In the north all authority had passed into the hands of the generalissimo and “protector of the dynasty,” Cao Cao; in AD 220 the last puppet emperor of the Han offi cially ceded the throne to Cao Cao’s son, who thereby became the legitimate heir of the empire and the fi rst ruler of the Wei dynasty. Soon afterward, two competing military leaders proclaimed them- selves 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), fi lled with bloody warfare and diplomatic intrigue, has ever since been glorifi ed in Chinese historical fi ction as an age of chivalry and individual heroism.
The role of Wu was extremely impor- tant: 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 inhab- ited mainly by non-Chinese tribal peoples. The rise of Jianye (renamed Jiankang during Jin times) as a great administrative and cultural centre on the lower Yangtze paved the way for future developments: after the north was lost to barbarian invaders (311), it was to become the capital of Chinese successor states and an important locus of Chinese cul- ture for more than 250 years.
The Xi (Western) Jin (aD 265–316/317)
In addition to restoring order, The Xi Jin renewed contacts with the oasis king- doms of Central Asia and the Indianized states of the far south (Funan and Champa), 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 remi- niscent 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 cen- tral government, decentralized military control of the provinces, famine, large- scale banditry, and messianic peasant movements.
Sanguo (Three Kingdoms; aD 220–280)
In fact, even Wei, the strongest of the three Sanguo kingdoms, hardly represented any real political power. The great socio- economic changes that had started in the Dong (Eastern) Han period had trans- formed 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 pri- vate armies of serfs and clients and even increased their power. These conditions were to remain characteristic of medieval China. The Han system of recruiting offi- cials 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 over- threw 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.
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 exer- cised by ever-changing groups and juntas of aristocratic clans. The so-called Six Dynasties were politically and mili- tarily 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 ear- lier kingdom of Wu, 222–280, is counted as the sixth dynasty.) Their annihilation (in 589) was postponed only by the inter- nal 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 home- land 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.