Hereditary monarchy- good or bad?

[The Yankee]

Xia WAS before Shang. You were never wrong.

I knew it! You have too many dynasties....stop overthrowing your government!

Xia, Shang, Zhou (both periods), 16 Kingdoms whittled down to the short Qin, the Han (both periods), Three Kingdoms finally getting the short Sui (northern dynasties from before like the Northern Wei and so forth...), T'ang.....oh boy....I know the rest, but too many!

 

[Dann]

I knew it! You have too many dynasties....stop overthrowing your government!

Kinduva hard thing to do if your history spans four or five thousand years.

 

[alex994]

there's only 11 major chinese dynasties(i think) in the early and middle days of the rulers the dynasty flourished, however, in the later periods, the dynasties usually became weak and powerless, so i have to say that hereditary monarchs r bad.

 

[Dann]

Nope. Way more than that.

Xia (not yet confirmed) ---> Shang ---> Zhou ---> Spring and Autumn period (lots of tiny kingdoms, the Art of War) ---> Warring States (7 major kingdoms) ---> Qin (terracotta army and Great Wall) ---> Han (first powerful kick-ass era ) ---> 3 kingdoms ---> Jin and then later barbarian invasions (5 tribes and 16 kingdoms) ---> North and South dynasties (basically a series of 5 dynasties in the north and 4 in the south) ---> Sui (Grand Canal) ---> Tang (second powerful kick-ass era ) ---> Five Dynasties (5 very short dynasties plus 10 other minor kingdoms) ---> Song and then later Jin in the northern half (cultural golden age ) ---> Yuan (Mongols) ---> Ming (who blew their chance at world domination ) ---> Qing (Manchus, final powerful kick-ass era , but failed to adapt to a changing world in its later days ) ---> early Republic (chaotic and full of regional warlords) ---> Republic under the KMT ---> current regime (Three Gorges Dam?).

Major dynasties are in bold. Italics are Wonders. We're a Civ site after all.

 

[The Yankee]

You forgot to add Confucianism and Daoism between Spring and Autumn and your Warring States...but that's a pretty good summary of everything.

I'd say Communist China is another dynasty in the cycle.

But maybe you could go back in time and lengthen the time through periods and dynasties...making them less numerous....I mean, you have the Three Kingdoms and a period of the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Ten Kingdoms.....yeah, I know that's how things work and periods and books are named....sigh....oh well.

But the standard set in ancient texts and legends in China say that not having a hereditary line of succession is the best. And in most cases, I will agree.

 

[Dann]

Confucianism and Daoism are merely philosophies/religions developed during the Spring and Autumn period. They never were eras in their own right.

By 16 kingdoms, 10 kingdoms, etc. I did not mean a particular sequence of dynasties.. rather those were periods where China was divided into that many number of small, independent states. Making the map of China then resemble the map of Europe.

And on topic, I don't particularly agree with hereditary monarchy too. Unless the emperor is Me!