Chinese Emperors and Rulers

Emperors and rulers of China's successive dynasties, from the legendary Xia founder Yu the Great and the historical First Emperor Qin Shi Huang through the Han, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties to the last emperor, Puyi, whose abdication in 1912 ended more than two thousand years of imperial rule. The group includes non-Han founders of Chinese dynasties who are recorded here under their Chinese imperial titles because their own dynasty's history and succession continue as a Chinese ruling house, Nurhaci and Hong Taiji, the Jurchen founders of the Later Jin and Qing dynasties, among them, distinguishing this group from the separate Mongol and Central Asian Khans group, which holds steppe rulers whose own title and realm remained centered on the Mongol and Central Asian steppe rather than on China itself.