Tang Dynasty (618-907)
After the Han Dynasty (hàn cháo 汉朝) came the Three Kingdoms Period (sān guó shí qī 三国时期, 220-265), the Jin Dynasty (jìn cháo 晋朝, 265-420), the Southern and Northern Dynasties (nán běi cháo 南北朝, 420-589) and the Sui Dynasty (suí cháo 隋朝, 581-618). Then came the Tang Dynasty (táng cháo 唐朝), established by Li Yuan (lǐ yuān 李渊) in 618 with its capital at Chang'an (cháng ān 长安, Xi'an).

 
In 960 a new power, Song (sòng 宋, 960-1279), reunified most of China Proper. The Song period divides into two phases: Northern Song (běi sòng 北宋, 960-1127) and Southern Song (nán sòng 南宋, 1127-1279). The division was caused by the forced abandonment of north China in 1127 by the Song court, which could not push back the nomadic invaders.

By the mid-thirteenth century, the Mongols had subjugated north China, Korea, and the Muslim kingdoms of Central Asia and had twice penetrated Europe. With the resources of his vast empire, Kublai Khan (hū bì liè 忽必烈, 1215-94), a grandson of Genghis Khan (chéng jí sī hàn, 成吉思汗 1167?-1227) and the supreme leader of all Mongol tribes, began his drive against the Southern Song (nán sòng 南宋). Even before the extinction of the Song dynasty (sòng cháo 宋朝), Kublai Khan had established the first alien dynasty to rule all China–the Yuan (yuán cháo 元朝, 1279-1368).

The Chinese Regain Power
Rivalry among the Mongol imperial heirs, natural disasters, and numerous peasant uprisings led to the collapse of the Yuan dynasty (yuán cháo 元朝). The Ming dynasty (míng cháo 明朝, 1368-1644) was founded by a Han Chinese peasant and former Buddhist monk turned rebel army leader Zhu Yuanzhang (zhū yuán zhāng 朱元璋).

Although the Manchus (mǎn zú 满族) were not Han Chinese and were strongly resisted, especially in the south, they had assimilated a great deal of Chinese culture before conquering China Proper, and set up the Qing Dynasty (qīng cháo 清朝). Realizing that to dominate the empire they would have to do things the Chinese way, the Manchus retained many institutions of Ming (míng cháo 明朝) and earlier Chinese derivation. They continued the Confucian court practices and temple rituals, over which the emperors had traditionally presided.

 
The republic that Sun Yat-sen (sūn zhōng shān 孙中山) and his  associates envisioned evolved slowly. The revolutionists lacked an army, and the power of Yuan Shikai (yuán shì kǎi  袁世凯) began to outstrip that of parliament. Yuan revised the constitution at will and became dictatorial. In August 1912 a new political party was founded by Song Jiaoren (sòng jiāo rén 宋教仁 1882-1913), one of Sun’s associates.