Sixteen kingdoms
The Sixteen Kingdoms (in traditional Chinese, 十六國; in simplified Chinese, 十六国; pinyin, Shíliù Guó; Wade-Giles, Shih 2liu4 Kuo2), or less commonly called the Sixteen States, which would be the most accurate translation of the Chinese name, were a numerous set of small sovereign States in the territory of China and in the adjoining areas from 304 to 439 after the withdrawal of the Jin dynasty to southern China and before the establishment of the Northern Dynasties. Originally, the term was first introduced by Cui Hong in the lost historical record Shiliuguo Chunqiu (Annals of the Spring and Autumn of the Sixteen Kingdoms), and restricted to the sixteen kingdoms of this era, which were as follows: Hanchao (漢趙, 304-329), Later Chao (後趙, 319-351), Ch'ênghan (成漢, 303-349), Earlier Liang (前涼, 320-376), Later Liang (後涼, 386-403), Northern Liang (北涼, 397-439), Western Liang (西涼, 400-421), Southern Liang (南涼, 397-414), Earlier Yen (前燕, 337-370), Yen Later (後燕, 384-407), Northern Yen (北燕, 407-436), Southern Yen (南燕, 398-410), Earlier Ch'in (前秦, 350-394), Ch' Later;in (後秦, 384-417), Western Ch'in (西秦, 385-400/409-431), and Huhsia (胡夏, 407-431). The term has been expanded to include all sovereign states from 304 to 439.
Virtually all the rulers of these kingdoms were part of one of the nomadic or semi-nomadic ethnic groups of the north, called hú (胡) by the Chinese, who used to distinguish five main ethnic groups, the "five h" (五胡 wǔ hú).
These rulers of foreign origin, however, assumed the Chinese models of government and administration, and all of them claimed their status as emperors (皇帝 huángdì) or kings (王 wáng) Chinese style. For their part, the Han Chinese founded the four states of Northern Yan, Western Liang, Earlier Liang, and the State of Wei. Six previous Liang Chinese rulers remained in titular capacity under the rule of the Jin dynasty. The Northern Wei dynasty is not considered one of the Sixteen Kingdoms even though it was founded during the period.
History
Background
From the late Eastern Han Dynasty to the early Western Jin Dynasty, a large number of non-Han peoples living on China's northern periphery settled in northern China. Some of these migrants, such as the Xiongnu and the Xianbei, had been nomadic pastoralists from the northern steppes. Others, such as the Di and the Qiang, were farmers and herdsmen from the western Sichuan mountains of southwestern China. As emigrants, they lived among the Han ethnic group and were sinified to varying degrees. Many worked as farm laborers. Some reached official positions in the court and the army. They were also discriminated against and maintained their tribal and clan affiliations.
The Han dynasty's defeat of the Xiongnu confederation in the Han-Xiongnu War by the Han general Dou Xian led the Han dynasty to deport the Southern Xiongnu along with their Chanyu to northern China. In the year 167 AD. C., Duan Jiong carried out an anti-Qiang campaign and massacred the Qiang populations, in addition to settling them outside the border in northern China. Cao Cao had a policy of settling Xiongnu nomads outside the border near Taiyuan in modern Shanxi Province, where they would be less likely to revolt. The Xiongnu abandoned nomadism and the elite were educated in the Chinese-Confucian literate culture, but they retained their own identity and resented the discrimination they received.
The War of the Eight Princes (291-306) during the reign of the second Jin ruler Emperor Hui severely divided and weakened imperial authority. Hundreds of thousands of people died and millions were uprooted by internecine strife. Popular rebellions against heavy taxes and repression broke out across the country. The numerous tribal groups in the north and northwest, which had been heavily conscripted into the army, took advantage of the chaos to seize power. In the Sichuan region, Li Xiong, a Di chief, led a successful rebellion and founded the kingdom. Cheng Han in 304. Thus began the creation of independent kingdoms in China as Jin authority crumbled. Most of these kingdoms were founded by non-Chinese tribal leaders who adopted Chinese kingdom names.
Diplomatic status
During the Sixteen Kingdoms, the Eastern Jin dynasty in the south continued to insist on its status as overlord and refused to treat either kingdom as equal. For example, when the Later Zhao sent a diplomatic mission south to establish equal relations, the Eastern Jin burned the embassy gifts and expelled the envoy. Some of the sixteen kingdoms, such as Old Yan and Old Liang, also agreed to nominally recognize the Eastern Jin as their rulers.
Fall of the Western Jin to the Ancient Zhao
Jin military princes and governors often recruited non-Chinese tribes into their armies in suppressing rebellions and wars among themselves. Also in 304, Liu Yuan, a Xiongnu chieftain, who had been fighting in the Jin civil war on the side of Prince Sima Ying, returned home to Shanxi, where he reorganized the five tribes of the Xiongnu and declared independence as his successor. of the Han Dynasty. His regime, later renamed the Zhao, is designated by historians as the Han Zhao or Ancient Zhao.
After Liu Yuan's death in 310, his son Liu Cong killed his older brother Liu He and claimed the throne. Liu Cong captured the Jin capital Luoyang and Emperor Hui in 311. In 316, Liu Cong's uncle Liu Yao took Chang'an (present-day Xi'an) and Emperor Min, ending the Western Jin Dynasty. Sima Rui, a Jin prince who had moved south, continued the dynasty as Eastern Jin from Jiankang (present-day Nanjing). The collapse of Jin authority in the North led other leaders to declare their independence. In 313, Zhang Gui, the ethnic Chinese governor of Liangzhou founded Old Liang in present-day Gansu. In 315, Tuoba Yilu, a Xianbei chief, founded the Dai in present-day Inner Mongolia.
Shi Le and the later Zhao
After Liu Cong's death, the kingdom was divided between Liu Yao and the general Shi Le. Shi Le was of Jie ethnicity who had worked as a farm laborer before joining Liu Yuan's rebellion and becoming a powerful general in Hebei. In 319, he founded a rival Zhao kingdom, known as the Later Zhao, and in 328 he conquered the ancient Zhao of Liu Yao. Shi Le instituted a dual system of government that imposed separate rules for Chinese and non-Chinese, and gained control of much of northern China. After his death, his sons became involved in a fratricidal succession struggle and the kingdom ended in the year 350 with the ethnic Chinese general Ran Min, who seized the throne and founded Ran Wei. Ran Min favored the Han Chinese and massacred thousands of Jie. He was defeated and killed in 352 by the Murong Xianbei of Liaodong.
In 337, Murong Huang founded the Old Yan in Liaodong, which by 356 had spread to much of Hebei, Henan, and Shandong. For a time, the ancient Yan vied for supremacy in North China with the ancient Qin.
Old Qin and the Brief Unification of North China
Old Qin was founded in 351 by Fu Jian (317-355), a Di general, who had served under the later Zhao and surrendered to the Jin before declaring independence in Shaanxi. Upon his death in 355, the kingdom briefly passed into the hands of his son Fu Sheng, before his nephew Fu Jian (337-385) took control of leadership. Under the rule of the young Fu Jian, who was led by Wang Meng, an ethnic Chinese advisor, the Old Qin grew rapidly stronger. From 370 to 76, the Old Qin extinguished the Old Yan, Dai, and Old Liang to unite all of North China. Fu Jian also captured Sichuan from the Eastern Jin and wanted to conquer the rest of southern China. Wang Meng opposed this move, citing the need for the Old Qin to consolidate control over the various ethnic groups in northern China. But the Qiang chief Yao Chang and the Xianbei general Murong Chui supported the idea. In 383, after Wang Meng's death, Fu Jian launched a massive invasion of southern China, but was defeated at the Battle of Feishui by the Eastern Jin in present-day Anhui.
Fragmentation after the Battle of Feishui
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After the Battle of Feishui, Old Qin power quickly fell apart as various regimes in the North broke away. In the year 384, Murong Chui founded the Later Yan in Hebei. Other Murong royals founded the Western Yan in Shanxi. Yao Chang founded the Later Qin in eastern Gansu. Fu Jian was killed by Yao Chang, but the Old Qin survived by moving from Shaanxi to Gansu and then Qinghai. In 385, Qifu Guoren, a former Xianbei vassal under Fu Jian, founded Western Qin. In 386, Lü Guang, an Old Qin Di general, founded the Later Liang in western Gansu. Tuoba Gui revived the Dai as Northern Wei. In 388, Zhai Liao, a leader of the Dingling ethnic group in Henan, founded the Zhai Wei, which straddled the Later Yan, Western Yan, and Eastern Jin. Up to seven kingdoms coexisted for nine years.
The Later Qin, which wiped out the Early Qin in 394, the Western Qin in 400, and the Later Liang in 403, extended their control over much of Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia. But in 407, Helian Bobo, a Xiongnu chief, rebelled and founded the Xia in northern Shaanxi, and the Western Qin re-emerged in southern Shaanxi. In 416, the Eastern Jin, under the command of the general Liu Yu, launched a northern expedition that captured Luoyang and Chang'an and extinguished the Later Qin. The Eastern Jin were unable to hold these cities, as Liu Yu returned south to take the Jin throne. The Xia kingdom quickly took over Chang'an.
Later Liang is divided into Northern, Southern and Western Liang
In the Hexi Corridor of western Gansu, the Later Liang split into the Northern Liang and Southern Liang in 397. The Southern Liang was founded by Tufa Wugu, a Xianbei, at Ledu, Qinghai. The Northern Liang was founded by an ethnic Chinese, Duan Ye at Zhangye, Gansu, with the support of Juqu Mengxun, a Xiongnu, who later took control of the kingdom in 401. In 405, Li Gao, a Chinese commander in Dunhuang, broke away from the Northern Liang and founded the short-lived Western Liang. The Western Liang was reabsorbed into the Northern Liang in 421. The descendants of Li Gao would found the Tang Dynasty in the 7th century. The Southern Liang was conquered by the Western Qin in 414, and the Northern Liang lasted until 439, when it surrendered to the Northern Wei.
Later Yan divided into Northern Yan and Southern Yan
The Later Yan conquered the Zhai Wei in 392 and the Western Yan in 394, but lost a series of engagements against the Northern Wei. In 397, the Northern Wei captured Hebei and split the Later Yan in two. Murong Bao moved the capital of the Later Yan north to Liaoning, but Murong De refused to move north and founded the Southern Yan in Henan and Shandong. The Southern Yan were extinguished by the Eastern Jin in 410. The Later Yan lasted until 407 when the general Feng Ba killed Emperor Murong Xi and installed Gao Yun. Gao Yun, a descendant of Goguryeo royalty who was adopted into the Murong court, is considered the last emperor of the late Yan or the founding emperor of the Northern Yan. In 409 he was assassinated by Feng Ba, a Han Chinese assimilated into the Xianbei culture, who seized control of the Northern Yan.
Eastern Jin efforts to retake the North
During its century-long rule of southern China, the Eastern Jin Dynasty, though beset by local rebellions and insurrections, made several attempts to reconquer the North, and managed to make a few raids, but were ultimately unsuccessful. In 313, Sima Rui, the Yuan emperor gave Zu Ti 1,000 men and 3,000 bolts of cloth for an expedition to the north. Despite his meager resources, Zu Ti managed to recapture a large swath of Henan south of the Yellow River and repeatedly defeated Later Zhao's Shi Le forces. The Eastern Jin emperors were wary of generals who gained power and prestige through successful expeditions to the north and who threatened the throne. The Yuan emperor did not entrust Zu Ti with command of a much larger expeditionary force in 321. A disappointed Zu Ti died of illness. The expeditionary force was called back to Jiankang to put down an insurrection, and Shi Le retook Henan.
In 347, the Jin general Huan Wen invaded Sichuan and wiped out the Cheng Han kingdom. He then launched successive expeditions against the northern kingdoms, briefly recapturing Chang'an from the Old Qin in 354 and Luoyang of the Qiang chief in 356. In 369, he led a large force across the Yellow River into Hebei, but was defeated by the ancient Yan. In 383, the Eastern Jin recaptured Henan south of the Yellow River after driving back the Old Qin at the Battle of Feishui in 383, but lost that territory once the northern kingdoms strengthened.
Huan Wen had claims to power and deposed Emperor Fei in favor of Emperor Jianwen in 371. His son Huan Xuan briefly seized the throne from Emperor An in a palace coup in 403, but was defeated by General Liu Yu.
Liu Yu also used expeditions to the north to increase his power. In 409-10, he led the Jin forces in the Battle of Linqu, defeating and destroying the Southern Yan in Shandong. In 416, he took advantage of the death of the Later Qin ruler, invaded Henan and captured Luoyang, and then moved towards Shaanxi and took Chang'an. The last Later Qin ruler, Yao Hong, surrendered and was sent to Jiankang and executed. With Later Qin destroyed, several minor northwestern states, Western Qin, Northern Liang, and Western Liang, nominally submitted to Eastern Jin authority. But Liu Yu withdrew back to Jiankang to plan his takeover of the Jin throne, and Chang'an was taken over by Xia forces. In 420, Liu Yu forced Emperor Gong to abdicate and declared himself emperor of the Liu Song Dynasty. In 423, he planned to launch an expedition against the Northern Wei, but died of illness. The Liu Song dynasty ruled southern China until 479.
Northern Wei and the reunification of northern China
The ancestral home of the Tuoba Xianbei was the Greater Khingan mountain range of Inner Mongolia. In the year 258, the clan migrated south to the Yin Mountains and spread into the Ordos Loop region. In 315, the chief Tuoba Yilu was recognized as a prince of Dai by the Jin emperor. In 338, Tuoba Shiyijian formally declared independence from Dai and built the capital at Shengle (present-day Horinger County, Hohhot). In 376, the Old Qin attacked Shengle and drove the Tuoba to the northern steppes; Tuoba Shiyijian was killed by his son.
In 386, Tuoba Shiyijian's grandson Tuoba Gui revived the kingdom, renaming it Wei; it is known by historians as Northern Wei. From the vicinity of Hohhot, Tuoba Gui expanded south, capturing Shanxi and Hebei from ancient Yan and Henan from the Liu Song dynasty. In 398, he moved the capital to Pingcheng (present-day Datong) and declared himself Emperor Daowu. In 423, Tuoba Gui's grandson Tuoba Tao ascended the throne as Emperor Taiwu and began the quest for the unification of the North. Under his leadership, the Northern Wei subdued the northern Rouran nomads and began the conquest of Shaanxi, Ningxia, and Gansu. In 427, he captured the Xia capital Tongwancheng in present-day Jingbian County, Shaanxi.
The Xia under Helian Ding moved into Pingliang, Gansu and conquered Western Qin at Jincheng (present-day Lanzhou) in 431. Helian Ding sought an alliance with the Liu Song dynasty, but was driven west by Northern Wei. Helian Ding wanted to invade Northern Liang, but was captured in a raid by the Tuyuhun nomads and executed by the Northern Wei. In 436, the Tuoba Tao, as Emperor Taiwu, led an expedition against the Northern Yan. Feng Hong, Feng Ba's younger brother, fled to Goguryeo, where he was killed. The last Northern Liang ruler, Juqu Mujian, surrendered in 439, completing the Northern Wei's unification of North China and marking the end of the Sixteen Kingdoms period. The Tuobas were eventually Sinicized, changing their name to Yuan, and held northern China until the 550s.
Chinese history then entered the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, in which parallel series of dynasties in the North and South coexisted until the Sui Dynasty unified the country in 589.