasty in 221 BC, the year where the first Chinese empire was established.^[20] Imperial China would continue to expand even after the collapse of the Qin dynasty, with theHan dynasty expanding to the north, south and west.^[21] During theTang dynasty four centuries later, China achieved a golden age in terms of its economic, military and political power. Tang's territory spannedCentral Asia,Northeast Asia and parts ofSoutheast Asia, until the dynasty ended following theAn Lushan rebellion in the eighth century.^{[22][23][24][25]} Imperial China marked its revival under the Mongol-basedYuan dynasty, whenInner Asian territories such asTibet andMongolia were incorporated. TheQing dynasty, founded three centuries after the fall of the Yuan dynasty,laid ground to most of China's modern border withits re-expansion into Inner Asia.^[26][27]

One year after the1911 Revolution, the Qing monarchy was abolished following theabdication of theXuantong Emperor (Puyi), thus putting an end to the era of Imperial China.^[28] Three years later,Yuan Shikai restoredimperial rule with himself as the emperor. It lasted only 83 days before his own abdication due to mounting disapproval and revolts as well as Yuan's declining health.^[29][30] In July 1917, Puyi wasreinstalled byZhang Xun but the restoration was reversed in less than two weeks.^[31]

• Chinoiserie
• Pax Sinica
• Sinosphere
• Chinese uniformity
• Mandate of Heaven
• Tributary system of China
• Chinese Empire Reform Association

• Fangyin, Zhou (31 December 2023)."7 The Particularity of Ancient China as an Empire".Bridging Two Worlds. University of California Press. pp. 155–169.doi:10.1525/9780520390997-010.ISBN 978-0-520-39099-7.

• First Historical Archives of China
• Second Historical Archives of China
• Chinese History at the Columbia University
• Chinese Studies in History