Sanguo (Three Kingdoms; 220–280 ce)

By the end of the 2nd century ce the Han empire had virtually ceased to exist. The repression of the Daoist rebellions of the Yellow Turbans and related sects marked the beginning of a period of unbridled warlordism and political chaos, from which three independent centers of political power emerged. In the north all authority had passed into the hands of the generalissimo and “protector of the dynasty,” Cao Cao; in 220 ce the last puppet emperor of the Han officially ceded the throne to Cao Cao’s son, who thereby became the legitimate heir of the empire and the first ruler of the Wei dynasty. Soon afterward, two competing military leaders proclaimed themselves emperor, one in the far interior (Shu-Han dynasty, in the present-day Sichuan province) and one in the south, behind the formidable barrier of the Yangtze River (the empire of Wu, with its capital at Jianye, present-day Nanjing). The short and turbulent period of these “Three Kingdoms” (Sanguo), filled with bloody warfare and diplomatic intrigue, has ever since been glorified in Chinese historical fiction as an age of chivalry and individual heroism.

In fact, even Wei, the strongest of the three, hardly represented any real political power. The great socioeconomic changes that had started in the Dong (Eastern) Han period had transformed the structure of society to such an extent that all attempts to reestablish the centralized bureaucratic state—the ideal of the Qin and Han dynasties—were doomed to failure. While central authority declined, the great families—aristocratic clans of large landowners—survived the decades of civil war on their fortified estates under the protection of their private armies of serfs and clients and even increased their power. These conditions were to remain characteristic of medieval China. The Han system of recruiting officials on the basis of talent was replaced by a network of personal relations and patronage. The hierarchy of state officials and government institutions was never abolished, but it became monopolized by a few aristocratic clans who filled the highest offices with their own members and the minor posts with their clients.

Wei succeeded in conquering Shu-Han in 263/264, but two years later a general of the dominant Sima clan overthrew the house of Wei (265/266) and in 265 founded the first of two dynasties under the name Jin: the Xi (Western) Jin. Wu, however, was able to maintain itself until 280, when it was overrun by the Jin armies.

The role of Wu was extremely important: it marked the beginning of the progressive Sinicization of the region south of the Yangtze River, which before that time had been a frontier area inhabited mainly by non-Chinese tribal peoples. The rise of Jianye (renamed Jiankang during Jin times) as a great administrative and cultural center on the lower Yangtze paved the way for future developments: after the north was lost to outside invaders (311), it was to become the capital of Chinese successor states and an important locus of Chinese culture for more than 250 years.

The Xi (Western) Jin (265–316/317 ce)

The Xi Jin was a period of relative order and prosperity, a short interlude between the turbulent age of the Sanguo and the devastating foreign invasions. The empire had been nominally reunited (280 ce), and for a short time the central government attempted important fiscal and political reforms, mainly intended to curb the great families that threatened the ruler’s authority. Contacts with the oasis kingdoms of Central Asia and the Indianized states of the far south (Funan and Champa) were resumed, and in 285 the Jin court even sent an envoy to distant Fergana in Central Asia to confer the title of king on its ruler—a grand imperial gesture reminiscent of the great days of Han. But this ghost of the Han empire disappeared almost as soon as it had been evoked. Within two decades the Jin disintegrated through the struggles of rival clans. There followed an internecine war between the various Sima princes, collapse of the central government, decentralized military control of the provinces, famine, large-scale banditry, and messianic rural movements.

The Dong (Eastern) Jin (317–420) and later dynasties in the south (420–589)

During the entire medieval period the lower Yangtze region—the former territory of Wu—remained the stronghold of a series of “legitimate” Chinese dynasties, with Jiankang as their capital. In 317 a member of the Jin imperial family had set up a refugee regime at Jiankang, consisting mainly of members of the exiled northern aristocracy. From the beginning the Jin court was completely at the mercy of the great landowning families. Government in the Chinese south became a kind of oligarchy exercised by ever-changing groups and juntas of aristocratic clans. The so-called Six Dynasties were politically and militarily weak and constantly plagued by internal feuds and revolts. (The six were actually five—Dong Jin, 317–420; Liu-Song, 420–479; Nan [Southern] Qi, 479–502; Nan Liang, 502–557; and Nan Chen, 557–589—and all but Dong Jin are also known as Nanchao [Southern Dynasties] in Chinese history; the earlier kingdom of Wu, 222–280, is counted as the sixth dynasty.) Their annihilation (in 589) was postponed only by the internal division of the north and by the protection afforded by the Yangtze. To the very end, their opposition to the north remained alive, but occasional attempts to reconquer the ancient homeland were doomed to failure. The final reunification of China was to start from the northern plains, not from Jiankang.

Although politically insecure, these dynasties were characterized by cultural brilliance: in literature, art, philosophy, and religion, they constituted one of the most creative periods in Chinese history. They reached their highest flowering under the long and relatively stable reign of the great protector of Buddhism, Wudi (reigned 502–549), the first emperor of the Nan Liang dynasty.