List of Chinese monarchs

[6] This ranged from military enforcement, political patronage, establishing peace and solidity, institutional reform, and historical revisionism to legitimize the dissolution of previous dynasties and their own succession.

[19] Apart from ethnic Han rulers, China was also ruled by various non-Han monarchs, including Jurchen, Khitan, Manchu, Mongol and Tangut and many others.

[21] The relevancy of these figures to the earliest Chinese people is unknown, since most accounts of them were written from the Warring States period (c. 475–221 BCE) onwards.

[27] The subsequent legendary kings began with the Yellow Emperor (黃帝), known as Huangdi, a major culture hero of Chinese civilization whose reign was considered exemplary.

[28] Since the late Warring States onwards, early Chinese monarchs have traditionally been ground into the concept of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors;[28] however, the chosen figures of this grouping varies considerably between sources.

[29][30] Unlike the Xia, the Shang dynasty's historicity is firmly established, due to written records on divination objects known as Oracle bones.

The oldest such oracle bones date to the Late Shang (c. 1250—1046 BCE), during the reign of Wu Ding (1250–1192), putting the exact details of earlier rulers into doubt.