Zhou dynasty and the Mandate of Heaven
The Zhou overthrew the Shang and justified rule through the Mandate of Heaven: a king keeps authority only while he governs justly.
Humanity
115 events across three thousand years — chosen to be multi-regional and honest about uncertainty. Follow a thread to trace one capability through time, or filter by region and kind.
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Spatial timeline — scroll horizontally
The Daodejing circulates
The Daodejing teaches wu wei — acting with rather than against the grain of things — and distrust of rigid control.
Confucius teaches in Lu
Kongzi taught that social order grows from cultivated relationships, ritual propriety and moral example rather than coercion.
Zhuangzi's butterfly dream
Zhuangzi's parable — did he dream he was a butterfly, or is a butterfly dreaming it is him? — made perspective and the limits of certainty playful and profound.
Qin Shi Huang unifies China
The Qin ended the Warring States period by standardizing script, currency, axle widths and law across China — through legendary harshness.
The Han dynasty builds the scholar-state
The Han adopted Confucianism as state ideology, founded an imperial academy, and selected officials by examination — government by educated merit.
Paper reaches standardized production in Han China
Under Cai Lun's supervision the Han court standardized papermaking from mulberry bark, hemp and rags — cheap, light, writable surfaces.
The Diamond Sutra: the oldest dated printed book
A woodblock-printed copy of the Diamond Sutra, made in 868 and bearing its own colophon, was preserved in Dunhuang's sealed cave library.
Bi Sheng invents movable type
The commoner Bi Sheng carved individual characters in clay that could be composed, printed and recomposed — recorded by the scholar Shen Kuo.
Goryeo prints with cast metal type
Korea's Goryeo court printed texts from cast bronze type — over two centuries before Gutenberg — and the 1377 Jikji survives as the oldest book printed this way.
Chronology
Zhou dynasty and the Mandate of Heaven
The Zhou overthrew the Shang and justified rule through the Mandate of Heaven: a king keeps authority only while he governs justly.
The Daodejing circulates
The Daodejing teaches wu wei — acting with rather than against the grain of things — and distrust of rigid control.
Confucius teaches in Lu
Kongzi taught that social order grows from cultivated relationships, ritual propriety and moral example rather than coercion.
Zhuangzi's butterfly dream
Zhuangzi's parable — did he dream he was a butterfly, or is a butterfly dreaming it is him? — made perspective and the limits of certainty playful and profound.
Qin Shi Huang unifies China
The Qin ended the Warring States period by standardizing script, currency, axle widths and law across China — through legendary harshness.
The Han dynasty builds the scholar-state
The Han adopted Confucianism as state ideology, founded an imperial academy, and selected officials by examination — government by educated merit.
Paper reaches standardized production in Han China
Under Cai Lun's supervision the Han court standardized papermaking from mulberry bark, hemp and rags — cheap, light, writable surfaces.
The Diamond Sutra: the oldest dated printed book
A woodblock-printed copy of the Diamond Sutra, made in 868 and bearing its own colophon, was preserved in Dunhuang's sealed cave library.
Bi Sheng invents movable type
The commoner Bi Sheng carved individual characters in clay that could be composed, printed and recomposed — recorded by the scholar Shen Kuo.
Goryeo prints with cast metal type
Korea's Goryeo court printed texts from cast bronze type — over two centuries before Gutenberg — and the 1377 Jikji survives as the oldest book printed this way.