Most Western audiences know this period of China's history from East Asian pop culture sources such as Wuxia movies, or Japanese works such as the Dynasty Warriors series of games and Yokoyama Mitsuteru Sangokushi, though most of these are based on much older Chinese novels, folk-stories and other source material.
Life in Imperial China, according to this view, apparently involved lots of politics and betrayal around the Emperor's solid gold palace, punctuated by battles featuring big hulky brocade-wearing brutes mowing down peasant soldiers by the thousands with their flashy musou attacks. When you met a fair maiden, either she was skilled enough with martial arts to kick your butt, or she was a supernatural creature in disguise.
See Dynasties from Shang to Qing for a history of this series of ages (it's often forgotten just how long that history is; "Imperial China" lasted for over 2,100 years,note while the pre-Imperial era easily lasted more than a millennium), and No More Emperors for what happened when the last of the Chinese kingdoms and empires fell in February 1912.
Popular tropes from this time period are:
- Arranged Marriage
- Decadent Court
- The Emperor
- Eunuchs Are Evil
- Evil Chancellor
- Honor Before Reason
- Implausible Fencing Powers
- Improbable Weapon User
- Knight Errant
- Named Weapons
- Old Master
- Red String of Fate
- Reincarnation Romance
- Shapeshifting Lover
- Star-Crossed Lovers
- Supernatural Martial Arts
Depictions in media:
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Anime & Manga
- Fushigi Yuugi
- Kingdom, set during the Warring States Period.
- Kōtetsu Sangokushi
- Romance of the Three Kingdoms (1971)
Films — Animation
- Kung Fu Panda
- Like the Clouds, Like the Wind
- Mulan, though it's based on a traditional Chinese folk-story.
The Nostalgia Chick: Sure, let's go ahead and use the word "honor" fifty times.
- The Tale of the White Serpent (白蛇伝)
Films — Live-Action
- The 14 Amazons
- The36th Chamberof Shaolin
- 55 Days at Peking, set during the Qing Dynasty.
- Ashes of Time
- The Assassin
- The Assassin (1967)
- Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom
- The Avenging Eagle
- A Battle of Wits based on the Qin Dynasty conquest and unity of China.
- The Bells of Death
- The Blade (1995)
- Blood Brothers (1973)
- The Bride With White Hair
- Brothers Five
- The Burning of Red Lotus Temple
- Butterfly and Sword
- Come Drink With Me
- The Crimson Charm
- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
- Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny
- Curse of the Golden Flower
- Deadful Melody
- Death Duel
- The Deadly Duo
- Delightful Forest
- Detective Dee
- The Dragon Missile''
- Dragon Swamp
- The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter
- The Emperor and the Assassin
- Fearless (2006)
- Fire Dragon
- Five Deadly Venoms
- Five Element Ninjas
- Five Shaolin Masters
- The Flying Dagger
- Flying Guillotine
- Golden Swallow
- The Golden Sword
- The Great Wall
- Green Snake
- Have Sword, Will Travel
- Hero (2002)
- The Heroic Ones
- House of Flying Daggers
- The Invincible Sword
- The Iron Bodyguard
- The Jade Raksha
- Judgement of an Assassin
- Killers Five
- Kung Pow! Enter the Fist.
- The Lady Hermit
- The early parts of Bertolucci's The Last Emperor.
- Legend of the Black Scorpion
- The Long Chase
- The Magic Blade
- The Magic Crane
- Marco Polo
- Masked Avengers
- Moon Warriors
- Mulan (2020), set in ancient China.
- Mulan: Rise of a Warrior, set in ancient China.
- New Dragon Inn
- Once Upon a Time in China
- One-Armed Swordsman
- The Promise (2005)
- Pursuit
- Rampant is set during the Qing Dynasty's control of Joseon-era Korea. The Emperor of Qing is frequently mentioned but never seen, and the protagonist has just returned from living in China.
- Raw Courage
- Red Cliff: set in 208 AD in China, during the period of the end of Eastern Han Dynasty.
- The Rescue (1971)
- Return of the Deadly Blade
- The Secret of the Dirk
- The Silent Swordsman
- The Supreme Swordsman
- The Sword of Swords
- Shadow Whip
- Shanghai Noon (the early parts).
- Shaolin and Wu Tang
- Shaolin Mantis
- Shaolin Temple
- Soul of the Sword
- Swordsman
- Swordswomen Three
- Tai Chi Master
- A Taste Of Cold Steel
- Temple of the Red Lotus
- That Fiery Girl
- Three Kingdoms: Resurrection Of The Dragon
- The Thrilling Sword
- The Thundering Sword
- A Touch of Zen
- Trail of the Broken Blade
- True Legend (2010)
- Vengeful Beauty
- The Wandering Swordsman
- The Warlords
- Warriors of Heaven and Earth
- A Touch of Zen
- Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain
Literature
- Bridge of Birds and its sequels appear in a version where All Myths Are True.
- Pearl Buck:
- The Good Earth
- Peony
- A Deadly Secret
- The Deer and the Cauldron
- Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils
- Ding Hai Fu Sheng Lu
- Dream of the Red Chamber
- The Favorite by Inoue Yasushi is about Yang Guifei.
- The Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, Black Vein Prophecy and The Crimson Tide, are set in the FF-verse equivalent to Ming Dynasty China.
- Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre
- L'Impératrice de la Soie trilogy by José Frèches.
- An Instinct for War (A Sword is Drawn)
- Interesting Times is a parody of Imperial China (with bits of Japan thrown in) set in a Discworld context.
- Journey to the West
- The Judge Dee novels and short stories, though the first is a translation of a Chinese story.
- Guy Gavriel Kay:
- Under Heaven
- River of Stars
- Lady of Ch'iao Kuo: Warrior of the South by Lawrence Yep, from The Royal Diaries series.
- The Legend of the Condor Heroes
- The first half of Moment in Peking
- The Nightingale
- The Princess Wei Yang
- Qiang Jin Jiu
- The Return of the Condor Heroes
- Romance of the Three Kingdoms
- The Smiling, Proud Wanderer
- Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
- The Story of Saiunkoku
- Tian Bao Fu Yao Lu
- Unruly Phoenix Xiaoyao
- Water Margin
- Will of Heaven
- Tribulations of a Chinaman in China by Jules Verne.
Live-Action TV
- The Advisor's Alliance
- And the Winner is Love
- Cinderella Chef
- Dae Jo-yeong
- The Deer and the Cauldron (2014)
- Empress Cheonchu
- Empress Ki
- The Empress of China
- The Eternal Love
- The Four
- General and I
- The Glamorous Imperial Concubine
- Goodbye My Princess
- Go Princess Go
- The Great Emperor in Song Dynasty
- Heavenly Sword and Dragon-Slaying Sabre and The Heaven Sword And Dragon Sabre 2009
- Joy of Life
- Justice Bao
- King's War
- The King's Woman
- Some parts of the first Kung Fu (1972) TV series.
- The Legend of Dugu
- The Legend of Hao Lan
- The Legend of Xiao Chuo
- The Legend of Zhen Huan
- The Longest Day in Chang'an
- Lost Love in Times
- Men with Sword
- Monkey.
- Nirvana in Fire
- Oh! My Emperor
- Palace
- Prince of Lan Ling
- Princess Agents
- Princess Returning Pearl
- Princess Silver
- The Princess Wei Young
- The Qin Empire
- The Rise of Phoenixes
- The Romance of Tiger and Rose
- Royal Tramp
- Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace
- Scarlet Heart
- Singing All Along
- The Song of Glory
- The Story of Minglan
- Story Of Yanxi Palace
- The Three Heroes and Five Gallants
- Three Kingdoms
- Twilight Of A Nation
- Much of Towards The Republic
- The Vigilantes in Masks
- Virtues of Harmony
- The Wolf
- Young Sherlock
Manhua
Theater
- The stage play and later opera, Turandot.
Toys
- Funko Pop! has a DC Comics line of figures called "Imperial Palace", which is made of superheroes from The DCU dressed in medieval Chinese armors.
Video Games
- Conqueror's Blade divides its attention between medieval Europe and Imperial China. Fitting, since its developers, Booming Games, are based in China.
- Dynasty Warriors: Loose adaptation of Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel, which in turn is Historical Fiction Literature depicting events during the end of Eastern Han Dynasty (189-220 AD) and Three Kingdoms period in ancient China (220-280 AD).
- Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom
- Honor of Kings: There are a few modern aspects, but the design of the world is still heavily Imperial China-based. (Not to mention most heroes are figures from Imperial China from varying time periods)
- Jade Empire is set in a role-playing-game Fantasy Counterpart Culture.
- One of the seven main chapters of Live A Live is set during Imperial China, where an elderly martial arts master chooses young three disciples to teach them his techniques.
Visual Novels
Webcomics
- The Art of Monsters is set in a fantastical Tang dynasty - think Journey to the West but focusing on events on a single mountain.
Web Videos
- Season 4 Episode 4 of Escape the Night depicts ancient China as its setting.
Western Animation
- Two episodes of Histeria! are centered around China. Oddly enough, the show's resident Chinese character, Cho-Cho, barely appears in either episode.
- Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat, which is set during the Qing Dynasty.
