That doesn't seem very fair. Shh! What makes a dynasty a dynasty is that it's ruled by a king, or as the Chinese know him, an emperor, who comes from a continuous ruling family. As long as that family produces emperors, and they are always dudes... No, they aren't. First off, there were several empress dowagers who wielded tremendous power throughout Chinese history, and there was one very important full-fledged empress, Empress Wu, who ruled China for more than 20 years and founded her own freaking dynasty. And those emperors keep ruling, the dynasty gets to be a dynasty. So the dynasty can end for two reasons.