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Chinese Monarchs

Chinese sovereign is the ruler of a particular period in ancient China. Several titles and naming schemes have been used throughout history.

Emperor title

Of the San Huang Wu Di, the three first of them were called 皇 (huang, "god-king") and the five last were called 帝 (di, "sage-king"), which can translate as either emperor, demigod human, or a superhuman. This title may have been used in the Shang and Xia dynasties, though oracle bones were found from the Shang Dynasty showing the title 王 (wáng, "king").

King title

The king or wang (王 wáng) was the Chinese head of state from the Zhou Dynasty to the Qin Dynasty. After that, wang (sometimes translated "prince") became merely the head of the hierarchy of noble ranks. The title was commonly given to members of the Emperor's family and could be inherited. A poem from about 2500 years ago said "普天之下,莫非王土.率土之賓,莫非王臣."which roughly translate to "under the sky, nothing isn't the king's land; the people who lead the lands, no one isn't the king's magistrates." It may have been used in the Xia and Shang dynasties, where oracle bones were found with the title wang.

Emperor of China title

The characters Huang (皇 huáng "god-king") and Di (帝 dì "sage king") had been used separately and never consecutively (see Three August Ones and Five Emperors). The character was reserved for mythological rulers until the first emperor of Qin (Qin Shi Huang), who created a new title Huangdi (皇帝 in pinyin: huáng dì) for himself in 221 BCE, which is commonly translated as Emperor in English. This title continued in use until the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911.