China's Five GREATEST Emperors

China One of the mightiest empires in history but the Middle Kingdom as it's called in Chinese went through many periods known as dynasties each with its own unique cultural characteristics and there were many Emperors who fueled that development whether through military force overthrowing China's foes and rebellions or through soft power unifying the Empire through the Arts in this video we are going to go through some of our favorites this is the five greatest Emperors in Chinese history hi everyone I'm Ben Hedges I'm a graduate of the Chinese department at the school of Oriental and African studies at the University of London I've made my career speaking Chinese and researching China and on this channel I share my love of Chinese and traditional Chinese culture with you all so why not subscribe for more videos like this number one the yellow emperor now the yellow Emperor is a mythical character some say the grandfather of all of Chinese civilization he existed in a similar way to the gods of ancient Greece who lived in Heavenly Realms above Mount Olympus and could travel back and forth between the heavens and the human world or think of the Norse god Thor traveling back and forth between the human world and Asgard it seems the yellow Emperor was this type of figure it is recorded that he was a cultivator of The Da which is one of the many spiritual disciplines in China through through which people are believed to be able to attain Enlightenment thus he could travel back and forth between the Earth and the Heavenly Realms too often riding on a dragon Ancient Aliens did a hilarious episode about the yellow Emperor where they of course insisted the dragon was actually an alien spaceship and he himself was an alien something was witnessed by our ancestors that they could best describe with the vocabulary that was available to them at the time like yeah if it sounds like like aliens it must be aliens it's very possible that the yellow Emperor was actually traveling on a UFO now I don't believe that I think he was a man but maybe he did have some sort of Supernatural power or just a very high level of intelligence the yellow Emperor is said to have invented a lot of things that later became common to Chinese civilization such as Chinese medicine wooden houses bronze coins drums to Rouse his troops and frighten the enemy during battle and his wife invented silk he also fought other rival Emperors for control of China and ended up ruling the entire territory out of his 25 Sons 14 of them were given surnames and they became the original surnames of the Chinese people so the yellow Emperor was really the mythological founder of all of Chinese civilization his Reign is said to have began around 2,697 BC so that's before the Roman Empire before Noah's Ark and around the time of the early dynastic period in Egypt all right let's move on after the yell Emperor there were several legendary Sage Emperors and then a great flood and after that we get into the xia Shang and Joe dynasties where the rulers called themselves Kings not Emperors that is until the Joe Dynasty degenerated into the Waring States period and was then United by number two the first emperor chin Wang China's first emperor at least in the modern period unified the Waring States through military Conquest forming the Chin Dynasty in the year 221 BC in this instance being a great emperor doesn't necessarily mean he was good he was known for his cruel militaristic rule where he burned books buried Scholars alive and conscripted large numbers of men to work on building projects such as the Great Wall which was built to keep out Invaders from the [Music] north and actually the great w you see today and what is portrayed in many movies that is all sections of the wall that were built in the later Ming Dynasty the parts built by the first emperor looked more like this just rammed Earth and stones but he is the one credited with the walls creation he linked up several sections of wall that the Waring States had built and created one long continuous wall along China's border to keep out all the scary stuff that existed to the north although the rule of the first emperor was horrific for the Chinese people he did contribute to the unification of an Empire that still exists as a country today he did this by unifying things like weights and measures money the width of roads and the Chinese writing system using the small seal script he is probably most well known today for his Terracotta Army of 8,000 clay soldiers that protected him in the afterlife just as you are thinking what a nice guy for just using Clay Soldiers instead of burying an army alive with him I have to tell you that he did actually have a load of real people buried alive in his tomb with him as well like all his concubines who didn't have children and anyone who knew the design features of the tomb was buried alive in there as well however after the first Empire died the Chin Dynasty only lasted a few more years until another dynasty was founded by our next great emperor number three hanu the first emperor of the Han Dynasty was born into a peasant family and his name was Liang he grew up to become a minor civil servant in the Chin Dynasty but as the chin fell apart he renounced his position and became a rebel leader he contended with another warlord shangu for control of all of China the contention between Liang and xang Yu is actually a tragic story in itself since they started both fighting the chin and even fought alongside each other but eventually realized that China only had one throne and they would eventually have to have a showdown in the end lobang was Victorious at the Battle of Gia or Gia Jan and he established the Han Dynasty or hancha in 202 BC and has become known as Emperor hanu anything H it's Han but that's okay he took several benevolent actions at the start of his rule including allowing his soldiers to return home and exempting them from taxes for 6 years he also lowered taxes for the population in general and bought the freedom of those who had sold themselves into slavery during the war to avoid starvation after meeting the scholar Lua hungalu adopted Confucianism as the official philosophy of the Empire and it gradually replaced legalism which was the system of laws and harsh punishments that was a central part of the authoritarian Ian Chin Dynasty the Han Dynasty still had Law and Order but punishments were relaxed somewhat and the Confucian values of morality and self-cultivation were adopted to maintain stability in society and guess what it worked the Han Dynasty became known as China's first golden age the period saw all aspects of Chinese Society flourish and during the Han Buddhism also made its way from India to China and became one of China's three main religions Buddhism Daoism and conf fusionism but we said the first golden age so there must have been a second right and indeed there is and it was brought about by our next great Chinese emperor number four Tang taong was the second emperor of the tong Dynasty although often credited as the Dynasty's co-founder born in the year 598 Tang Tong's given name was Lee shimin and he was the son of Lee yen who is a general in the sway Dynasty which preceded the tongue the sway dynasty was kind of a bit like the chin a harsh short-lived militaristic Dynasty as military losses mounted in a war with Korea the seeds of rebellion started to Bud at the same time there was a prophecy being spread in the Empire that the next Emperor would be surnamed Lee Lee Yen became afraid that because of this prophecy the sway Emperor would see him as a threat his son Lee shimin was actually even more on the ball and had already started planning a rebellion so his father made Lee shimin a general and they went to war against the slave in 618 ad they won and Leen established the tong Dynasty with himself as the first emperor at this time leimin still had a few battles to fight with pockets of rebels but he was so good at putting down the Rebellion that his father bestowed on him the title Grand general of heavenly strategies before long it really became apparent that lein was incredibly capable and a rivalry developed between him and his two brothers which culminated in him killing them both and forcing his father to abdicate and give the throne to him it was probably for the best I'm sure well it did work out pretty well for China since leimin who would later be called Tang taong remained undefeated as Emperor until much later in his life and China became strong under his rule expanding West along the Silk Road the capital changan was the biggest city in the world at the time and flourished with visitors from as far away as the Byzantine empire in Europe the Imperial examination system was refined and developed under the tongue as the main way for officials to be chosen on Merit not just family background the tongue Dynasty has come to be known as the main golden age of China the high point of Chinese civilization and Tang taong as its greatest Emperor if you want to see the complete story of Tong taidong check out our video on him it looks like this you can find it on our Channel all right let's now move on to our final great Chinese emperor number five kungi in 1644 the manchurians a non-chinese ethnic group from Beyond The Great Wall to the Northeast seize control of Beijing they began the Ching Dynasty and Emperor Emperor kangi was the third Ching Emperor and the longest reigning emperor in Chinese history he was on the throne for 61 years I mean that's still 9 years shorter than Queen Elizabeth but you know not bad not bad but the real reason many view kangi as a great emperor was his cultural achievements although he came from a non-chinese background kungi and other Manu like him recognized China as the Middle Kingdom and Chinese culture as the greatest in the world he ordered the compilation of great cultural works such as the kangi dictionary of Chinese characters and the complete collection of Tong poems or kungi also loved touring the Empire and carried out no less than six inspection tours to the south of China many of which are recorded in classic paintings he also showed a lot of scholarly interest in traditional Chinese culture and the Arts like calligraphy and commissioned the Imperial kils to produce a large amount of porcelain for the palace in or was a scholarly Emperor who played the role of not just safeguarding but even advancing and developing Chinese culture his 61-year Reign and the 61-year reign of his grandson chenlong that followed represent the high point of the Ching Dynasty the last Imperial Dynasty in China before the imperial system collapsed leading first into the Nationalist period and then into communism which did the opposite of what kungi and other Emperors work towards communism intentionally destroyed Chinese culture but if you want to take part in the Revival of Chinese traditions one aspect that is experiencing a Big Revival right now is Chinese classical dance and today's sponsor the shenyun Arts proficiency Center is now teaching traditional Chinese dance to the public with their new online program Shen Yun is the world's Premier Chinese Performing Arts company Reviving traditional Arts their slogan is China before communism so you can go to learn chines dan.com and learn traditional Chinese classical dance from world-class instructors that have performed with Shen Yin in some of the most prestigious theaters around the globe there are 10 levels of online pre-recorded courses from beginner to advance as well as live classes that you can join from the comfort of your own home so make Emperor kungi proud and contribute to the Revival of traditional Chinese culture and improve your physique at the same time by going to learn chines dan.com or clicking the link in the description below thank you so much for watching guys and leave me some of your other favorite Chinese Emperors in the comments below I think if there's enough interest we can definitely do a part two of this video with some lesser known Emperors that still have great achievements and contributions to Chinese culture please subscribe to the channel if you're new and we'll see you in the next one bye-bye