The final years of the Han Dynasty witnessed the emergence of powerful warlords who consolidated into three major powers at the formal dissolution of the Han Dynasty in 220 CE: Cao Wei in the north, Eastern Wu in the southeast, and Shu Han in the southwest. Shortly after vanquishing Shu, Cao Wei was overthrown by the Jin Dynasty in 266. The Jin ruled a unified China until the 310s but survived as the Eastern Jin until 420. China was thereafter divided between northern and southern dynasties until its reunification by the Sui dynasty in 589.
Rise of the Warlords
In 189 CE, after the massacre of the eunuchs, the warlord Dong Zhuo seized control of the government and replaced the young Emperor Shao with his younger brother, Emperor Xian. He soon gained a reputation for being a debauched tyrant, and in 190, Yuan Shao organized a coalition of senior Han officials and generals to challenge Dong Zhuo’s hold on Luoyang. Many of these men had distinguished themselves in the suppression of the Yellow Turban Uprising in 184.
In 191, General Sun Jian, leading the vanguard of Yuan Shu (Yuan Shao’s half-brother), marched on the capital with a small force. In response, Dong Zhuo set fire to Luoyang and evacuated to Chang’an. Sun Jian occupied the deserted Luoyang but quickly withdrew his troops when the coalition began falling apart. Dong Zhuo was killed in 192 by his subordinate Lü Bu, but Chang’an and the emperor remained under the control of Dong’s followers.
In late 191, Sun Jian was killed in an ambush. His teenage son Sun Ce took over his army and proceeded to conquer the Jiangdong region to the southeast of the Yangtze River. Sun Ce continued to serve Yuan Shu until 197, when the latter launched an ill-fated attempt to make himself the emperor of a new dynasty. Although Sun Ce would be assassinated after a private dispute in 200, his 18-year-old brother Sun Quan inherited a powerful state.
Red Cliffs
In 196 CE, Emperor Xian and several followers escaped and sought to return to Luoyang. On the way, they were intercepted by the warlord Cao Cao, who promised to protect the emperor. Cao Cao soon took the emperor to his power base at Xuchang and used his presence to legitimize his conquests. In 200, he defeated Yuan Shao at the Battle of Guandu, enabling him to become master of northern China.
In 208, Cao Cao was named chancellor and was ready to strike south of the Yangtze. He crossed into Jing Province and accepted the submission of Liu Cong, the second son of the late governor Liu Biao. Liu Biao’s elder son, Liu Qi, was determined to resist Cao Cao’s efforts to conquer his native land and joined forces with Liu Bei, who claimed descent from the founding Han emperor Liu Bang. For many years, Liu Bei and his followers experienced mixed fortunes. He supported Yuan Shao but had to flee south to Jing Province, where he became a key advisor to Liu Biao.
Following a plan devised by his strategist Zhuge Liang, Liu entered into an alliance with Sun Quan. Despite being heavily outnumbered, the allied commander Zhou Yu won a dramatic victory at the Battle of Red Cliffs by setting Cao Cao’s fleet on fire. Following Cao Cao’s withdrawal north of the Yangtze, Liu Bei quickly seized control of Jing Province south of the Yangtze River.
Three Kingdoms
Despite their joint victory over Cao Cao, the Sun-Liu alliance remained shaky as Sun Quan also laid claim to Jing Province. In 211, Liu Bei invaded Yi Province to the west to obtain a secure base for himself and conquered the region in 214. The following year, Cao Cao gained control of Hanzhong and threatened Liu Bei’s territory from the north. In response, Liu Bei attacked Hanzhong in 217 and emerged victorious after a two-year campaign. In 219, Liu Bei became king of Hanzhong, the same title Liu Bang held before establishing the Han Dynasty.
Following Cao Cao’s death in 220, his son Cao Pi formally assumed imperial power as Emperor Wen of Wei, marking the end of the Han Dynasty. Liu Bei followed by proclaiming himself Emperor of (Shu) Han in 221. He died the following year and was succeeded by his teenage son, Liu Shan. Sun Quan became King of Wu as a vassal of Cao Wei but later assumed his own imperial title in 229.
Over the following decades, Shu launched 11 northern expeditions against Wei, all of which were unsuccessful. Zhuge Liang, the Shu chancellor, led the first five, but Wei strategist Sima Yi foiled his plans. Following Zhuge’s death in 234, Shu general Jiang Wei took command and continued the northern expeditions.
The Jin Dynasty
In 249 CE, shortly before his death, Sima Yi instigated a coup enabling his family to assume effective control of the Cao Wei state. In 263, Sima Yi’s son, Sima Zhao, commanded the Wei forces in a campaign that resulted in the conquest of Shu. He assumed the title of King of Jin, but two years later, he died and was succeeded by his son Sima Yan, who forced the puppet emperor Cao Huan to abdicate and proclaimed the Jin Dynasty.
During the reign of Sima Yan, who was posthumously known as Emperor Wu, Jin forces reunified the country by eliminating Eastern Wu in 280, bringing an end to the Three Kingdoms period. However, this reunification would prove short-lived. Emperor Wu was succeeded by his son, Emperor Hui, in 290. The new emperor was mentally impaired, and by 291, the empire was torn apart by a vicious civil war among members of the imperial clan. This conflict was known as the War of the Eight Princes.
Although the civil war ended in 306 CE with the victory of Sima Yue, Prince of Donghai, and the accession of Emperor Huai in 307, the conflict severely weakened the dynasty and encouraged attacks by the Wu Hu or Five Barbarians in the north and west. In 311, the Xiongnu state of Han-Zhao occupied Luoyang and captured the emperor, who was executed in 313. His nephew and successor, Emperor Min, moved the government to Chang’an but was forced to surrender in 316.
The Eastern Jin
For the next century, northwestern China fragmented into a series of short-lived states known as the Sixteen Kingdoms. The majority of these were ruled by Wu Hu peoples, though several were also founded by Han peoples. In the meantime, the Jin refugees from the north fled to Jiankang (present-day Nanjing), where in 318 CE, Sima Rui proclaimed himself Emperor Yuan, marking the beginning of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
The Eastern Jin would survive for another century and made numerous attempts to reconquer territories lost to the Sixteen Kingdoms. During the middle of the 4th century CE, Jin general Huan Wen achieved notable but temporary successes during his campaigns in the north. In 376, northern China was united by the Former Qin, which invaded the Eastern Jin in an attempt to conquer the whole of China. The invasion was defeated by an outnumbered Jin army at the Battle of Fei River in 383, ensuring the survival of the Eastern Jin and the collapse of Former Qin.
During the early years of the 5th century CE, Jin general Liu Yu led a series of successful campaigns against the Sixteen Kingdoms, which saw the dynasty reconquer almost the entirety of China south of the Yellow River. In the process, Liu concentrated power in his own hands and overthrew the Jin Dynasty in 420 CE to establish the Liu Song Dynasty, the first of five southern dynasties.
The Northern Dynasties
The collapse of the Former Qin in the north saw the emergence of the Northern Wei state in 386, ruled by the Tuoba clan from the Xianbei people. In 423 CE, Tuoba Tao came to the throne as Emperor Taiwu with ambitions to unify northern China. These ambitions were realized in 439 when Northern Wei conquered Northern Liang, the last of the Sixteen Kingdoms.
In 450, Taiwu invaded Liu Song, but his reign was cut short two years later when he was assassinated by an eunuch. While the early Northern Wei emperors sought to maintain a distinct Xianbei identity, at the end of the 5th century CE, Emperor Xiaowen introduced reforms to assimilate the Xianbei elites into Han Chinese culture. In 493, the emperor moved the capital from Datong in Shanxi province to the ancient capital of Luoyang. With the exception of Taiwu, who persecuted Buddhists, the Northern Wei emperors promoted Buddhism in China and patronized the famous Longmen Grottoes near Luoyang.
The Northern Wei began to fall apart in the 520s, and by 535, the empire was divided between the Eastern and Western Wei, ruled officially by members of the Tuoba family but under the effective control of the Gao and Yuwen clans, respectively. In 550 CE, Gao Yang overthrew the Eastern Wei and established the Northern Qi Dynasty. In 557, the Western Wei emperor yielded the throne to Yuwen Jue, who became Emperor Xiaomin of Northern Zhou. In 577, Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou conquered the Northern Qi, but the Northern Zhou was overthrown by the general Yang Jian, who founded the Sui Dynasty in 581.
The Southern Dynasties
In the south, Emperor Wu of Liu Song died in 422 CE, two years into his reign. His death resulted in a civil war, which was won by his third son, Emperor Wen, whose 29-year reign was marked by relative prosperity and stability. However, he lacked the military talents of his father, and his campaigns against Northern Wei were largely unsuccessful, leading to his deposition in 453. The dynasty lasted another quarter century until 479 CE when the nine-year-old Emperor Shun of Liu Song relinquished his throne to the general Xiao Daocheng, who established the Southern Qi dynasty.
Seven successive emperors led the Southern Qi, which lasted 24 years until the general Xiao Yan overthrew the teenage Emperor He in 502 and founded the Liang Dynasty as Emperor Wu, whose reign of almost half a century is best known for his patronage of Buddhism. The end of the reign was marred by a rebellion by the general Hou Jing, who occupied Jiankang in 548 and exercised power in Emperor Wu’s name until the latter’s death the following year. The rebellion was defeated in 551 by the Liang generals Wang Sengbian and Chen Baxian.
In 557, Chen Baxian overthrew the Liang and established the Chen Dynasty as Emperor Wu. The last of the southern dynasties was unable to regain control of its northern and western territories, which had fallen to the Northern Qi and Northern Zhou respectively, and in 589, it was conquered by the Sui, marking the end of the Northern and Southern Dynasties period.
