The four dynasties of Zhou, Qin, Han, and Tang in the long history of ancient China not only created enormous material wealth, but also witnessed spectacular cultural prosperity. As glorious pinnacles of China’s cultural attainments, these four epochs contributed greatly to the development of human civilisation in general, and their economic, political, cultural, and social legacies can still be felt in China today. The system of rites and music of the Western Zhou dynasty constitutes the core of traditional Chinese thought and culture; The various systems established by the Qin dynasty after it unified ancient China form the foundation of China’s political civilisation for the next two thousand years; The opening of the Silk Road in the Han dynasty has made China known to the outside world as an advanced civilisation for the first time; The golden era of the Tang dynasty has been and will always be remembered by the Chinese people as a source of national pride and inspiration to move forward. These four dynasties represent the apogee of ancient Chinese civilisation and have left to posterity a large number of historical relics of tremendous cultural value, archaeological sites holding the keys to questions that have baffled later generations for thousands of years, and an intellectual legacy that one feels obliged to pass on to future generations.