Your challenge, should you accept it, is - basically - to completely thwart the Dynastic Circle by having a dynasty just last for a really long time. There can be periods of civil war, or periods in which the dynasty is pushed into just one region of China (like Southern Song), but it has to be temporary and the dynasty always has to come out on top, at least for a thousand years.
AH challenge: make a Chinese dynasty that lasts over thousand years
- Thread starter Orko
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I agree that the Han seem like the best contender for this.
For a totally out of the box idea what about the Chinese emperor becoming like the Japanese one? By that I mean that they are theoretically the ruler but they in practice they don't necessarily exercise power. Probably not possible for that to happen in China but hey at least its original.
For a totally out of the box idea what about the Chinese emperor becoming like the Japanese one? By that I mean that they are theoretically the ruler but they in practice they don't necessarily exercise power. Probably not possible for that to happen in China but hey at least its original.
As far as I can tell, the less power a monarchy actually has, the longer the dynasty is likely to survive. All powerful monarchs are tempting targets for those who desire power. Figureheads on the other hand are valued for their stability, with whoever the new top dog is using them to establish their legitimacy. So if you want a Chinese Dynasty to last a long time, we need to sap them of most if not all of their power like in Japan.
I would only go with the Zhou, because the Han was a lot more unstable than people here seem to think it was. The Song succession process was very stable, but I'm not sure it can last 1000 years.
I should point out that the Zhou went about 750 years historically, so they're within distance of that 1000 years if you avoid Chinese unification, which would be difficult but not impossible.
I should point out that the Zhou went about 750 years historically, so they're within distance of that 1000 years if you avoid Chinese unification, which would be difficult but not impossible.
The challenge, using the Zhou decline as a starting point, is to have the monarchy take back effective power (à la Emperor Meiji, I suppose).
My knowledge of China before the 1800s is rather dubious at best, TBH.......I guess maybe you could try an earlier Mongol invasion or something, and maybe one of the Khans sets up his 1000-year dynasty.....I dunno, really. 
My knowledge of China before the 1800s is rather dubious at best, TBH.......I guess maybe you could try an earlier Mongol invasion or something, and maybe one of the Khans sets up his 1000-year dynasty.....I dunno, really.
There was famous turkish(?) peoples invaders who created states like Hiong-niou(?) and the Uyghurs and Kithans(?), but they didn't have all the might that Temujin would have centuries later,... maybe...
I suppose. Again, my knowledge concerning China is pretty limited at this point, but I didn't think it would hurt to throw something out there.
My knowledge of China before the 1800s is rather dubious at best, TBH.......I guess maybe you could try an earlier Mongol invasion or something, and maybe one of the Khans sets up his 1000-year dynasty.....I dunno, really.
Well, that's not a very good possibility. The Yuan dynasty only lasted for a century. These are foreigners, and ones who have raided China for centuries, why would the Chinese let them rule over them for a thousand years?
King Helü of Wu
Banned
Han emperors in the pre-three kingdom period are puppets indeed, and had Cao Cao's son Cao Pi decided not to be an emperor( a wise choice from hindsight) Han would last at least the OTL Invasion Of The Five Tribes, after whoever was in charge brought the emperor south to establish a rump state, and finnally the southern Han fell to Sui Dynasty.
King Helü of Wu
Banned
But I prefer a Eternal Zhou scenario, in which the feudal lords revered the Zhou King as son of heaven while the "Sinic states" gradually evolve into different nation states.
That's not true. If we're counting figureheads, the Zhou Dynasty and the current Japanese dynasty both lasted longer than 500 years.