Far East Kingdoms

(Later) Qin Kingdom (Sixteen Kingdoms China)
AD 384 - 417

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The 'Sixteen Kingdoms' period of Chinese history was the result of internecine feuding very shortly after China had only just been reunified following the bitter, highly destructive wars of the 'Three Kingdoms' period. The division was largely caused by the 'Succession Civil Wars' between 301-307 and the increasing belligerence of two rival kingdoms, both of which claimed the imperial title kingdom from the ruling Western Jin dynasty.

In the face of increasing military conflict the Jin imperial regent became the supreme power in all but name. In 310 that regent, Sima Yue, abandoned both the capital of Luoyang and the emperor, such was his increasingly desperate focus on defending the dynasty from its enemies. However, beset on all sides by stronger enemies he fell ill and died the following year. Luoyang and Emperor Sima Chi were captured by rival Han Zhao forces in the same year. The final Western Jin emperor, Sima Ye, was also captured, in 316, and then executed. Prince Sima Rui inherited the Jin title and ensured the continuity of the dynasty by withdrawing south of the River Huai to survive as the Eastern Jin while Han Zhao governed a large swathe of the north.

The (Later) Qin kingdom was created by xxxxx in 384. The use of 'later' in the name denotes the kingdom's junior position in terms of its founding date, being three decades younger than the (Former) Qin kingdom which began in 351. It also differentiates it from the rival Western Qin, although none of them should be confused with the earlier and much more powerful Qin imperial dynasty.

(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from The Origin of the Turks and the Turkish Khanate, Gao Yang (Tenth Türk Tarih Kongresi, Ankara 1986), from Türkiye halkının kültür kökenleri: Giriş, beslenme teknikleri, Burhan Oğuz (1976), from The Turks in World History, Carter Vaughin Findley (Oxford University Press 2005), from The Origins of Northern China's Ethnicities, Zhu Xueyuan (Beijing 2004), from Ethnogenesis in the tribal zone: The Shaping of the Turks, Peter Benjamin Golden (2005), from Shiliuguo Chunqiu (Spring and Autumn Annals of the Sixteen Kingdoms), Cui Hong (Sixth Century Compiler, although not all of his work survives), and from External Link: Kidarites (Encyclopaedia Iranica).)

384 - ?

x

417

Two Eastern Jin generals engage the forces of (Later) Qin in a major campaign. The Qin general, Yao Shao, is only defeated after several months of fighting. Other Qin generals are unable to put up the same level of resistance - the Qin defences crumble, allowing the Jin to enter their capital at Chang'an. Yao Hong surrenders and is taken to the Jin capital of Jiankang where he is executed. (Later) Qin has been destroyed, with the Jin gaining their territory before refocusing again on internal politics. Chang'an is straight away captured by Xia, although the Jin retain the Luoyang region.

By the early fourth century AD China had fractured once again, with the north splintering into the 'Sixteen Kingdoms of the Five Barbarians' and the Jin imperial dynasty having retreated south of the River Huai to retain their claim of imperial superiority in the form of the Eastern Jin (click or tap on map to view full sized)