Three thousand years, one province.
75
entries
10
eras
44
places
Henan is where a great deal of Chinese history happened first: farming villages, bronze capitals, the earliest writing, cave temples, the Song court. This page puts those events on one line you can filter — and on one map you can pin them to.
4 entries · Kaifeng
Only showing Kaifeng · 4 entries across 2 dynasties
Qin & Han221 BCE–220 CE
1 entriesEmpires, roads, paper and the arrival of Buddhism.
c. 190 CEPeopleCai Wenji returns with the music
蔡文姬归汉
Taken north in the wars, she came back years later and wrote down the scores her father had collected.
Song960–1279 CE
3 entriesPrinting, kilns, academies and a city of a million people.
960 CEKaifeng becomes the Song capital
北宋定都开封
A canal city without mountains became the largest urban centre on earth, with night markets and a print trade.
1050sPeopleBao Zheng rules the capital
包拯知开封府
A stern official who opened the court's gates to petitioners; the opera face and the stories came later.
1127 CEThe fall of Kaifeng
靖康之变
The northern Song court, its emperor and much of its art were taken north; the dynasty continued south of the Yangtze.