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Chinese History - The Sixteen Kingdoms 五胡十六國 (300~430)

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The Sixteen Kingdoms
emperors and rulers

period before (Jin Dynasty)
-- Southern Dynasties
-- Northern Wei
next period (Sui)
Map and Geography

Southern and Northern Dynasties overview


Approximate geographical and relative chronological distribution:
The colors represent ethnicity: Di 氐, Jie 羯, Qiang 羌, Xianbei 鮮卑, Xiongnu 匈奴, Chinese (black)
SouthSichuanShanxi/HebeiShaanxiGansu
東晉
E Jin 		成漢
Cheng-Han 		前趙 F Zhao 前涼 F Liang
後趙 L Zhao [代 Dai]
前燕 F Yan 前秦 F Qin
[西燕
W Yan] 		後燕
L Yan 		後秦 L Qin 後涼 L Liang [仇池 Chouchi]
南燕
S Yan 		北燕
N Yan 		西秦
W Qin 		夏
Xia 		南涼
S Liang 		西涼
W Liang 		北涼
N Liang

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f Dai could be revived as Wei 魏.


The last twenty years of the Sixteen Kingdoms period are very turbulent. In the east the state of Later Yan fell apart into two small kingdoms (Northern Yan 北燕, Southern Yan 南燕) under the attack of (Northern) Wei 北魏. Helian Bobo 赫連勃勃, ruler of Xia 夏, was able to conquer Chang'an and to end the Later Qin and the small state state of Western Qin 西秦 at the upper course of the Yellow River. Later Liang 後涼 crumbled into three different states (Western Liang 西涼, Northern Liang 北涼 and Southern Liang 南涼), Northern Liang being the strongest. But the mightiest state was Wei that should reunite northern China until the late 440es. While Later Liang had administered the west as Great Protectorate of the Western Regions (Xiyu daduhu 西域大都護), Western Liang installed a Colonel of the Western Barbarians (Xiyi xiaoweifu 西夷校尉府).
During these two centuries of division, each state tried to represent a whole administration area. The centers of regions (zhou 州) were often installed hundreds of kms far their actual historical center, like the regions Xuzhou 徐州, Yanzhou 兖州,Yuzhou 豫州, Jingzhou 荊州, Binghou 並州 and Jizhou 冀州 within the territory of Later Qin (modern Shaanxi, Henan) that were actually located in modern Jiangsu, Shanxi and Hubei provinces.

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