S5 Chinese History Practice Paper | Qin-Han Unification, Sui-Tang Institutions, Song-Yuan Economy, Ming-Qing Rule And Modern China (with Answers)

S5 Chinese History Practice Paper | Qin-Han Unification, Sui-Tang Institutions, Song-Yuan Economy, Ming-Qing Rule and Modern China (with answers)

2026-11-15

Chinese History – Secondary 5

S5 Chinese History practice paper: Qin-Han unification, Sui-Tang institutions, Song-Yuan economy, Ming-Qing rule and modern China. 6 questions, 100 marks, 60 minutes.

Paper details　S5 Chinese History Practice Paper | Qin-Han Unification, Sui-Tang Institutions, Song-Yuan Economy, Ming-Qing Rule and Modern China (with answers)

Question 1: Warring States and Qin-Han unification

Answer in point form; show the year arithmetic where required.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
1	Name all seven major states of the Warring States period.	Answer: Qi, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao, Wei and Qin – seven states in total; Qin, holding the Guanzhong plain, finally unified China.
2	The First Emperor unified China in 221 BC and the Qin dynasty fell in 206 BC. Find the length of the Qin dynasty in years.	Answer: 221 – 206 = 15, so the Qin lasted 15 years.
3	Qin used the commandery-county system; the early Han adopted the commandery-principality system. State one political effect of each.	Answer: Under the commandery-county system the centre appointed local officials, concentrating power with the emperor; the commandery-principality system enfeoffed imperial kinsmen to secure Liu rule but let vassal kings grow too strong, ending in the Revolt of the Seven States.
4	State two concrete measures by which Emperor Wu of Han made Confucianism the state ideology.	Answer: He established erudites for the Five Classics with official students and recruited officials through Confucian learning; he dismissed rival schools from official teaching and recruitment.

Question 2: The Sui-Tang golden age and its institutions

Give full institutional names and concrete effects.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
5	The Sui rose in 581 and fell in 618; the Tang rose in 618 and fell in 907. Find the length of each dynasty in years.	Answer: Sui 37 years; Tang 289 years.
6	In the Tang three-department system, what did the Secretariat, the Chancellery and the Department of State Affairs each do?	Answer: The Secretariat drafted edicts; the Chancellery reviewed and could return them; the Department of State Affairs executed policy through the six ministries of personnel, revenue, rites, war, justice and works.
7	The civil service examination began under the Sui and matured under the Tang. State one effect on social mobility in the Tang.	Answer: Men of humble birth could enter office by examination, breaking the aristocratic monopoly on posts and making study and degrees a ladder of advancement.
8	The An Lushan Rebellion broke out in 755 and was put down in 763. Find its length and state two effects on the Tang.	Answer: 8 years. First, the equal-field system and household registers collapsed and conscription gave way to professional armies; second, military governors became entrenched, draining central finance and authority.

Question 3: Song-Yuan economy and technology

Support answers with facts and figures.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
9	The Northern Song began in 960 and the Southern Song ended in 1279. Find the total Song span and, given that the Northern Song ended in 1127, the Southern Song length.	Answer: 319 years in total; the Southern Song lasted 152 years.
10	Name three technologies that matured and spread widely in the Song, with one use each.	Answer: Bi Sheng movable type for mass printing; the magnetic compass for ocean navigation; gunpowder for firearms and siege warfare.
11	What was the Yuan provincial system and what was its later influence?	Answer: The Secretariat governed the metropolitan region directly while branch secretariats ruled the provinces with military, civil and fiscal powers; Ming and Qing kept the arrangement and it became the basis of the Chinese province.
12	The Song saw a commercial revolution. Give three concrete signs of it.	Answer: Sichuan paper money was among the world earliest; maritime trade offices regulated overseas commerce; the ward-market wall broke down and night and rural markets appeared, freeing the time and space of urban trade.

Question 4: Ming-Qing absolutism and foreign relations

Dates and institutions must be accurate.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
13	The Ming dynasty rose in 1368 and fell in 1644. Find its length in years.	Answer: 1644 – 1368 = 276 years.
14	Zheng He sailed from 1405 to 1433 on seven voyages. Find the span and the average interval between voyages.	Answer: 28 years; 28 / 7 = 4 years per voyage.
15	The Opium War ran from 1840 to 1842. Find its length and give two terms of the Treaty of Nanjing.	Answer: 2 years; the treaty ceded Hong Kong Island, imposed an indemnity of 21 million silver dollars and opened five ports.
16	How did the Ming and Qing each strengthen monarchical absolutism? Give one measure for each.	Answer: In 1380 the Ming founder abolished the chancellorship, split its powers among the six ministries and set up the Embroidered Uniform Guard; the Qing Yongzheng emperor created the Grand Council, leaving the cabinet nominal while the emperor decided state affairs himself.

Question 5: Late Qing reform and revolution

Give years and show the arithmetic.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
17	The Self-Strengthening Movement ran from about 1861 to 1895. Find its span and give one reason for its failure.	Answer: 34 years; it copied technology without institutional reform, official-supervised enterprises were inefficient, and the defeat by Japan in 1895 exposed it.
18	The Hundred Days Reform ran from 11 June to 21 September 1898. How many days did it last?	Answer: 103 days, hence the name Hundred Days Reform.
19	The Wuchang Uprising broke out on 10 October 1911 and the Qing emperor abdicated on 12 February 1912. Find the number of days between them.	Answer: 125 days, ending Qing rule and opening the Republican era.
20	The Boxer Protocol indemnity was 450 million taels repayable over 39 years. Find the average annual principal repayment in ten thousand taels, to 2 decimal places.	Answer: 45000 / 39 = 1153.85 ten thousand taels a year, before interest.

Question 6: The Republic and the war against Japan

Event years must be accurate.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
21	The Republic of China was founded in 1912 and its government moved to Taiwan in 1949. Find the number of years on the mainland.	Answer: 1949 – 1912 = 37 years.
22	In which year did the May Fourth Movement take place? Give one of its demands.	Answer: 1919; it demanded resistance to foreign powers and the removal of traitors at home, and championed democracy and science.
23	The Mukden Incident was in 1931, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937 and victory in 1945. Find the length of full-scale resistance.	Answer: 8 years of full-scale war; counted from 1931 it is 14 years.
24	The civil war ran from 1946 to 1949. Find its length and name the key event of 1949.	Answer: 3 years; on 1 October 1949 the People Republic of China was founded and the Nationalist government moved to Taiwan.

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