chris zhou

wich chinese dynasty is the most powerful?I think its the tang, han or qing dynasty what about you?
There were 83 dynasties and 559 emperors in the ancient history of China. The average life span of a Chinese emperor was 36. The Emperor who enjoyed the longest life was Qing Emperor Qianlong. He died at the age of 89.
There were many small dynasties wich only lasted a few years and about 20 powerful dynasties wich lasted hundreds of years.
the history of china is very interesting but filled with warfere, so, wich dynasty do you think is the most powerful?

RollingWave

20? even if you count mythical and/or not quiet united onces I see only Xia / Shang / Zhou / Han / Eastern Jin/ Northern Wei /Tang / Song / Liao / Jin / Xi-Xia / Yuan / Ming / Qing that lasted over 100 years that's pretty far away from 20 . even if you double count Han / Song / Zhou.

As for strength, different era have different strength, it's difficult to measure, my personal favorite tend to be the Song dynasty though.

scholar

Most powerful Dynasties would actually be somewhere between the Tang, Yuan, and Qing. In terms of size, Yuan. In terms of size and power, Qing. In terms of influence and outreach, Tang.

All of those "dynasties" were small splinter states there was only a few actual Empires that ruled all of China. Xia, Shang, and Zhou (Semi-mythical not really actually united) The Qin, Han, Jin, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing are really the only ones that ruled over a united china. So... "Most powerful" is not among hundreds or dozens, but a small handful. Of which the Qin was fragile and easily collapsed. The Han was strong but fell twice, first by usurpation and then by corruption. They may have been on par with the Romans at the time, but they were not the most powerful as others would put them to shame. The Jin was a nation that just witnessed over 90% of it's population exterminated over 100 years of bloody infighting and civil wars since the fall of the Han. They survived as an entity for hundreds of years, but they would not be the most powerful. The Northern Wei ruled a... not so unified, unified empire for about a generation... they don't count. The Sui fell apart almost as quick as the Qin, not very powerful. Granted they did get a canal done that ruined the nation. The Qin had the great wall and slave labor camps, the Sui had the same thing just with a canal. The Tang had China's second "Golden Age" which far surpassed that of the Han's golden age. Furthermore India, Indonesia, Indo China, and Japan all submitted to the Tang and it's generals. They're the main contender. The Song was rather pitiful and attempted to wage war against the Mongols... thrice. They shouldn't even be able to contend with the Tang nor the Yuan (Mongolian Empire). The Yuan Dynasty was by far the largest, it ruled over the steppe, Tibet, China, and Korea. It had the submission of the Il-khanate and Indo China, however it's rulership over the Il-Khanate was in question and is mostly considered just to be lip service. The Ming had a powerful navy that began to colonize and propagate Chinese interests in India and Indo China. They burned their fleet and became backward. While somewhat of a contender they don't hold a candle to the Tang nor the Yuans. Lastly is the Qing... the Qing did was no Chinese Empire had done before. Eliminated all form of opposition to China and ruled over most of Asia with total hegonomy. Japan was really the only independent faction after the Mughals were dismantled by the British.

So... yeah.

Tang
Yuan
Qing

Those are the only real options. I personally say Yuan mainly because they ruled the largest ever Chinese Empire.

DreamWeaver

How are we looking at power here, what is it to be powerful. Are we talking like projection of power abroad and beyond borders, militarily and economically? Or more perhaps towards the level of control or authority within a state itself?

If the former Im probably going to have to say Tang

If the latter then Qin

Mandate of Heaven

I think they are speaking militarily, or else there is no way Song can be described as "rather pitiful". While on that note, I think Qin was a military power as well. Defeating the other six kingdoms and unifying China must have required a powerful military. Even in historical records, Qin was renown for its military system and achievements. Much of this can be verified by the terracotta army excavated. While Qin was very short, Yuan was not very long either.

Zheng and his advisers also introduced new laws and practices that ended feudalism in China, replacing it with a centralized, bureaucratic government. Under this system, both the military and government thrived, as talented individuals could be more easily identified in the transformed society. Later Chinese dynasties emulated the Qin government for its efficiency, despite its being condemned by philosophy.[13][33] Such a system, however, could be manipulated by power-hungry individuals; one example of such an occurrence was documented in the "Records of Officialdom". A commander named Hu ordered his men to attack peasants, in an attempt to increase the number of "bandits" he had killed; his superiors, likely eager to inflate their records as well, allowed this.[34]
Qin Shihuang also improved the military, despite the fact that it had already undergone extensive reforms.[35] The military used the most advanced weaponry of the time. The invention of the during the Warring States Period was a huge boon. It was first used mostly in bronze form, but by the third century BC, the Qin were using stronger iron swords. The demand for metal this produced resulted in improved . The had been introduced in the fifth century BC and was more powerful and accurate than the used earlier. It could also be rendered ineffective by removing two pins, which prevented enemies from capturing a working crossbow.[6]

Qin also had an army of at least 600,000. As in the campaign against Chu kingdom, Wang Jian led this many soldiers in the invasion. That is a pretty amazing number considering in Gaugamela, Darius' force was estimated at 100,000 and was considered enormous.

chris zhou

military

chris zhou

most chinese dynasties were split up into periods(example-eastern zhou, western zhou)

scholar

Only when they lost control of China, so most dynasties is a misnomer. Only the ones who actually unified the nation. Wei and Northern Wei have no relation to one another, leading to the second reason why they have separate names. They only share their name, but have no relation to one another. There are perhaps only 24 original dynasty names, the rest have "Northern" "southern" "former" "later" "eastern" "western" and others attached to it.

In terms of military power then the Yuan Dyansty without a doubt. Tang and Qing would be close behind.

Tark

Military wise I would say the Han. Definately not the Tang. The Qing and Yuan have the barbarian conqueror's problem. They come in all strong but quickly slack. The Yuan were beaten back out in under 100 years.

The Han on the other hand had large standing armies, a massive empire for the time, and several military exploits and developments. They drove back the Xiongnu. The Xiongnu were once a massively powerful confederacy and the Han forced a large portion out and reduced the rest. While not proven, it is believed that the Huns were of one tribe of the Xiongnu.

Lord_of_Gauda

I'd say that Han, Tang,Qing, Yuan, Jin and Ming dynasties were all pretty powerful of their times and for most (and in some cases, entirity) of their rule, remained the apex power in East Asia.
Some, like Han, Tang, Yuan, Ming and Qing(in its early stages), compare favaourably to any other world power of its time.

IMO, Yuan and Ming dynasties were the 'most powerful' of its time, if we look at it relative to other world powers that existed in their times, in terms of foreign policy influence, I think the Tang were paper tigers only( most tribes/surrounding nations would happily give them the 'divine emperor' status just to trade with them, there is little evidence of the Tang ever actually exercising control over their vassal states) but the Qing were by far the most politically influencial empire in east asia when it came to projecting power outside of their lands.