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| Upheaval of the Five Barbarians (五胡亂華) | |||||||||||
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 Distribution of theFive Barbarians into China prior to the upheaval. | |||||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||||
| Han-Zhao | Xianbei allies Tuoba inDai Duan tribe in Liaoxi | Cheng-Han | Sima Ying loyalists (307–308) | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||||
| Liu Yuan Liu Xuan Liu Cong Liu Yao Shi Le (after 307) Wang Mi  | Emperor Huai of Jin Emperor Min of Jin Sima Yue Gou Xi Wang Yan Liu Kun Wang Jun Sima Bao Zhang Gui Zhang Shi Tuoba Yilu † Duan Wuwuchen Duan Jilujuan Duan Pidi[1][2][3][4] Luo Shang | Li Xiong Fan Changsheng[5] | Ji Sang † Shi Le (before 307) | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||||
| c. 100,000Xiongnu,Jie,Di,Qiang,Xianbei, Han Chinese and other tribal people | 100,000–200,000 Han Chinese, Xianbei, Qiang, Di andWuhuan | Ba-Di rebels and Han Chinese allies | Han Chinese and non-Han rebels | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | ||||||||
| Upheaval of the Five Barbarians | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 五胡亂華 | ||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 五胡乱华 | ||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | Five Barbarians disorderize China | ||||||||||||
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TheUpheaval of the Five Barbarians also translated as theUprising,Rebellion[6] or the Revolt[7] of the Five Barbarians (simplified Chinese:五胡乱华;traditional Chinese:五胡亂華;lit. 'Five foreign tribes disrupting China'[8]) is a Chinese expression used to refer to a chaotic period of warfare from 304 to 316 during the fall of theWestern Jin dynasty. Overlapping with theWar of the Eight Princes, these conflicts which involved non-Han groups living within China eventually drove the Jin imperial court out of the northern and southwestern China.
The "Five Barbarians" were theXiongnu,Jie,Qiang,Di andXianbei, many of whom had resettled within China during the preceding centuries. Despite the period's name, manyHan Chinese and other tribal people like theWuhuan were also involved, wavering their support between Jin and the separatist regimes. Years of poor administration and civil wars between the ruling princes left the empire open to its disaffected and opportunistic subjects. Ethnic tensions in theGuanzhong region between the Han and the tribes, primarily the Qiang and Di, led to major revolts which resulted in an exodus of refugees intosouthwestern China. Efforts to force them back to Guanzhong were met with resistance and culminated in the rebellion of theBa-Di refugee,Li Te in 301.
In the north, the Five Divisions ofBing province, descendants of theSouthern Xiongnu, took advantage of the Jin prince's infighting to declare independence and establish theHan-Zhao in 304, acclaiming the noble,Liu Yuan as their leader. As anti-Jin revolts spread toHebei andShandong, a formerJie slave,Shi Le, rose to prominence, and after joining Liu Yuan, he would effectively control the eastern part of his empire. The XianbeiDuan tribe inLiaoxi andTuoba tribe inDai were initially important allies of Jin in helping them fight against Han, but later pulled out from the conflict to consolidate control over their territories.
Li Te's sonLi Xiong capturedChengdu and establishedCheng-Han in 304. In 311, Han capturedEmperor Huai of Jin and the ancient capital,Luoyang in an event known as theDisaster of Yongjia. In 316, Jin's hope of restoring imperial authority in the north were crushed when Han defeated and capturedEmperor Min inChang'an. The establishments of Cheng-Han and Han-Zhao in 304 were seen as the start of theSixteen Kingdoms period, and the defeat of Emperor Min led to the formation of the Eastern Jin dynasty byEmperor Yuan inJiankang in 318. For the next 130 years or so, China would be divided between the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Eastern Jin before the eventual dissolution of Jin by theLiu Song dynasty and the unification of the north by theNorthern Wei dynasty.
During the early days of the Western Jin, the imperial Sima family began allowing their princes to assume the roles of military governors, a privilege that was non-existent under the precedingCao Wei dynasty. Following theunification of theThree Kingdoms in 280,Emperor Wu of Jin also issued orders for the demobilization of every province and commandery in the empire, and reduced the military authority of the provincial inspector into a civilian role. Only 100 military officials were stationed in large commanderies, while smaller commaderies only had 50.
The policy of concentrating military power in the hands of the princes was intended to safeguard the dynasty from potential usurpers and keep the power of the gentry clans in check. However, this decision became a contributing factor to theWar of the Eight Princes (291–306); after the death of Emperor Wu, he was succeeded by his eldest son,Emperor Hui of Jin, who wasdevelopmentally disabled. With the emperor a mere figurehead in his own court, the princes instead pitted their armies against one another for real control over the empire.
As the Jin military weakened itself under the princes, many counties and commaderies were left defenceless to rebellions. In the finals years of the Western Jin, tribal subjects collectively known as theFive Barbarians started to dominate northern and western China; they were known as theXiongnu,Jie,Xianbei,Di andQiang.
The migration of the nomadic people into the Chinese interior had been ongoing since the earlyHan dynasty. In 50 CE, after the Xiongnu empire was divided into two, theSouthern Xiongnu became a vassal state for the Han on the northern frontier within theGreat Wall. The chanyu's court was moved toXihe Commandery inBing province while his followers served as auxiliaries in defending the border from nomadic forces such as the Northern Xiongnu andXianbei. However, their relation with the Han remained tense due to the poor living conditions on the frontiers and the Chinese court interfering in their politics. The Southern Xiongnu thus frequently rebelled, eventually exiling their chanyu and dissolving his government in 189, just as the Han was experiencing theirown collapse.[9]
In 216, the warlord,Cao Cao, detained the chanyu,Huchuquan in atYe and reorganized what remained of the Southern Xiongnu into the Five Divisions in centralShanxi. Though the Xiongnu eroded as a unified identity, Bing remained home to a myriad of "hu" tribes. The Five Divisions was soon dominated by theChuge branch, and during theJiaping era (249–254), their leader,Liu Bao unified the divisions, which prompted the Wei-Jin courts to intervene. They were gradually divided back into five, and their nobles including Liu Bao had to send their children as hostages to the Chinese capital,Luoyang.
Through these arrangements, the Five Divisions underwent a significant degree ofsinicization and were even allowed to hold Jin offices, but resentment against the ruling dynasty persisted. As the noble,Liu Xuan, states in theBook of Jin:
“In the past, our ancestors and those of the Han acted like brothers through joy and sorrow. However, since the fall of Han and the rise of Wei and Jin, our titles of chanyus hold no value, and we have not gained a foot of land since. Although we have been bestowed with many noble ranks, our taxablehouseholds are all equally low."
Thehu tribes excluded from the Five Divisions intermingled with those from other ethnic group, a notable example being theTiefu tribe, who descended from the Xiongnu and mixed with theXianbei. TheJie were also among the miscellaneoushu in Bing. Their exact origins is still debated by scholars today, although one of the Jie chieftains,Shi Le, was a descendant of a Southern Xiongnu tribe, the Qiangqu. When a great famine broke out in 303, many of the Jie andhu became displaced. The Chinese provincial inspector, looking to fund his own military, had these tribesmen captured and sold them into slavery, scattering them aroundHebei andShandong.
The term "Qiang" broadly referred to groups of pastoral nomads in the western regions of modern dayGansu andQinghai. Since the Western Han period, many of the Qiang submitted to the Chinese court and were allowed to settle in theGuanzhong region and the watersheds of theWei andJing rivers. There, they practiced agriculture and lived together with Chinese settlers, but faced with oppression from the local administrators, they often instigated large-scale rebellions which adversely affected the Han military and economy. Living close to the Qiang were theDi tribes, who became tributaries as the Han expanded westwards and annexed their land.
Thefall of Han and theThree Kingdoms period further encouraged the immigration of nomadic people to repopulate devastated areas and provide military power and labour. The Guanzhong region in particular became a contested region between warlords and later between the states ofCao Wei andShu Han. In 219, Cao Cao relocated around 50,000 Di from Wudu toTianshui andFufeng commanderies. The Qiang and Di people were numerous in northwestern China, and they fought for Wei or Shu depending on their circumstances. Other tribal people who resided in the northwest included theLushuihu andXiuchu, along with newly-migrated Xianbei tribes such as theTufa andQifu. By the late 3rd century, the tribes made up around half of the population in Guanzhong.
While Wei kept the tribes mostly under control, the northwest descended into chaos under the Western Jin as their governors struggled to keep the support of the tribes. In 270, the Xianbei chieftain,Tufa Shujineng, led amulti-ethnic rebellion against Jin inLiang andQin provinces that lasted until 279, with the rebels briefly taking control over Liang. From 296 to 299, the tribes rebelled again, this time acclaiming the Di chieftain,Qi Wannian as their emperor. Qi Wannian's rebellion was accompanied by famines and plagues so severe that it devastated the Guanzhong and prompted tens of thousands of refugees to move intoHanzhong andSichuan in search of food.[10]
The rebellious tribes of Guanzhong and Bing province raised concern among a few officials within the Jin court. After the unification in 280, the minister Guo Qin (郭欽), advised Emperor Wu to focus on moving the tribal peoples out of the borders. Following Qi Wannian's defeat in 299, another minister,Jiang Tong, submitted an essay titledXi Rong Lun (徙戎論; Discussion on Relocating the Rong Tribe) to the court, also calling for the tribes' repatriation. However, both proposals were rejected.
During the 2nd century, the Xianbei people supplanted the Xiongnu on the northern steppe and, unified under the confederation ofTanshihuai, launched numerous raids on the Han's borders. However, after Tanshihuai's death in 181, the confederation went into an immediate decline due to a succession crisis. Many of the Xianbei tribes seceded and decided to migrate southward with the intention of settling down near or within the Chinese interior.
In the northeast, where theWuhuan people once dominated before their defeat at theBattle of White Wolf Mountain, the XianbeiMurong,Duan andYuwen tribes came to fill in the power vacuum that was left. The Murong was the first of the three to attach themselves to theCentral Plains dynasties by aiding theCao Wei in theircampaign againstGongsun Yuan. They remained affiliated well after the founding of Jin, and despite a war between both sides from 281 to 289, the Murong resubmitted to Jin and their chieftain,Murong Hui, was appointed Commander of the Xianbei. Meanwhile, in 258, another Xianbei tribe, theTuoba, occupied the abandoned city ofShengle north ofShanxi, also becoming a vassal of Wei and Jin.
In the midst of the War of the Eight Princes, the Chief Controller ofYou province,Wang Jun, sought to consolidate his control over his domain. He allied himself with the surrounding Duan, Yuwen and Wuhuan, who provided him with auxiliaries who fought in the campaigns againstSima Ying andSima Yong. The Xianbei were a deciding factor inSima Yue's victory in the civil war, but they also carried out the sacking ofYe in 304 andChang'an in 306, killing thousands of the cities' inhabitants. Their military effectiveness encouraged the Jin to continue employing them in containing the growing threat ofHan-Zhao, with the Tuoba soon joining on the side of Jin as well.
Modern historians and meteorologists believe thatclimate change was an important factor in the migration of nomadic peoples into the Chinese interior, as the weather became too cold and dry in the north for agriculture.Chu Coching stated that there was a cold period from theThree Kingdoms to theNorthern and Southern dynasties, with relevant historical records reporting cases of extreme weather phenomena, such as the freezings of theHuai River in 226 and theBohai Sea in 336. Research conducted in theMu Us Desert also found thatdesertification took place around the steppe between the Han andTang dynasties, making it difficult for cities to survive.
There was a severe decline in population; the Han census in 157 was 56.5 million people and 10.7 million household, but Jin census in 280 was only 16 million people and 2.5 million households. The cold and dry weathers prompted Chinese farmers to move to the warmer southlands and steppe peoples to move into northern China for fertile land. During theTaikang era (280–289), the Jin accepted a series of submissions from people claiming to be "Xiongnu" living outside the border, with the largest group coming in 286, purportedly at 100,000. Natural disasters and famines became common occurrences and were aggravated by the War of the Eight Princes.[11][12]
The people displaced byQi Wannian's rebellion were from six commanderies inGuanzhong and composed of bothHan Chinese and tribal peoples. They initially moved southwards toHanzhong, where oneDi chieftain,Yang Maosou, brought his followers toChouchi and declared semi-autonomy from Jin in 296. Later, the court allowed the refugees to go further south into theBa-Shu region. They were scattered throughoutYi andLiáng provinces, where they became hired labourers for the local populace.
Among the refugees was one of their leaders,Li Te. He and his family wereBa-Di people, an ethnic group whose ancestors wereCong people from Ba who moved north and mingled with the Di. In 300, Li Te and his brothers joined the Inspector of Yi in his rebellion against Jin, but later betrayed and ousted him from the provincial capital,Chengdu, sacking it in the process. Li Te soon submitted back to Jin due to the arrival of the army led by the new inspector,Luo Shang but retained a significant amount of influence in the region as an acting representative for the refugee families.
In 301, the court in Luoyang ordered the refugees to return to Guanzhong, but they were reluctant to comply as they believed that it was still unstable and they did not have enough supplies to guarantee a safe journey. Li Te extended their stay by negotiating with Luo Shang, but the latter soon became frustrated with the delay and tried to force a move. As conflict appeared inevitable, many of the refugees flocked to Li Te to defend themselves. In winter 301, Luo Shang sent his troops to attack them, beginning a three-year-long rebellion led by Li Te and his family.
Li Te had much success against the Jin forces as he defeated them in several battles. In 303, his forces reached the vicinity of Chengdu where he declared a new reign era, hinting at a new regime. However, before he could realize it, he was abruptly killed in an ambush. Leadership fell to his brother,Li Liu, and after he died at the end of the year, it fell to Li Te's son,Li Xiong. In 304, Li Xiong drove Luo Shang out of Chengdu and established the state ofCheng (renamed Han in 338, thus the name Cheng-Han).
Li Xiong initially declared himself King before promoting himself to Emperor in 306. Between Cheng's inception and the fall of Western Jin, Cheng took a slow approach to expansion, only acting when there was a neighbouring refugee revolt. Their most significant gain came in 314, when rebels inHanzhong surrendered the region to Cheng. Its existence was threatened in 309 when Luo Shang launched an offensive to support rebelling Cheng administrators. Despite losing key commanderies early on, Cheng was eventually successful at recovering them and repelling Jin by 311.
The wars with Li Te and Cheng created more refugees, this time from Yi province moving east into Jing province. Jin forces in the south were unable to concentrate their resources on the southwest due to rebellions inHubei andHunan. Between 303 and 304, aMan official,Zhang Chang led a revolt that spread acrossJing,Jiang,Xu,Yang andYu provinces consisting of refugees and people evading the draft to fight against Li Te's rebellion. From 311 to 315,Du Tao, aHan Chinese, led a refugee uprising against Jin in Jing and Xiang (湘州; in modernHunan) provinces. Unlike Li Te's rebellion, the revolts in Hubei and Hunan were put down by Jin in the end.
In September 304, taking advantage of the Jin civil war, the Five Divisions called uponLiu Yuan, the son of Liu Bao and a military officer under Sima Ying, to lead them in rebellion. Liu Yuan was serving inYe at the time, and Sima Ying was facing an onslaught fromWang Jun and hisXianbei auxiliaries. After agreeing to join the plot, Liu Yuan convinced his prince to send him back to Bing to gather the Five Divisions in repelling Wang Jun. Once he reachedLishi, however, he instead acclaimed himself as the Grand Chanyu and rallied around 50,000 soldiers.[full citation needed][13]
Later that year, Liu Yuan proclaimed himself the King of Han, declaring his intention to restore theHan dynasty. Official history, though disputed by some modern Chinese historians, states that Liu Yuan was the grandson of the penultimate chanyu of the Southern Xiongnu,Yufuluo, and in his bid for legitimacy, he laid claim to the Han throne as his ancestors had married Han princesses through the practice ofHeqin. He later elevated his title to Emperor of Han in 308, imitating the ascension ofEmperor Gaozu of Han. (the Han was renamed to Zhao in 319, hence the name "Han-Zhao").[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]
The Inspector of Bing,Sima Teng allied with the Tuoba tribe in the north to fight against the Han, but though the Tuoba cavalry overwhelmed the Han in battle, they were unable to land a decisive victory and snuff out the rebellion. In early 305, Liu Yuan inflicted Sima Teng a great defeat at Daling (大陵; northeast of present-dayWenshui County,Shanxi), after which Han forces rapidly expanded into parts ofTaiyuan andXihe commanderies. However, their conquest was temporarily held back for the next few years as another famine broke out in Bing at the end of the year.
In the meantime, the Western Jin had to manage with more popular revolts in northeastern China. In 305,Gongshi Fan rebelled inHebei and in 306,Liu Bogen, rebelled inShandong. The two rebellions were swiftly dealt with by late-306, but the Jin was unable to completely wipe out their remnants, allowing them to recover and return as even bigger threats. Many of these rebel leaders wereHan Chinese, but the most influential of them would prove to beShi Le, aJie chieftain who was previously sold into slavery during the great famine in Bing province of 303.
After Gongshi Fan's defeat, his subordinates,Ji Sang and Shi Le, fled to the pastures of Shandong where they gathered followers, many of who were horse shepherds, and raided the surrounding counties. Claiming to avenge the popular Prince of Chengdu,Sima Ying who had recently died, their forces grew to such a size that in 307, they sacked the city ofYe and left it to burn for ten days. Around 10,000 people were killed including the city's commander. However, after they left to invadeYan province, they suffered a string of defeats. Ji Sang was killed, but Shi Le survived and joined Han.
Liu Bogen's subordinate,Wang Mi, also survived his superior's defeat and fled to Shandong, where he formed a bandit group. His forces grew immensely, and in 307, he invadedQing andXu provinces, ravaging the commanderies and killing many of the local officials. In 308, his rebellion spilled over toYan andYu provinces while his forces swelled to the tens of thousands. Soon, his troops managed to breach intoXuchang and empty the city's arsenal before laying siege on the Jin capital,Luoyang. However, the siege ended in failure as he was unable to break through the capital's defense. After his defeat, Wang Mi brought his remaining troops over to Han.
Under Liu Yuan, Shi Le and Wang Mi were elevated to powerful commanders, forming the core of the Han military. Wang Mi was a friend of Liu Yuan and was thus immediately entrusted with important military affairs. Meanwhile, Shi Le, around the time of joining Han, helped convinced severalhu tribes aroundShanxi into joining the state; for his deeds, he was given full command over the armies east of theTaihang Mountains.[23]
The princely civil wars had concluded by the start of 307, but Jin’s new paramount authority,Sima Yue, inherited a difficult situation, as the imperial army was now exhausted while many of the cities, including Luoyang, were poorly defended. Internally, he was also desperate to secure his position and avoid the same fate as his predecessors in light of the abledEmperor Huai of Jin's ascension in early 307. Yue was wary of the new emperor and left Luoyang with the imperial army shortly after his enthronement, but during his return in 309, he had Huai’s advisors killed and replaced the veteran palace guards with soldiers from his own fief. While consolidating his power, these acts deepened the enmity between Yue and the emperor.
In addition to constant warfare, the famine in northern China also worsened due to natural disasters. In 309, a great drought was reported to have sunk theYellow,Yangzi andHan rivers to the point that one could wade their way across them. The following year,locust swarms affected six northern provinces, including the capital region. The war and famines resulted in refugee groups like theQihuo (乞活; "Begging Life") emerging, either to flee south or to defend themselves against the chaos. Some of them huddled in fortresses, with their leaders becoming known aswuzhus (塢主; "fortress masters"). TheBook of Jin described the famine as follows:[12]
By the Yongjia period [307–12] trouble and disturbances were widespread. From Yongzhou eastward many suffered from hunger and poverty. People were sold [as slaves]. Vagrants became countless…there was a bad plague of locusts…Virulent disease accompanied the famine. The people were murdered by bandits. The rivers were filled with floating corpses; bleached bones covered the fields…There was much cannibalism. Famine and pestilence came hand in hand.
In 308, the Han conquered Pingyang Commandery, where they moved their capital closer to Luoyang. While Shi Le and Wang Mi wreaked havoc over theNorth China Plain, Liu Yuan's sonLiu Cong attacked Luoyang twice in 309, but without success. The attacks, famine and his personal animosity with the emperor induced Sima Yue to bring the imperial army to campaign against the Han forces out on the field. In 310, he left the capital with the 40,000 men to Xiang County (項縣; in present-dayShenqiu County,Henan), leaving behind Emperor Huai despite his opposition. Yue had also fallen out with his own generals, especiallyGou Xi, and for this reason, he was reluctant to go north and campaign in Han's domain, fearing that Gou Xi and the others might cut off his rear.[13][full citation needed]
After Liu Yuan died in late 310, his successor,Liu He was overthrown by Liu Cong just a week into his reign. After taking the throne, Liu Cong made another attempt to capture Luoyang. Tension between Sima Yue and Emperor Huai reached its breaking point in 311 when Yue discovered the emperor's conspiracy with Gou Xi to depose him. Yue wanted to attack Gou Xi, but was so overwhelmed with stress that he grew ill and soon died. Following Yue's death, his followers were unsure on how to proceed, so the imperial army, led byWang Yan, decided to hold Yue's funeral at his fief in Donghai first. However, Shi Le pursued and defeated the funeral procession at theBattle of Ningping, where reportedly more than 100,000 soldiers perished including Wang Yan himself.[24][full citation needed]
The defeat of the Jin imperial army finally left Luoyang open to capture. Upon entering the city in July 311, the Han armies led byWang Mi,Huyan Yan andLiu Yao engaged in a massacre, razing the city and causing more than 30,000 deaths. This event in Chinese history was known as theDisaster of Yongjia, after theera name of Emperor Huai; the emperor himself was captured, while his crown prince and clansmen who were in the capital at the time were killed. Gou Xi was also defeated and captured by Shi Le atMengcheng County. Just a few months later, Han forces led byLiu Can capturedChang'an, briefly placing the two ancient capitals under Han control.[24][full citation needed]
Despite the loss of the emperor and the capital, the Western Jin would survive for another five more years. In 312, a group of Jin generals managed to recaptureChang’an, where they then acclaimed the 12-year-oldEmperor Min of Jin (Emperor Huai's nephew) as the new emperor in 313. Elsewhere, Jin governors also refused to surrender and continued to resist Han. Although Luoyang was at hand, the Han court opted to remain inPingyang, as the former Jin capital was still surrounded by enemies and had been razed byLiu Yao.
Being only a minor upon his ascension, Emperor Min was mostly a figurehead for his closest generals, only retaining his ability to legitimately hand out appointments throughout the empire. Not long after recapturing Chang'an, these generals fought each other in a brief but bloody power struggle, with Emperor Min eventually falling into the hands of the pair,Suo Chen andQu Yun. Even then, the two men's authority was restricted to Chang'an and its surroundings, as they did not have the capacity to exert their rule over the rest ofGuanzhong, let alone outside of it. The Jin administrators in Guanzhong were unenthused about supporting the new government and often hesitant to send out their forces to aid it. Emperor Min had to rely on the Inspector ofQin province,Sima Bao and the Inspector ofLiang province,Zhang Gui (later his son,Zhang Shi) in the west to provide him with reinforcements.
Along with the administrators in Guanzhong, theQiang,Di and other tribes were also left to their own devices and asserted their power over the region. While some of the tribes welcomed and sided with the Han regime, there were also those who remained loyal to Jin and helped in the restoration. Others remained neutral during the conflict and formed independent domains, only submitting to Han-Zhao after the fall of the Western Jin. The two most notable examples were the Di,Pu Hong, inLüeyang commandery and the Qiang,Yao Yizhong, inFufeng commandery.
Since joining Han,Shi Le had full control over his own forces and was active in the northeast, attracting thehu people in Hebei and Shandong to his cause. His influence was amplified when, after theDisaster of Yongjia, he assassinatedWang Mi at a banquet and absorbed his army. Liu Cong, fearing that Shi Le would rebel, was powerless to punish him and could only appease him to prevent escalation. Shi Le virtually controlled the Han's eastern domain, with his only challenge coming fromCao Ni inShandong, who even then had to constantly waiver his allegiance. Early in the upheaval, Shi Le’s army operated as a roving band that attacked and pillaged counties but never capturing them. After adisastrous campaign to attackJiankang in 312, he took the advice of his advisor,Zhang Bin, to establish and cultivate a base inXiangguo.
The strongest Jin forces in the northeast were the Inspector ofYou province,Wang Jun and the Inspector ofBing province,Liu Kun, who were backed by theXianbeiDuan andTuoba tribes respectively. The Duan continued their alliance with Wang Jun after the War of the Eight Princes and played a crucial role in hindering Shi Le's forces. In addition to the Duan, Wang Jun was also supported by theWuhuan tribes. The Tuoba first assisted Jin against Han forces in 305, but their involvement intensified during the reign ofTuoba Yilu, who made a formal alliance with Liu Kun in 309. For their efforts, the Duan receivedLiaoxi while the Tuoba receivedDai Commandery as their fiefs.
However, both Wang Jun and Liu Kun were heavily reliant on their tribal allies. The two governors had trouble maintaining population in their territories, as initially, they would attract thousands of refugees, but just as many people would leave them to join the safer and better-managed Xianbei fiefdoms. Thus, their populations declined as the war and famines began to take their tolls. When Liu Kun lost his capital to Han in 312, he was forced to flee to the Tuoba, who helped him reclaim the city. Wang Jun and Liu Kun were also distrustful of and refused to collaborate with each other, stemming from Liu Kun's role in persuading the court to award Dai Commandery, a commandery under Wang Jun, to the Tuoba.
In the end, Shi Le was able to exploit Wang Jun and Liu Kun's weaknesses. During asiege on Xiangguo in 312, Shi Le's forces captured a cousin of the Duan chieftain, opening up negotiations between the two sides. Convinced by Shi Le's sincerity, the Duan agreed to sever their ties with Wang Jun, and as Shi Le capitalized on his victory, the Wuhuan also defected to Han. Deprived of his tribal forces, Shi Le captured Wang Jun at the latter's own capital inJicheng and executed him in 314. In 316, the Tuoba fell into civil war and left Liu Kun without his key ally to fend off Shi Le. Soon afterwards, Liu Kun suffered adecisive defeat to Shi Le, prompting his subordinates to surrender the province to Han.
Liu Yao, having lost Chang'an under his watch, was entrusted byLiu Cong to recapture the city. Shortly after Emperor Min ascended the throne in 313, Liu Yao and the other Han generals immediately began efforts to defeat him. Emperor Min's generals were able to inflict the Han forces some defeats but ultimately failed at halting their advances. In autumn 316, Liu Yao finally laid siege on Chang'an. Suo Chen and Qu Yun mounted a last-ditch defence, but by winter, the food supply within the city had exhausted. Most of the city's inhabitants had either fled or perished, and with no signs of reinforcements, Emperor Min surrendered to Han on 11 December 316.
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While Han enjoyed military success, it was also internally unstable. Due to conflict between Liu Cong and his own ministers, the court suffered from bloody infighting with Liu Cong executing many key officials. After he died in 318, his successorLiu Can and their family were exterminated in a coup in by the powerfulconsort kin,Jin Zhun.Liu Yao and Shi Le joined forces to defeat Jin Zhun, during which Liu Yao was acclaimed as the new emperor. However, after the rebellion, Shi Le finally declared his independence in 319. Liu Yao relocated the capital toChang'an and renamed the state to(Former) Zhao, followed by Shi Le founding his own state of(Later) Zhao in Xiangguo. This led to a decade-long confrontation that would end in Han-Zhao's demise and the Later Zhao asserting dominance over most of northern China.
The founding ofHan-Zhao andCheng-Han in 304 is often seen as the beginning of theSixteen Kingdoms period, and the Later Zhao is also considered as one of the sixteen. As Jin lost ground in the north, the Zhang clan inLiang province and theMurong tribe inLiaodong became effectively independent. Their natural defenses and stable governance made them popular areas for refugees, with the Murong notably employing Han Chinese officials into their administration. The Zhang clan's regime is known as theFormer Liang, but for most of its existence, they remained as a vassal of Jin. The Murong founded theFormer Yan in 338 though would only declare independence from Jin in 352. As the period progressed, more of the Sixteen Kingdoms would emerge.
Other regimes that sprang up from the upheaval but are not considered as part of the Sixteen Kingdoms were theDi-ledChouchi, theTuoba-ledDai, theDuan andYuwen states inLiaoxi, and theTiefu tribe around theOrdos Plateau.
Liu Cong hadEmperor Huai andEmperor Min killed in 313 and 318 respectively. Both emperors suffered similar fates; they were forced to serve as Liu Cong's servants before being executed. Following Emperor Min's death,Sima Bao made a claim to the throne but died before he could realize it, and his forces were subsequently crushed by Liu Yao in 320. InHebei, there were still pockets of Jin resistance after Wang Jun and Liu Kun's defeats, the strongest being a branch of the Duan that remained loyal to Jin inJicheng, but by 321, they were all defeated by the Later Zhao. The Later Zhao also conqueredShandong fromCao Ni in 323.
After theEastern Wu fell in 280, the gentry clans inJiangnan went into a decline as imperial authority was shifted back toLuoyang. In 305, they attempted to breakaway by backing the rebel general,Chen Min in his takeover of the region. However, dissatisfied by his rule, they later revolted and killed him, quickly resubmitting to Jin in 307. Following Chen Min's defeat,Sima Yue stationed the Prince of Langya,Sima Rui atJianye (later Jiankang) to govern the region, and with the help of the cousins,Wang Dun andWang Dao, Rui was able to win the support of the gentry clans.
As the upheaval unfolded, Jiankang emerged as a centre of authority in southern China. Safe from the chaos in the north, many northern officials flocked to serve under Sima Rui, and after Emperor Min's capture, the gentry clans backed him to take the throne. The Jiankang regime was uninterested in helping Emperor Min reclaim northern China, or were genuinely too threatened by the refugee uprisings inHubei andHunan to avert their resources. When the general,Zu Ti volunteered to lead a northern expedition, Rui permitted it but provided him with very meager supplies and no weapons, armors or soldiers. With Emperor Min's death in 318, Sima Rui declared himself emperor and found theEastern Jin dynasty, formally shifting the Jin court to the south.
The collapse of the Western Jin had long-lasting effects. Just 24 years after the Western Jin dynasty ended theThree Kingdoms period in 280, China was once again in a state of division. The Sixteen Kingdoms ushered northern China into an age of constant warfare as well as political and economic collapse. The period ended in 439 with the unification of the north by theNorthern Wei, completing the transition into theNorthern and Southern dynasties period, but the full unification of China would only be achieved by theSui dynasty in 589.
In 1907, the archaeologist,Aurel Stein discovered five letters written inSogdian (an ancient Eastern Iranian language) sometime after the disaster known as the "Ancient Letters" in an abandoned watchtower nearDunhuang. One letter in the collection, written by the Sogdian, Nanai-vandak, addressed to his people back home inSamarkand informing them about the upheaval. He claimed that every single one of the diaspora Sogdians and Indians in Luoyang had died of starvation, and the emperor had fled the capital as the city and palaces were burnt. He added thatYecheng and Luoyang were no more while alluding to Jin’s efforts to recapture Chang’an as the conflict ended in disaster for the Sogdian diaspora in China.[25][26][27][28]
While the era was one of military catastrophe, it was also one of deep cultural interaction. The tribes introduced new methods of government, while also encouraging introduced faiths such asBuddhism. Meanwhile, the southward exodus of the cultured Jin elite, who then spread across the southern provinces including modern-dayFujian andGuangdong, further integrated the areas south of the Yangtze River into the Chinese cultural sphere.
The chaos and devastation of the north led to a mass migration of Han Chinese to the areas south of the Huai River, where conditions were relatively stable. The southward migration of the Jin nobility is referred to in Chinese asyī guān nán dù (衣冠南渡,lit. "garments and headdresses moving south"). Many of those who fled south were of prominent families, who had the means to escape; among these prominent northern families were the Xie clan and the Wang clan, whose prominent members includedXie An andWang Dao. Wang Dao, in particular, was instrumental in supportingSima Rui to proclaim the Eastern Jin dynasty atJiankang and serving as his chancellor. The Eastern Jin, dependent on established southern nobility as well as exiled northern nobility for its survival, became a relatively weak dynasty dominated by regional nobles who served as governors; nonetheless it would survive for another century as a southern regime.
The "Eight Great Surnames" were eight noble families who migrated from northern China toFujian in southern China due to the uprising of the five barbarians when the Eastern Jin was founded, the Hu, He, Qiu, Dan, Zheng, Huang, Chen and Lin surnames.[29][30][31][32][33][34][35]
The different waves of migration such as the fourth century and Tang dynasty northern Han Chinese migrants to the south are claimed as the origin of various Chen families in Fuzhou, Fujian.[36]Mass migrations led to southern China's population growth, economic, agricultural and cultural development as it stayed peaceful unlike the north.[37][38][39][40][41][42][43] Yellow registers were used to record the original southern Han Chinese population before the migration and white registers were used to record the massive influx of commoner and aristocratic northern Han Chinese migrants by the Eastern Jin dynasty government.[44]
After the establishment of theNorthern Wei in northern China and a return to stability, a small reverse migration of southern defectors to northern China took place. In Luoyang a Wu quarter was set up for southerners moving north.[45][46][47][48][49] Han Chinese male nobles and royals of the southern dynasties who fled north to defect married over half of Northern WeiXianbeiTuoba princesses.[50] Southern Chinese from the southern capital ofJiankang (Nanjing) were deported to the northern capital ofChang'an by theSui dynasty after reuniting China.[51]
Han Chinese refugees from the five barbarian uprising also migrated into the Korean peninsula[52] and into theMurongFormer Yan state.[53][54][55][56] Eastern Jin maintained nominal suzerainty over the Murong state until 353 as the Murong accepted titles from them.[57] An official in the Murong state, Dong Shou defected to Goguryeo.[58][59][60][61][62][63] Han Chinese refugees migrated west into Han Chinese controlledFormer Liang.[64][65][66]
The descendants of northern Han Chinese aristocrats who fled the five barbarians uprising to move south with the Eastern Jin and the local southern Han Chinese aristocrats already in southern China combined to form the Chinese Southern aristocracy in the Tang dynasty, in competition with the northeastern aristocracy and the mixed Han-Xianbei northwestern aristocracy of the formerNorthern Zhou who founded theSui dynasty andTang dynasty.[67][68] The southern aristocracy only intermarried with each other and viewed themselves as preserving Han culture.[69][70]
Southern Chinese Daoism developed as a result of a merger of the religious beliefs of the local southern Han Chinese aristocrats and northern Han Chinese emigres fleeing the five barbarians.[71] The Han aristocrats of both south and north were highly insular and closed against outsiders and descended from the same families who originally hailed from northern China.[72][73]
Ming dynasty writer and historianZhu Guozhen (1558-1632) remarked on how the Ming dynasty managed to successfully controlthe Mongols who surrendered to the Ming and were relocated into China to serve in military matters, unlike the Eastern Han dynasty and the Western Jin dynasty whose unsuccessful management of the surrendered barbarians led to rebellion:
Late during the Eastern Han (25-220 C.E.), surrendering barbarians were settled in the hinterlands [of China]. In time, they learned to study and grew conversant with [matters of the] past and present. As a result, during the Jin dynasty (265-419), there occurred the Revolt of the Five Barbarian [Tribes](late in the third and early in the fourth centuries C.E.). During our dynasty, surrendering barbarians were relocated to the hinterlands in great numbers. Because [the court] was generous in its stipends and awards, [the Mongols are content to] merely amuse themselves with archery and hunting. The brave among them gain recognition through [service in] the military. [They] serve as assistant regional commanders and regional vice commanders. Although they do not hold the seals of command, they may serve as senior officers. Some among those who receive investiture in the nobility of merit may occasionally hold the seals of command. However [because the court] places heavy emphasis on maintaining centralized control of the armies, [the Mongols] do not dare commit misdeeds. As a consequence, during theTumu Incident, while there was unrest everywhere, it still did not amount to a major revolt. Additionally, [the Mongols] were relocated toGuangdong andGuangxi onmilitary campaign. Thus, for more than 200 years, we have had peace throughout the realm. The dynastic forefathers' policies are the product of successive generations of guarding against the unexpected. [Our policies] are more thorough than those of the Han. The foundations of merit surpass the Sima family (founders of the Eastern Jin) ten thousand fold. In a word, one cannot generalize [about the policies towards surrendering barbarians].[74]
