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Finally, a comprehensive pre-Chinese Empire video! This topic is scarce on UKposts tbh. Maybe its because of the language barrier plus scarce resources. Keep it up man!

Great depiction of the 17th century Chinese common infantry type at 0:09, because China at the time were like the Europeans undergoing transitioning from older Tercio type tactics to newer linear tactics. The proliferation of guns also rendered most low ranking Chinese troops went into battlefield without armour since firearms finally became more cost effective at this point. The Chinese matchlock musket seen in the video, were longer and has bigger buttstock similar to the European counterparts due to the changing trends of the battlefield, and it finally replaced handcannons and earlier Portuguese Arquebuses. The funny thing is throughout 80 years of Chinese film making developments, most Chinese film producers depicted the Ming era and Manchu Soldiers fought like an Ancient armies with Medieval era weaponry due to lack of historical research and also due to huge influence of Wuxia genre(One man with Jedi capabilities mowing down dozens of enemies).

2,656 were executed. "These numbers are probably not meant to be taken literally." Awfully specific math, if being casually vague was their intent, lol...

I adore all of the videos this channel puts out, but I must say what really has this channel stand out to me aside from its adept comprehension of history is its fantastic and well drawn artwork. I feel the videos would not be the same without the detailed and enriching artwork. This video specifically because of the depiction of ancient Chinese clothing and armor, showing styles and designs I have never seen or imagined, as my own focus is mainly European. Truly enlightening.

The Mandate of Heaven is just a nice excuse to overthrow the current ruler.

China is one of the most ancient civilizations on Earth. It has a very rich and fascinating history and culture.

That’s why I love this channel always talking about topics that are important but overlooked a lot

These videos are always great. Always excited for new ones!

I love the illustrations on this video! Keep up the top notch work good sir!

I love this new content, sandrhoman. This is just what I wanted!!

I was waiting for movie like that so much! Thank you

Love the dancing panda at the end. About the 400k army in a battle comment, I’d love to see the process as to how historians would estimate true army sizes. For example, Gaugemala ‘s wiki page states the modern size of the Persian army as high as 250k vs a much higher ancient source account. Wondering how factors such as length of the battle, if it was close to logistic enablers such as rivers, decisiveness of a battle in ensuring victory, closeness to city/dense population areas, mass grave/burial sites, and conscription practices influence modern estimations of ancient battles Edit: also the narrative purpose and temporal closeness of written sources also would play a role

Always learn something, thank you!

Nice Video SandRhoman, Ik itll be great!

Bro. This is exactly the video I've been needing forever. Maybe this will help inspire me to start over the asian side of my Minecraft world. The old world was so nice, and while the geography is excellent, even better than the old world. I just don't have the inspiration to begin it.

Beautifully produced

I love how confident kings tend to be that comets are good omens for them. Like, how do you know it doesn't foretell the arrival of a new king?

I wonder if one day you could cover the economics of the Dutch golden age beyond the VOC?

This is not what I expected from this channel but I'm glad it happened! So will you continued into the imperial periods in the next videos? If so, I will be looking forward for the ones about the Great Tang and the Great Song.

Love the topic and the beautiful editing ❤

There's more to this than a 20min video can ever cover. Sanxingdui was not even mentioned in this video.

I adore the panda that dances at the end. My curiosity is piqued by the idea of a 40,000-strong army in a battle remark; I wonder how historians get at these estimates. As an example, according to Gaugemala's wiki page, the Persian army was 250k strong in modern times, which is far lower than the much larger ancient source account. Curious about the aspects that impact modern evaluations of historical battles. These include the length of the war, its proximity to logistic facilitators like rivers, the battle's decisiveness in guaranteeing victory, its proximity to cities or densely populated areas, mass graves or burial sites, and conscription practices.

This was a very good overview of Chinese military history, my one quibble is a matter of pronunciation. You pronounced "Zhou" as "Shu" consistently in the piece. In Chinese, the "ou" has a sound similar to the English "oh" and the "zh" has a sound much like the English "j" but a little softer, perhaps between the English "j" and the English "sh". So "Zhou" would be pronounced similar to the English name "Joe".

Love the topic, one that I didn't know much about

Thank you for covering China. It is a delight to escape European centric history for the fascinating history of the Far East

Awesome video

same commitment to excellence, thank my friend/s!

I wasn't expecting a video on China, but I welcome it glady as it's not a topic I'm well versed on

Great job

+1 for Panda in the very end!!!! Made my day!

Thank you for the video, if I have to nitpick, the Zhou is pronounce “Joe” not “shoe”, in fact there is another dynasty in the three kingdom period called “Shu”

Regarding the Great Wall, the vast majority of people have misunderstood its purpose. The Great Wall is not simply a standalone wall, but rather an entire defensive system. Similar to the Roman Limes along the Rhine and Danube, besides the Great Wall itself, it also encompasses numerous fortresses and strongholds. During defensive operations, the Great Wall provides early warning and constrains enemy movements, allowing the rear fortresses to swiftly launch counterattacks. Despite the high cost of the entire system, it significantly reduces the need for imperial troops along the borders, thereby greatly diminishing the empire's overall defense expenditure. Furthermore, one crucial reason for extending the Great Wall to mountain peaks is its function in economic blockade. Through the Great Wall, the empire controls all potential trade networks (nomadic tribes) and can implement economic blockades as needed, achieving the effect of 'winning without fighting.' The efficacy of the Great Wall is evident; as long as the empire maintains internal stability, hardly any nomadic tribe has managed large-scale breaches of the wall. Only when the empire falls into turmoil can nomadic tribes break through the defenses and penetrate the empire's interior.

Let’s go! Spring and Autumn!

Love to learn more about China!!

The images of ancient Chinese soldiers you draw are very accurate, as good as or even better than our history textbooks.

Kudos for tackling the thorny question of whether the Zhou and Shang shared a common origin.

Looking forward to a part 2

Came here from Alternate History Hub, gotta say, the endorsement was well placed, you earned your sub. :3

Another great video! Keep up the great content and can't wait for more videos on ancient china or ancient java or ancient Vietnam or even ancient India!!

Great vid! Also I thank the old school Chinese kung fu movies for making our childhood interesting

wow! great video!

This is really cool

really interesting story devoted to ancient China. Thank you so much

I am so hyped for this video! I love the history of China, especially the unification wars!

Wow, this video packed 10,000 years of history into 23 minutes! 🤯 I learned so much about the early foundations of China's rise to power. Particularly interesting was the development of bronze casting.

Its great to see you branching out. Really great video

I was watching the anime Kingdom that’s set during the warring states period where Ei Sei is Qin Shi Huang

I hope you end up covering the later period of Chinese history they are very interesting

I am Dutch, 32 years old. I remember browsing the internet as teenager, including UKposts and I was dying for this kind of content. Chinese history, culture and art was (and even still) feels like a fascinating mystery and a unique perspective on the world apart from the western one. I cherish this.

AMAZING

What do you do to research the art you use? What do your artists use as references?

Disregard all the pronunciation bs and people hating on u for literally only mentioning that some people believe xia is myth. Its a great vid!

Hope you make a video on the new model army to fjnslize your pike and shot armies series. I keep hearing how the NMA is much better than the sweddish batallions during the English civil war

The Panda in the end doing the Toothless meme is the icing on this most scrumptious cake!

Nice video, thank you! But didn't Qin Shi Huangti's soldiers still use bronze weapons like bronze swords instead of steel?

A very cool look into early chinese history and warfare. I had no idea chariots were so important, it seems like it would be much easier to use riders mounted on horses, rhinos, or really another other animal. By comparison a chariot needs a lot more work to make a single effective fighting unit as the wagon/harness needs to be built and 3 men trained in specialized roles. Infantry focused armies definitely seem easier to raise, train and maintain.

incredible video. people get furious over a minor pronunciation mistake... man, can't we just appreciate that this content is based on several scholarly sources. it's well made too. they clearly put a lot of effort into it. but no, Chinese people have to come and complain over and over again.

Bronze age china was a Marvel of culture and craftsmanship

感谢做了中国视频 Though I'd be nicer if you finished the thirty years war series haha

According to our oral history and folk song, our ancestor escaped from the tyrant king, Qin Shihuangdi (221BC) as they were used as a forced labor in the construction of the Great Wall of China. Sinluang village was where once our ancestors lived, and Mahou Taubei ( Minhau in Chinese) was the cave mountain from which our forefathers began their migration. Rongmei Naga people of North East India believed Yunan Province in China to be their original place of origin. According to our oral history , frequent floods, raids from Barbarians and forced labor was the main reason for migration.

Wow, when you read into Chinese history like this, and it makes you realize that China went through development through these centuries of warring to become an empire. And Now, China as we see it today, is a historically rich culture with many dynasties and teachings taught from the past. It learned about a form of democracy with the mandate of heaven, a form of freedom. They warred with professionalism and had beauracracy. Today, China with its historical experience, truly does have a chance of becoming a shining empire again.

Thanks

Can you make such a video about korea and Finland?

Awesome

In re: all the pronunciation comments: Pinyin is not intuitive. Suffice it to say, you need prior knowledge of the system to pronounce it. (Just use Google Translate, when I tried it, it was accurate). But don’t worry about tones or retroflexing initials. Deciding what phonological features to preserve or alter might merit a dissertation. Thanks for the excellent history

1059BC - The conjunction occured around June according to the astrology natal chart. The conjunction also opposes the Lot of Fortune in the 7th house of open enemies. Therefore, it was interpreted as a sign of imminent warfare that's soon the come. Would have shared the natal chart i've created here but it doesn't allow any upload of pictures 😅

Does anyone know some of the background music used????

Thanks!

The only good thing to come from the 2008 The Mummy was seeing that Terracotta Army come to life.

Where do you take your drawings from?

nice

Great content, but a couple of notes on the pronunciation: Qin : Chin (where name China originated) Zhou : Jou (not quite the ‘j’ sound, but close. Anything Chinese that starts with ‘z’ can be pronounced with the ‘j’ sound)

Requesting Battle of Avarayr

What we know so far about China’s first emperor tomb is only the tip of the iceberg. When China is finally ready to open up the tomb, the world will be in a state of shock.

"Zhou", the second dynasty, is pronounced like "Dro" in the word "Drove"

That was probably the most accurate criticism of the most recent mummy movie. That did no honor to

For many Chinese, the Xia dynasty did actually exist. Many surnames including common ones first derived from the time of Xia according to their family history. Archaeology of physical evidences might not agree. But other sources might say that Xia indeed did exist.. Secondly, Qin Shi Huang Di wasn't the first emperor of China. It is to do with the features of Chinese characters and their sounds. There are 2 characters that both mean emperor's but with some difference. Huang is the sound of one of the 2. It literally is written as the character of 'white' over the character for 'king'. White king means pure king of absolutely untainted ethical standards and morality. Well, no humans could be that saintly. So this character literally means an emperor of divinity or god emperor or a mythical god. It is NOT a human emperor. The second character that also mean an emperor has the sound of DI. It means a human person emperor. An actual person that is the emperor. Before the 'first' emperor there were other human emperors. Yellow emperor eg, is seen as THE ancestor of all Chinese. Archaeology might see him as non-existent ever, but in the mind of all Chinese says otherwise. The great grandfather of the 'first' emperor once claimed himself the human emperor of the west (the western Di). The founding king of the Xia dynasty is seen as the Woo Di or Human emperor Woo. Technically, hence the 'first' emperor wasn't China's first emperor or human emperor. What the confusion is due to the combination of the 2 characters for 2 types of emperor used by him.. He called himself 'Divine' (Huang) 'Human Emperor' (Di) or Huang Di. Qin Shi means Qin dynasty's First. Qin Shu Huang Di means Qin dynasty's First divine human emperor. In China, no one dares to call themselves divine. This guy was a Maga maniac. And guess what he attracted the wrath of the real divine. That is why the moment he died, rebellions happened and toppled his dynasty that lasted not even 15 years. That is why, after his dynasty, not one, repeat NOT one, future emperor ever dared to use the same 'Divine' 'Human Emperor' title at all. Not one.. All of them called themselves in formal way xyz Human emperor.... But the term 'Divine' 'Human Emperor' or 'Huang Di' stuck in informal uses since. This explains the confusion. One more point about the 'First' emperor. He wasn't actually the one that conquered all China for the first time. First of Xia and Shang king/emperor did it. So did the Zhou's Wu King too. Hence another confusion. The 'First' emperor only reunited China and brought in a new style of governing the empire. Also, it was his ancestors over 150 years that laid the foundation for his success in such a short period. The battles he fought in forming his dynasty were 23:19 smell scale vs some of the battles his ancestors did in those 150 years. Frankly, without his ancestors, he wouldn't have done it. The Zhou dynasty went through fragmentation very quickly due to the feudal system it used. Literally each of domains were self governing with own tax system and even military. Automatically it means that Zhou was destined to be suffering from chaos forever till it was toppled and another system brought in. That constant warfare especially from 700'sBCE means that many tried to find an intellectual ways of brining peace into the then China. Hence you had the flowering of different schools of thoughts of how to achieve such. The 100 schools if thoughts is the expression. One of these, the Legalism was adopted by the home state of Qin Shi Huang Di about 150 years before he took all China. Legalism means that rules of laws applicable to all from king to peasant. It also meant rewards are given due to merits instead of by birth right. It leads to strict applications of laws and regulations as well as punishments for any breach. It also means that promotions and awards in the government is due to capabilities instead of the ranks in the society. This greatly increased outputs from agriculture and strengthening of the military. Other ancestors ripped the benefits of these reforms in fighting large wars vs their enemies. This series of wars greatly weakened Qin's enemies. Qin Shi Huang Di hence didn't and shouldn't get the sole credit for the outcome of brining the empire back together AGAIN. This makes sense as you look at the European experiences. Not one state has ever taken all Europe. Not even the Romans. It'd take incredible reforms and determinations and luck of winning wars for a long hundreds of years to happen. But it has never and likely will never given the size of population these days. The period before the 'first' emperor serves the back story of many rebellions in China since. That period lasted over 500 years and such fragmented China happened a few times after his time. The next dynasty was founded by a commoner with no loyal blood connection at all. Not even a proper education, this founding emperor of Han Dynasty also changed and left one of the main ethos in Chinese mind. That is, anyone could become the emperor of China. No blue blood and no divinity involvement. This means a lot of Chinese at any time believes that they could too found a new dynasty. That is also why China has more years of fragmentation of civil wars these last 2,200 years than peaceful unified periods. That is, it is the NORM for China to be fighting internally. It's THE Chinese FATE.

Great documentary short. But I have to tell you that “Zhou” is NOT pronounced “shoe” like tie your shoe, but rather “Joe” like cup of joe or the biblical name JOEseph.

It’s weird to call the guy Qin Shi Huang. Qin Shi Huang Di means Qin Empire’s First Yellow Emperor. Qin Shi Huang means Qin Empire’s First Yellow.

There's quite a few pronunciation errors in this video, but there's also some incorrect use of ancient characters (for example, 战车 is in simplified when it should be in large seal script). A much worse error, however, is citing a textbook from 2006 claiming that the Zhou were a simple continuation of the Shang. This is definitely not true, at least in the current literature (possibly only from the Chinese side), as it's now known that the Shang were far more egalitarian and less hierarchical than the Zhou. The Zhou established patriarchal rule and inheritance, whereas the Shang were matrilineal. There's a bunch of other social and class changes the Zhou instituted and influence they absorbed from the "barbarians" they conquered, but that gets really into the weeds.

Do a video about persia from Achaemenids to parthians and sassanids. or about their cataphract. they were like rohan of ancient world

10:26 So what was the poor soldiers' equipment made of? Stone? Its facinating how "China" after the period shown in this video, has been more or less the same state (I guess the Qin-empire was the first time the idea of a "unified China" came into existence?) Yes I know there were a few civil wars, warring states-periods and changes of dynasties. But its more like the same state that has gone through several iterations and built itself up gradually, rather than a series of different states and empires succeeding each other, like in other parts of the world. Its so consistent, like the same council of ministers kept China on the same course throughout several dynasties and emperors. Which I suppose is what happened, isn't it.. Got to wonder though, how much of this is actually true, and how much is fabricated history to give the later dynasties more legitimacy? Also its interesting how the chinese state managed to keep itself together all this time. Rather than being replaced by a rival power when it fell, it got back on its feet under new management every time. Was this because all the other independent states around China was really just copying chinese state-building? So the "legacy" of the empire was so valuble that it was better to proclaim yourself "the next chinese empire" rather than replace it with something new? Or was it more like a Persian situation, where you had the same bureaucracy-system and infrastructure, which was just taken over by various conquerors and emperors?

Thanks for making this video and shedding some light on pre-imperial China! I'm curious, at 10:23, it's implied that not all Shang soldiers were armed with bronze weapons. What other material would their weapons have been made of? Also, some notes in case you plan on making more videos about Chinese warfare: the "ZH" consonant pair in modern Chinese pinyin is pronounced closest to the "J" sound in English, maybe "Dsch" if you prefer German, or "ДЖ" in Russian. So "Zhou" would be pronounced like the name "Joe", more or less. The "X" consonant is closest to "SH" in English, and the "Q" is closest to "CH" as in "chicken".

In case you're not certain about how to pronounce Chinese names, you can type in the pinyin (the given transliteration) into Google Translate and it will generally give a decent enough idea.

It's interesting that the history of China seems to have a collectivist lean going back to the prehistoric period. I tend to not believe in ethnocentric traits, especially in the area of psychological or mental development. But it's hard to hand wave thousands of years of a trend.

You so rarely see prehistoric Chinese history covered, 99% of things start with the Qin dynasty as if China just poofed into existence.

11:39 "look! Weird... things in the sky doin'... stuff. OBVIOUSLY an omen with exactly this and that meaning. Because magic." sigh...

The dancing panda. Equal to Heaven and Earth. Wukong is jealous!

Zhou is pronounced more like 'Joe'. Shu is a kingdom in what is now Sichuan Province.

great video! are you planning to do more videos on chinese history? anyone have any suggestions for china focused channels?

I like the video but good grief the pronunciation almost killed me lol

More than 8,000 terracotta warriors and horses were only excavated. Considering that most of Qin Shihuang’s mausoleum has not been excavated, the number of terracotta warriors and horses is undoubtedly much higher.

this was really interesting. thank you. personally, i didn't know much about china. your video taught me a lot of new stuff. this also provides necessary context to what happened in India, Mesopotamia and Egypt which all were somewhat ahead in comparison to China, at least in my view. China seems a bit more on the rural side with almost no cities and no major enemies.

Isn't Terracotta made cause the emperor thought he could bring his army into the afterlife?

Oh, Zhou, not Shu.

I always found the art depicting pre bronze age peoples quite weird, is so rare see that cultures and think that this are the ancesters of chinese people, they look so diferent.

hehehe...I see there is a Chariot Of Fire.

The chinese had widespread cast Iron use since the 5th century BC

May you delve forth into the history of the Han dynasty and their epic, calamitous end that bloomed into the romanticized period of the Three Kingdoms! As long as you are ready to uncover these military histories after learning the standard Mandarin pronunciations of significant terms coming up!