十三朝古都 · The City of Time

Thirteen dynasties, one address

Between 1046 BC and 907 AD, thirteen dynasties — every great unified empire among them — chose this bend of the Wei River as their capital. For roughly 1,100 years, longer than anywhere else in China, this plain was the center of the nation. Each dynasty left a layer — a tomb, a pagoda, a name carved into the city's bones. Scroll the timeline oldest → newest, or jump straight to the four that made Xi'an what it is.

Western Zhou西周c. 1046–771 BC Qin秦350–207 BC Western Han西汉202 BC – 9 AD Xin (Wang Mang)新9–23 AD Eastern Han (return)东汉190–195 AD Western Jin (return)西晋313–316 AD Former Zhao前赵319–329 AD Former Qin前秦351–385 AD Later Qin后秦384–417 AD Western Wei西魏535–557 AD Northern Zhou北周557–581 AD Sui隋581–618 AD Tang唐618–907 AD

The four that built the city

Zhou, Qin, Han, Tang — the dynasties that gave Xi'an its identity, in the city's own sequence.

西周

Western Zhouc. 1046–771 BC

The first dynasty to make this bend of the Wei River its capital. Fenghao was a twin city — two settlements that together formed the political heart of the Western Zhou for 275 years. No ruins survive above ground, but the bronzes dug from nearby tombs are the finest ritual metalwork of ancient China, and they fill the Shaanxi History Museum.

秦

Qin350–207 BC

The Qin united China for the first time, and they did it from here. Qin Shi Huang built his capital at Xianyang, his tomb 30 km east at Lishan, and the Terracotta Army to guard it — the single most famous archaeological site in the country. The dynasty lasted only 15 years, but it invented the imperial system that all later dynasties inherited.

西汉

Western Han202 BC – 9 AD

This is when Chang'an was born. Liu Bang founded the Han dynasty and built his capital here, creating the city that would anchor the Silk Road. For 200 years, Chang'an was one of the largest cities on Earth. The imperial tombs — Hanyangling among them — still stand north of the city, their underground pits revealing the daily life of a Han court.

唐

Tang618–907 AD

The peak. Tang Chang'an was the largest, most cosmopolitan city on Earth — nearly a million people, including Sogdian, Persian and Arab merchant communities. The Silk Road's eastern terminus, the center of East Asian Buddhism, and the court that produced Li Bai, Du Fu and Wang Wei. Almost every Tang site you visit today — from the Big Wild Goose Pagoda to the Grand Tang Ever-Bright City — traces back to these 289 years.

The nine that kept the throne

Brief returns, reunifications, and one Buddhist translation bureau — the rest of the story.

Xin (Wang Mang)9–23 AD

新 · Interregnum

A 14-year interregnum when the official Wang Mang seized the throne and tried to reform the empire back to idealized Zhou institutions. His land redistributions and currency changes failed catastrophically. The Han restored itself within a generation — but the Eastern Han moved its capital east to Luoyang, and Chang'an lost its political primacy for 170 years.

Eastern Han (return)190–195 AD

东汉 · Interregnum

A traumatic five years when warlords dragged the boy-emperor Xian back to a ruined Chang'an. The city was a shadow of its Han peak — courtiers starved in the streets. This is why Eastern Han 'counts' as a Chang'an capital: the emperor was physically here, but the capital was a fiction held together by generals.

Western Jin (return)313–316 AD

西晋 · Fragmentation

Another brief, desperate return. The Western Jin had briefly reunited China, but collapsed into civil war. The teenage emperor Min held out in Chang'an for three years before the city fell to northern invaders. The dynasty's brief unity dissolved into nearly 300 years of division.

Former Zhao319–329 AD

前赵 · Sixteen Kingdoms

The first of the 'barbarian' states (Xiongnu-led) to make Chang'an a capital during the Sixteen Kingdoms period. Short-lived — ten years — but it marked the beginning of the era when non-Han rulers governed the northwest and Chang'an became a frontier garrison city rather than an imperial metropolis.

Former Qin351–385 AD

前秦 · Sixteen Kingdoms

A Di-led state that came closest to reuniting the north — until its army was annihilated at the Battle of the Fei River (383 AD), one of history's most decisive upsets. Chang'an fell to the rebellion that followed the defeat, and the collapse after that fractured the north again. A reminder that Chang'an's history is full of near-misses.

Later Qin384–417 AD

后秦 · Sixteen Kingdoms

A Qiang-led state whose most enduring legacy is cultural, not political: it hosted Kumarajiva, the great Buddhist translator, and established a translation bureau in Chang'an that rendered hundreds of Sanskrit texts into Chinese. The city's Buddhist heritage — visible at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda three centuries later — begins here.

Western Wei535–557 AD

西魏 · Northern Dynasties

A Xianbei-led regime that rebuilt Chang'an as a military-administrative center after centuries of decline. Its architect, Yuwen Tai, created the fubing militia system and the Guanlong aristocratic bloc — institutions that would power the Sui and Tang reunifications. The foundations of Tang greatness were laid here.

Northern Zhou557–581 AD

北周 · Northern Dynasties

The state that finally reunited the north — and whose emperor then handed the throne to his general Yang Jian, who founded the Sui. Northern Zhou's 24 years were the hinge between 300 years of division and the Sui-Tang golden age. It also conducted a major suppression of Buddhism (574–577) — before the Tang made Buddhism a state religion.

Sui581–618 AD

隋 · Reunification

Architecturally the most consequential of all the dynasties here — even though it's often overshadowed by the Tang. The Sui built Daxing, a new capital whose 108-ward grid by Yuwen Kai became the literal footprint of Tang Chang'an and the template for East Asian city planning from Kyoto to Seoul. Without the Sui grid, there is no Tang golden age.