The individual dynasties, however, lasted about 250 years each, like the others listed. China also got taken over by the Mongols in the mid-1200s, (retaken by Han Chinese a century later), and then by the Manchurians in the mid-1600s. Chinese civilization, not just the government, got taken over by European rationalism/modernism in 1940s with the Communist Revolution. (It's ironic that the Chinese government talks complains about "Western influences", when their whole governmental ideology is based on European ideas.)