Emperor of China Emperor of China The Emperor or Huangdi () was the secular imperial title of the Chinese sovereign reigning between the founding of the Qin dynasty that unified China in 221 BC and the abdication of Puyi in 1912 AD following the Xinhai Revolution and the establishment of the Republic of China, although it was later restored twice in two failed revolutions in 1916 and 1917. The holy title of the Chinese emperor was the "Son of Heaven" (), a title much older than the "Emperor of China" which predates the Zhou dynasty and recognized as the ruler of ""All under
Emperor of China emperor was to be referred to simply as "Huángdì Bìxià" (皇帝陛下, "Majesty|His/Her Majesty the Emperor") or "Dāngjīn Huángshàng" (當今皇上/当今皇上, "The Present Emperor Above") when spoken about in the third person. Under the Qing, the emperor was usually styled "His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of the Great Qing Dynasty, Son of Heaven, Lord of Ten Thousand Years" although this varied considerably. Generally, emperors also ruled with an era name (年號/年号). Since the adoption of era name by Emperor Wu of Han and up until the Ming dynasty, the sovereign conventionally changed the era name semi-regularly during his or her reign. During