Middle AgesGovernment & Law Ming capital moves to Beijing 1420Notable The Yongle Emperor completes the Forbidden City and makes Beijing the Ming capital. The palace serves as the seat of Chinese emperors until 1912. ▲ MattersSaveShareTrace roots Longest chain: The Big Bang → First stars ignite → Supernovae seed heavy elements → The Sun forms → Earth forms → First oceans → First life → Photosynthesis evolves → Great Oxidation Event → Complex cells (eukaryotes) → Multicellular life → First animals → Cambrian Explosion → First vertebrates → Jawed fish → Fish walk onto land → The amniotic egg → The Great Dying → Dinosaurs appear → Asteroid ends the dinosaurs → Early primates → Apes split from monkeys → Human line splits from chimpanzees → Walking upright → First stone tools → Genus Homo appears → Homo erectus → Control of fire → First fired clay figures → First pottery → Copper smelting → Bronze Age begins → Shang dynasty → Zhou dynasty and the Mandate of Heaven → Spring and Autumn period → Legalism (Shang Yang) → Qin unifies China → Han dynasty → Paper → Woodblock printing → Paper money → Kublai Khan's paper currency → Red Turban Rebellion → Ming dynasty → Ming capital moves to Beijing Community notesLoading notes… Learn more ranked by votesDocumentbritannica.comForbidden City (Britannica) ↗Editor's pickBookGeremie R. BarméThe Forbidden City ↗Editor's pickVideoSearch on YouTubeForbidden City history Yongle ↗Editor's pick