Zhou 周
1046 BCE - 256 BCE
Kings - 37
The longest reigning of all the dynasties (over 900 years), Zhou was a fountainhead of classical Chinese civilization and much of the Chinese ethos is the product of this time. The feudal system it created would later backfire and result in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, which would give China some of its most important philosophical and military ideas
Qin 秦
221 BCE - 206 BCE
Emperors - 2
Though it lasted little over a decade, it can be credited with doing the "dirty work" of the reunification of Chinese society under a single empire, an idea which would have far greater longevity.
Han 漢
206 BCE - 9 CE, 23 CE - 220 CE
Emperors - 30
After the collapse of Qin, China very nearly fell right back into the Warring States Period, but the strong Han state prevented this from occurring. While Qin unified the country for the first time, Han can be credited with many great cultural achievements.
Sui 隋
581 CE - 618 CE
Emperors - 3
Sui has often been compared in temperament to the Qin dynasty in the shortness of its rule and the ruthlessness of its grand achievements. The Grand Canal, a colossal engineering feat, was a product of this era, as well as the rapid spread of Buddhism through the country. It reunified the country after a very long period of disunity.
Tang 唐
618 - 907
Emperors - 23
Tang is to Sui as Han was to Qin. It stabilized the country and provided many great cultural achievements. It conquered the Gansu Corridor and the Tarim Basin, establishing a major trading empire along the silk road and reaping great profit from it.
Song 宋
960 - 1279
Emperors - 18
Some consider Song to have been the zenith of Chinese cultural and technological achievements. An explosion of productivity and technology on the scale of the Industrial Revolution combined with a flowering of creativity, the arts and literature and a rediscovery and rekindling of classical Confucianism has led many to call this period the "Chinese Renaissance".
Yuan 元
1279 - 1368
Emperors - 11 (From Kublai Khan), 16 (Retroactive application to earlier Mongol Khans), 18 (Northern Yuan)
The Mongols under Kublai Khan completed the conquest of China in 1279 and established the Yuan Dynasty. This sinified Mongol state, while it destroyed much of what Song built, helped to pollinate that tech across Eurasia and exposed China to more outside influence.
Ming 明
1368 - 1644
Emperors - 16, 23 (Southern Ming)
Ming was a reinvigoration and refinement of Chinese artistic and cultural aspects, as well as period which represented perhaps the height of China's military power. The state could field millions of well trained men in its armies and could set sail ships which made contemporary European ships look like toys in comparison. Sadly, it was also a time when China began to look increasingly inwards and shun the rest of the world to its later detriment.
Qing 清
1644-1912, 1917
Emperors - 12
The period around the end of Ming was a cataclysm for China on the scale of the Fall of Rome in the west. Millions of people were killed during the period of the rebel Shun Dynasty of Li Zicheng, the psychotic rule of Zhang Xianzhong in Sichuan (from which the region never quite recovered) and the invasion of the Manchu from the north. However, out of these ashes the Qing Dynasty would help to rebuild the shattered country. Patronage of the arts and promoters of Chinese culture as well as further refinement of Chinese literature made this period very interesting.
These were the major dynasties. Due to the limit, I decided not to include the bronze age Xia and Shang dynasties, or the short lived Xin, Jin, and Shun dynasties, or empires which, while note-worthy, never actually unified all of China.
