In the previous article, we talked about the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty, and then the Five Hus and Sixteen Kingdoms until the Southern and Northern Dynasties were in conflict.
The history of this period can be divided into northern and southern halves. The two halves were carried out at the same time, and were divided into the first half and the second half. The whole process lasted nearly 300 years. The chaotic scenes in the first half were mainly concentrated in the north, while the southern territory was relatively stable. In the second half, everyone in the north and south were in chaos.
The southern regime in the first half was Eastern Jin Dynasty . It existed from 317 to 420 AD, a total of 103 years. As an orthodox Han regime, the leadership wanted to regain the north, but at the same time did not think so. In addition, the combat power was indeed limited, and the war was If you can't reach the peak game, you can only stare at the south; the south in the second half is called " Southern Dynasties ", which existed from 420 to 589 years, a total of 169 years, and experienced the Song, Qi, Liang, and Chen dynasties respectively.
Part of "Life Map of the Tomb Owner of the Eastern Jin Dynasty"
The first half of the north existed from 304 to 439 AD , for a total of 136 years. This period was between the regimes established by multiple Hu people and individual Han nobles. They competed for each other's territory and fought back and forth, all thinking of unifying the north and then going to the south to incorporate the Eastern Jin Dynasty, until the Northern Wei Dynasty destroyed all opponents and unified the north.
The second half of the period was called the "Northern Dynasties", which lasted from 439 to 581 years, a total of 142 years. After the unification of the Northern Wei Dynasty, it did not last long and split again. It was divided into two regimes, bounded by the Yellow River. One was called the Eastern Wei and the other was the Western Wei. Later, the Eastern Wei was replaced by the Northern Qi, and the Western Wei was also replaced by the Northern Zhou. until finally the entire north was unified by Yang Jian, a relative of the Northern Zhou Dynasty.
In this article, let’s first talk about the northern in the first half of .
If we compare the territory of China in this period to a palm, the lower half of the palm is the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the center of the palm is the Central Plains, and the five fingers are Wuhu, from west to east are Di, Qiang, Xiongnu, Jie and Xianbei . Although is not precise enough, the approximate location is like this.
During this period, many political powers were established in the north, but they were basically just passers-by. It is still unclear how many there are, because it is possible that they were destroyed within a few days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and their life span was so short that it makes people feel distressed. There are a total of sixteen countries that can be mentioned on the stage, and they are called " Sixteen Kingdoms ".
The name "Sixteen Kingdoms" originally came from " The Spring and Autumn Period of the Sixteen Kingdoms" written by Cui Hong, a historian of the Northern Wei Dynasty: " Wuliang, Siyan, Sanqin, and Erzhao, Cheng and Xia were combined into the Sixteenth Kingdom. . "" refers to Qianliang , Chenghan , Qianzhao , Houzhao , Beiliang , Xiliang , Houliang , Nanliang , Qianyan . , Later Yan , Southern Yan , Northern Yan , Xia, Former Qin , Western Qin , Later Qin , These sixteen countries are strong and compete with each other. Strength.
In fact, just by looking at these country names, you can probably know that the country names of these countries have not changed much, but The identity and main base of the people in power have changed again and again . In order to distinguish them in the history books, they have to add the before and after. , east, west, south, north and other prefixes.
These Hu people's regimes were in chaos in the north, with one declining and the other growing. They were briefly unified twice: the former Qin Dynasty and the Northern Wei . So we use these two unified time points as dividing lines, and talk about the main things that happened in the north during this period in order.
In the first round, the original country died quickly. There are many countries established by the Five Hus, but at this stage there are only a few original ones such as Qian Zhao, Qian Liang, Qian Yan, Qian Qin .
Former Zhao : It was a regime established by the Xiongnu nobles Liu Yuan in the late Western Jin Dynasty. It was named after the Fuhan Dynasty and was called " Han Zhao ". The capital was later moved to Pingyang. But not long after, one of his generals, named Shi Le, rebelled and called himself King of Zhao. He overturned the former Zhao to the ground, and still used the country name "Zhao", which was known as "Later Zhao" in history.
Not long after that, Ran Min, the adopted grandson of the Han people of Later Zhao, rebelled, destroyed the royal family of Hou Zhao, occupied the territory of Later Zhao, and established "Ran Wei ". Ran Min was very good at fighting, but his status was awkward and he was not tolerated by either Hu or Han. After he expanded, he offended the Northeastern people who should not be offended - Qianyan .
Qianyan: is the political power established by the Xianbei people in the Northeast. At first, he respected the Eastern Jin Dynasty as the orthodoxy and got the support of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Later, after conquering Ran Wei, he told the Eastern Jin Dynasty envoys: Go back and tell your emperor that I don’t want to succumb to others and proclaim myself emperor. What can you do? ? ( Murong Junyan said: "You have paid me back as the emperor. I have no successors. I have been promoted by China and am already the emperor.")
Former Qin: During this period, another younger brother of Hou Zhao - Fu Jian, saw that Ran Wei was going solo, and he was itchy and founded a country. The name of the country was "Qin", and it was called "Pre-Qin" in history. He himself has nothing but his founding contribution, mainly his nephew Fu Jian, who is particularly good at fighting. In a few years, he destroyed the surrounding neighbors such as Qian Yan and Qian Liang ( Jin Dynasty Former General Zhang Gui) The regime established by was overthrown, and the first unified northern country in a short period of time was established.
Throughout the history of these regimes, the main ones are all separated from the "Zhao" regime. Later Zhao, Ran Wei, and former Qin, the people in power were all founded by Liu Han (later called Zhao), who was the original Huns aristocrat. The political power is closely related to either its original military generals or their descendants.
What is this called? To use a popular saying, that is: When we gather, we are a ball of "fire", and when we disperse, the sky is filled with "stars" . Others will meet at a higher place in the future, and this group of people will fight at a higher place.
After the former Qin unified the north, before the internal stability was stable, they sharpened their swords and headed to the Eastern Jin Dynasty. So the battle of Feishui, a famous war in history in which less defeated more with less, began.
Fu Jian personally led an army of 600,000 soldiers southward to conquer the Eastern Jin Dynasty. In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Xie An ordered Xie Shi, Xie Xuan and others to lead 80,000 people to the north to fight against the enemy. The two sides fought for two or three months. Later, during the confrontation at Feishui, Fu Jian made a mistake in his strategic command. He was supposed to pretend to be defeated and lure the Eastern Jin Dynasty to cross the river to pursue them, and then set up an ambush. As a result, his soldiers actually faked the show. One of them ran fast and they all slipped away. The Eastern Jin Dynasty took this opportunity to directly cross the river to cover up the enemy, and the former Qin Dynasty was defeated.
The various Hu regimes that originally submitted to the former Qin Dynasty saw that the Southern Expedition of the former Qin Dynasty failed, and they began to think about restoring the country. So all the national titles came back.
At the beginning of the second round, civil strife continued among the northern regimes.
Xianbei Murong Chui restored the country in Hebei, and was known as Later Yan in history; the former Yan royal family Murong Hong founded the country in Guanzhong Xi Yan ; the former Qiang general Yao Chang established himself, and founded the Later Qin; Xianbei general begged Fu Guoren established himself and established the Western Qin Dynasty; Qiu Chi Di Yang Ding also announced the restoration of the country, and claimed it as a vassal in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and was known as Houqiu Chi in history; Later Yan was called Northern Wei in history.
In the past few years, many countries in the north had coexisted. In the Guanlong region there were the Former Qin, the Later Qin, the Western Qin, the Houliang, the Hou Qiuchi, and in the Kanto region there were the Later Yan, the Western Yan and the Northern Wei.
So many political regimes have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, and they are too lazy to change the country name of the previous dynasty, so they just use it, so it becomes what we later generations see in the history books, the former X, the latter X, the north X, South
In fact, in the final analysis, it is still a matter of fighting between the Hu people and the northern Han gentry. Most of them take the script of " used to be a general, but later made himself the emperor ", and continue to apply the second chapter. The sentence used in the first round: When they gathered together, they were like a "fire". When they dispersed this time, it was really a "meteor shower".
During this round of chaos, the Northern Wei regime rose rapidly.
At that time, the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the south was also in chaos, and there was no big threat to the Northern Wei Dynasty. In addition, after Tuoba Tao succeeded to the throne, he worked hard to govern, and the Northern Wei Dynasty became powerful. After Tuoba Tao eliminated the threat from Rouran in the north, he began to unify North China. For more than ten years, various political powers in the north were harvested by the Northern Wei Dynasty. In 439 AD, Beiliang surrendered. At this point, the Northern Wei Dynasty unified North China and entered the "Southern and Northern Dynasties Period" .
The story of Hua Mulan that we are familiar with roughly took place in the Northern Wei Dynasty during this period.
Yuefu folk song " Mulan Poetry " says, "I left the Yellow River at dawn and arrived at the top of the Black Mountain at dusk. I didn't hear my mother-in-law calling for a girl, but I heard the chirping of Hu Qiming on Yanshan Mountain... When I came back to see the emperor, the emperor sat down Mingtang...Khan asked what he wanted, Mulan didn't need Shangshulang..."
From the place names here "Yellow River", "Black Mountain", "Yanshan", etc., we can know that Mulan mainly fought in the north, The emperor did not call his majesty "Khan", which means that the people in power are Hu people. According to research, Mulan may have participated in the war between the Northern Wei Dynasty and Rouran .
Okay, we have finished the first half of the introduction to the North. Over the past one hundred years, people's livelihood has been really difficult.
In the next issue, we will take a look at Southern Dynasties and Northern Dynasties 1V1.
