This Month in History

January 8, A.D. 265

Sima Yan established the Western Jin Dynasty (265-316). Although the Western Jin survived for a mere 52 years, it ended the turmoil of the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280) and unified China, providing a period of stability for social and economic development.

January 22, A.D. 589

The Sui Dynasty annexed the Chen Kingdom (557-589) of the Southern Dynasties (420-589), reuniting southern and northern China after a 270-year secession. The Sui ramped up for that feat by significantly enhancing the central authority’s military and economic strength and introducing an array of reforms in administration, land ownership, taxation and the resident registration system. Prior to that the Chen was plagued by corruption, big deficits and growing discontent among the populace.

January 1, 1085

Zi Zhi Tong Jian (Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government) was published. The book chronicles the history of China in a faithful narration from the Warring States Period (476-221 B.C.) to the Five Dynasties (403 B.C.- A.D. 959). It was compiled mainly by Sima Guang (1019-1086) with the purpose of providing a perspective for emperors on the rise and fall of previous empires.

January 28, 1115

The Jin (Jurchen) Dynasty was founded by the Wanyan family of the Jurchens, the ancestors of the Manchus who established the Qing Dynasty some 500 years later.

January 23, 1368

Zhu Yuanzhang founded the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and selected Nanjing as its capital. The Ming was China’s last dynastic regime established and ruled by the ethnic majority Han; it was toppled by Manchu from Northeast China. The Ming Dynasty is regarded by historians as one of the high points in Chinese civilization. Many monumental, epoch-making construction projects were commissioned, some of which still exist, including the Great Wall and the Forbidden City in Beijing.

January 13, 1716

Kangxi Dictionary, the standard Chinese dictionary of the 18th and 19th centuries, was published. The dictionary exerted a far-reaching influence on all subsequent dictionaries – often and widely quoted thanks to the comprehensiveness of the compilation: more than 47,000 characters, with pronunciations, meanings and documented sources are reproduced.

January 20, 1861

The Qing government established the Foreign Office to handle diplomatic affairs and foreign trade. The central authority had no particular organs for foreign affairs before the Opium War. The establishment of the Foreign Office facilitated the administration of China’s exchanges with other nations, but also offered foreign powers a channel to interfere with both China’s internal and international affairs, marking the start of quasi-colonial rule in the nation.

January 1, 1912

Over 2,000 years of imperial rule in China was brought to a close when the 1911 Revolution overthrew the Qing Dynasty, an occasion made official when Sun Yat-sen proclaimed the establishment of the Republic of China following his swearing-in as provisional president.

January 8, 1976

Zhou Enlai, the first premier of the PRC, passed away at the age of 77. He was instrumental in the Communist Party’s rise to power, and subsequently in the development of the Chinese economy and the restructuring of Chinese society.

January 1, 1979

Diplomatic relations between the PRC and the U.S. were officially established. Prior to this, the Joint Communiqué of the People’s Republic of China and the United States was published on December 16, 1978, in which the U.S. Government agreed to cut off diplomatic relations with Taiwan, withdraw its armed forces and military facilities from the island, and annul the treaties signed with the Chiang Kai-shek regime.

January 12, 1980

China’s scientific staff set foot in Antarctica for the first time.

January 1, 1984

China became a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

January 1, 1984

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) was founded as a limited company. Now it is China’s largest bank and the largest bank in the world by market capitalization standards. As of 2009, it had assets of RMB 11 trillion (US $1.6 trillion) and over 18,000 branches, including 106 overseas.

January 18, 1992

At the crucial juncture of China’s reform and opening-up program, Deng Xiaoping made an inspection tour of southern China where he delivered a series of speeches that set the tone and direction for China’s reform. Deng was selected as the Man of the Year by Time magazine earlier in 1986 for economic policies that improved the lives of one-fourth of the world population, a great contribution to the world’s stability.